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[RexMundi]

Does it seem like this game has a competitive future ?

Eh, it actually showed up on steams top ten played earlier when I looked, for that minuet anyway. it's still wokring out launch problems, but it's playable now. Overall, I think if they stick with it (and give players more free custimization instead of making ALL the character customization for RL money) they'll start doing ok, at least enough to hold a market of sorts

[Morrigi]

Just downloaded, mine is crashing on startup.

[Cheedows]

Anyone not able to join a single match with the matchmaking system?

[Biowraith]

Yeah, pretty much everyone's been having that problem to some degree.  They got way more demand than expected (I think I read 20k people vs the 2k or so they peaked at in their beta/stress testing) and the weakest point was the matchmaking code - apparently even once they added more servers the system was bottlenecking at the matchmaking such that the more people in the queue the slower the whole thing got (which is a vicious circle - the bigger the queue the slower it got, so the less it was able to get people into matches, so the bigger the queue got).

Personally it seems to be improving for me (EU region, not sure if that matters) - on Sunday I could sit for an hour and not get a single match whereas last night I was getting matches in under 10 sec.

[Matz05]

Oooh. I was following this, now I see it's out?
I won't be able to play until the weekend at least -- lucky me! The matchmaking problems might be fixed by then!

Not sure how into this I'll get, though. I'm generally pretty desperate for any sort of game that has a focus on non-cosmetic customization, but I'll have to try Loadout before I can judge the other elements.

[Shadowlord]

It's definitely worth trying if you like arena shooters. There's a variety of different game modes that it switches between in the casual match type, too.

[Knight of Fools]

The matchmaking is pretty terribad, though. I've yet to play in a game that stayed balance for more than two or three matches, and despite all the people that play no one seems to join a game in progress after a certain point.

Other than that, though, I'm enjoying it quite a bit.

[beorn080]

The game itself is great fun, and they did some different things with it.

For example, when you start a match, everyone stands in a small circle facing each other. Both teams. So, instant mayhem, with a good/lucky team perhaps getting a few seconds of leeway with no one else around to oppose them.

There are a few bad spots. There is one map, a floating asteroid mining thing, that is HUGE and in 4v4 gameplay means a lot of wandering without a target in sight. You can still make one shot guns, though I think they need a headshot to be truly one shot.

My advice, unlock the turret as soon as you can. Grenades do work wonders, but a turret is a second gun.

[Biowraith]

It's pretty fun, but the gun customisation isn't as extensive and entertaining as I'd like (though my expectations are usually too high in that area, whatever the genre).  Launchers are the most fun in that regard imo, because multiple explosions.

At the moment the main issue I'm having with team balance is more about how many people on the team actually bother with the objectives than actual fighting ability - e.g. one Blitz map that we lost, I ended with around 10 times the capture time logged than the rest of my team combined, while the winning team had all contributed.  I'm hoping that's something that's just a bit wonky at the start when everyone, regardless of experience or ability, is level 1 (or close to it).  Although, I'm not sure how much faster someone doing well levels compared with someone idling in the corner.

But yeah, fun overall, though I think it may need expanded a bit for longer term appeal.

[Matz05]

Yeah, I watched some recordings of dev livestreams a while back, and while the humour isn't so much my thing, the mechanics look cool. Kind of something in between 'modern' slog-between-cover-while-watching-possible-avenues-of-attack and 'retro' bunnyhop-and-dodge-bullets, leaning closer to the latter.

I always appreciate it when developers realize that 'Competitive FPS' and 'Infantry simulator' are DIFFERENT things.

Competitive FPSes are dueling, dancing things that test the spatial awareness, manual ("twitch") skill, and reflexes of people against each other by the primary mechanic of connecting projectiles with the other guy while taking advantage of your mobility to complicate him doing the same. (Engagements often last for several seconds of cat-and-mouse). Setting and mechanics vary, but generally involve humanoids with some form of projectile weapons and superhuman acrobatic ability. Ability to shrug off damage varies. Weapons are generally quite cheap to use, but difficult to connect with their target in a significant fashion. (Weapons that are easier to hit with usually have more restrictions on their use)

Infantry simulators are just as brutal and tense as you would imagine, involving careful strategic/tactical exercises in area-control/suppression and target recognition and punishing the smallest mistake severely. (Engagements generally consist of one burst of automatic gunfire from one or both parties, barring standstills at bottlenecks, with no time to reposition while actively fighting) Setting is military, usually with a time period between WWII and the distant future. Hitscan or near-hitscan weapons dominate, with high-traveltime weapons generally being severely limited use (though powerful). Ability to shrug off damage is generally very limited, but easily replenished (by regeneration or other mechanics) to reduce player frustration (getting into battles where not being hit is impossible while severely weakened is widely considered unfun).

Elements from both are almost always mixed (neither extreme attracts a very wide audience), but the mixing should be conscious. Far too much modern AAA game development involves designing a FPS without thinking carefully about what elements from each category you want. (Generally following the "like X but Y" pattern where X is a recent successful FPS and Y is a setting or graphical gimmick.)

Loadout falls somewhere that looks pretty unique, and that alone (plus being free on Steam) is reason enough that I am probably going to download this over the weekend.
...Also, I'm a sucker for customization (even though it's limited, it's a lot more than you usually see).
Looks like great fun, will have to see how the F2P model goes.