Semi open beta, it's an open beta for which you register and receive a key. Only, my key didn't come, ever. I however found my beta key as I was going on unsubscribe from the CI games mailing list. To my own hilarity I now see the development team, who are actively engaging in discussion with the community, copy my find.

As far the game itself is concerned, for starters I would tell the people comparing this to Far Cry that they're right. Granted this is the beta, but driving to get to a mission objective and encountering things (fortunately they are no checkpoints, but there are points of interest which can contain supplies or other things that might be useful further along in the game) is similar to that game.

Graphics wise i'm almost certain that this game will be one of the better looking games to come out this year. But unfortunately, graphics alone do not make a great game. Why do I say this? in this beta the ai *always* seem to know where you're coming from. With that in mind, setting up for a shot at a distance of several hundred meters in the (still) rather bland looking virtual georgian country becomes useless.

Interestingly enough the ai seems to have levels as well. Before getting to the target zone, I came across a guard post. I had a suppressed pistol on me and snuck up close enough to hear them talking. (yeah, the voice overs could be better, but in this case the immersion worked) Aiming down the Sights of the pistol I took out one guard without his friend figuring out what was going on. The other guard took a bit of maneuvering but he too joined his friend on the ground. Now compare that to the AI in the target zone knowing where you are even when you fire a shot from a suppressed weapon....

And speaking of knowing where you are, there is a rather interesting way of finding out where the opposition is. A little drone. The player can launch a little drone with a camera that spots any and all opposition. It would be really interesting to be able to designate with that drone for something a tad heavier. Yet again the interface here needs a little streamlining and userfriendlyness, (just like the rest of the game,but then this is a beta)

All in all this game might be entertaining, but it needs work. getting the beta showed me how much work it still needs. Fortunately there are still 2 months until the official release. This gives the developers a litte time to get this thing in order. Now speaking for myself, I figure it would be useful to wait, but to wait for what, the first patch? or perhaps the first dlc even...

if you're looking for a sniper game to start the year off with, i suppose you're better of with waiting for sniper elite 4, but that opinion is purely based on the videos that I have seen.

This is very useful intel, many thanks. I like sniper tac-sims and have always been tempted by this series because it's modern and -- theoretically -- incorporates all the modern technology involved in state-of-the-art special forces sniper ops. I thought Sniper Elite 3 was a very good game, but the bolt-action rifles and WW2 settings wore thin after a while.

I appreciate your cautionary tone. It might yet save me some money. I've been playing the Ghost Recon Wildlands Beta and I'm afraid my opinion is that it's an awful mess. I might have to reassess this game, too.

I played a little bit of it and I think the balancing needs work.

If I'm in a sniping position, with a silenced sniper rifle, and I take a guy down unseen...nothing happens.
Then I take a guy down that someone else sees...and instantly I have half a dozen men rushing me like I'm the QB, a sniper on the other side of the basin hitting me, and mortars dropping on my position.

When I say "instantly" I mean within 10 seconds. I shoot, stand up, start to run, and the first mortar shot hits where I was.

In other words, you don't have to be seen to be seen...you just have to have your presence detected and they know where you are. Someone just dropped dead in front of me! That means there's a sniper 100m away at a bearing of 132 degrees on that hilltop, and fortunately our mortars already have that location dialed in as we were just WAITING for someone to shoot from there...

Holds promise, and I think the graphics are perfectly acceptable (although the delay going into menus is a bit excessive for me, but it's just a beta), but the AI/stealth mechanics need work.




The Jedi Master

Reading your description I thought you were talking about the Ghost Recon Wildlands beta lol. Odd that these two very similar games drop betas on the same weekend. That is disappointing to hear about the AI instantly cheating to know your location. Especially for a sniper game. I mean the whole point is to shoot unseen not that your target is unseen.

Well, if you see a guy get taken out, I suspect you can tell where the shot came from. At least direction-wise. Even if you didn't see it, someone experienced should be able to tell something. Spatter over here, it must've come from across over there. Even some well directed fire makes sense, due to being in an ideal sniping location. It would be cool if you could use misdirection some in a case like that.
I'm glad this and GR aren't coming out at the same time. I'll go through with my pre-order if GR disappoints, but otherwise I'll hold off for a sale.

Do you ever find yourself buying a game not because you think it will be good but because you hope it will? That's me with this.

Yes, I might agree with that...except this forensic investigation takes them approximately 0.34 seconds to complete with sufficient accuracy to cue a sniper and a mortar team that has almost sniper-like accuracy!

Now if I sit there for 5 minutes, plinking away, I would certainly expect them to slowly figure out where I was and send people investigating.

This is more like that feature in Splinter Cell or Deus Ex where when you get spotted they put an outline where the AI has your "last known position" and will go to investigate. Yet a single silenced shot shouldn't offer them that kind of info within a second.
Maybe if you want to play on uber difficulty, perhaps, for people who want a real challenge, but what's the point of getting a sniping position if it's good for only one shot?

By contrast, Sniper Elite does it the way you would expect, with the addition of the local bang covering your shot mechanic.




The Jedi Master

Sorry to hear about the AI issues.

The game itself intrigues me. Being Far Cry like with elements of Splinter Cell mixed in would be a good thing in my book. But if it turns into battling super-cheating AI, I may pass.

Hopefully, they fix the issues before release.

Exactly my feeling.
I get that AI get cheats to fight. A radar lock on your position within a split second of one of your kills being noticed should not be one of them.
A game about sniping should allow some leeway to actually do sniping without being killed in 30 seconds.



The Jedi Master