I posted this in the General Feedback thread but since that thread is a few pages back and I'm still unable to access the alpha forums I decided to post this here.
So I’ve put quite a number of hours into the game and have developed some ideas about some of the game play concepts that I find lacking. I won’t waste too much time in this description but I’d first like to say that I don’t think that this game will get close enough to the emulation of game play from the the earlier entries in the Rainbow Six franchise to make older fans happy. However, I do think there are changes that can be made to make it a more authentic experience and closer to the original franchise without sacrificing Ubisofts vision of the game. I’m not exactly a Rainbow Six veteran but have fond memories of the original series and have extensive experience in other first person shooters both competitively and casually.
Recoil & Ammo
The first issue when coming to RB6:S is the concept of recoil and firing rate. The current version of the game really lacks any sort of recoil in majority of the weapons. It seriously is pretty much non-existent except for the DMR. The DMR somehow also has more recoil in repeated single shot than all of the automatic guns in the game. This is problematic for two main reasons. The first is that it damages the skill cap necessary to help prolong a healthy skill cap in first person shooters. Anyone who picks up the game will be able to control the recoil with absolute ease thus limiting some of the learning curve of the game. For a game that seems to be pushing itself as a competitive shooter there must be more skill involved in using the weapons. The second is that due to the low nature recoil of the game mixed with too much ammo; it allows players to senselessly spam doors, walls, floors and more without punishment or any sort of recovery time. This means that players can actively switch target to target without any sort of compensation or penalty for their automatic fire.
The ammo issue is simple. Too much ammo allows for too much spamming and doesn’t allow the player to make conscious decisions on if they should conserve or keep shooting. Currently players have enough ammo to pretty much shoot non-stop throughout the round and still have some in reserve. This is bad for people who try to aim their shots and again encourages players to just shoot at everything that moves.
Hitmarkers & Visibility/Models
Hitmarkers are my least favorite game play addition to modern shooters within the last decade (well except maybe killstreaks). Hitmarkers completely destroy immersion, tension and honestly have no place in a shooter like RB6:S. Game play wise hitmarkers allow stupidly easy identification for assessing whether or not you hit your target. For a series that considers itself a tactical shooter this is a no-no. Spamming through walls or smoke and effortlessly killing people due to hitmarkers removes tension and dumb down gameplay for the lowest common denominator. Really they aren’t even necessary considering the game has adopted a CS like kill feed anyway so it’s pretty clear when the enemy has been killed. If you think that people from other modern shooters are going to not buy RB6:S because of a lack of hitmarkers Ubisoft are severely mistaken. I’d rather see hitmarkers replaced with other feedback such as audio cues and possibly more visceral blood splatter.
The second issue in this category is the visibility. The first issue is that there is way too much clutter on the screen and the game lacks any ability to scale the HUD down. There is a lot of redundant features when it comes to the HUD. For example, I don’t need a visual indicator of who’s alive, huge bold letters on my screen of how many people are left, and also a kill feed that tells me who died. These all practically do the same thing and people aren’t so dumb that they can’t figure out most of these things mid-game. There is also the issue of the white blinding borders of nearby teammates which is also another addition to the game which is both unnecessary on the HUD and ruins immersion. If anything the small square border above teammates heads is simply enough to figure out where your teammates are. Although, personally I’d rather there be no visual indicator of where teammates are. It reduces communication and doesn’t promote good team play.
The models currently used for both teams are also one of my huge gripes when it comes to visibility. Both teams practically look exactly the same and this can cause a lot of confusion as to who I’m supposed to shoot. There should be clear cut themes of how enemies should look. What happened to the terrorist like figures wearing balaclavas that were clearly identifiable from the E3 trailer? Who and why made the decision that clearly identified teams were a bad idea?
