Insurgency: Sandstorm is a completely immersive experience. Granted, there have been occasions where guns fail to make any noise what-so-ever, but thatвЂ™s more than made up for by the other 99.9% of the time that it sounds exceptional. I highly advise playing it with headphones because Insurgency is able to deliver an audio experience that IвЂ™ve never had with a Call of Duty or Battlefield. Having my ears bombarded by an M16 rattling off bullets, hearing them clank on the ground and taking in a reload with a heavy, metallic, new magazine sounds more real than I have ever experienced. I have NEVER played an FPS where every gun, explosion, ricocheting bullet or booming air strike made me feel like I was actually there, living out this gunfight. ItвЂ™s in the audio where Insurgency: Sandstorm completely sucked me in. Insurgency: Sandstorm is a truly hardcore FPS and the brutality of it is stunning. When you kill an enemy you donвЂ™t get a вЂњkill confirmedвЂќ, you canвЂ™t tell exactly how much ammo you have, just a line on your limited amount of ammo clips showing how far through them you are. You have no HUD, no map to see where other team mates or enemies are, no crosshair on the screen. And let me tell you, just surviving is hard. YouвЂ™ll find yourself in close quarters constantly, bottle-necking enemies to take a checkpoint and overthinking every move you make just so you can just survive another round. This can be through a selection of pre-set phrases you can select to inform your team, or, as you would expect, through a headset. You will need to work together with every member of your team to succeed and communication is key to victory. In fact, through my time with Insurgency: Sandstorm, whenever I found myself in an open section of the map, my heart felt like it was in my throat. The variety of maps ensures each mode feels enthralling and the game fast turns into tactical masterclasses. This is all played out across 14 maps, ranging from run down citadels, a pristine ministry or a burning refinery.

вЂњFrontlineвЂќ is also present, where youвЂ™ll need to reach an enemyвЂ™s supply cache and destroy it. Versus mode, the same as Co-op, has four modes to choose from including the classic вЂњDominationвЂќ and modes like вЂњPushвЂќ where one team will advance to claim one objective at a time while the other team defends. From there, you can unlock the rest through in-game XP and levelling up. YouвЂ™ll start with three which include a rifles fighter, close quarters specialist or someone who uses exotic weapons. YouвЂ™ll also need to pick from one of eight roles in the squad, each of which have their own benefits in helping you win. Trust me, youвЂ™ll need every point you can get as Sandstorm is brutal. YouвЂ™ll also need to pick your class and your loadout when you spawn in, and itвЂ™s here where you have a total of 20 points to use вЂ“ each weapon, upgrade, explosive and more is graded with a point (better weapon = more points) so youвЂ™ll need to be smart in distributing your points to help yourself and your team survive.

These can all be unlocked with gameplay, through levelling up or acquiring the gameвЂ™s currency to unlock more luckily there are no micro transactions to be seen here. To start you can create your avatar which can be decked out with all manner of clothing such as new helmets, shoes, camo style etc. But what this game does with those small number of options is nothing short of fantastic. ItвЂ™s a proper bare bones, no storyline shooter where you can play either locally or online across a total of eight multiplayer modes and thatвЂ™s it. Insurgency: Sandstorm, however, does not do that. With most modern FPS releases, you come to expect a certain amount of content with your purchase a highly cinematic storyline, monthly updates with new content and a multiplayer mode with dozens of maps and game types.

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