The classic FPS online game Alliance of Valiant Arms, commonly known as AVA, is a long-running online first-person shooter. Its successor, A.V.A Global, is scheduled to launch in fall 2026.
The developers describe A.V.A Global as "a brand-new online first-person shooter for PC." It retains the original's three classes and various firearm characteristics, while adding new content like "HUNTING FIELD." In this PvPvE mode, players collect supplies and strive to extract alive. According to the developers, the game aims to let players re-experience "the primal thrill of FPS."
I participated in the closed beta test for this title, and here are my impressions. I won't meticulously compare it to the original AVA; instead, I want to see how it fares as a new FPS slated for 2026.
The first obstacle I encountered happened even before firing a shot.
Playing A.V.A Global requires installing the dedicated "Pmang" launcher, but opening the launcher on your PC and hitting PLAY doesn't take you straight into the game. In my setup, I had to visit the website, go to the game launch page, and then start the game through the installed launcher. Apparently, this used to be a common way to launch online PC games. But the process made me feel like I was launching a PC game from about 15 years ago, not a new title slated for 2026.
Once in the game, that feeling didn't change much. A character takes up a large portion of the main screen, with panels for the Battle Pass, store, and lobby nearby. There's no separate mode selection screen under "PLAY," just a simple dropdown menu. Of course, you can't judge the entire interface by its appearance alone. But the buttons, icons, and fonts all look cheap, and the image resolution is concerning. Honestly, I couldn't help but think, "Is this really a 2026 game?" Switching to fullscreen also throws off the aspect ratio.
Setting aside the interface issues, how is the core shooting experience? The guns fire, and the game is playable. But it's hard for me to say much more positive about it.
I was particularly concerned about hit feedback. Bullets draw blood, but enemies barely react, and the sound and visual effects on impact left little impression. The gunplay itself feels light; I could hardly feel my bullets hitting targets.
Taking damage felt similar. I often realized my HP had dropped to zero only after the fact. Unlike games like Valorant, where a headshot means instant death, this lack of feedback was more noticeable here. It was hard to gauge how much damage I dealt or assess danger in time. Deciding whether to retreat or push forward required checking the HP bar, rather than relying on instinct.
The controls themselves aren't a major issue, but the game prompts you to double-tap W to sprint. Without changing settings, you can't bind sprint to another key. As someone accustomed to modern FPS controls, this felt awkward. You also can't assign mouse side buttons, which likely reinforced my negative impression. Keeping legacy controls isn't wrong in itself, but for a new title called A.V.A Global planned for 2026, retaining them unchanged feels problematic.
I also tried the "Bomb" mode in standard PvP. Given the current landscape of free-to-play FPS titles, as a new player, I couldn't help but ask: Why play A.V.A Global instead of Valorant or CS2? Players who enjoyed the original AVA might have their own answers, but as someone experiencing this title for the first time, I didn't find a compelling reason to play it during this closed beta test.
Matchmaking also raised concerns. During my sessions, Bomb mode matches sometimes started before filling all slots, leading to 2v2 or even 2v1 situations. Sometimes I joined matches already in progress. Being placed on a team significantly behind in score and player count made it hard to stay motivated. Of course, the closed beta has limited participants, so we can't judge final player counts or matchmaking quality at launch. But currently, matches start even when understaffed, without adding bots to fill gaps. I hope this gets improved.
The traditional multiplayer modes didn't offer much novelty, so I pinned my hopes on the new "HUNTING FIELD" mode. According to the official description, players must gather supplies, fight enemies, and try to extract alive. It falls into the extraction shooter genre represented by games like Escape from Tarkov.
Actually playing it, the most surprising aspect was how unenjoyable looting felt. While there are chests and doors to search on the battlefield, most supplies are obtained by breaking barrels, crates, vases, etc., with guns or knives, and picking up the items that drop.
In games like Escape from Tarkov, you have to wait a moment after searching an object to gradually reveal item details. This wait builds anticipation for what's inside. In this game, you just break objects and pick up items lying on the ground. This process makes it hard to feel tension while looting or anticipate what you might discover next.
Finding items also lacks impactful feedback. I didn't get that "I found something rare, I need to bring this back" feeling from rare loot. Even before that, the urge to "keep searching for more" rarely surfaced. Sometimes I couldn't even tell how rare an item was, making it hard to feel the tension of "I don't want to lose this."
This is the game's flagship new mode, and I had hoped it would better illustrate why AVA is launching a new title now. However, at this stage, my impression is that while it adopts the extraction shooter format, it fails to fully deliver the exploration joy and tension characteristic of the genre.
More than "HUNTING FIELD," the equipment system personally worries me. Both weapons and armor have gacha mechanics, and there's a crafting system using duplicate items. The board that appears during gacha pulls also struck me as baffling.
However, what I've described here is based only on settings confirmed during the closed beta. It's unclear whether equipment acquisition will work the same way at full launch, or whether gacha pulls will use premium currency or in-game currency.
My concern is that in a competitive FPS, acquiring and upgrading weapons and armor that affect performance involves randomness. Since FPS games hinge on player skill, how much equipment stats influence the outcome is a crucial question. If gacha pulls and crafting create gear disparities between players, I worry about how the game will maintain competitive balance.
There are still people who want to play straightforward competitive FPS games. For players who have enjoyed AVA for years, being able to revisit familiar content has clear value.
But as a new player, I still have a major question after playing. If this were a game that "preserves the features of the original AVA," I could understand. But it's called A.V.A Global. Since the developers describe it as "a brand-new online first-person shooter for PC," I hoped that beyond recreating the past, it would give me a reason to choose it in 2026, even if I hadn't played the original.
I hope that upon full release, the game itself will live up to the meaning behind the name "A.V.A Global."
