Review: Disintegration (Steam)

by Jim Smale · Published June 20, 2020 · Updated June 20, 2020

Disintegration is a sci-fi FPS combined with RTS elements. Pilot a heavily weaponized Gravcycle while commanding your troops on the ground as you battle through a thrilling single-player campaign and in frenetic PvP multiplayer.

Pros:

Decent graphics.
10635mb Download size.
Steam achievements.
Full controller support.
Graphics-fullscreen, resolution, overall quality preset, AA, v-sync, texture/effects/foliage/view distance/post processing/shadow quality.
Two control layouts with invert axis and sensitivity sliders.
Can rebind keyboard and mouse controls.
Male or female announcer.
RTS meets first-person shooter gameplay.
3 modes-campaign/multiplayer and training.
The campaign has an optional tutorial prompt.
Four campaign difficulties-Story/Recruit/Maverick/Outlaw.
Hub to walk around, interact with NPC, take quests, find challenges.
Game-you play as a commander in charge of a Gravcycle, you can shoot/fly/heal, etc and can command your troops like targetting enemies, interact with points, use their abilities.
End of level breakdown.
Earn EXP and level up each crew member and yourself which unlocks new upgrade slots which in turn will open up better abilities.
Scan-shows up mission objectives, markers, points of interest, heal/revive team members.
Big open levels.
Upgrade chips–found in the levels and earned, you use these to increase your crew and your stats.
Health-you have a gun to heal your crew or you can get them to hit a regen station so everyone including you can heal.
Once you get over the initial hump the controls work really well and it’s easy to manage your crew along with yourself.
Generous checkpointing.
New enemies revealed over time.
Multiplayer-player appearance, badges and badge creator, banners, and emotes.
Multiplayer crews-9 of em, The business, King’s guard, lost ronin, the militia, Muertos, neon dreams, the sideshows, tech noir, and warhedz. Each can have gravcycle attachments, pilot skins, and crew appearance options.
Mp has 3 modes- one control/collector/retrieval.
Mp has a list of challenges for bonus rewards and is for individual crews and events.
A friend invites system.
Feels like the original Titanfall with the way it plays alongside Ai.

Cons:

Small text.
It does a bad job of explaining the many aspects of the game.
Lock-on for your crew is inconsistent and you will just move the squad rather than lock-on more than they lock on.
Spend most of the game in scan mode so you don’t miss additional loot but also so your crew can interact with things as sometimes it only works with scan.
The mission structure is very plain and repetitive.
Slow matchmaking times.
In-app purchases for premium credits.
No clan system in place.
Only a couple of mp modes.
In the hub in the single-player, you can’t run which is a pain when you have to talk to people for challenges.
Minor pop up in places.
The levels whilst huge and nice to look at, but it is very empty.
Gameplay just repeats over and over.

7/10

Graphics - 7/10
7/10

Sound - 7/10
7/10

Accessibility - 7/10
7/10

Length - 7/10
7/10

Fun Factor - 7/10

7/10

Summary

Disintegration, OK here we go for this is not a forgone conclusion. First off the game looks fantastic, the voice acting is top tier and it has a story just as gripping as a Netflix special….. BUT it is just so empty and plain. Combat claims to be a mix of RTS and fps but in reality, it’s an fps and you have shortcut buttons to order troops around. Combat starts off and you think its nice, you think they struck gold but the longer you fight the more issues you encounter, the more the combat is messy and unrewarding. In fact, it’s hard pushed to disagree with this statement “after the first level you have seen and done everything in the game” now that might seem harsh or even hyperbolic but it’s true. Eventually, you level yourself up along with your crew and put upgrade chips into stay changing tables and maybe getting a new weapon but it’s the same core layout through and through. The world they have created is one I want to explore, it’s huge it’s colorful but most of all it’s interesting but again it has nothing but pockets of enemies that serve nothing more than to breadcrumb you to the level goal and give you something to do. I’m so frustrated with it, I love the story concept, the world, and even the characters but the gameplay is just not there and I was really hard pushed to carry on, levels would go on far too long as they add more archaic wave-based interactions or just keep throwing enemies at you. It’s like the world was meant to be an MMO style or like free roam in Destiny but they forgot to add players and content. Now for multiplayer, it’s much the same, with only 3 game modes the pickings are slim but then when you consider the average wait time for a game is 10 to 30 minutes for it to either crash or load a half-empty room, you do begin to question if it’s worth the hassle. In-app purchases are in there for cosmetic items and it seems quite expensive for what it is. The game modes have fancy names bit a quick read of the description shows you they are modes you have played many times before. The balancing of load-outs and builds seems very up and down with you either whooping ass easily or getting creamed constantly. Overall Disintegration is a cool idea but needs content and more combat variation to push the genre forward oh and maybe campaign co-op.