- Joined
- Apr 19, 2012
- Messages
- 12,062 (2.75/day)
- Location
- Gypsyland, UK
| System Name | HP Omen 17 |
|---|---|
| Processor | i7 7700HQ |
| Memory | 16GB 2400Mhz DDR4 |
| Video Card(s) | GTX 1060 |
| Storage | Samsung SM961 256GB + HGST 1TB |
| Display(s) | 1080p IPS G-SYNC 75Hz |
| Audio Device(s) | Bang & Olufsen |
| Power Supply | 230W |
| Mouse | Roccat Kone XTD+ |
| Software | Win 10 Pro |
Introduction
Insurgency is an FPS game with one hell of a punishing damage model. It’s developed and published by New World Interactive all done with the Source Engine. It should technically be called Insurgency 2, as it does actually have a predecessor. The original however began as a Half Life 2 mod, and later got a total conversion. It is mainly squad based in all game modes, and has an extremely punishing damage model. Anything to the chest or head is almost a single hit kill, even with heavy armour you’ll find yourself killed in about 3 or 4 bullets. The only chance for survival is to be hit in the toe. There are a number of servers that take advantage of the hit box model, and cause you to drop your weapon when hit in the correct arm.
Storyline
Its multiplayer based. The storyline is kill the nasty insurgents, or conversely, wipe out the filthy ‘muricans.
Gameplay
There are quite a large number of game modes, including coop vs AI as well as your typical PVP system. You’ve got your standard deathmatch, firefight (objective capture), push, as well as a number of coop missions, including survival, checkpoint, and hunt. There are many more, some which I didn’t get the chance to play due to the lack of servers, players, or just generally a lack of servers with sensible ping. I played Firefight, which seems to be a player favourite, mainly because it’s not over in 2 minutes. I also played some normal death match, but yeah, over way too quickly because of the damage model. A fair number of people play coop against bots, and that was possibly my favourite mode, because it was genuinely very challenging.
At the start of any game, you’ll need to select your team (if playing pvp), and then your role on the team. Each team has a squad leader, and then a number of generalised roles, as well as specifics. You’ve got your demolitions guys, with C4 or RPGs, specified snipers and marksmen, as well as standard assault rifle soldiers. You’ll also have supports, with the big light machine guns and smoke grenades, and a recon, usually equipped with a SMG or small battle rifle. Once you’ve selected your class, you make it to the shiny weapon customisation screen, which really does set the game apart from others.
You start off with a set amount of points to spend on weapons, some servers are extremely generous, and some are particularly frugal. On this screen you choose your primary weapon and any customisations, secondary and customisations, explosive slot (grenades, smokes, RPGs), armour slot, chest slot (carries more ammo/explosives), and finally accessory slot (night vision etc). Each item and customisation in each area costs a certain amount of points, so you have to tactically decide where your priorities lie. For example in a night time Hunt game mode, I’ll always pick night vision goggles and a suppressor on whatever weapon I choose. If it’s a game mode where weapon caches need to be destroyed, you’ll need to use points on explosives in order to complete the objectives. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices.
Obviously each role gets different weapons; most have some crossover of some sort, usually involving the standard rifles (M16A4 or AK74u). You can also earn extra points during game modes by being alive when objectives are completed. These points are awarded either in single points or multiple depending on server settings. So it is possible to further upgrade your weapon as the game progresses. As each game mode typically lasts until one team has 5 wins, you’ll have up to 9 rounds to customise your weapons at each round start, and you also get to customise your load out if you die. If you die, you’ll respawn every time your team completes an objective, and you’re latest load out changes will apply.
Speaking of dying, it’s something you’ll do an awful lot. I reckon about 50-60% of my played hours in the game are largely spectating other players after having died. The damage model is incredibly unforgiving. Weapons are deadly accurate, and if you survive more than 2 or 3 bullets to any part of your body, you’re particularly lucky. Even light machine gunners equip 2x red dot sights and snipe you across the map. Even against bots, granted the highest difficulty ones, they have magical psychic powers, and shoot you through walls in a rather glitch way. They also have a tendency to spawn on top of you when you complete an objective and one-shot headshot you in a blind panic.
While brutal bots have an utterly deadly shot with any weapon in existence, they have no brains whatsoever. There was a point when there were 5 bots crowded around a single player, one of them shot at him through another bot. The other 4 bots took this as some kind of brutal betrayal, and proceeded to shoot at each other, uncontrollably, until only one remained, who was promptly shot in the face. The bots also don’t recognise Molotov/incendiary fire. We breached a corridor, threw down a Molotov, and 7 bots (in a neat little line) proceeded to walk into the fire while shouting in pain, and then sit directly in the middle for about 15 seconds until they died.
I then walked round the corner and got head shotted through a wall by a bot 200 yards away with an RPK. All that being said, bugs and bot behaviour aside, the hunting, survival and checkpoint maps and game modes in coop are incredibly challenging, and extremely fun. They certainly offered me enough enjoyment to spend most of my time in that particular section. There are plenty of maps, both day and night, to provide you with some form of variety to your coop adventures, and usually you’re put against the odds in every example. In fact the dodgy AI with elite sniping capabilities makes the game rather fun and amusing. Certainly the gameplay can become somewhat boring if you don’t have friends to play with. It’s also paramount you use the in game voice chat, as it is an extremely tactical based game, and you need to communicate with your team mates (or face certain death).
