To GBX Software: Concerning your "multi-player" experience.
I want to touch on the Multi-player experience first, not that the single-player isn't important, it's just that this game could have stirred up a community rivaling Halo, but now will sit at the bottom-rung with games like Shadowrun.
First MP problem: It's been how many years since Halo 2? 5 years? One thing that I completely don't understand, is how a company can create a multiplayer game, in a post Halo 2 world, that can leave out something so basic as a PARTY SYSTEM. Yes, a party system is no where to be found this 21st Century game. As many of you know, the lack of a party system is so detrimental to the LIVE experience, that without it, it renders an online experience with friends a house-chore, rather than a fun game.
Second MP problem: this game lacks a complete sense of innovation for online play. I don't know about you, but after having played both BIA: Road to Hill 30 and BIA: Earned in Blood, I imagined the great potential a game like this could have online, especially in High-def. In Hell's Highway, the online experience is so pathetic, that it's hard to believe that this game is being released in the next-gen.
Here are some examples of what I think would have made a better online experience. 1. 4vs4, where each person has two/three squads of three people. Each squad could be loaded out differently, e.g. mortar squad, bazooka squad, Heavy MG Squad, Support Squad, Assualt Squad, Tank Squad. Each player could choose differently how to load-out their squads. So, say if you and I, and two others, played together, we could strategize very easily, opposed to the mayhem that ensues online in BF: Bad Company. Communication between 4 players is so much more effective than in teams of 8+, but what would be more amazing, is that most would be AI, therefore, the communication would be so much more effective and fun, and tactical. Imagine, I could load-out my squads with purely support troops, another player with handling mortar teams, and the other two players could load-out their squads with assault and bazooka teams. It would be like warfare, more like a BF experience, or a COD4 experience, but with the controlled/tactical aspects of BIA. A customization and ranking system (similar to Halo 3), an XP system like COD4/BF:BC, and this game could have shattered the online expectations. Instead, the Hell's Highway online is doomed an stark decrease of the LIVE community.
The animation online is last-gen. For example, when someone is kneeling, they don't pivot from knee to foot, like you would assume they'd do, like they do in any other game that's come out in the past few years, instead, you see a soldier swiveling around on a virtual "lazy-susan," just spinning around. No head turn, to gun turn, the whole body just slides around like a rigamortis corpse. The textures were dulled down considerably online, so don't expect to find the beauty of SP here. The 10v10 mode is so poorly executed to the point of boredom, and the lack of realism in MP is ridiculous. The guy who has the MG42 can just run around and shoot it by himself. This is just the beginning of the slippery slope that players will feel when logging online with this game. Bugs and Glitches litter most players experience online, and the lag makes almost impossible to snipe.