So, what do you think of the demo so far? I think it's flight combat is interesting. I sided with the Variant, despite the lack of an XP bonus and automatic rank increase. From what I've seen, there are a lot of Paladins that outrank Variant. I have managed to get a decent amount of kills despite my disadvantages. Also, the first Sniper Rifle you unlock is good for blind-fire.

Edit: I like the global map territories as well. I've been playing in the North American areas, but I'll eventually help grab territories elsewhere.

I'm digging it so far. I went into it without a shred of knowledge and came out pleasantly surprised. I think what I like most about it is that it provides fun cover based action but doesn't lend itself to stalemates. In a heated game, there is almost no time to sit behind cover and take a breath, you must always be on your toes. The class customization seems to be thought out enough to be very open to catering to whatever play style best suits the one behind the controller. However I do have a few nags. First off, this is obviously modeled after the Call of Duty blueprint. The perks are cool but they come very easy. Also, they don't seem to stop once you've acquired the Preyon. Which turns the player into a sort of aerial god, as long as he doesn't get shot out of the sky. Even though i've be the victim and the culprit of this, it just isn't fun. The Preyon is essentialy a free kill and it only takes 5 kills to get her. Sure hearing her shriek brings fear to the other team but being the one that activated it twice before dying got old quick. I'd rather get it once and have to die in order to get it again. Let my own skill be the base of my endurance.

With all of that said, I'll continue playing. It's pretty damn fun.

I should have called this thread Beta Discussion.

@DjDonFrancisco: I agree with your comments regarding killstreak rewards. Sure, it's pretty easy to destroy the Preyon, but anyone who isn't paying attention is a free kill, like you stated. I would like to know what else they are planning to do with this game to keep people interested. This is something that I would play for 2-4 weeks and move on to something else.

Going to dive in here with a few surprise Hybrid beta codes! To try and prevent any code bots from grabbing them, I've put question marks over a few characters in each, and included some easy trivia to fill in those blanks. You might be familiar with that sort of thing.

If you get one of these, a PM letting me know wouldn't hurt!

QJFKM-H4FCD-DWGRT-RPV46-??W2Z - The initials of our old friends from the basement and Sausalito days.

QJFQX-HXT2J-M???M-K6T3M-7RJ9Z - Nine less than a 455 rocket.

QJK9J-F???J-VF769-3JM3J-T2MJZ - The title of the movie that spawned those godawful "MADNESS? THIS IS" memes, except in roman numerals.

QJKKP-Y6F??-YP9CV-2RXT2-M7MHZ - The initials of the game show hosted by that guy who JUST HAS TO STRAIGHTEN THE FRINGE ON HIS RUG, GRRR. Also the initials of a game show Alex Trebek hosted long before Jeopardy! or Classic Concentration.

QJK9V-V29Y2-J9Q7R-??XXK-7T3RZ - The initials of an actress who had a leading role in the smash blockbuster Twister.

@PsEG: You, sir, are awesome.

I think it's cool in a lot of ways but it also has massive balance issues. That Swarm Gun which fires Cover Negating AOE Fields for instance. Completely cheap, completely gamebreaking. It also doesn't help that it gives instant kill missiles to the winning team. I hate that sort of... wait, is there a word for the opposite of rubber banding? When a game's mechanics gives advantages to the winning side to make sure it's not close at all? 
 
There are matches where I'm doing well and having a lot of fun and there are matches where I just get slaughtered. There are no matches in between. I think that the game is predisposed to create unfair match ups because fair match ups require a matchmaking system where all Hybrid has is a big ass map. You pick a random zone and hope that those playing in that zone are more or less capable than you are. If not than don't worry, because of how players are forced to stick to one team for their entire career the game won't be able to balance the teams even if there are week players. Brilliant. 

Also it's either glitched or my accuracy is 0% rounded down. I don't know what's up with that, maybe I'm not that good at shooting dudes. 
 
Also I think Overlord mode is great fun wherein either team can gain or lose the advantage at any time. Makes it more back and forth, way more fun than Deathmatch in that respect. King of the Hill mode though is crap. It's like Deathmatch but the winning team is forced to stick together and the losing team gets nothing since they can't get into the capture zone ever.

@TheMasterDS said:

I think it's cool in a lot of ways but it also has massive balance issues. That Swarm Gun which fires Cover Negating AOE Fields for instance. Completely cheap, completely gamebreaking. It also doesn't help that it gives instant kill missiles to the winning team. I hate that sort of... wait, is there a word for the opposite of rubber banding? When a game's mechanics gives advantages to the winning side to make sure it's not close at all? There are matches where I'm doing well and having a lot of fun and there are matches where I just get slaughtered. There are no matches in between. I think that the game is predisposed to create unfair match ups because fair match ups require a matchmaking system where all Hybrid has is a big ass map. You pick a random zone and hope that those playing in that zone are more or less capable than you are. If not than don't worry, because of how players are forced to stick to one team for their entire career the game won't be able to balance the teams even if there are week players. Brilliant.

The Swarm Gun is game-breaking when the wielder knows how to use it. All you have to do is spam it in the general direction of your enemies.

And as you stated, the match-making system is so broken, but I've won matches where my team was out-leveled.

I don't think necessarily that it's broken, more that's it's riddled with incredibly poor choices. Any semblance of a balanced match making system is given up in service of a grand Metagame that's utter nonsense to the player. Honestly, it reminds me of all the good and bad things I heard about Scribblenauts. Maybe they'll release a Super Hybrid in a year or two that's got all the shit bits fixed up.

