izigame.me

I am coming up on 1000 hours on this game, and have loved it. It is potentially my favorite game of all time. Bold statement, yeah- it really is just that fun to me. The design and game play are incredibly fun and addictive. There is a complexity to understanding maps, positioning, PVE and bosses that mean it is challenging to master every aspect of this game. The weapons are incredibly well balanced compared to other games. Sure- there certainly are guns that are easier to use and thus considered, "meta," but you could take any single gun and master it to climb to max rank and maintain it. There is something for every play style. Unfortunately though, despite this being possibly my favorite game to ever be designed, I don't think that in it's current state I can recommend purchasing this game until some core issues are resolved:
There is an insane increase in cheaters recently. When I say insane, I mean absolutely absurd. There are more than I have seen in any game I've ever played- granted, maybe that's because I spend a good amount of my time at max rank, but you'd think a game would invest into ensuring there is some semblance of competitive integrity for the players that put the time and effort into trying to master their game. Some of the cheaters make it blatant, others don't. ESP/wallhacking is definitely the most commonly used cheat, but I've seen plenty of wild things. Aimlock. Sliding through walls or hiding IN walls. Floating 25 meters in the sky where you would never think to look. I've had teammates tell me straight up they've been wallhacking the entire time they've played the game with their accounts at the same or more hours as me. They have no fear. If the developers do not put in the time to resolve this quickly and get a better anti-cheat system, then unfortunately this wonderfully designed game will die off. Quick.
Reports have zero effect- at least in my experience. The in game reporting system is entirely useless and I assume it is simply there to make you feel better about yourself after you die. You can attempt to send a request to Crytek through their website directly, however, unless you submit video evidence they will do absolutely nothing. This is what the general consensus within the community is. To be honest though, I don't know if submitting video has any effect. I have submitted video evidence of blatant hacking without a thing being done on multiple occasions. One account in particular was at over 15 KDA (unheard of) at thousands of hours with multiple pages of comments on his steam profile saying he is cheating. His steam profile has a VAC ban on record. His steam profile is also a part of a group titled something along the lines of, "I actively cheat on my main because I'm smart." To this day, I regularly run into this same player, who instantaneously headshots me at the max range of whatever gun he is using.
Lastly, there is a consistent abuse of high ping in this game. In every single game I play, there are multiple individuals that either connect from overseas (China in particular), or use a VPN to increase their ping, as doing so gives you an insane advantage to peeks and melee fighting. I don't know if there is a simple way to void this issue, other than potentially region locking your account. It would be unfortunate to not be able to play with your friends that live in other parts of the nation/world. They need to find some way to ensure that having LOW ping is the priority in fights.
Without these issues being resolved, I can't recommend anyone spend their hard earned money on this game. :(