I will say that I had a great deal of enthusiasm for this games launch. That said, here we go.
I'm not ready to demand my refund and will have patience that this gets worked out, but I will say I find the game to be very disappointing so far. Its not even so much the bugs, that I expect. However, this game is supposed to "go live" in just a couple weeks, and if this is the state it's in, it isn't ready. This is more like an Alpha test than a Beta.
Why do I say that? Only 1v1's are available, no friend support, only 2 factions are available (and those, limited.) The controls and UI are not intuitive or user friendly even with a re-map. The camera is very awkward and, again, even with a re-map will interfere with ship movement.
The multiplayer games lack any kind of substance or objective other than to kill the enemies fleet in a head on collision. There is no adjustment of point values for games, so your stuck with the cap it puts on you based on level, or so I assume. There doesn't seem to be any way I've found to allow it to be adjusted.
The leveling system punishes you for taking damage or losing a ship. If the ship is heavily damaged, you cannot use it for another game. If destroyed, 2 games. This means you need to outfit an entire fleet of escorts, join a game to get steamrolled or immediately warp out, so that you can get whatever capital ships available again. Why? Why would you punish us FOR PLAYING THE GAME!? NAME ME ANY, ANY, SUCCESSFUL RTS THAT DOES THIS?
In other words, I get to play a game normally, then I get to throw away the following game, so I can have all my ships returned to me for the third game....unless I want to burn my Reknown points.
I won't comment on balance yet as the game is only a few hours old, but the matchmaking had better not remain as it is, or this game will die in its infancy. The wide range of those with unlocked abilities and ship classes being paired against those that don't is ugly and frustrating. The compartmentalization of the ships during battle is difficult to distinguish or even target and doesn't really seem to provide any added benefit, which was supposed to be a main feature of this game.
I don't know that its fair to say my dreams are crushed, but I feel very let down with what I've seen and played thus far. Its possible the fault is mine in that I had too high hopes for this game. The game's sound is fantastic, and the close up models of the ships and terrain are astounding. While these are solid positives, its not NEAR enough to keep me interested if the game play itself is flawed.
Yes, I know its a "beta" but its a beta we are given access to ONLY A COUPLE WEEKS BEFORE THE GAME GOES LIVE. So this wasn't supposed to be so much an early access as a stress test. It was supposed to be an incentive to pre-order the game. I fear the whole effort was simply a way of generating money to finish the game, as they may not have had the funds to do so...if true, and its just my speculation, that does not bode well for the future of this game.
