I am a huge fan of the original Insurgency. I have played a total of 975 hours on the original Insurgency. However, my love for the original Insurgency is mostly due to one game mode called "Ambush". I have found Firefight and Skirmish to be bland and boring. Push was my least favorite mode because winning relied heavily on sheer force and not tactics (people would win by using explosives to clear objectives of enemies). Ambush and Elimination stood out among all the game modes of the original Insurgency. Ambush stands out because it relies heavily on skill and tactics. The round would end if: the VIP is eliminated, time ran out, an entire team is eliminated, or the VIP makes it to one of two objectives. The multitude of ways to win a round greatly allowed for interesting matches. Ambush servers contain players that were different than other game mode servers. People would talk all the time and there was a great sense of community. Everyone seemed to know each other on Ambush servers. Sadly, New World Interactive showed no love for Ambush. They favored the other game modes and pushed the Firefight game mode as an E-sports game mode. I was very sad to find out that Ambush and Elimination were not in Insurgency Sandstorm. This is further proof that NWI has no love for Ambush. Anyone who has played Ambush enough to understand this game mode knows why this game mode should be loved. It has a similar feel like Search and Destroy in Call of Duty MW2/BO and Rainbow Six Siege. Rainbow Six Siege's growing success has demonstrated the desire for game modes like this. I've been playing Rainbow Six Siege since its release.
I preordered Insurgency Sandstorm despite it not having Ambush. Even though I am saddened by NWI lack of love for Ambush I still want their company to make games. I have played the Insurgency Sandstorm beta for 24 hours. I find the game play of Insurgency Sandstorm to be boring and uninspired. They got rid of AP rounds because the said "everyone used them by default in the original game". This statement is not true. Now everyone uses heavy armor or you are at a huge disadvantage if you don't use heavy armor. It now takes twice as many rounds to kill someone. In the original Insurgency it was possible to kill someone with one bullet from almost any gun. Sprinting then aiming right after sprinting results in a huge increase in recoil. This makes it nearly impossible to flank enemy players and immediately engage in firefights. The new meta is to camp, move slowly, or cover movement with smoke grenades. This has led to a bland and unsatisfying game play.
There is much more I find dissatisfying about Insurgency Sandstorm. Instead of continuing with my rant please take a look at a montage video I made in 2015 of me playing the original Insurgency. The video demonstrates the mechanics that made the original Insurgency so great. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao1oigJLgiM