The main highlight of this game is the extremely well balanced, asymmetric character classes. It is amazing that they are so well balanced considering that each play entirely differently, and each are entirely necessary in order to complete the objectives. This is a huge feat considering, generally, every class has some of the same weapons. That’s right, a medic can use an assault rifle, the same as a Aggressor class. The difference is that a medic can revive and/or heal your team mates. Field Ops can throw a smoke bomb to signal an airstrike, a Aggressor can plant explosives. Engineers can set up anti personnel and anti vehicle guns, while Covert Ops can set up radars to detect enemy movement. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Each class really does have a full set of fun and different toys to use. The other team, the Strogg, have similar character classes, but are refined it their own way. So playing a Strogg Technician is similar to playing a human medic, but there is enough of a difference in the two that it really is a different class. This balanced asymmetry of humans vs Strogg also follows through to the vehicles and the weapons. The vehicles do not overpower the board, so if someone gets a big tank or whatever, you never feel like the game is lost.

The objectives that you must achieve are varied, and require the special talents of the various classes. For instance the first objective may be to blow up a wall, which requires a Aggressor with explosives. After that, you have to make a bridge which requires an Engineer, then you have to hack a computer which needs the Covert Ops class. While performing these objectives, you will have to rely o your teammates to stay alive, or you have to protect the explosives from being tampered with while it counts down. As you complete class specific objectives you gain a star in your class and receive power ups for your class. These power ups are not persistent, you lose them after each match. This means that every team starts off even and then as the game progresses, you get stronger and stronger.


Bland, Boring, Colourless

The graphics in the game are a bit woeful. They are extremely bland, with no texture and colour. Combine this "blahness" with pop-ins, poor animations and actors and you have an ugly game. Next gen FPS games have been accused of having a colour palette of three: grey, brown and greyish brown and this game seems to epitomize this stereotype. The sounds don’t get much of a pass either. I never got that feeling of being in a crazy battlefield with explosions and shots ringing.

A buddy of mine plays this on PC, and after listening to him rave about ET:QW I couldn’t wait to try this out for myself. It had a lot of the things I like in an FPS game: lots of different toys, and lots of opportunity to really use some great tactics. My PC playing buddy plays as a generalist. He is aware of what is going on and changes his role on the fly in order to fill in the missing pieces. When he plays as an Engineer, for instance, he never, or rarely fires his weapon. He is too busy playing a supporting role. Even though he may never get a kill he is near the top in exp. This sort of tactic minded team play really appeals to me, which is why I was so disappointed in the MP game. 

First, it was a laggy mess.

Secondly, I couldn’t get into a room with more than 3 other people, even though I had the most open parameters possible. The fun in MP is playing either with or against a full room of real people. In this case, I was playing with one other person in my team against one guy on the other team. And a whole bunch of bots. This says one of two things to me. Either a) no one is playing this game, or b) there is something wrong in the matchmaking algorithm. I play MP to be social and play with others and I could not do that with ET:QW for whatever reason. Either way the bottom line is this: if I wanted to play with bots, I would have played the SP campaign.

The SP campaign is very odd. It is just a bunch of bot matches. You and your team of AI controlled characters vs a team of AI controlled characters. I use the term characters loosely because there is absolutely no story . Obviously, since there is really no SP game, the developers put all their eggs in one basket, the MP game. Why, then, is there so many technical difficulties on the MP side?

Since so much of the game relies upon the bots, it was important to get it right. Alas, the A.I. for the bot battles are not strong. The bots would often just hang out together instead of, you know, shooting at each other. In the SP campaign, I got the highest number of kills in an area where the objective was to defend a point. I know my own woeful skill level, and if JayCat is #1 in kills, your game is flawed.

The auto-aim is way too sensitive, the reticule actually follows the person. I was consistently considered the most accurate in the party and I really just let the auto aim to it’s thing. Again, just like I said before. I am well aware of my skill level, and if I am #1 in accuracy, your game is flawed. You just have to shoot somewhere close to the enemy, get one hit, and sit back and let the cruise control take over. If you are any good, and you prefer to have full control, turn it off.

Value

The MP is technically broken, there is no SP campaign that is interesting, from what I can tell, there is no persistent leveling up system with perks to keep people interested.

Bottom Line
So much potential, such poor execution. If they could fix the lag and matchmaking then perhaps this could be a lot of fun, but sadly, I have to say that this game is just not that great.

Verdict

If you feel you must, DL the demo. But save your money.