Okay...VERDICT TIME!!
Game's an awesome piece of work! Graphics are a LOT better than the other Rainbows. Movement, while a little sluggish compared to the other 2, feels smoother despite it. Sound's still way the hell up there, bullet ricochets, footsteps, different ground surfaces...makes me glad my speakers are as nice as they are
And, the guns...omfg the guns...First, they replaced my favorite SMG with it's 10mm counterpart, the MP5-10A. You've got your M4A1-CQB (M4 with shotgun on bottom of it
![[8o|]](/forums//emoticons/emotion-39.gif)
), several new HMGs (249 still here, but they've replaced the M60, in the demo at least, with a couple new ones, including a more rifle-esque one). As far as my area of expertise goes, there's only one playable sniper in the demo, but it's quite possibly the best sniper (next to my PSG of course) in the WA-2000. Other new weaps include SEVERAL different shotguns, from our old pump shotty, to the auto-shotty, and now the SPAS-15 (!!).
Secondary equips range from standard 'nades (willie petes are VERY lethal now), to sticky prox flashbangs (my personal fav now
), to support hardware such as PDA's that allow you to hack into security systems (only for those of us who are going spec ops
).
On top the sheerly staggering number of weapons to choose, you can customize your character in the P.E.C (Persistant Elite Creation) process, which creates a sim-you, who will become more skilled in various areas with an RPG-esque leveling system, in which you earn points based on wins, completed objectives, kills, etc. But before you customize your look, you need to pick a class. Choices are Commando (basic arms guy, rifles, HMGs, about everything except snipers, and some SMGs), Combat Medic (you really need an explanation? Welcome back to the days of "I NEED A MEDIC!!"), Engineer (explosives expert, focusing on shotties and explosives) and my obvious choice, Spec ops (silenced weaps including a combat knife, silenced and unsilenced SMGs, and snipers). All have basic stats to upgrade like accuracy, reload time (on selectable weapon classes: ie faster reloads on say an SMG than with an assault rifle), and damage. Each class also has specific skills, Medics get faster, more potent, etc heals for teammates for example.
In the demo, you can only play one game type (our old not-quite-so-favorite), Retrieval (CTF basically), on one map, a Harbor dock. You can choose how many people in the room (up to 12 according to the map), as well as whether or not to limit it to P.E.C. mode or not. In P.E.C mode, you're only allowed weapons you've earned with play time and skillups/lvl-ups etc, while normal mode will not allow you to use your custom character and therefore not get any of their special abilities, but will give you access to every weapon available.
From the couple hours I played tonight, this game will be unbe-fucking-lievable once it comes out. I suggest we all get a copy of the demo and start logging some time in both P.E.C. as well as normal (to get a feel for everything Lockdown has to offer). I can effectively hold 8 people under normal conditions, 10 if I'm lucky, but if Pantera would get his happy ass off FFXI, we could start "OMGWTFBBQPwning tehse n00bz0rz!!1!"
Seriously, if we're gonna kick as much as on this title as we did it's predecessors, we need to get in gear.
See you in my WA-2000's scope...