Now don’t get me wrong when I state that. The game does have some good qualities. However, it completely lacks any kind of depth and after playing for awhile, you will come to the same conclusion. If you are looking for a game to waste a couple of weeks on, then this is the one. But, let’s get into what is wrong and right about this game.
On the bad side of things, this game is not nearly as polished as reviewers have stated. It freezes up in the middle of a match and kicks you out of the match. The estimated cue time is not even close. It was closer when I started playing a couple of weeks ago, but now as I leave this game behind, the cue times are not even remotely close. It often says 15-30 seconds. What it really means is 2-3 minutes or more. The game will finally put you into a game, only to have the game not fill up, supposedly, and then you will have to go back to cue. If this was a smooth design decision, then obviously previous reviewers have no concept of what smooth, slick, or polished is. Because the cue system alone is fucked up!
The game also likes to keep you limited to a 50% win ratio. That means when ever you get to 50% wins, it will put you in a game with totally sucky players. It even goes to the point of throwing you into a match, and before you can even move your hero out of spawn, the game is over with a defeat for you. How the fuck is that fair? Basically is punishes good players. Thanks Blizzard, that is just what good gamers want. To be screwed over for being good. To further exasperate the situation, as a side consequence, this keeps your k/d (kill/death) ratio down too! It is hard to get a lot of kills when your team members spend most of their time in spawn. A 6 vs 1 is not a good situation for even a great player. Now don’t think this means I have a sucky k/d. I do not! It is 2/1 but if I played with decent players all the time, it would be at least 4/1. The games where you are stuck with bad players just to keep your win/loss ratio even, really do affect much more than just that. They completely affect your kill/death ratio too!
Another small issue is the lack of variety in the game play. While there are maybe 6 maps (not a lot but certainly more than Battleborn’s 2 maps per mode) there are really only two modes of playing in this game. You either are attacking or defending. Trying to move a payload or to defend a capture point. That is it!
The worst thing about this was how they designed the game launch for these two modes. The defenders are always able to go anywhere on the map and set up their defenses. This allows them to to spawn camp! Essentially if you are on attack mission, you can expect to die often right outside of spawn. Combine this with the next item I mention (hero stacking) and you have a total stomp of the attacking team. They cannot leave spawn to attack anything with multiple turrets just waiting for them to exit spawn and Repears abundant to make sure nobody can get near a turret to kill it. It is just death after death with no chance for kills. The longer this game has been out, the more I was seeing this in matches. I knew if my mission was attack, that the game was setting me up for a loss.
The last thing this game does, is allow people to pick whatever hero they want. While on the surface this may sound good, but it is so totally not! You have teams made up of the same hero, I.E. 6 Torbjorn. Tell me something, how can this game be balanced if this crap is going on? It cannot possibly be balanced and people who play online shooter games, expect some kind of balance for every player to have a fair chance of winning. Allowing players to do this, is akin to allowing them to freely cheat. I have been in some many COMPLETELY non-fun games because of this one simple design decision. I am guessing every reviewer on the planet forgot to mention this too!
They also included a quitting penalty so if you find yourself stuck in a match where the other team is all the same hero, you get to enjoy that crappy match or suffer a 75% experience loss for 2 hours. Even worse is the fact, if it throws you into one of these games and then you get booted by the system for not making your hero pick fast enough, it boots you from the game and gives you a quitting penalty. I did not quit you stupid fucks! YOUR system booted me and then gave me a penalty. I’ll give you a quitter penalty assholes…it is this review.
Lastly, there is no real hero progression. Your hero has the same abilities and weapons no matter how long you play. Yes, they do eventually get to wear different clothes, but this is entirely based upon luck of the draw, from random loot boxes. How many levels are you willing to grind for a set of clothes you cannot see in game? Of course you do gain overall levels but what does it matter when the game likes to keep you to a 50% win/lose ratio. You are playing with players that are way under your level every time you get over 50% wins. So even that progression is completely useless. It seems this game was nothing more than a quick cash grab, as the only way to feel any accomplishment is to drop more money on loot boxes in the hopes you will finally get that legendary set of clothes for the hero which you like, because you certainly are not going to get it from the level loot boxes.
I played this game to level 58 (could not stand playing crappy matches any longer) and never received a single legendary skin for ANY of my favorite heroes. NOT EVEN ONE! If it even gives you a legendary skin, it will ALWAYS be for a hero you do not play. This is Blizzard’s way of trying to get you to GAMBLE. By forcing you to either wait an amazingly long period of time to spend in-game credits to buy the legendary skin or to spend REAL cash to buy loot boxes which are completely random. This definitely is not incentive to play this game long term. Players expect progression and rewards for effort. This game simply does not have any.
Now onto the good.
It has good graphics and usually plays fairly well. Most of the heroes are fairly unique enough to make playing each one entertaining. some to a lesser degree than others, of course. Not every one of them is going to fit your play style, obviously. The game can be fun when you have two evenly matched teams and no BS going on.
Too bad that is such a rare thing! This is a game that will take some serious work to turn around or there will be a mass exodus in the near future. The problems with hero stacking, combined with bad decisions in progression and basic attack and defend mechanics, will need to be completely overhauled.
As I played, I found that the good matches became fewer and fewer, and it just grew into a frustrating piece of shit, with no incentive to keep grinding away. I was not going to obtain legendary clothes for my favorite toons and it was not worth going through all the bad matches to even try anymore. I have to wonder if these game designers are brain dead or just don’t check out their games by actually playing them, before they release their crap. They put nothing in this game to make anyone want to play it long term. If you are looking for a game with depth and reason to play, this game is not it. You will be completely underwhelmed inside of a couple of weeks, if you last that long.
Supposedly there is update coming out at the end of June. Hopefully this update will addresses these issues. So many games with great potential fall to the wayside because they simply fail to fix what their customers complain about. I have not been playing as much since my wife deemed worthy of passing on her latest cold to. Not sure, even if I was healthy, how much of this game I would be playing. My recommendation to those who have not played this game yet, wait until July to see if Blizzard corrects the gaping design flaws or not. Until next time I type…take care, thanks for reading, and have an awesome day!
Axe
Axe's Asylum 
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