Recent reviews by drawyourpenisfrommemory

This game is so sophisticated visually and has fleshed out gunplay that at first glance it looks incredibly promising. But in terms of actual gameplay (the 'tactical realism' part of the game...) it is severely underdeveloped and lacking, especially given the 8 years of early access, as shown by the rudimentary AI and the 3 basic gamemodes (terrorist hunt, intel retrieval, bomb defusal) which mechanically and tactically do not differ much from each other. Their most recent dev log has announced improvements to the AI and a much-needed addition of locked doors (reminder: it has been 8 years of EA), although when this will be rolled out is unknown, and much more will still need to be done.

Despite the lack of depth gameplay-wise, Ground Branch is still enjoyable -- if you only enjoy LARPing and playing soldier (btw I am judging you), which is probably why some frustrated players have called this a tech demo. The focus on aesthetics is also reflected in the workshop/modding scene, as most mods are guns, patches, gear, equipment, etc.; to my knowledge we are still unable to create/edit maps, while modded gamemodes are few, limited in capability, and hard to get working.

- Smarter AI; e.g. proper coordination with each other and adapting better to their situations
- More tactically interesting gamemodes, which can only be possible if there is more:
- Environmental interactability, tools, and/or more ways to engage with the maps creatively
- Functioning friendly AI, which is especially important for the huge amount of solo players
- Non-targets/civilians who we are not supposed to shoot; although given that we are supposed to be special forces there won't be much/any consequences for war crimes (in fact, spec ops seems to attract psychopaths...), but it would make the game realistic!
- Performance optimisation: the game looks great if you (can afford to) put all your settings up, and don't run into any bugs, and ignore the stutters/frame drops when you shoot something(!!!), and ignore how shoddy looking through a magnified scope is, and don't crash when you click something in the settings (or the admin panel, or click to leave the settings)... though to be fair i was on DX12 :p

By listing all of these necessary improvements, I've also pointed out why I do not recommend buying this game now, even for most fans of tactical-realism shooters the experience is too incomplete to be rewarding. You will probably end up, like I have, picking this game up for a couple sessions (where you might have to spend a lot of time editing your loadout), slowly getting bored at the repetitive and uninteresting gameplay loop until -- after it ferments in your library for half a year, you remember to end its tacticool misery and uninstall it.

If you see the game's potential, and can imagine (because it is easy to) a glorious full-release product with ground-breaking, unique features, I highly recommend investing your time and energy somewhere more exciting and fulfilling: meet new people, read a book, learn new cultures, spend time with friends and loved ones, explore new hobbies, etc. However, if you really want to try the game out, watch some gameplay videos and read more reviews, then ***buy it on sale***. If you care about the tactical realism part of tactical-realism FPS games, consider Door Kickers 2 if you don't mind a top-down, active-pause experience where you can actually control a team and play solo. This game is ambitious and has so, so much potential, but given the current progress, the hope I initially had when first buying the game has been significantly tempered. If you buy this game, do not expect a finished product soon, in the next 8 years, or if at all. I am confident that the game will be declared finished sometime in the future, but as much as you can love the potential, don't bet on it coming soon.

After talking about people in the last paragraph, I want to advise potential buyers about the community...

It does not take a genius to know that the FPS space, and especially the more realistic/hardcore you get, the more repulsive and odious the players are: Browse through the workshop and you will find cosmetics glorifying empire and slavery rated higher than cosmetics with LGBTQ+ pride flags. As with any niche genre/interest there will always be a (somewhat) visible/strong, but numerically smaller presence of people who have uncommon backgrounds, interests, sexualities, genders, etc.; but the playerbase has a loud portion of repressed, fragile males. Also, servers are dying so most of your interactions with the community will likely be on the workshop/other platforms, but be prepared nonetheless and good luck in finding people to play with!

If you find the community to be great, with no problems whatsoever, then you have either lost all of your senses or are on the side of history that always, inevitably, loses to progress and liberation. If you are so inclined, I would still recommend only buying the game on sale; the devs need to know that important changes have to be made for the game to be worth full price.

Solid shooter with great blood effects, environment, and npc voicelines, but lacks mechanical depth and strong, unique elements (other than the setting and spitting/catchphrase mechanic). Obviously its just a demo, so I maybe the game could eventually stand out, although I can't see that potential yet. Hopefully the 90s Japanese action setting can inspire some new mechanics and other stuff that makes this game more fleshed out without being too similar to Max Payne or Maximum Action (another retro shooter). Overall, it's quite fun but lacks replay value and still needs a bit more to feel cool.

Story makes less and less sense as the game goes on

this game helps me fufill my fantasy of listening to old cantopop mixes while running over crowds of helpless civillians in an undercover cop car that has an innocent woman in the trunk desperately trying to escape

this game is so immersive that it got me creaming at the top of my lungs when I had to deal with the spiders because they are so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ scary

this game deserved a more fleshed out story and characters but its still a really good game to complete and mess around in

I love bludgeoning, shooting, slicing, and beating people into tiny bloody pieces of flesh and brains . My favourite moments are when I have a sharp katana or machete and get to play around with a dead victim all by myself, it is so satisying when I hack their heads off with one clean slice, but it also feels very rewardging when I miss or hit too softly and I have to keep hacking and slashing at their neck area. Please make a sequel, this game is very fun!

a gazillion billlion million content in this game

this game got me like the crack epidemic

tldr: multi

Every mission in the campaign is short, and this means that overall it would probably only take an hour or two to play through all of the main missions. So to fix this problem, Gameloft decided to not improve the storytelling by adding more depth and detail, but instead they opted for making players spend most of their time grinding for stars or credits to unlock the next chapter. Keep in mind that grinding takes up energy and time as you might not do well in each campaign mission or multiplayer game, and you'll have to wait if your energy bar runs out.

Speaking of the energy system, thankfully I never dealt with it messing with me but Gameloft couldve also made the campaign so much better if they made each mission longer, with more variety and deeper storytelling. Every single enemy bot is super ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ easy, especially on PC where headshots are not hard to get, and supposedly difficult enemies like the juggernaut(?) don't even try to shoot at you most of the time.

Was honestly pretty disappointed at the end because there was no proper background for any of the characters (i.e. you never even get to understand why Lily is so important, she just happens to be your daughter). Every other character is explained through ♥♥♥♥♥♥ loading screen text before missions and I only got to know about Saunders, the main ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ antagonist, at the last few missions. All it couldve took was a couple of cutscenes to make the audience feel connected to the story but I guess Gameloft was too lazy to try that. Thats why the ending has zero weight and all of the characters feel bland and unimportant

multiplayer is not worth playing on pc (or at all lmfao)

the reason why I wrote all this was bc this game was part of my childhood and its a bit sad to find out that this game was just a low-tier, buggy ass call of duty ripoff that seems to be made as a cash grab and has no inherent value. the only saving grace is that its free, but its probably better to just buy an old, overpriced cod game instead