- Joined
- Sep 30, 2019
Military simulators (Milsims) and tactical shooters are a genre of FPS games that place emphasis on "realism" and teamplay. Typically, they feature a low time to kill and/or injury mechanics, minimal HUD, slower paced gameplay, and (usually) a more restricted and realistic kit (you're not going to be running and gunning as a crippled female American with the Hellriegel, for example). I figured a general thread would suit this genre more than individual threads, since they typically don't have the massive fanbase and rapidfire sequel spam that many other games have. I also really like tactical shooters and wanted a place to talk about it.
To start the thread off, I wanted to talk about a particular line of "spiritual successor" tactical shooters, and some of the drama that has recently surrounded them.
Project Reality was what originally got me into tactical shooters. Starting as a total conversion mod for Battlefield 2, which expanded in content to the point of becoming a standalone (and free to play) game based on the BF2 engine. The mod has a impressively massive scale, with a focus on communication, teamplay, and, as the name suggests, realism. Maps are huge (including an 8 km² recreation of the Falklands), gameplay is slow, and having a mic is basically required. While now almost 20 years old, it still has an active and autistically loyal, if small, playerbase. Unfortunately, as of 2023, there appears to only be one active NA server, which tends to be pretty consistently full, meaning you'll be doing a lot of queue waiting if you want to play it. You can play against bots, but it kind of defeats the point of the game imo.
Squad is the spiritual successor to Project Reality, made by many of the former developers of Project Reality. It keeps a lot of the same basic mechanics and focus on teamplay, though with a bit of a more limited scope. It still has a fairly large playerbase and has been some of the most fun I've had with an online game. However, it's been at the center of an ever-mounting list of controversies and disappointments that have driven many players away from the game.
- Optimization, balancing, and bugfixes have been an ongoing battle
- There was an incredibly pandering "Black Lives Matter" community post and donation during the fentanyl Floyd shitshow that was not taken well by the community
- They are very slow on meaningful updates and at least a year behind on their stated update roadmap
- Almost all of the original devs have left to work on other projects or go back to Project Reality
- Offworld Industries, the studio behind Squad, are behind a number of failed or dying games, and have recently had a minority share bought out by Tencent
- Despite promising not to add microtransactions to the game, OWI recently decided to add emotes to the game, in a move that has caused a major shitshow
While the game is still fun (and the emotes non-intrusive), many are concerned about this being the start of a downwards spiral of the game; where monetization comes at the expense of roadmap content or bugfixes.
Reality Mod is a modification for Battlefield 3, inspired by Project Reality. Developed despite the lack of official mod support, Reality Mod managed to make some impressive changes to the base game; a basic FOB system, bleeding and bandaging, kit restriction, etc., making the incredibly arcadey BF3 into... Something slightly less arcadey. It saw a surge of interest and popularity upon initial release, with the devs even having to buy additional servers to sustain the rush of players. Now? It's not doing very well player-wise. I haven't seen too many complaints about the mod itself, but I have seen complaints of people playing it more like a battlefield game than a tactical shooter. That, the still heavily in-development state of the mod, and the lack of interest in BF3 is probably what's behind it's poor player numbers.
Operation: Harsh Doorstop is a early access free-to-play shooter by PR youtuber-turned professional clickbaiter bluedrake42. Born partially out of his disappointment with Squad (and hyped up as a "Squad killer"), as well as his hatred of "lootboxes, predatory monetization, and lack of single player and mod support," OHD was funded by Patreon and designed around the idea of mod support and community-based development. Well, kind of funded by Patreon. Apparently, bluedrake's studio worked on another, for-profit game, Warfare 1944, the proceeds of which were supposed to contribute to OHD as well as continued development. The problem? The game was released half-assed and completely abandoned. Fast-forward to Feburary 2023, and OHD is released on early access with mixed reviews, both on Steam and from fellow YouTubers who helped shill the game. The game was seemingly released barebones, with dated graphics, no vehicles, and shit AI. Additionally, the game suffered from a rampant hacking problem, to which bluedrake's initial response was "lmao make your own anticheat" (though he eventually walked this back). Overall, while what (he stated) he's trying to do is noble, and while he admittedly has a very small dev team, his team's past project, the overreliance on mods to build the game, and bluedrake's tendency of over exaggeration should give people some cause for skepticism for the future of this game.
To start the thread off, I wanted to talk about a particular line of "spiritual successor" tactical shooters, and some of the drama that has recently surrounded them.
Project Reality
Squad
- Optimization, balancing, and bugfixes have been an ongoing battle
- There was an incredibly pandering "Black Lives Matter" community post and donation during the fentanyl Floyd shitshow that was not taken well by the community
- They are very slow on meaningful updates and at least a year behind on their stated update roadmap
- Almost all of the original devs have left to work on other projects or go back to Project Reality
- Offworld Industries, the studio behind Squad, are behind a number of failed or dying games, and have recently had a minority share bought out by Tencent
- Despite promising not to add microtransactions to the game, OWI recently decided to add emotes to the game, in a move that has caused a major shitshow
While the game is still fun (and the emotes non-intrusive), many are concerned about this being the start of a downwards spiral of the game; where monetization comes at the expense of roadmap content or bugfixes.
