I've been experimenting with CO for the last few months. My evaluation?
Not bad.
It's not CoX. That's a given. There's so
much about CoX that it simply did better, but then, we all know that. But I also remind myself that CO is only 3 years old. It hasn't had the kind of development time. It's unknown how much development it'll actually
get, mind you, with the company having been absorbed by PWE. But it's not a foregone conclusion, either. It just "remains to be seen."
I can't afford a lifetime sub, at the moment. Heck, I can't even afford a subscription model. I plan to eventually get a life sub, if I can. Because the game offers what might be the closest I can get, under the circumstances. And I was a lifer with CoX, having been a paying subscriber without fail since Issue 2. So I kinda want to enjoy the same freedom with CO that I had with CoX. And after doing the math, a lifer sub just makes sense with that game, if one intends to play it in any depth. At $300, when you factor in that you get the equivalent of $60/year in free stuff, after the second year, they're paying
you to play their game. When looked at in any meaningful way, that's just gotta be the most cost-effective solution.
I don't MMO to speak of. I dabbled with SWTOR, but was gone shortly after it came out. I don't do WoW, I can't stand the game and its ludicrous Nerf armor and rubber weapons. I love the graphical style, ironically enough, of the Lineage games, but they're really just SoK bot heaven these days, and no sane person would play there. Plus the game is more grind-heavy than WoW, which would have put me off the game, anyway.
I have to admit, I'm curious about Mechwarrior Online, which went live just this last October. I'm a fan of the Mechwarrior series, and was part of the original Multiplayer Battletech game back when it first came out on the GEnie system, using the original 16 colour Mechwarrior 2 game engine. I'd love it if that kind of mech combat game existed again. So I might try that.
Other than that? I play Mass Effect 3 multiplayer every now and then. Which surprises the hell out of me, since I usually can't
stand multiplayer in most video games. ME3 handles it well, however, pitting the human players against the PC, and eliminating the tired old trope of being blown apart over and over by twitch-happy 12 years olds who memorized where all the best stuff was.
Planetside 2? See above.
There's a
lot of twitch-happy 12 year olds in that game, judging by some of the texted comments I see flying around the broadcast channel. I played it maybe two hours about half a month ago, and spent the entire time wandering around clueless because I didn't know what the heck was going on, or what I could do. That game
really lacks for a decent tutorial.
So that's my two cents' worth, for what it matters.