My Take on the BETA.
Thank you, Ubisoft, for allowing me to participate in the GRB BETA Test; I enjoyed it!
I participated in the test on PC (specs below) with M/KB for controls. GRB ran smoothly with no noticeable frame drops (widely reported by others) @ 2K rez @ 144Hz (27” G Sync display; V Sync turned off); @ Ultra settings with motion Blur turned off, AF set to 8X; with out of date Nvidia 431.60 drivers.
I played solo exclusively (Panther based character) splitting my play time between Advanced and then Extreme difficulty settings; with the bulk of the HUD "fruit salad" turned off, no tagging, threat indicators, etc . Using stalk and pounce, rapid lateral movement, “neutralization” of overwatch, exercising patience (always in short supply for me!); I found Extreme to be challenging but doable; excepting Tiered Areas I was barred from due to “my level”.
I was spontaneously disconnected (not at announced maintenance times) from the Ubi server 5 times over the course of the BETA. Gggggrrrrr!!!!!
The even larger than GR Wildlands game world was welcome, and well done to Ubi’s usual very high standard. GFX, at the settings noted above, were noticeably more polished than in the most recent OTT. Sound, through my home theater system, was excellent; giving me great position where ever I was in the game.
More labored and difficult character movement over rough terrain is a step in the right direction from the way most games present it. Character "over travel" when stopping, difficulty with fine character placement, and "still" clunky 3rd person camera in tight confines remain issues for refinement. My character would occasionally get stuck on, or stumble over relatively low objects (rocks, bushes, etc), so cross terrain movement could use a bit more work. My character was unable to back away from threats; when I pressed the reverse key he turned 180 degrees and walked away from threats with his back to them.
NOT good!
Very nice character CQC moves from both the back and front of enemy NPCs! Well done! Being able to use purchased/acquired scopes/lasers on more than one weapon
WITHOUT having to purchase/acquire them individually for each weapon! More well done!
Glitches: My character’s arm and leg wounds at game start continued to be prominently displayed over my clothing (including the long sleeve jacket I was wearing). Another apparent (non GFX) glitch was the Azrael Drone once spotted me even though I was under a solid roof at a home steader's camp.
Ground vehicle’s handling of mud, snow, water was better (vehicle reacted more realistically to them) than in GRW; though I prefer the lighter handling and lesser inertia of the GRW vehicles. Ground vehicle sounds were
NOT an improvement over GRW.
The small helicopter outside Erewhon would make dragon flies and hummingbirds envious; as it had no weight or inertia feel to it; and starting and spool up time set some kind of speed record!
Some of the weapon sounds were very good—some were not. I still think Ubi should review and consider the way weapon (unsuppressed & suppressed) sounds are implemented in both of Undead Labs, State of Decay games. Gun shots done right!
Bivouacs: Even though I established 6 or 7 Bivouacs (got the “establishing Bivouac” cut scene and subsequent Bivouac menu OK), NONE of them ever displayed on my map and fast travel was non functional to them and Erewhon (this worked fine for me in the last OTT).
Enemy NPCs: Static enemies do
NOT act like high end security professionals. All too often looking in the same direction (when the standard is “head on a swivel”); groups/patrols looking in the same direction instead of watching “their arcs”. Sheesh! Enemy NPC visual and auditory horizons are still set too low; especially on “extreme difficulty”. I did not find enemies to be bullet spongy! Well done!
Game design choices: Weapons damage stats suffer from not paralleling their real world counter parts, and result in pistols & subguns being OPed, or rifles being under powered compared to the pistols/submachine guns. Weapon ranges (relative to their caliber) need work also.
Bivouacs: A camp fire (with a player supplied tent?) in the middle of the woods?? Next to a main road or trail routinely used by the enemy?? The under ground, or cave hide outs/stashes would have been
MUCH better as (semi) believable bivouacs/safe houses.
