Crossout - Reviews and experiences

I wouldn't put real money into this if you care about fair play or sane progression. I tried it for a few months, and my immediate conclusion was pretty clear within the first couple weeks — it's set up to squeeze money out of you and the rest follows from there. I started playing right after a friend recommended it, thinking it might be a decent free-to-play time sink. First impressions looked fine: decent visuals, queues weren't terrible and there was a lot of stuff to do. But that honeymoon lasted maybe two sessions, then the problems became obvious and persistent. The design pushes you toward buying. There were three overlapping events running at once, two different battle passes priced around what I'd expect to pay for an indie game and a bunch of vehicle/gear packs on top. Progression is intentionally slow — not a bug, a feature — so you feel nudged to spend. It felt grindy in a manufactured way, so when I bought something once I regretted it because the incentives kept stacking. Moderation and community management are another issue. In my social circle someone got a GM/mod role and changed pretty quickly — more dismissive, more heavy-handed — and I saw a few instances where power was clearly abused. The same names come up a lot in complaints; they did ban a problematic clan at one point, but the behaviour recycled and the clan came back not long after. Server and infrastructure stuff also worries me. The game appears to still rely on backup infrastructure from another big title, which says something about priorities — invest in cash flows, not your own stable servers. That might not matter to everyone, but it does if you expect long-term reliability. Market mechanics are clunky and occasionally arbitrary. There's what they call price "corridors" that stop you from listing below a minimum, yet sometimes the system forces you to sell for way less than the stated floor. You can't post flexible buy requests either, so trading feels controlled and half-broken. And cheating? Still present. People using console controllers on PC get aim assistance and there are DMA-type cheats that can bypass anti-cheat, so competitive integrity is weak. I stayed because some matches were fun and there are neat mechanics, and sure, there's a bit of enjoyment if you treat it as casual. But between the cash-grab model, sketchy moderation, market control and anti-cheat gaps, I can't recommend spending money here. If you want to try it, fine — but only if you're prepared to accept the flaws and never give them a cent.