This is a decent military shooter. I think the customizable aspect is pretty neat, but the maps suffer the CS and Battlefield syndrome in that you either get shot or rendered powerless if you go beyond a certain distance. I guess that's the price you pay for improved graphics, and a large color palette to support them.
Still, as I've mentioned in previous posts, Battlefield 2142 and Joint Operations were my favorite games, largely because they had a lot of what Insurgency is striving for, but you could drive armor, pilot gunships, and give your own fire support with mortars, auto-grenade launchers, orbital strikes, and so forth. And where the graphics weren't as sexy as Insurgency's, the gameplay was much better.
The M249, if I understand correctly, is meant to be used both in the prone position and in the standup position being held like a rifle. As such the recoil for the M249 is a little high, though the PKM feels about right.
The player models seem a bit muscular, the weapon detail is pretty impressive, the sound effects seem pretty good, It would be nice to carry a few more grenades. That, and the US Army grenadier usually carries a belt of ammo for his M203, though I guess you cut back on that for game balance.
I've played some gory shooters in my time, but this one feels particularly graphic. Not all kills result in dismemberment.
I mean all in all it's an impressive military shooter, but whether I've played too many of these things or whatever, I'm just personally kind of burnt out on military shooters. That, and I've got some service personnel looking out for me in a very unusual way. Thanks guys. The next time I'm over at your house for a barbque I'll be sure to utter every racist slur in the book.
I think armor needs to be improved somehow. I'm not sure what the solution is on that.
I would like a new military beret that's more in the style of the US Army with the exaggerated drape, as opposed to the almost French like one offered now.
When I switch back and forth between Insurgency and Sandstorm, I'm struck by the fact that you changed the key binding for grenades. In regular Insurgency it's 4, in Sandstorm it's 3. I can change it, but I'm not sure why the change was made, and it felt odd and confusing.
I'm not sure why when characters in both games go prone that the body is rigid like a piece of wood. Other games allow the character's body to drape and conform to the terrain. It just really odd to have a character lying prone on something thing, only to have their legs sticking straight out behind them, supported by nothing but air.
If a player has bought shades for his character, then shouldn't their monitor be effected by a shade of something as if they were wearing sunglasses?
For some reason it's hard to see some people more than others, and camouflage doesn't seem to be a factor, but lighting and shadows do, even when the target is in full daylight they can be hard to see for some reason. And in shadows nearly impossible.
I reported a player the other day for aimbotting, as he was firing into dark places where no one could see, and getting all kinds of kills. Cheating's been around forever in gaming, but it would be nice to hear some news about reported cheaters / hackers.
An improvement in this game is the addition of other skin colors to choose from. I guess it really doesn't matter, but there's a lot of gamers out there of all stripes and colors.
I know you're probably working on this, but being able to climb over all rocks is a must, otherwise there's no reason to have them in the game.
All in all a really decent game and gaming experience, but even so I'm not a big fan of the game. Still, I had a decent enough time playing it. I'm sure I've left out other observations I had, but anyway, those are my main ones. Good luck with it.