Nate Lawrence has been splashed all over Dirty Bomb for the better part of the last year, taking in conversations with the devs and getting his hands dirty in preview and beta builds of the game, which is why we handed him review duties now that the developer is confident the product is ready to stand on its open release feet.
From our review:
In a recent game, I watched a single competent player use Rhino to create a one-man chokepoint, which he held for the majority of the round. When I tested out Rhino, it was a similar affair, as my enemies seemed oblivious to the fact that my additional hitpoints and brutal mini-gun rendered most head-on assaults against me ineffective. On an individual level, this type of success provides a fantastic feeling of achievement, but it also shows that a team filled with bought Mercs (with in-game or real currency) has a greater range of diversity for predefined roles that are better suited to specific modes.
Click here for our full Dirty Bomb review.
Posted 02:50pm 11/6/15
Posted 09:44am 12/6/15
That being said, that was the only time such a massive imbalance happened in my time with the game, and the changes to the way you earn in-game currency make it more feasible to unlock Mercs manually. It's a lot of fun when the formula works, but it's incredibly frustrating when the balancing is thrown out.
There were many matches where there was a vote to balance teams at the beginning of the match, based on rank, but not enough people voted for them to pass, which is a shame. Probably doesn't help that the voting information was tucked away in the corner of the screen.