The Bittersweet Truth About Russia's Most Popular Gaming Mouse: A Review

The game's been around for over a decade, and it's still going strong, despite its popularity being mostly confined to the CIS region and Russia.

I'll give you my honest take on the game as of 2024, highlighting the pros and cons.

The cons are pretty hard to ignore.

The pay-to-win system is still a major issue. Why? Well, despite the fact that you can get all the gear and equipment for free, it'll take an insane amount of time – around a month, or even more. The never-ending arms race is getting worse, and it's a nightmare. You'll either have to grind your way up to a decent level and cope with what you get until you get what everyone else has. Or, you know, throw some cash, a few thousand rubles, and get a chance to get a top-tier gun. But let's be real, it's not even guaranteed, and you can end up spending dozens of thousands of real rubles and getting nothing.

The arms race has reached its peak lately. I've been playing this game for years, with huge breaks in between, and I don't remember it being this fast. As soon as a new gun comes out, it's all over the place, everyone gets it, plays for a few months, and then it's outdated. The parameters of the guns are growing at ridiculous rates – it's just not how it should be. If the Python tank was the heaviest class for years, it's now going to feel like a cardboard box, because the new gear is coming out all the time, and it's all about keeping up with the meta.

The clan system is a mess. It's dead, and I don't know how they're going to revive it or if they even will. In 2024, you can find friends to play with without a clan. To make matters worse, the clan leaders have absolutely absurd requirements – I read them and laughed and cried at the same time.

The technical side of things has been a constant headache. The devs keep messing with stuff that nobody asked for. I had a major bug where the game would crash whenever I tried to observe a player with a certain key. It took them ages to fix it, and it's a critical issue. On the other hand, they managed to roll out the new inventory interface super quickly, even though everyone was still testing it.

The modding system is a great idea, but the execution is a disaster. It's like watching paint dry, especially in PvP mode. And then you've got to go searching for parts, which are woefully scarce. I mean, for one gun that you'd use for a year or so, but we all know about the arms race, right?

The community is a mixed bag. Honestly, if you're told that DotA or CS is a bad community, don't believe it. At least those guys can string a sentence together. What I've heard in this game is on a whole different level, and it's not good. You're better off playing with friends only, or just turning off the voice chat altogether.

Class balance issues are still a problem. The new devs finally fixed the sniper, which was a major problem for years, probably nine or ten if I'm not mistaken. But they fixed it in a way that makes it super frustrating to play at high speeds. If you enjoy standing still and looking through a scope, you might as well play Arma or Tarkov.

Ranked matches themselves are pretty standard. Leagues, elo, reset at the end of the season – it's pretty much everywhere. The only thing I really hated since the mode's appearance is how they pick the cards. I'm dead serious, the worst cards show up way more often. Playing three D17s and two Residences out of the last five games? No problem. Playing for three to four hours and getting even one Alleyway? Now that's not a given. The game has some good cards, like Alleyways, Bridges, and the Pyramid, but they're way harder to get.

The pros are few and far between.

Graphics are decent, but the latest character skins look a bit rough around the edges. The faces, in particular, could use some work. The cards, especially the reworked ones from the latest update, aren't too bad-looking either, no sense of gaudiness.

Gunplay and movement are still top-notch. I still think it's the best out of all the games. Nowhere else does it feel as good as it does here, except maybe CS, but it looks better than in any other game.

You can still play without spending a dime. Yeah, it's tough, yeah, it's a pain, but you can still do it. Compared to what it was back in 2016, it's like night and day. And the devs seem to be trying to make some positive changes.

Ranked matches mostly go by quickly, so if you get stuck with four people who have no idea what they're doing, your suffering won't last too long.

Considering everything I've said, it's clear that although the game's not the worst and it has some good points, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, except maybe to kill a couple of evenings and check it out if you somehow haven't played it yet.