To me, this game is a breathe of fresh air in the midst of the rest of the shooter genre. I've gotten far more excited for this game alone than say Battlefield 3 or MW3 because it's the same rehashed fast-paced game year in and year out.
The cover system while not without its hiccups, is new and exciting in a first person shooter that I haven't personally seen in any other shooter recently for online multiplayer, so points for that alone. I think the animations are masterfully done, that the sound effects are great although some sounds like the recon plane cuts in and out and doesn't sound all that attractive. The voice acting is either hit or miss depending on what you think of it, but I like it because it kind of adds another element to the game. Kind of tired of hearing "GRENADE! GRENADE! GRANADA!" over and over in CoD as the only line being spoken throughout a match. >_>
I feel like Tripwire sorta limited themselves or have had a ton of challenges to overcome because the UT3 engine isn't the greatest to work with. So kudos to them for making a very solid game (from a beta standpoint) from the get-go. There seems to be some clipping issues and going over small bumps when you're prone, getting pushed back into doorways and such as you struggle to get over/by an object is insanely frustrating. I doubt it's fixable but I'm hoping it is.
I think the net coding is really good too. Perhaps maybe it's just gun mechanics but whatever they're doing for net-coding, it feels a lot better than other shooters on the market.
Suppression system is awesome and feels great in-game. Can't tell you guys how great it is to survive a butt clenching 100% suppression moment and live through it. Probably one of their best additions to the game.
You know, I really enjoyed the original Red Orchestra, but personally I felt it was far too slow for what you had to achieve throughout a map. Felt it was slow, I found I was fighting with the controls more often than not, but when I made a kill, it was rewarding. I feel like they took some of the best qualities of RO1, took some qualities that you'd find in other modern shooters and meshed them together to make shiny RO2, which isn't without its flaws, but it's made for a solid experience for me so far.
Overall I've been very satisfied with my early purchase for beta access. Even though the game doesn't feel "complete" just yet, I'm getting an experience I couldn't fathom getting from other shooters that keep doing the generic CoD/BF/Halo thing. I'm so glad that they're building on old mechanics and adding new ones because honestly, the FPS genre needed something new and I feel like for me, RO2 fills that gap I've been searching for, for a while now.
So yeah, I have a lot of faith in Tripwire and this game in being extremely successful for what it achieves, and I really hope it engages both old RO1 veterans and other people who are venturing from titles like CoD to Ro2 and being successful because they can integrate well. Reason I say this is because RO1 was a great game, but it was niche and in doing so, it alienated a playerbase that could have been much larger than it was/is.
I digress, point is, I'm really happy I get to play RO2 because it's the most enjoyable FPS experience I've had in a long *** time.
P.S. Sorry for the rant, the super tl;dr version of this is that the pros of this game far outweigh its cons.