The lack of movement control gimmick is pointless if you ask me as it lends nothing fun or exciting to the gameplay whatsoever. I spent every moment of my time so far with the beta just thinking to myself "Maybe this would be serviceable if I could actually control my character." Having to aim at cover and hit a button to move in a shooter is the kind of thing that (at least to me) doesn't even sound appealing or interesting on paper, little-less in practice.

The war map idea is cool, but it's rather unclear what the overall goal is. Why should I care which side is claiming what territory? Does my faction get anything cool for getting to the 101 (or whatever it is) resource cap first? I shouldn't need to ask these things. Plus having your account locked to one side without the option to swap later (to play with friends or what-have-you) is pretty silly.

I was cautiously optimistic going in, but as it exists in its beta form I cannot stand playing it. Normally I would assume the game would improve enough to make it worthwhile once the full version is released, but in this case most of the problems I have with Hybrid are with its core ideas, not bugs or minor balance issues that a beta leads to being improved upon.

What are your favorite weapons. I like the LRW Sniper Rifle, which is odd because I hate sniping.

@BraveToaster: Yea I feel the same way about playing it for a few weeks and moving on. It's a great idea, but what are they going to do about longevity? More maps? So far it seems like everyone votes for TDM, which is all good and fun but there are other game modes. I also wonder why they don't have some sort of capture the flag variant. That could be fun with these mechanics.

I'm oddly liking the cover based movement. I don't miss having to run all over a map just to get shot in the back. Jetting from one spot to another feels fresh and allows you to get around the maps fairly quickly. It also keeps you on your toes, since you never know when someone will be coming from behind. No sitting in a corner and waiting for some poor sap to run through a door.

@DjDonFrancisco said:

@BraveToaster: Yea I feel the same way about playing it for a few weeks and moving on. It's a great idea, but what are they going to do about longevity? More maps? So far it seems like everyone votes for TDM, which is all good and fun but there are other game modes. I also wonder why they don't have some sort of capture the flag variant. That could be fun with these mechanics.

I'm oddly liking the cover based movement. I don't miss having to run all over a map just to get shot in the back. Jetting from one spot to another feels fresh and allows you to get around the maps fairly quickly. It also keeps you on your toes, since you never know when someone will be coming from behind. No sitting in a corner and waiting for some poor sap to run through a door.

I don't see myself buying this when it releases. I joined the beta to deal with my boredom over the weekend, and nothing has stood out enough for me to want more.

I've gotten some fun out of it. I like how you have to pick a faction and stick with it. And taking over the territories is interesting.

@BraveToaster: Yea I feel the same way about playing it for a few weeks and moving on. It's a great idea, but what are they going to do about longevity? More maps? So far it seems like everyone votes for TDM, which is all good and fun but there are other game modes. I also wonder why they don't have some sort of capture the flag variant. That could be fun with these mechanics.

I'm oddly liking the cover based movement. I don't miss having to run all over a map just to get shot in the back. Jetting from one spot to another feels fresh and allows you to get around the maps fairly quickly. It also keeps you on your toes, since you never know when someone will be coming from behind. No sitting in a corner and waiting for some poor sap to run through a door.

Man I want to say, I think they done fucked up with the stupid "Locked to a team" Bullshit. Really, it's one of the worst ideas they've ever had perhaps only second to "Make the player in Scribblenauts run where you tap!" I mean, what's the benefit? There literally none. What's are the drawbacks? You literally can not balance the teams leading to a ton of matched where you just get demolished and the game couldn't have done anything about it even if it did see "That guy has an average Accuracy of 80% that one an average of 0% (not sure if that's a bug or if I'm like at .5% or something). Maybe we should step in." 
 
I almost think that... though the game IS fun the matchmaking fucking kills the game. Bad decisions all around. I may not buy this game because of it. I'll wait for Super Hybrid.

@TheMasterDS: Yep, the matchmaking is shit and the overall accuracy percentage is broke.

@PsEG: Gamespot still has a bunch of keys too! I got one this morning!

It totally looks like a neat and fun game, it just depends on who your opponents are. I'm 5 minutes into the quick look (I've watched other gameplay, don't worry) and all I'm seeing is people staying in stationary positions and sniping or gunning Brad down. Brad was really trying to actually "play" the game and he's getting gunned down by careless jerks for actually moving around. 
 
5th Cell really tried with this concept but boy, from the onset a lot of people could see it easily broken and exploited. 
 
Hey maybe it's the game mode, I dunno

I would agree by the very nature of the game camping and sniping are very favorable strategies. In the game if you're in cover you're safe and if you're in between cover you're really not. First off that can make closing the distance hard which makes Sniping safer, second off it can make a strategy of "Force my enemies out of cover at all times" really effective. 
 
I think that the fact that when you're in cover you're safe and when you're out of cover you're totally unsafe in the game has some implications which impact the balance of the game that make the SWARM Gun and Sniping a little too effective. The reasons are simple enough, the lack of safety between covers can make closing the distance harder,  which makes sniping safer and thus more effective. And since a players safety depends first on whether they're in cover (second on whether their behind the right cover given the situations) a strategy of "force enemies out of cover all the time" is very effective, which is what the Swarm is. 
 
The mechanics are cool, but I think they struggle balancing. Additionally I feel that they messed up making players locked to teams. Makes it harder to find a match, makes lobbies impossible to balance in terms of skill, and is just in service of a pointless metagame. I don't think I'll buy the game because of that stupid decision. Don't quote me on that though, maybe the 4 modes not included in the beta are awesome.