the game isnt really pay to win as there are only 2 dlc weapons ... the pulse shock charge and the heat seeking parrot.. these can be countered by jetpacks and other things..
The problem with the game is that there are body types whose main difference is the smaller you are the less you health you have (but are faster). Oh, unless you put your big guy on a wings, then he is the same exact speed and has more health. Not that it matters, the hunting bow is hit scan one hit kill. It can be fun with a group though, I am not going to lie there. But the game is so buggy and laggy that I just couldn't play it any more - it was like MNC on it's worst days. Except, hit scan OHK bow - lag means nothing to that gun so why not use it exclusively? That thing has killed me SO MANY times. It became the job of folks with stealth to kill the guys with bows. Usually not that fun because steath broke easily. Me? I played rocket spam. Rockets EVERYWHERE.
it leads me to believe that MNC becoming free in the future is more likely except for the fact that it has no DLC. I tried this at launch and played a bit with JackTrips and man did this game annoy me. I don't know if they fixed it but I never found a game that didn't lag horribly.
I was a jetpaack rocket spammer as well or shotgun rollerblades.. Never had lag problems but it did happen
Fall of Cybertron is more similar, seeing as how it is unreal engine, class based, multiple skill and weapons, and variety of health/chasis type. If it were free, it would sell the **** out of the new one, which I wish I'd get, but if it were free, IT would be the next best thing to MNC. It already is the next best thing, but suffers from smallish playerbase = hardish to find games. I say ish, some times of the week I have to idle 10 minutes to find one, but a lot of the time you can find a game, and the same people arent too abundant but a lot of similar names multiple plays. I think I am one of the better players, but it is much easier than MNC.
I played FoC. It is really fluid, I liked it a lot. It's biggest issue like you pointed out is the small player base, and the fact that it appeals to younger gamers so half of that already small player base are 10 year olds doing useless things. I though that game could really be awesome but jets were a little OP on certain maps.
Different things were OP on certain maps. Snipers on G3... I erm mean, cloak snipers on archives. Then again, on desolate jets were pretty op due to the tons of stuff to navigate through for a unfollowable escape. Then again, have you ever tried getting a jet character yourself with rust sentry? Just ambush with rust sentry another jet, if they try to fly away jets are quadruple speed nerfed with rust effect. They hover very very slowly, they can not escape with jets if rust effect. Same applies with titan with a corrosive cannon, just shoot the get with the splash to effect it with slow, and spin to win, they can't fly out the tornado of your melee attack. All problems noted with the playerbase, guilty as charged. A shame really, I still try to play a lot even despite that. I like how it is a younger playerbase, at the same time it sucks playing really terrible players.