There are a number of modifiers to make the game more realistic. These include minimalistic UI, no player icons (so friendly fire becomes an issue if a team mate startles you), AI density on maps, as well as reducing initial points for weapons at the beginning of the game. The only difference AI difficulty makes is their aim. Their intelligence never seems to match the curve.
Controls
Sliding works when it pleases. You’re supposed to hit crouch after running (Shift followed by CTRL), but I could only get it to slide half the time I attempted it. Rebind your push-to-talk key, because K as a default is simply ridiculous. Standard FPS controls, the only difference being Q and E is lean, and G of all keys is flashlight (if equipped). Night Vision is B (if equipped). One thing I must note, the transition from hip fire to iron sights/ADS is super clunky. If you’re aiming at something in standard view, then go to ADS, the transition A) takes too long B) aims you slightly off your target. It needs streamlining somehow, to be smoother and slightly more accurate. It’s been a niggle of mine through the whole game, and affected what sight I chose to mod my weapons with. M is not map, in fact N is map. M is your load out. This literally makes zero sense to me, and I rebound them in the opposite way because that seemed sensible. It’s not like every other game has M bound to map or anything. Am I missing something?
Video Settings
A glorious amount, of all the right types. Everything you need in terms of options is there, and in abundance. That being said, the abundance of options doesn’t make the game any prettier. Plant textures in particular are still 2.5D and shoddy, and wall textures are a little blocky to say the least. However I am aware this is a one-for-all kind of game, and built on the source engine, so the lack of fancy textures makes the thing run on a Core2Duo. Still, I was a little disappointed that sneaking through tall grassland was ruined by super thin and bare tall grass, so it kinda ruined my immersion. I wanted to feel like a member of Delta force in thick brush, to come down on my opponent with my AK74u with a suppressor the size of a small child, in true stealthy Rambo-like fashion. Instead I walked through some green sticks and shot some guy. It was made in 2013, so I’d have liked to have seen some textures that represented that age.
System Performance
CPU: i5 4670 (Stock)
GPU: MSI GTX 970 (Stock)
RAM: 16GB 2133mhz
Storage: WD 1TB 7200RPM
Display: 2560 x 1440
Source Engine. Need I say more? Totally maxed out I was hitting some stupendous maximum frame rates, even while recording at the same time. 1440p made it a little lower, but not by much. The game is so CPU bound it actually nearly topped out my CPU. The GPU was at full throttle due to VSync being turned off, so my system had full reign to do as it pleased. Overall it’s extremely well optimised and hardware balanced, so everything got a chance to do something useful. I reckon on more conservative settings, you could run it on just about anything. If a PC can run Counter Strike, it can run this.
1440p
1080p
Conclusion
All in all I had a lot of fun, but that’s because this is my type of game. I’ve played Counter Strike since I was a teenager, I’ve dabbled in DayZ, Battlefield, and even some CoD in my younger days. I enjoy team based FPS games, both PvP and coop. The option for customising guns is immensely fun, and makes it feel like you’ve crafted your role yourself. I know other games include this, like Battlefield, but in this all weapons are unlocked the instant you play. The only difference is you gain points based on success in order to customise your weapons. Everybody has a similar set of weapons available to them, so there’s no real imbalance. One of the key things I dislike about Battlefield is the requirement to unlock copious amounts of weapons, most of which are vastly superior to starter guns. Insurgency does not suffer from that. The downside to that is that there is slightly less reason to constantly play, as you don’t permanently unlock upgrades, you have to earn them each match.
The bots are buggy, psychic sharpshooters with the common sense of a garden carrot. And yet they are immensely fun to play against, and make the coop a huge amount of fun. The damage model makes their keen eyes and psychic abilities more frustrating, as you die instantly. Along those lines, one of the issues I have with the game is that you don’t spend an awful lot of time playing, but rather spectating. In CSGO you get away with that, as rounds last typically 2 minutes or less. In this, rounds can last much much longer, making the experience a little boring for newer, less skilled players. Even in coop you die plenty, mostly due to AI, but also from friendly fire. Then you have to sit and wait for the round to fail or succeed, or at least until an objective is completed. It’s an odd one to fix, or even approach, as its fundamental aspect of the game to be so unforgiving. It’s also one of the main reasons I stopped playing the deathmatch game mode, as all weapons are stupendously accurate, and whoever shoots first wins. Recoil is minimal, so if you lose, you sit and spectate for an age until the round ends. It’s definitely not a run and gun game. If Battlefield or CoD is your forte, perhaps don’t get your hopes up. If you’re used to Arma style tactics, with a large dose of Counter Strike gunplay, I would imagine you’ll find Insurgency immensely fun.
Also sticking bits on weapons is just plain fun as it is. Give me ten weapon slots and infinity points and I’ll stick a baby sized suppressor on even the M249 as well as AP rounds.
Insurgency is available on Steam for £10.99/$14.99
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Silent as a ninja fart. 
), so my hopes of getting into it are pretty much nil tonight. 
