I can see things from both sides of the argument, and have a little sympathy for both, but to be honest it is only a little, a reality check is needed for both sides I think.
Firstly the original ROOST players, wanted the same game as ROOST, and didn't realise there would be differences to the original game, really? So tell me about the huge expansive area's in Stalingrad where these huge open combined battles took place? Stalingrad was a besieged city with a lot of close quarter combat, there were not large open areas for full on armoured division combat. Most of the tank engagements were outside of Stalingrad as the Russian forces tried desperately to break through in to the surrounded city, not in the actual city. In urban combat, you are mostly entrenched, and when you do make a move you make it fast all out assault otherwise you are just picked off. There was now way that TWI could make the combat like ROOST and keep it in touch with the reality of the battle for Stalingrad.
Secondly, while the RO community have been loyal to the franchise over the years, some coming through the mod stage up to and including the final release of RO:OST, how many of you do you think there are? 1000? 2000? Making a game that just appeals to those core fans would achieve one thing and one thing only TWI going out of business. TWI is a company, yes they are gamers and modders at heart, but it is still a business and to survive it has to sell units, and appealing to a very small number is not sufficient. They HAVE to expand their target audience, they have to encourage more people to buy the game. Other development houses have gone towards cross platform gaming to ensure their viability, to TWI credit they didn't, they stuck with being a PC only developer, but the PC games market has a much smaller demographic than the console market, so they needed to ensure the maximum appeal.
Having said that, TWI have made quite a few errors, both technically and game play wise that have alienated many people, both their core fans and newcomers alike, some have been forced upon them by the restrictions of the unreal engine, some were just poor development choices.
Releasing the game so full of bugs and idiotic mistakes is quite unforgivable really, the constant crashes people had when first starting to play, often made the game unplayable for a lot of people. It may be a learning curve, but they should of known better. I understand they have a deadline, contractual agreements to fulfil but they should of realised at least 6 months before that they were not going to make their deadline with the game and delayed it.
Then we come to the game play its self, it is really quite mediocre on the whole, there is so little variety that it becomes boring after a while, the 3 game types supplied really feels like 1.5 games types. CD and TE are very similar in the way they play, both are just variations of capture the area with slightly different rules sets for each, as for FF it is so bad I don't think anyone plays it at all. Half of the things hat were promised in the pre release just are not there and this leaves people feeling ripped off.
Then there are other issues that are just baffling, the use of XAudio 2 instead of OpenAL for the sound? I mean really guys? All the immersion that sound brings in a game is completely lost, this also makes the game play a lot faster, when you enter a building in any other game, you are careful, crouched trying to be as quiet as possible, but in this game you just sprint around because yo know no one will hear you, there is no noise tension, well apart for your avatar having an inclination to scream out wildly for no apparent reason.
The adding of unrealistic weapons in a game supposedly based on its realism roots, whilst done to appeal to a new audience just didn't work. The whole unlock system, again probably done to appeal to the more main stream players is just rather haphazard and useless for the most part, and in no way adds anything to the realism debate, I mean kill 2 - 3000 people and get a black grip on your Walther? Wow can't wait to do that...
Classes that have no real function in the game, the engineer class for example, the engineer could be game changing if it was implemented correctly, opening new routes, destroy access routes that the attackers use, but nope, his only use is to blow up tanks if he can live long enough to get near one, all the objects he can blow up are irrelevant to the game and not needed.
There are so many area's TWI fumbled the ball it is untrue, they have tried to make everyone happy and as a result have made no one happy (well very few at least) Can they pull it out of the bag and save it? To be honest I am not sure they can, the drop of of actual players is getting really bad, Just checked the steam stats, 240 players online , peak of just over 800, this just goes to show how insipid the game play is, it doesn't have the adrenalin fuelled rush around of CoD like games, nor does it have the tactical stealthy approach of the original ROOST, sort of stuck in the no man's land of mediocrity.
I am one of the minority that likes the way the game plays, the pace of movement, the weapon feel, but even as a staunch supporter within my clan, I cannot fail to see the lack of content, the lack of variation. I have a lot a sympathy for games designers, having helped to design two games myself (Lost Patrol, and Flight of the Intruder on the Amega for any of you old enough to remember them) but when I look at RO:HoS I don't see a professionally designed game, it has no polish, it is bugged, its game play is flawed, there are a ton of level design issues and that has turned many away from this game, yes they can fix it over time, but it should of been right in the first place.
TWI have modding roots, and it shows fully in this game, they are still working with that modded mentality rather than with a game making mentality, I love what the guys are attempting to do at TWI, but sometimes you have to just accept your limitations and hire the right people to help fulfil the roles you cannot do, and sadly game design seems to be one of those things that TWI are struggling with
), and I generally felt like the slower pace of combat led to more protracted engagements. I found myself in situations where I would be trading shots with enemies over distance and not getting instantly sniped out all the time -- in other words, there were firefights!
