Out of Action

I have never felt so out of my depth, so incapable, and powerless in a shooting game.
For context, I, "Unc Status" millennial that I am, typically play grand strategy games like Victoria 3, Eu4, and Stellaris as well as RTS games like Warno.
Lately though, I have wanted a highly customizable arena shooter similar to Perfect Dark (N64)'s arena. This game scratches that itch and gives you enormous customization options as well as extremally deep mobility, weapons, skills, with an enormous variety of builds to express players playstyle and preference.
All this is to say, I am so, unbelievably out of my depth in this game I should change my name to Bot01 to better reflect my skill level.
With that said, its a great arena shooter and I highly recommend it.
Just be sure to go easy on me if you see me in a lobby.

fun game but refunded because there are no players rn. would buy again if it does well on full releaste

tl;dr the game lovingly apes a bunch of really good shooters, executes on its vision in a questionable way, but is still very fun and worth a look
EDIT: now up to a bit over 30 hours. I feel mostly the same. I think there are some definite balance issues to be addressed before this could ever be taken seriously as a competitive game, but it's a (generally) fun sandbox for the moment and a good deal of content seems to be on the way.
Have you ever wanted to play a movement shooter where the movement doesn't work properly and the maps aren't built for it? How about a tactical shooter where everyone has wallhacks and the guns don't shoot bullets where you point them? What if you could remedy any of these problems, but only by using limited customization slots that you can only fill properly after a good 50 or so hours of gameplay that you'll mostly spend getting bodied by the same two dozen players that have already unlocked these things and theorycrafted the most obnoxious possible builds from an incredibly bloated skill tree?
Don't get me wrong: the game can be fun. Extremely fun. When you actually do start to accumulate customization options for your loadout and unlock enough points in the skill tree to actually enjoy some of its passive bonuses, you can access some intriguing combinations. The game feels like a love letter to a bunch of really good, genre-defining shooters of the last two decades, and the audacity of trying to cram so many mechanics into a single shooter is commendable in some sense...but that doesn't save the experience from some strange design choices.
The game has Titanfall-esque movement like wallrunning and sliding? Great, except OoA adds unnecessary extra inputs, stamina bars, and slow transitions between maneuvers to a system that was already one of the best in the genre. The game has GunZ-like dodging and melee weapon quick-attack dashing? Great, except you need "aerial maneuver charges" to do most of it and you only get two charges by default. The game has aerial somersaults like in the trailer so you can do insane trickshots? Sick, except that requires using a customization slot that could be used for one of the many overpowered tactical buffs the player can unlock. You might be noticing a theme here, but we'll come back to that.
The weapons are mostly generic and about what you would expect given OoA's obvious inspirations. Big, cumbersome sniper rifle that can one-shot to the body (at least sometimes)? Check. Multiple flavors of submachine gun that are incredibly overpowered at the game's typical midrange? Check. Shotguns tuned so they beat submachine guns at what you'd expect to be the submachine gun's dominant range? Check. The best part is that the game uses both ballistic simulation (at least for bullet velocity) AND everyone's favorite, random spread while firing. If you've ever played a shooter with spread gain instead of firing/recoil patterns on non-hitscan guns, you know that this is an awful combination; it's especially egregious here given it even affects precise weapons from the first shot. I've only played 16 hours at this point and I can't even count the number of perfectly lined-up shots that have just... gone somewhere else because I wasn't running three different customizations to mitigate spread.
Doku also saw fit to throw in a bunch of special ammo effects as their own form of weapon customization, and even the ones that are accessible without -- you guessed it, a wholly different customization -- feel a bit overwrought. Shoot through walls harder with faster bullets? Drain your enemy's stamina bar and slow them at the same time? Apply a bleeding debuff in a game where the default form of healing is a very poor medkit on a long cooldown? I hope you enjoy dying after you've escaped or killed your foes, or trying to use the huge array of cool movement mechanics only to have them shut down by someone clipping your foot with a round or two.
Oh, and the wallhacks? Yeah, everyone gets wallhacks that disable their guns -- but still, wallhacks. There are also customizations to get more wallhacks, longer-range wallhacks, or wallhacks that work while using your gun (and did I mention some of the guns can shoot through walls? And get customizations to do that better? It's asinine). And although it's not directly related, I sincerely hope you don't want to use sound cues to navigate, because enemy footstep sounds are borderline nonexistent regardless of the enemy's loadout -- so maybe you need the wallhacks.
The skill tree is also... something. It isn't so much a tree as a fat, tripartite bush, and rather than spec into specific things you just dump upgrade points into each of the three branches and get both passive bonuses and various customization unlocks. This, of course, means that you can't get any of the more interesting components of your loadout without playing a decent number of hours -- nothing too excessive in general, but quite excessive given how much the skill bush investment constrains what could (I'd argue should) as easily have been basic gameplay functionality.
Most of the mechanical problems seem to come from wanting to do too much cool sh*t at once and suffering a serious identity crisis as a result... so at least these issues exist for a good reason and not just because the developers are lazy or idiots or something like that. The game has an amazing skeleton. It's got high replay value even as-is. The community contains some elitists -- unsurprising for a game with as much mechanical depth and skill expression as OoA offers -- but most people seem friendly. It's fun.
I'd recommend buying the game. If nothing else you can easily get some hours of enjoyable play out of it, even if you find the same things frustrating that I do. And who knows? It's Early Access -- I think at least some of the above will end up changing for the better by the time the game rolls around to a full release. If so, OoA could easily take a place among its inspirations, and I think that's worth supporting.

