Have you played Red Orchestra?
Insurgency, the Irak-inspired mod for HL2?
Resistance & Liberation, also for HL2?
These mods (ok, RO is now a retail game, whatever), and other games, seem to try to outdo each other in claiming to be the uber-realistic fps that reach unprecedent detail in their gritty realism, from the guns to the uniforms, and a great emphasis in teamwork, which in their game, “it will really work”, unlike past games that they have tried it, but in the end in public matches everyone run as a headless chicken alone. Hell, some of them were a bit annoying in their claims (Insurgency, i am looking at you…).
But then i play the game, and while in some stuff it’s true they have done a great job, the whole game feels off. They have made the right choices with the possible stances, with the guns, with the inventory system, with the ironsights, but in the end the game plays a whole world of difference of what would be in the real thing (and i am not referring to the fact that if you made a true realistic war game, 95% of it would be waiting, and patrolling, and traveling, and boring things like making a hole in the ground to shit on).
I am speaking about the whole pace of the game, the way the team divides itself as the game progresses, the way people throw their “life” pointlessly in suicide missions, the little use of cover sometimes… in other words, i am speaking about the game type itself. More exactly, to their election of a gametype (usually both teams try to conquest a few zones, or attack/defend the zones) respawning in the initial point every time you die.
Yes, i know each “life” is supposed to be a different soldier, i am not speaking about that, but IMO, given the human psychology, this system is not ideal for this type of games, in the end makes people play very unrealistically, and also it doesn’t promove any teamwork. People just run alone, die, respawn, they try it again using the same path or perhaps another one, die, respawn, they doesn’t follow another teammates, etc etc. Not only that, this system usually makes the game very static, with in each life people trying to go from point 1 to 2 using path A or B and fighting in just that path. Again and again. And let’s not speak about possible spawn camping, as the game needs somewhere to respawn the players, how it usually divides the team in various sections so even if you actively try to keep the squad coherence, or even some games where the put the sector to conquer in or very near a spawn zone!!
So when today i tried it a new mod http://www.neotokyohq.com/
which it doesn’t try to be a “uber realistic war game!” (it does have people moving more or less slowly and stuff, but it doesn’t even have ironsights! :P), and having some enjoyable matches with people going in groups, escorting the “objetive-bearer” to the exit point, people moving with care and using cover, i laughed remembering some matches in the previously named games, where somehow the matches finished with a TDM feeling in my mouth, where the winner was decided when the spawn counter (or time counter) was empty in a side.
The secret of Neotokyo? Not a lot. It just does have a clear objective (take a item from its initial point to a marked exit) with some well thought mechanics (you can’t run or use the main gun with the item, but you can see the enemies through walls), and it doesn’t have respawn system. It’s played with rounds, and everyone has a life in each round, having to wait if you die until the next round. This little incentive (don’t die early if you want to play!) makes wonders for a realism shooter, and every round is like a small slice of realistic action, instead of trying to make a longer but irrealistic round with respawns as in other games.
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Woah, that was a lot of text to say i prefer the “last man standing” type instead of “respawn” type in realitic shooters.