the beta is actually really good. ive already played a fair share of battlefield and cs so i wasnt expecting the multiplayer to be that great, but to my surprise it really is very fun.
my only hassle with it is tanks are far too cheap, ive literally come first place 5 times in a row on a 20 player server by rushing to cap 3 sectors fairly close by each other, getting points for it, constructing a tank and then pushing the enemy back to their single spawn point on the island by about the 3rd-4th minute into the round. after a bit of knowledge of the map, a bit of practise in perfecting your tank rush and enough skill to hold off the few enemies that make it to the opposite side of the map within the opening minutes ive found the beta map to be quite unbalanced for the US team if vsing a NK team of even skill.
at the cost of 450 points (enough to by 2 decent guns, 100 points per kill or capture) for a heavy tank which can hold off a team of 10 if in a good position (only front exposed to enemy, narrow passage, flanks closed) i was beginning to think that the enemies cries of "omg stop tank whoring" may have had some truth to them.
the power struggle mode is really fun. having to hold a research center aswell as power it with nearby stations, all the while having to defend spawn points and vehicle factories is great fun. the multiplayer is much deeper than i thought it would be. pushing the enemy off the island, having a nuke launcher in hand and suicide charging towards a position where you can take out their submarine base while your teammates are trying to cover you and the whole enemy team is trying to take you out is great.
the nanosuit abilities are quite balanced. i thought the game was going to turn into an instant kill special ability spam, but none of the abilities really seem like they can be exploited. the only time i felt an ability was sus was when camping a narrow doorway with 'strength' activated and rushing anyone who enters from the side with a one hit kill punch, but even that can be counted with a frag nade into the room before entering. camo sniping isnt as exploitable as i thought it would be as all your energy is drained the moment you fire your first bullet, leaving you very vulnerable without any armor or speed to escape once the enemy has your position.
performance is still not quite perfect. im getting about 40-60 fps outdoors with a 8800GTS, e6420 @ 3.0ghz, 2gigs ram, 1600*1200, medium settings. its still very playable, but for this game to go mainstream theyve still got a bit of optimising to do. if i could squeeze another 20% fps out of my rig with a more optimised build and better drivers then i would be happy.
cheers to crytek for a great game. ill definately be buying this.