HK_01 said:
I don't see why people love it so much, the aiming mechanic is the most horrible one I've seen so far, making combat really annoying. Maybe it was good for its time or something....
We love it because it's a damn good RPG, which starts you off with hardly any equipment and no augmentations - the aiming isn't supposed to be any good. The 'focusing time' it takes before the crosshairs narrow and you can fire reasonably accurately is a reflection of your respective mastery with the weapon type you're using - leveling up the trait decreases it and shrinks the initial spread. Weapon modifications also make a difference - slap a few accuracy mods onto a gun and aiming will improve dramatically. At master level or with 100% accuracy achieved via a combination of training + mods, there's no focus time at all, just a crosshair that shoots exactly where it looks like it will.
Trying to play the game like a typical shooter in the early stages is a doomed undertaking - balls to the wall violence is a completely valid methodology of course, it's just you're not properly equipped or augmented for it at that point so a more tactical approach is appropriate for your initial field op. After all, the tools you have on hand are either a mini-crossbow with an
extremely short operation range that all but requires a stealth based approach, a pistol that's loud and not especially deadly, a rifle that is quite deadly but which you probably can't use at a distance with any degree of accuracy yet, melee weapons that are most effective when you take foes by surprise (thus being tools of a stealth approach), or a tracking missile launcher of awesome that unfortunately takes up a great deal of space in your inventory and does not have a great deal of ammo to begin with so you should probably not squander it on soft targets like the NSF troopers.