FragPunk

I decided to try another fresh multiplayer game while it still had players. Against my better judgement, I picked an arena shooter, FragPunk.

I don't know if Counter-Strike was the first to do it, but it sure feels like the genre of two teams shooting each other while one tries to plant a bomb on a site has been around since then. Valorant was a successful iteration on it, adding characters with unique abilities. FragPunk has that too, but also adds a card system where teams can put points into randomly selected cards every round that either make their team stronger, or the enemy team weaker. It adds a randomness element to the game, and more variety to each round, which is something that at least I feel is sorely needed. Regardless of this, this 5v5 bomb planting thing is the most boring kind of gamemode I've seen in first-person shooters. There are also a number of other game modes, but those do not seem to be in the focus.

Now, clearly I'm not an expert in the genre, so I can't comment on the nuances of weapons, map designs, handling, or whatever. Everything felt fine, and I had no complaints whatsoever. Compared to at least some FPS games, there is a lot of info available on the weapons, and a lot of systems in general, so on paper this looks like a really good iteration in this genre. The glaring problem is of course that I hate this genre, so I can't really form an accurate opinion on it.
Feel free to interpret my thoughts as you will. There will obviously be no personal recommendation, but at least to me, it seemed more fun than Valorant or CS:GO, so maybe you might feel the same way. The better question is if it can retain a critical mass of players to stay alive.