My moment of true appreciation came from one match where I was providing sniper cover for my team from a rooftop, just to the side of one firefight. Matches feel tense throughout, and the knowledge of a quick death keep your pace slow and steady, checking corners and listening for the faintest sound of movement. It’s the deadly mix of bullet damage and special effects that gives Insurgency: Sandstorm the edge when it comes to immersive warfare simulation. Arcade elements do come into play when it comes to respawning, meaning you’re not going to spend an eternity waiting for the match to finish so you can collect your XP. For instance, a grenade rolling into the room that you’re currently occupying is your one-way ticket to a flag-draped casket, and a round from a bolt action sniper rifle will most certainly drop you. It’s not as aggressive as a realistic shooter, but also doesn’t quite tip into the arcade category either. Bullet damage is instant death when it hits you square in the head (naturally), but your body can withstand a couple more depending on whether you’re wearing a little body armour or not, and the calibre of weapon that’s filling you with holes. It’s within these modes that you realise just how fine a line New World Interactive has trodden when balancing the game.
The player-versus-player portion of Insurgency: Sandstorm is the crème de la crème of immersive first-person shooters, pitting ten Insurgent players against ten Security players in various objective game modes.
The PvP that Insurgency offers you, though, is refreshing, brutal, and perfectly optimised for what New World Interactive has set out to achieve.
I found out a little later that this is rectified when entering the hardcore version of the co-op, where the AI remind you that they run off of computer algorithms and tear through your pride with the not-so-sweet peppering of buckshot. The muppets will generally stand still, offering you easy pickings - much like a game of hook-a-duck (you can’t lose, and you’re under no pressure to take your time when targeting them). It doesn’t flaunt the game’s bodacious features the way they deserve to be treated, thanks to the atrociously useless AI combatants. My first mistake when booting up Insurgency: Sandstorm was dropping straight into the eight-player co-op versus AI enemies. The same can be said about the special effects once you’re in and playing: grenades and explosions display some of the most realised impacts I’ve seen to date, bullets hit objects with visual force, and coming under fire actually feels deadly. However, inspecting the weapons undoubtedly shows where the team wanted to focus their attention the most, offering up a huge roster of weaponry and a ludicrous number of attachments that look superb. Visually, Insurgency: Sandstorm feels unpolished from the moment you load into the game, with character models and map textures that look dated compared to other offerings in the FPS genre. In Insurgency: Sandstorm’s case, though, I’m going to make an exception because its biggest flaw is the first thing you see - and noticing it, accepting it, and moving on to the best stuff is one hundred percent worth your time, assuming you enjoy tactical shooters, of course. I don’t enjoy leading any article on a negative note when it comes to games, seeing as large groups of people work extremely hard to bring their vision to our screens.
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