It’s a hot, dry day in the desert and you are readying your squad for the attack against the enemy forces. Weapons are being checked, armor is being donned, and you latch a couple of grenades to your belt. There is nothing like the adrenaline rush before battle. Will you survive the fight? Join us as we review Insurgency: Sandstorm.
From Developer New World Interactive and Publisher Focus Home Interactive, comes a new dawn for the Insurgency series. Sandstorm released on December 12th for Steam, and it brings with it the update to Unreal Engine 4. Experience war as you haven’t seen it before, at least for an Insurgency game. With improved gameplay and graphics you will fall in love with it and want to play it in co-op or ranked modes. Let’s dive a little deeper.
As you begin your journey you will see that the main screen is very familiar for most shooters. In Insurgency: Sandstorm they also tell you how many players are online. When you go to look at a specific type of game mode you will see play and local, for now, you click play. You will see co-op which is you and others against AI enemies. There is also a versus mode where you fight against other players in an unranked fashion and finally competitive mode where you fight against others and try to rank up through ladder matches. These modes are fast paced and almost feel like a hardcore mode in Call of Duty because it only takes one or two shots to knock you out of contention. Local play allows you to pick the map you want to play and then the scenario whether it is as Security Forces or Insurgents.
Weapons are the key to winning this game, well weapons and not dying. You will be thrown into some of the most realistic gun fights out there today, and you will be armed with real-world weapons. From the AK-47 to the M16 you will take to the streets or into close quarters inside of small hallways. The person with the better aim and the quicker trigger finger will win the day, and probably the match for your team. Grenades and other throwable weapons are also available in the game. You will have the ability to modify all of your weapons to make them fit your playstyle as you level up.
Everything that is available to you in the game is also available to your friends if you choose to group up to take on the game together. Playing with friends is always a nice alternative to playing with strangers. It works for team cohesion as well as from a strategic standpoint, and in a game like this those are two things that you very much want to have as your run down the streets of a dusty city. Squad play has always had a much more user-friendly feel to it, and it is always a preferred choice for me when I play these types of games.
The graphics of the game are much improved with the changeover to Unreal Engine 4. The frames per second, even on very high, are surprisingly high on a system with a Ryzen 1700x and a 1080 OC GPU. If you want a smooth and seamless game to play without the pesky lag, then this one is probably the one you want to play.
Note: Our copy was reviewed on Steam with a code provided by PR.