Id like to start by mentioning that I’ve been testing this game with Doku for over 1000hours across all versions. Of course I like the game! I also believe I’ve gained a pretty good understanding of his vision for this game throughout the last 2 years.
This is an early access release, there are unfinished weapon models and animations, ALL of the current maps are test maps and will be phased out of the game as time goes on. There are only a few game modes currently as well, with more on the way. The gameplay however is the most polished part of this project. This is not like other FPS games. It has more swag and more style than any AAA shooter I have ever played in my 30years of gaming. There are BILLIONS(not joking) of possible build combinations. I’ve never played an FPS with so much player freedom and expression. The game gives you an incredible amount things to mess around with and there’s many possible whacky crazy builds. “Doesn’t that mean that this game is a balance nightmare?” You would think so, but somehow Doku has created a system of augments that ALL have upsides and downsides. EVERYTHING in this game has a counter to it. If you are willing to learn the systems of this game, it will reward you with exciting cinematic FPS combat that you can’t find anywhere else. To top it all off, Doku has 0 interest in battle passes or in game item shops or daily and weekly FOMO grinds. You buy the game, play it, and unlock all the cosmetics through mastery and completion.(the cosmetic unlocks are not present at this time in EA). The game isn’t easy at first. YOU WILL DIE…….a lot until you begin to understand how to counter your opponents, and then you die some more :) ITS A GOOG DAY FOR OOA

I’m a new player, and I was genuinely frustrated at first, but after an hour or two of figuring out a build I liked, I started having a lot of fun. I’m hooked. The game isn’t perfect, there are quite a few things that need balancing, not to mention the lack of a tutorial, but once you understand it, it’s a lot of fun.

A few things I think are important. Great game, plays well, looks good, cool leveling system, fun game modes, awesome movement. It delivers on that front. I personally think with the long TTK, there need to be significantly less people in matches. I think it should atleast have a slower paced game mode that takes strategy and ooutplaying over having a better gun. Maybe a 2v2 gunfight mode like from mw 2019 would be good for a game like this. Not saying rework the game but maybe allow us to adjust settings and start a private game? The mandatory 12 player servers that are almost always empty (ESPECIALLY in lower tier servers) is a little limited. Also maybe adding XP to the offline mode against the bots? I do not understand at all why that isn't a thing, it completely discourages playing the training mode. And you NEED to train. Adversely, the game is almost completely around making yourself more powerful by playing the game more. So in order to not insta die, I need to level up, but to level up and enjoy the game, I need to get better, but to get better at the game, I should either have a private match with someone, or play against AI, and when I play against AI I can't level up! It's a horrible cycle for new players and should be changed immediately!! Just a few small tweaks to acclamate a fun gaming environment, and make it easier to level up and the game is there. If I were to say, it is worth the price before it goes up, the game has tons of potential, and now would be a good time to hop on the wagon. 3/5

Very fun, highly recommend but with some caveats:
1. You are going to be bad when you first drop in. Its gonna be ok.
2. The movement and aiming definitely takes some getting used to.
3. Weapons ARE NOT hit scan. Lead your shots.
4. The class customization system can be fairly convoluted, but it gets easier to figure out the more you play. Players that have crazy builds are going to wreck you until you learn how to counter them. (for me that's part of the fun in this game but everyone is different, some people hate that)
5. There is a very small player base currently, and most of them have been playing the game for a while. it was brutal the first few hours of playing this game, and still is sometimes. However they are some of the nicest people I've ever played with, and will give you tips if you ask. 10/10 community and beats the toxic/racist/screaming crowd of cod/bf/cs any day, but also there's no voice chat yet soooo..... (Just don't be mean when you run into me in the servers plz, that's all I ask)
PROS:
-Extremely performant, small download size
-Great community (even the "sweats" are nice)
-Interesting, deep and evolving gameplay. No match goes the same way
-Great movement and gunplay
CONS:
-Lack of content, only 5 maps (early access so to be expected)
-Small community, sometimes hard to find a populated server (and u get wreckt a lot)
-Certain design choices may turn some people off
-Difficult to master, also difficult to learn
Overall, I haven't had this much fun playing an fps in a while, despite the learning curve and strangeness of the game. I love the direction this game is going, and many people may call it niche but man it is my niche.