I went into this (PC) beta knowing absolutely 0 about the game. My wife has been interested in it since E3 in 2013 and talked to me about it a few times, but nothing ever stuck with me.
My initial impression from the beta was well received. Graphics are nice, the aesthetic is very "Last of us meets Mass Effect meets Day-Z Mod".
The weapons system is nice, though I feel like there needs to be more weapon customization but this might automatically get addressed since it's the beta. The UI is a little clunky, in that when you open your inventory you should be able to hit escape and exit your inventory instead of having to hit the inventory button again.
The skill system seems like it will be nice when we can use the entire fleshed out tree, but as it stands in beta the med gun and scan pulse are must-haves.
The PvE side of the game seems good enough. Squad based AI combat that you can lone wolf, missions you can rerun on different difficulties, and a separate leveling system from the Dark Zone.
Speaking of which, the Dark Zone in my opinion needs work. In several areas.
But before I get into that I'll note the Pro's I encountered during this limited beta.
*For the first few hours, it felt dynamic and engaging. I had fun running around looking for enemy NPC's to kill and shiny loot pillars to plunder.
*I ran into quite a few players who were nice and got invited to several groups. I only used the matchmaker 3 times and each time kept getting put into groups at level 8 with players who were level 7, and therefore could not be in the same DZ as I was. I think it works just fine for what it is though, but could use a little tweak in the teammate selection process to eliminate that from trying to get into DZ groups.
*The variety of loot was nice. Weapons, armor, and vanity items from white to blue dropped for me. I'm not sure if purples drop from "boss" mobs, but I killed close to 40 named guys and never saw anything better than blue, which is fine.
*Movement felt pretty fluid, but there were a few times I ended up doing the cover ping pong at inopportune times and it led to me getting shot in the face.
*I really like the "gather loot and extract it" thing they're going for, but it also needs work.
*The rogue mechanic is a nice touch, but what I liked about it was totally eclipsed by its implementation which I'll get to next.
All in all it was a fun experience, but got repetitive QUITE fast. I've played MMO's for close to 17 years so I'm no stranger to grinding, but the time vs reward model is off balance here.
For the cons, I'll try to go in-depth about the changes I would like to see and the changes that will push me off the fence and into the land of customer
*While I had fun for the first few hours, that fun quickly dwindled into "running simulator 2016". I've read that they turned down the spawn rates for NPC's in beta, and that the map we have access to is gigantic, but I need to see the finished product for myself. Double the beta rate and they'll be in the ballpark.
*The nice and friendly players I met were a drop in the bucket compared to the assholes. For every 2 nice guys I ran into, there were 10 dickheads that would shoot you in the back or scream "FAGGOT!" as they flanked you while you were in a firefight with AI. I know this is a shooter and that's the type of crowd it will attract, but come on. I'm 32 years old and that's way too old for this shit.
*The "rogue" system and UI needs a complete overhaul. It's too easy to get flagged for rogue actions, the health bars are way too close to non-hostile players, and the amount of time you get flagged for is paltry. I could have 2-3 good blue items I want to get extracted, have some kid run up and backstab me, lose my items, spawn back in, and by the time I get to him he's already back to non-hostile. That's all kinds of NO.
My suggestion is a humanity system similar to hero/bandit in Day-Z. The more players you kill, the lower your humanity gets. The lower your humanity gets, the longer you're flagged as a rogue when you kill someone. To not totally screw the players who like that style of gameplay, reduce the range they show up on non-hostile radar to a 1 block radius or have them not show up on the radar at all. Make their name red, have a skull, whatever...some way to tell them apart from non-hostile agents when you get into range for the UI to show up.
The rewards for non-hostile PvE agents are in the form of loot from killing NPC's. Rogues get loot from murdering non-hostile agents and stealing the loot they worked for. Whether you got a blue on your first drop or you've saved up 6 for some reason, all that time you spent collecting those is 100% wasted, and the rogue makes off like a literal bandit. This absolutely screws players who want to be nice, friendly, and work as a team to grind out loot. It also screws the lone wolf players who don't have friends or who don't like to group by allowing them to get wrecked by roving bands of rogues.
Negative humanity for killing non-hostile players, positive humanity for killing AI. If you're a rogue and you want to "work it off", you can do so by playing the PvE game or hunting other Rogue agents.
All agents have access to every vendor. Eliminate "zone hopping", allow non-hostile agents to access every vendor, and reduce the amount of vendors Rogues have access to by how many non-hostile agents they've killed and how low their humanity score is. You might say that's unfair, but the rogues are already getting ALL the loot a non-hostile agent is carrying when they kill them. So I feel reducing the amount of loot they're able to BUY is perfectly fair.
*On the topic of loot, I am not a fan of non-hostile agents losing every single item when they get killed. If there's no "humanity" system in place, this really needs tweaked. Limiting the items dropped to greens and greys/whites (if there is no other changes to rogue players) might be a step in the right direction there.
*Increase the number of pack slots on the extraction rope. I know it's beta and everyone is crammed into a tiny little area, but it should be at least 8 spots for loot bags.
*The cover system is fun, but if the space bar allows me to take cover, the space bar should take me out of cover when I tap it. Half the time I got glued to a piece of cover I was behind and seemingly everything but double tapping to combat roll never worked, I just sat there like I was autistic while getting unloaded on.
*More weapon mods and customization. I never got any skins, which is a great addition, but we need a little more than a green/blue/purple suppressor, optic, what-have-you. I got a few tan items and a couple red under barrel grips, but other than that everything was the same.
*I don't understand the DZ currency system, which might be entirely on me. Some games I would get hundreds of coins, other games I would end barely 100 up.