💎 PREMIUM: Id/BillTheEndIsNye - Collection

TLDR: Great game with some issues that still remain after recent updates. All in all a good game that I could play for 1000s of more hours. Some small annoyances that plague the game, but nothing major (for me at least).

After having played for over 1300 hours now and having played Squad Leader most of the time, there are a few things I have to say.

First: I love this game. This game became my go to military multiplayer game after CoD and Battlefield dropped the ball with the latest releases. This game bridges the gap (imo) perfectly between arcade and Mil-Sim, as where the game is accessible for newcomers and enjoyable after 100s of hours.

2nd: The gameplay loop is great. Big maps, 50v50 players infantry and armour. You have multiple factions with their own specialties and gameplay advantage/disadvantage. Infantry working with armour to dominate enemy vehicles is great and is really satisfying.... but it falls short 50% of the time when ATs and armour players just waste their rockets on infantry and sit on the edge of the map. It is a viable option in some cases but not when enemy vehicles have been marked in a friendly occupied zone.

3rd: The Infantry Combat Overhaul (ICO) has been a topic in the community for years now and there seems to be no right and wrong if you look at the discussions. In my opinion it made the game better, slower paced and more teamwork oriented. although there are some issues still present that have to be addressed in future ICO tweaks. For me personally weapon recoil on pistols feels a bit off and weapon sway while walking also feels too much, although I get why they did it. All in all I like it and it should stay (queue all the anti-ICO people leaving comments)

4th: UE5 has been a community divider as well, I like the upgrade as it makes way for more interesting and new stuff being added later down the road with the new tech from UE5. But sadly performance did take a giant plunge for people with not so new (2080 or higher) GPUs and new CPUs. With my 3080 10GB, 9800X3D and 32GB DDR5 6000 MT/s I get around 65-100fps on medium with DLAA at 1440p, depending on combat intensity. I personally find this quite playable and doesn't hurt my experience at all when I play the game. I also heard that people that used to run this with 100+ fps on UE4, that they now have sub 60 on low or can't even play the game due to the PC/Laptops not being fast enough for UE5.

5th: The community itself imo is hit and miss. Sometimes you have games where command chat is active, strategies are being discussed and everyone knows their place and function in the battle. And the other times everyone just stays silent and plays like they want to play Battlefield instead. Like giving up and just running into battle head first and raging in chat that everyone sucks and we should play the game, when they just keep depleting tickets for the team. Squad Leads that complain you don't do anything when you are setting up HABs (spawnpoints for your team) and they are just in the main doing nothing all round. This is the stuff that makes you not wanna play the game, but when you have the matches where everything works and people communicate and play the game is it should be played this has to be one of the best games there is.

So in conclusion; I absolutely love this game and will continue to play it for the coming years. The game is incredible when it is played with the communication, strategy and teamwork that is it designed and intended for. Sadly these matches are hard to come by, but when you do you want more. It will be annoying when you are on the receiving end of a good, well coordinated team that will absolutely dominate your team, but that is just the nature of a multiplayer game. ICO might be hit and miss for many players and you have to play the game to figure out if you do or don't like it, people talking about it don't give the full picture and 9/10 times just cherry pick specific issues (not everyone, but many players do). UE5 is a good upgrade for the people with newer hardware and will have the game continue into the distant future with more updates and tweaks etc.

Side note: if you're a new player and you wanna get this game, but you are scared to talk and communicate with players. Don't be, you have to start somewhere and just start asking standard questions if you don't understand something. There are many players that love this game that are willing to help new players out and teach them the basics, all you have to do is ask and you'll most likely get the help and info you need/are looking for