Taken as is...a solid 8 out of 10.
The finished game I'm sure will be closer to perfection.
One thing I noticed about the snipers, is that they can no longer just hide forever
in one spot. In that level, the sun actually reflected off the scope, and I could actually
see the sniper drawing a bead on me. Once he'd been spotted, it was all over.
...and the suppression-fire mechanic needs to be experienced to be believed. As I was
hunkered down behind a tree, two enemy players started firing at me, hitting the tree,
but very effectively keeping me from poking my head out for a counter-shot. Your screen
starts to blur as a result of the suppression, and you're forced to either retreat, or hurriedly
sprint to another cover spot. AWESOME!!!
As for the prone...I thought the dolphin-diving would return, but here it's implemented BEAUTIFULLY.
Yes, you can shoot while prone, and yes it's more accurate than moving/standing/crouching-fire,
but you CANNOT dive-fire a la COD. You MUST complete the prone action 1st, so suddenly diving
in front of an enemy WILL get you killed. Bullerman-COD-divers please take note.
That tactic
will NOT get you those easy kills in this game. Thank you DICE for LISTENING TO YOUR COMMUNITY
on this one.
As berserk mentioned whenever you jump over short obstacles, you actually vault over them,
and you see your legs doing it, just like Mirror's Edge. Coincidence? No. DICE made that game
as well.
A nice nod to parkour there.
I forgot to mention the SOUND. OMG THE SOUND!!!
I am putting it to you now that you NEED a 5.1/7.1 setup to really appreciate just
how kick-ass the sound really is. Even in this alpha, the soundscape here is head and shoulders
above Bad Company 2, which is no trivial affair, as that game's 'War Tapes' setting could actually
affect overall performance if your CPU wasn't powerful enough. I wasn't expecting anything less here.
No half-assing the positional 3D here. You hear an explosion from your rear-left, you turn around,
it's right where you expect it to be. It may seem like a 'little' thing, but anything that can suck you
into the game's environment like that is to be lauded. Repeatedly.
Oh wait...did I mention that bullets ricochet off some surfaces? I'm pretty sure I was hurt/killed by that.
Frostbite 2.0 is de healin.
I await Captain Awesome's comments.
