I’ve been playing this off and on the past few days, and while it’s still very buggy, I’ve been enjoying it so far. Modern military shooters are a dime a dozen nowadays, and I think I like Insurgency because it strikes a nice balance between the arcadey feel of a Counter-Strike and a game like Squad, which I have found incredibly difficult to get into.
Here’s a nice video detailing what all it has:
(CW: Gore)
As far as content goes, I feel like it does quite a bit to distance itself from the jingoistic military types. Both classes have a diverse set of character options for you to customize your character. My security forces character is a Middle Eastern woman who wears a military beret on top of her shayla, and my Insurgent is all decked out in the latest track suit fashions.
That said, there is some problematic stuff. In the co-op missions, the insurgents have a whole enemy type who’s job is to rush in and suicide bomb you. You can get a rush of these characters, and it just feels ridiculously offensive after a while. Also, as expected, the online community can be hit or miss… I’ve had games where a dude will use a slur, and the WHOLE team will call that idiot out. Other times, I’ve seen a team of Insurgents doing the typical racist stereotypes when on mic.
I haven’t seen anyone really talking about this game with Mutant, Ashen, and others releasing, so I was curious on the impressions here if anyone else has played.
I’m coming from the perspective of someone who played alot of the first Insurgency game, was even in a clan for it.
From what I’ve played, I generally find it an improvement over the first one. The gameplay is still really solid, I find it to be the kind of tactical, intense FPS combat that forced me to think of my next moves carefully rather than run and gun like a madman in Call of Duty. If you liked the combat in PUBG, Insurgency: Sandstorm is running in that space. Ballistics are a thing to consider at times and you need to really pay attention to your surroundings because there are many paths for enemies to get you.
The most obvious improvement, to me, is visual and audio presentation. I don’t know what exactly they did, but all the new visuals and sounds for the gunfire, artillery, and such made it more terrifying. In the first game I wasn’t exactly scared to go around the corner or go up and over the crest of a hill, but in this one I am. I remember the first time we came under fire from a gunship and I audibly screamed “Jesus Christ!” as it happened. Maybe because this one is using a newer tools than the old Source based stuff Insurgency 1 used, but whatever it is it felt more intense.
However, I do agree with you Joel that the chat is terrible and it disappoints me more so because this was a problem in the older game. It bugs me when I hear some teenager spit out all the racist/xenophobic while we’re trying to organize as a team. Granted I’ve had some awesome times playing with others, but most of the time I had to mute the chat because of that stuff.
Darn it, I do have a weakness for copiously personalizing my military operator. That’s how The Division got me in the end with its smorgasbord of outdoorwear.
So is it like most milsims where the controls are unoptimized and it takes like three button presses to look down sights?
So, I find the controls really smooth. I’ll copy what I posted in a GOTY thread:
It just came out, but Insurgency: Sandstorm has some fantastic first person control around it. While games like Arma 3 and Squad feel obfuscated around menus, different character placement, and other weird stuff, Insurgency just feels smooth. I LOVE how this game handles magazine management. For one, you have a set of 4 magazines if you’re a regular rifleman. When you reload, you put magazines with extra ammo in them back in your pouch, unless you double tap R to quick reload. Checking ammo is as simple as holding down R to see what you have. There’s never a ‘count’ or a number. It’s visualized by a half cup/half full kind of representation.
It has all the other trappings, like sprinting, sliding, crouching, etc. It just feels solid to me. Too bad I’m not good at it, heh.
I will say I find leaning a bit clunky, but that may just be me.
RPGs are in the game, but it’s rare to run into them in a constant rate. The outfitting in the game relies on a weight system, where the more you pack on your character, the harder it is to move.
I think what they did to counter it is the Commander/Observer. I haven’t messed with those yet, because I’m afraid to, but from what I understand the Commander calls out positions to the Observer, who then can call in helis, mortar strikes, and gas attacks. You avoid these by getting out of range, or getting inside, or making sure you have a gas mask on your equipment.
Heather’s article here sums up some weird feelings I’ve been having playing this game too. While I think I can separate myself from it a bit better than she can, I still have weird feelings with how the realism of the world contrasting against the toxic player base.
I’ve been thinking of picking this up after seeing a clip Heather posted of her cleaning house with a shotgun. I’m kinda in the market for a tactical shooter right now since I trashed Tarkov and I’m trying to find something to scratch that itch.
Whats the character progression and weapon customization like?
