PROs:
✅ Large weapon arsenal
✅ Weapon customization
✅ Jolly co-op on lower difficulties
✅ Stealth is mostly fun (though it becomes too reliant on it in the end-game)
✅ Fun shooter as long as you avoid Tier 1 Extreme stages
✅ Diverse scenic world with dynamic weather and day/night cycle
✅ Rebel assist mechanics
✅ Solid sound design
✅ Plenty of gadgets
✅ Scouting-to-action preplanning is genuinely fun
✅ Lots of great comical moments
✅ Revive Drone and EMP Drone are absolute game-savers on bullshit difficulties
CONs:
❌ Lot of multiplayer issues (sync problems, missions bugging out, etc.)
❌ Insane amount of enemy AI bullshittery on Tier 1 Extreme (instant reactions, pixel-perfect aim, tankiness, spawning, ally NPCs killing mission targets, detection, matrix dodging)
❌ Vehicle handling is abysmal (though the physics can be funny)
❌ Unreal number of places where you get stuck or fall through the world
❌ Can’t reliably use drones from choppers (character throws them into the blades)
❌ No material penetration consistency
❌ Parachute deployment is wildly inconsistent
❌ Blurry visual fidelity unless you use 1.5x+ resolution scaling
❌ Noise makers and baits are very inconsistent
❌ Boring, stereotypical American corporate/drug cartel story
❌ Flying unit seating inconsistency
❌ Object hitboxes are all over the place
❔ Certain generation Intel CPUs won’t load the game with hyperthreading enabled
Comments:
Long story short: the game is genuinely fun to play with friends as long as you don’t touch Tier 1 Extreme difficulty. (Which sucks if you’re a completionist who wants to unlock everything.)
The world looks nice, is fun to explore and travel through, and the weapon arsenal is large, giving you plenty of options to find your favourite playstyle. Weapons can also be heavily customized (although in Tier 1 Extreme mode it’s not as relevant since you can upgrade damage/stats anyway).
Gunplay and stealth are fairly enjoyable up to mid-game when you’re not forced into Tier 1 Extreme. It feels like a semi-realistic tactical shooter that unfortunately goes in the wrong direction once the difficulty spikes because of all the jank and AI issues.
I really liked the sound design (weather, terrain, guns, etc.) and the rebel assist system for scouting and distractions. Drones are extremely useful too — especially on higher difficulties. Marking enemies, preplanning, and sabotaging convoys feels great. On Tier 1 Extreme the revive drones basically became mandatory just to survive the bullshit enemy AI.
Now the problems.
Co-op has some annoying issues:
• Anti-air (SAM sites) and helicopter missiles aren’t synced between players — each person sees projectiles flying differently, so dodging becomes pure luck.
• Missions bug out constantly. We had to restart lobbies or redo missions multiple times because progress wasn’t the same for everyone.
Enemy AI on Tier 1 Extreme is the main reason the game became miserable for us (and since a lot of unlocks are gated behind it, you can’t really avoid it).
• Split-second reactions even from enemies who shouldn’t know you’re there yet.
• Pixel-perfect aimbot shooting through the tiniest gaps.
• You need around 5-9 body shots to down one enemy or 2 headshots (unless using .50cal which one-shots anywhere), while they one- or two-shot you from any distance or angle with any gun.
• Instant 1-frame reactions the moment you try to knock someone out or shoot. Still haunts me that I was about to execute a sitting enemy, but he just teleport-turned around and killed me once I reached behind him.
• Once combat starts they instantly know your entire squad’s position, even if your teammates haven’t been spotted.
• Matrix dodging — they flail and dodge bullets like they have spider-sense, especially when you line up headshots. Which ruined many stealth runs.
There are also tons of consistency issues:
• Material penetration is odd — you can shoot through most wooden materials (but not wooden pallets). You can shoot through various thin metals, but not some. And you can also shoot through multiple meters thick oil pumps because why not.
• Object hitboxes. Again… some things have great hitboxes whilst some objects have 5x bigger hitboxes than the object itself. (I.E. trees.) Which again ruins tactical stealth approach. See a direct line of sight on an enemy? Nope, tree leaves apparently have a 5m hitbox radius. Shoot a sniper in the tower? Nope, the railing is apparently 5m tall/thick.
• Vehicle seating makes no sense (big helicopters only seat 4, small ones seat 6, same with trucks and cars).
• Parachute deployment is completely unreliable — you can free-fall for 4-5 seconds from some tall cliff and the game still won’t allow you to deploy parachute. Whilst sometimes you jump off a much lower and cramped height and it lets you deploy.
Vehicle handling feels very floaty and the speeds are odd. Manageable, but not enjoyable.
The story is the typical stereotypical American corporate/drug cartel drama — nothing special.
Visuals are decent stylistically but suffer from blurriness unless you crank resolution scaling to 1.5x or higher.
Moral of the story: It’s a fun tactical shooter with great stealth, scouting, and weapon variety in a beautiful world. Just cap the difficulty at Hard and enjoy it that way. Tier 1 Extreme is not worth the sanity loss for a few cosmetics and special weapons.
We ruined our own experience by stubbornly sticking to Tier 1 the whole way. Solo is actually easier as the squad AI are the same cheating fuckers as the enemies.
Probably forgot a few things, but this review is already long enough.
🔴Total score: 4/10👎
Game status:
✅ Finished
Reviewing info: How I review/rate & other info on my website through my profile. (desozone)