Movement Speed & Health
To put it in simple terms, the movement speed in RB6:S is currently way too fast. Everyone is wearing huge amounts of kevlar and nearly 300 rounds of ammo yet run around like the worlds best 100m sprinters. I feel like I’m watching bees on cocaine zoom throughout the map. The sprint mechanic is problematic for a number of reasons. The first being that it promotes run and gun game play that lacks the charm of games like RB6. Mixed in with the health issue it currently allows you to run into a hail of gunfire and escape death by blindly spraying a non-recoil SMG into the enemy who was tactically holding a corner. The second being that it basically reduces peeking into a pointless mechanic. Why peek around a corner when you can ADAD spam safely and cause your target to miss their shots. Movement overall needs to be slowed to a more tactical pace but especially when aiming. During ADS players should be heavily slowed down giving them increased accuracy but heavily reduced movement speed. The current fast movement speed encourages game play that is opposite to the core of RB6 games and honestly doesn’t seem to fit in with the concept game play of the original RB6:S trailers.
If you couldn’t tell by the previous paragraph. Health is a big problem within RB6:S. It takes a ridiculous amount of bullets to kill someone when you do not hit them in the head. I’m not sure if it’s an issue with the netcode or the damage of weapons but I’ve easily seen players absorb 6-10 bullets to near half magazines of ammo. Aiming for headshots should be encouraged but there is no reason that a few body shots shouldn’t take out an enemy.
The Planning Phase & Round Timers
The planning phase isn’t much of a planning phase, and the current maps don’t really make much sense in the context of the game. For example, here are screenshots of the current planning map phases. Plane and House Screenshots Why are the prime focuses of the map (the house/plane) so small and so hard to discern important details? The actual game play zone should easily take up 70-80% of the zoomed map space in order to better plan entry areas and where defenders should set up. Another issue on these maps is the inability to draw or make any sort of plan at all where people should go. Some sort of in game pings or the ability to draw on the map would help alleviate some of the boring dead time during the planning phase.
One other issue in the planning phase that I feel doesn’t make much sense is the inability for the Blue/CT team to individually pick insertion zones. It often feels like that everyone spawns in the same area and then is forced to run around the target structure to get where they wanted to go anyway. The current favorite seems to be just to pick the most neutral/central area to accomplish this.
The current round timers feel a bit too short and force the attackers to work much too quickly to retrieve the hostage. The unlimited barricading in the hands of competent defenders makes it impossible to get through all the doors in-time without getting turned into swiss cheese by a rain of P90 spray.
General Game play Issues/Criticisms (Many of these things are likely to change)
No Push-to-talk key. This one is pretty self-explanatory. A PC game must have a Push-to-talk feature. I’m sure this one is coming but it’s driving me crazy hearing John Smith talk to his entire family, blast music through his speakers, and nom on some doritos over his mic.
The sound of guns seems a little underwhelming. They lack throatiness and boom factor that should be expected in such CQC.
It seems difficult to tell what exactly can be shot through and also what can be breached. The only texture that seems to be universal is the wooden walls, but to my surprise many walls and floors have been destroyable but there isn’t much clear indication that they could be.
The heartbeat sensor should honestly be removed. It is incredibly overpowered in it’s current state and I doubt there is any way that it can be balanced properly. From a pure proof of concept the heartbeat sensor is basically a wallhack. This doesn’t really fit in with the ideas of cameras and drones since those require communication between teammates and can be countered. The only thing I can think of is that it could show where people are perhaps every 15-20 seconds instead of the live-update feed that it currently provides.
The shotguns feel under powered compared to the other weapons. I think they should be fairly strong and kill fast but be limited to 1-2 per team. In their current state it feels like they are useless beyond a few feet and that an automatic weapon is better in almost every way.
Mouse acceleration is out of control right now.
I think this game has lots of potential and I’m having a lot of fun playing it but there are some core concepts that need to be ironed out for this game to have a strong community and long-term success. Sorry if this comes off as a bit long winded, it took me awhile to collect all my thoughts and hammer out a detailed dialogue. I will likely be adding and editing more to this list as things come up.
Submitted April 11, 2015 at 04:55AM by Lekcian http://ift.tt/1PvZHGS
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