The plot premise: a corporation’s (no matter how large and wealthy) hired security contractors taking on the US Government & Military by attacking and destroying US Military assets & killing significant numbers of US Military personnel---LOL will suffice!
GRB received a significant PR Campaign touting it’s use of Spec Ops Consultants to buff the game’s tactical realism (a really good idea!). Then Ubi blended in various RPG game elements from Far Cry and Assassins Creed (and apparently The Division/s) badly undercutting the concept. WTBleep??!!
Unable to scrounge more than a pistol and a bandage or two off 4 chopper crash sites. Unable to scrounge weapons off dead enemies (despite them obviously having them to begin with). Unable to pick up enemy comms off bodies, desks, counters etc; when getting inside enemy comms would be an
ABSOLUTE survival priority. Unable to question (almost) any of the civvies, and more especially Skell Tech Personnel. My character’s constant auto harvesting of pick ups (with it’s attendant “puff of dust”) Much of this stuff I didn’t want; the ONLY saving grace being able to sell it to the Erewhon arms dealer.
The Erewhon Arms Dealer: A total blockade of movement to and from Auroa; but the Arms Dealer is able to keep up a plentiful supply of “stuff” for us to trade, buy, sell. Yup!
Online Player Hub: At times there were 20-40 other players present—dovetails nicely into the game premise the Player, and one other GRW Team Mate were the
ONLY survivors! As an amusing side effect to this very questionable game design choice---was being able to watch “numerous” players all trying to talk to Mads Schultz at once.
Tiered weapons and gear; weapons and gear with “magic” attributes (who doesn’t appreciate a new pair of tactical undershorts that gives them 2% more stealth capability!). Tiered enemies; some so high that you are
BARRED from some areas of an
OPEN GAME WORLD until your level and stats are high enough! Buffing your weapon/s with add on spare parts; allowing a magic extension of range, damage, and handling. In fairness; the weapon buffs do allow you to obviate the worst aspects of the weapon tiering; in that you can buff and keep that favorite rifle/pistol, shotgun, etc. Main/chief enemies and leadership that look like refugees from The Matrix; wearing ridiculous kit for a “tropical island”. And the usual XP based “perks and abilities”. W00t! I’m a reloading speed demon, and sneaky Pete Panther now!
Loot, loot, more loot, and even more loot! And much of it lying about the game world in odd places. As opposed to raiding enemy armories, convoys, and such to gain weapons, ammo, explosives, etc. Did I mention loot?
Player Inventory: Way too much stuff! Period! No apparent effect on speed or mobility.
Survival Mechanics: As in---what survival mechanics? I had to heel myself twice, and eat a twinkie once in 19 hours of BETA testing.
Suggestions: If possible; import player character models from GRW. Make weapons base damage and range stats more real world.
5 out of 10; I'm really conflicted as the RPG; looter shooter; and crafting stuff are
REALLY out of place in this type of game.
Specs:
Win 10 Home 64
i7 8700K OCed to 4.7GHZ on Turbo
240mm CPU AIO with 4 120mm fans
ASUS Z370H MB
32GB DDR4 3000 RAM
ASUS RTX 2080Ti GPU (stock clocks)
Creative Sound Blaster Z
SATA 3 OS & Storage SSDs
27" 2K/144Hz/G Sync display
) and let us know if you feel like it's a title you will buy at launch, wait for sale, wait for deep discount or skip altogether.
and the "other kind" 
] with an upcoming title in Ubi's forums. Remember 2014; when they released Watchdogs (tanked and required multiple patches to make it playable), Assassins Creed Unity (an even worse ****storm requiring multiple patches) and Far Cry 4 of course (and it's very creative way of rendering shadows and botched SLI support---and what? 10 or so patches?). Word on the street (internet street) has it there were several senior Ubi DevTeam and/or Management Heads that rolled over those blows to Ubi's AAA Developer Street Cred. MEH; who knows if any of that chatter was accurate or not?