I've been having fun with the game so far, of course it has some problems, but what game doesn't? The combat can get pretty intense playing on hardcore, and actually planning things out can go a long way, especially on later missions. Most of the weapons I have used so far have been great, even though the balance tends to be a little off. Assault rifles and light machine guns could pack a little more punch, especially considering how powerful the MAC-10 is (even at range). The fire propagation is easily one of the best features of the game. I can't even count the amount of times I have covered a quick retreat with a molotov, or the Gustav which can light a line of brush with its back-blast. The IEDs can add to it by making a good fall-back position into a great one, making for an almost cinematic escape as you sprint into a slide past them and detonate just as the enemy is in range.
Stealth kills are much easier once you obtain the camo upgrade, and it actually makes the machete fairly effective, you just need to retreat back into the brush after a kill. I love hiding and waiting for the perfect moment to strike, only to sink back into cover and do it again to the unfortunate saps that come over to check the body/area. The MP5SD and silenced pistol are still the most effective stealth approach, as long as you make the kill once the target is isolated or his buddies are looking the other way.
The atmosphere/sound is also very well done, if a bit inconsistent. There are times when it is pretty amazing, with a gentle breeze blowing the vegetation around, leaves floating by, the sun shining in through the canopy of trees, and wildlife grazing in the open fields. There are also times where it feels far too empty though, without wandering NPCs, and the wildlife being extremely few and far between, it leaves you wishing more time was spent on populating the world (especially considering how much of it you see by design).
I agree with the spawn points needing work, having them instantly re-staff once you've taken enough steps away from them is just lazy design. I have no problem with checkpoints being covered, but I wish the NPCs were generated at main camps/bases and traveled to them. At least then you would have more random/open encounters, and even be able to head off reinforcements if you wanted to. At the very least they should have a decent time limit on the respawn, so you don't clear one out on the way to some objective, only to come back to a fully staffed position minutes later.
The monocle is just plain bad, I don't know who thought the sensitivity didn't need to be adjusted on the zoom, but if you don't have an adjustable mouse, you may need to bind some keys for sensitivity until they fix it. Also the eyesight adjustment to light/dark areas needs work. It needs to be more subtle, as it can be really difficult to quickly scan the inside of a structure.
Sprinting seems fine to me, I think it may depend on your sickness level. There are times when I can barely sprint five feet without getting dizzy, and times when I can sprint for a good 10-15 seconds. I've noticed when I'm at sickness level 1-2 I don't have nearly as much trouble sprinting, and overall its comparable to most games that limit it in some way. You can always extend it a little by throwing slides in, sprint for a few seconds and slide, rinse repeat etc. I don't expect to be able to cover ten miles full blast with malaria, but that's why there are vehicles all over the place.
Mission variety could have used more attention, objectives as a whole are pretty similar to each other, and the setting just allows for so much more than simple kill/collect missions. If the combat (for me at least) wasn't so much fun, I would probably never make it through the storyline missions.
Some of the design constraints can be irritating...impassable rocks and terrain forcing you down set paths easily being the worst offender. Time/budget constraints aside, I understand that things are done to comply with a smaller resource pool, but its sad to see so much untapped potential these days. In my opinion, multi-platform will never be viable until they stop treating the platforms like they are the same.
Overall a solid game, nothing exceptional, but just about what I expected from it.
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