Been playing the beta for a bit and boy do I have some thoughts.
But first, a couple of trailers:
So, first things first, this is quite different to Wildlands, Wildlands was already a severe departure from previous GR games and this one goes further.
I've seen it compared to The Division, though I only played the beta of it so I can't go into details, there's another game that it reminds me of, Destiny (kinda).
So here's the thing, there's now a ton of RPG-lite mechanics, things like loot, levelling, unlocking skills and even special abilities based on the class you pick.
Starting with classes, the big thing is that they don't really matter. Whatever class you pick, it only determines what your special ability is (something I've rarely used so far) and it also gives you a small bonus with different weapons, for example, Assault has a skill that heals you after every kill and makes you harder to kill and gives you a bonus with shotguns and assault rifles. You also get a special grenade but outside of the medic drone, the other two classes aren't that useful.
In terms of skills, all classes have access to the same skills, perks, etc. So regardless of which one you pick you'll still get to unlock whatever skills and perks you want. Skills are separated by different categories, unlocking two skills in each category unlocks the next one. There's a weird progression here where getting stealth skills unlocks the assault category.
I assume that progression in the full game will be slower, so far, I've been able to unlock a fair amount of skills and have found that some of them either don't work, or don't really work as advertised. I unlocked a skill which gave me a perk that's supposed to mark enemies within range, and either the range is stupid small or it is not working as I've yet to see it in action, even when bumping into enemies.
Some skills are related to the ingame store which I'll get to in a bit, the skills themselves are meant to unlock things to buy, like better weapons and vehicles.
Next, the other biggest thing: The loot.
Here's why I say it reminds me of Destiny, there's your player level and your gear level. Your player level goes up as you complete missions, kill enemies, etc. Your gear level goes up as you get better gear.
As usual, you'll find new stuff in chests, from enemies and from completing rewards. You can also get blueprints, which allow you to buy a specific weapon from the store whenever you want, so if you have a favourite, you can sort of just stay with it, except that it seems to stick to normal rarity only, there's a skill that supposedly increases the quality of blueprint weapons, but I reached max level before being able to unlock it.
The thing is... Gear level kinda doesn't matter(?), you'll get a warning when fighting enemies with a higher level, but you can still kill them in one shot if you aim for the head. Supposedly, in normal combat gear level means you're harder to kill and enemies are easier to kill, though I've yet to notice any difference. Even the Wolves, the strongest enemies in the game aren't that hard to kill if you aim your shots. Drones are another story entirely as those things are annoying as hell and seem to be geared towards co-op play. It is possible to destroy a Behemoth solo, just probably not worth your time.
Customisation was also reduced, you're now much more limited in terms of what accessories you can equip and you can no longer modify things like barrel, trigger and stock. Also, and this was really annoying, when buying an accessory for a weapon, it does not tell you which weapons can equip it, I ended up buying a bunch of grips, only to find none fit in the weapon I had.
One thing I do like is that when you obtain information on an enemy base, if you look at it on your map it tells you what gear you'll find there, so if you're looking for something in particular, you don't necessarily need to wander around aimlessly until luck brings it your way.
Of the bugs I ran into I won't comment, being a beta/demo/whatever, there's some issues to be expected.
Couple of things that may make or break the game depending on how you play:
The new objective system. You no longer get a waypoint to your destination, instead, your mission will say something like "North of PLACE, southeast of OTHER PLACE" and then you have to look in the map, find that place and use a beacon, even then, you'll have to navigate there yourself. With how big the map is, how hard it's to drive around and the new injury/fatigue system, it makes it a chore to get to certain places.
Speaking of, the second thing is the aforementioned injury/fatigue system. Injuries happen when you take damage beyond a certain point in your health bar, after you get injured, your mobility is reduced and you'll stumble and fall pretty often. Thankfully, outside of battle it's easy to deal with injuries, just use a bandage (of which you have infinite uses), during battle it can be a pain, but there are other, limited use items that can help with that. In general however, it's too simple to be anything more than annoying for most people and not in-depth enough for hardcore survival players.
Well, that made sense in my head, hopefully it makes sense here as well.
TLDR:
Tiered gear feels out of place and doesn't make much difference
Classes are mostly pointless
All skills are available to all classes
Fatigue/injury system is too much for casual players, but probably won't be enough for more hardcore survival fans
Customisation is limited and convoluted, specially for your outfits
The map is huge and a pain to navigate, also you have to find your objectives yourself, no more waypoints
So yeah, I was looking forward to it, but after playing the beta I feel like I got my fill of this game, there's some stuff I like, but enough that I don't like that it makes me feel like I should just skip this one. Or wait for some kind of complete/GOTY/ultimate edition.
