cry havoc and let's ship wardogs

i haven’t played arma or squad or any of the realistic cooperative stuff. no tarkov. no hell let loose. i have a hard time committing to a squad of people and engaging in voice chat with my anxiety.

wardogs is my absolute shit though. the closest thing i can personally compare it to is planetside 2, especially after they added the base building stuff a few years ago. it’s got teamwork, but intense collaboration not expected of you as much as in something like squad or a game with a smaller player count.

i’ve heard it’s a lot like arma reforger and that seems probably true, but i don’t know anything about the way guns and other mechanics work in those games. all i can say is that wardogs is perfect and you’re probably taking yourself too seriously if you think it’s dumb.

from what others have said and from what i am imagining, wardogs is snuck between a rock and a soft place. more arcade than replica, less staccato than a match of dutyfield. you’re gonna want to stay alive if you can, but the commute to war punctuates your mistakes and gives you time to reflect on your dumb ass.

wardogs is more than it’s modern military gameplay anyway. in fact i’d prefer it was something else. escaping to sci-fi or fantasy over real human conflict suits me just fine.

no the real treat here is navigating the economy. it’s a sandbox (circle) and they reward you for whatever you decide to do. sure you can get into a fight. you can also just peep with some binoculars or slap some bandages on your friends. push your tonka trucks around and build a sand castle. just sit somewhere really, as long as you’re in the box (circle) you’re getting paid.

the vehicles are their drivers are especially meaningful, and i don’t just mean that the tanks are good. transports are necessary. the bases you spawn at are fuck off away from the center. you need soldiers in the middle to score, and you need supplies in the bases to build. and guess what? you’ll get paid when you drop someone off. you’ll get paid when you deliver a pallet of ammunition. you’ll get paid just for surviving the trip and showing back up at base.

my favorite part is the smaller area (circle) called the hot zone or whatever nestled inside the main circle (area) where you score double. it floats around the map so you either chase it around or try to hole up where you think it’s going. there is always a fight there. always. and it’s so easy to just show up there and be a valuable part of the team. just start shooting and picking people up. and the base building isn’t just for fun. the towers and bases let you pull the hot pocket to them which is incredibly valuable to your wallet and the score.

while the shotguns in this game have been my favorite of any title so far, i used the binoculars more than anything. anyone can ping a location for their squadmates, but if you spot someone with binoculars it tracks them for the whole team, and when they die, you guessed it, you get paid. and making money feels just great.

the game just feels so rewarding. i think it’s because of the rewards. i mean of course people are generally going to play for the team in a team game, but it really pushes you to help each other, more than just to win the match like usual. you will get revived, they will bring you supplies for your f.o.b., and they will give you a ride to the hot box, because they get to take the money home with them.

i was making a silly comedy joke before when i said it was perfect. of course i have some concerns. almost all i’ve talked about is the cash incentive, and that doesn’t mean anything if you can’t do anything fun with it. you can only bring risk-and-reward into the conversation if it really means something to you. they need to deliver on skins and collectables worth buying, and stick to their guns about not selling them for real life monies. they’ve said a lot of very promising shit in their videos but if they don’t back it up then all it proves is they have a great marketing team.

i also have a feeling it’s going to be really hard to balance this sprawling meta economy. like, a whole team spamming tanks might be an issue? but maybe there are enough tools in-game to deal with anything. and you know what? the whole match is like an hour, and you can just leave and join another one. there’s probably some guy with 100 missile launchers that would love to take your spot in that server. the amount of money you get for specifically winning the round is a drop in the bucket of one pretty decent life where you got a few kills, so if they want to spend all the money they farmed for one match, i’ll let them have it.

we get another test next weekend so i don’t have to be depressed for a whole month straight til it launches. this singular game even convinced me to pay $800 for a stupid 5070 gpu. it ran pretty fuckin ok on potato mode with my 3060 ti and 5700x3d, but there were some spots when it would drop down to 60-70 fps and not feel amazing. a 5070 should let me upgrade the trees from looking like i drew them with crayons and keep the frame rate from dropping under 90 which is the sweet spot for me. 120+ is great but i can’t stay immersed in 60 fps anymore, and 45 looks nightmarish.

ok i want to try to write something about against the storm before this game launches or i might not ever get the chance.