While the storyline gets some flak and most people agree that it starts to pick up from chapter 3~4 on, what it does do is set a greatly (and awfully) realistic picture of what it is like to live in a society where discrimination and violence run rampant note Do note that despite it going global around January 2020 when a deadly coronavirus started spreading (thus creating some mirrors), the original game was older so it could not have been Write What You Know. The fact that even the faction 'you' play for (Rhodes Island) is not painted as being 'the good guys' is refreshing in particular.
The Doctor themselves initially seems to be a blank sheet, as their responses don't affect the storyline directly and they literally have amnesia. However, the further the story progresses along with some supplemental stories, more becomes known about the Doctor...and chances are you are going to detest what the Doctor used to be, casually treating operators like pawns and having been implied to kill Theresa. A far cry from the heroic protagonist that's loved by their Amazon Brigade, giving what was initially perceived to be 'just a self-insert' depth.
The fact that the Doctor has a well-established past, with connections to some of the characters, also helps to set Arknights apart from many other gacha games. Amiya, for example, is rather fond of the Doctor and treats them almost like her parental figure from the get-go, while Kal'tsit hate their guts and always find a way to sneak in a biting comment or two thanks to their past. It helps to further make the Doctor feel like an actual character and not just a self-insert.
The game has a fairly good representation of women being in important jobs (not the normal 'She's the assistant of the mighty CEO but she can kick some ass - Ch'en is the cornerstone of the LGD; Mayer is a one-man workshop, etc.), and not only in caring roles like in medicine. For example, Eyjafjalla is a volcanologist, and Saria is a scientist who handled highly important contracts (as is implied from her token).
There is also a number of disabled operators and operators who do have other illnesses, and while it's caused by the fictional illness Oripathy in a number of cases, their disabilities actively impact their life and do not feel like they're put in to bait for inclusivity or otherwise just being part of their story or design. For example, Estelle grew shy and reclusive due to her horns mutating as a result of her illness, while Vermeil (who lost an arm and also contracted Oripathy) accepted it at a certain point, while she had feelings of vengeance at the ones who caused everything that happened to her (this is very realistic for someone to have, especially right after it happened). Nowadays you'll find quite some disabled people who plead to look at what they still can do, not at what they can't anymore.
While there's some requests by certain portions of the playerbase to add an Oath or Promise Ring mechanic, it makes sense that the Doctor is not actually romantically involved or trying to chase skirts. For one thing, a number of the operators are practically children, and for another, the older operators tend to be strongly focused on their career or life goals, or are otherwise emotionally unavailable for relationships. Granted, a number of operators do show interest in the Doctor (Platinum, Gravel, Angelina, Skadi, Blue Poison, Ambriel), but they are willing to keep it professional while they are employed as operators under Rhodes Island's aegis. As such, the affection system in this game is described as Trust, rather than being a love-based mechanic, and it is very refreshing to have a game that sticks to its guns and doesn't attempt to shoehorn in a waifu/harem mechanic.
The nations of Terra feels like actual nations, each with their own problems and conflicts, and the larger conflict was never resolved in a single event or story chapter. The story also makes it clear just how powerful the nations are, and that while Rhodes Island have many outstanding operators, at the end of the day they stood no chance in an actual open conflict with any nation whatsoever, and thus must be careful in how they're going about their mission. For example, The Reveal that Chernobog only fell because Ursus allows it, and that Reunion as a movement is used by Ursus as a pretext for war with Yen, further solidifies just how large a nation's strength and influence is, and such massive geopolitical move helps to further make the nations of Terra feels more grounded in reality.
Gameplay
The game feels like it is a game that so happens to have gacha implemented in it, instead of being built around the gacha. While it does have rotating banners and new operators coming in from time to time, the ads in the game itself are restricted to a small window at the bottom left side of your screen, and a quick news message when you load it up first (which will switch to showing the maintenance schedule when one is coming). Quite some doctors do agree that while there's occasonally a new Game-Breaker in a newer banner, the operators that came with the game itself are still superior and no one is going to replace them anytime soon. It is fairly telling that the 'big four' or 'big five' solely consists out of operators that were in the game when it was launched. (SilverAsh, Ifrit, Exusiai, Eyjafjalla and Saria)
The ceiling of the operators is not too high, and while getting higher-starred operators to E2 is something you are going to feel, it is nothing compared to some other games in the same genre, that have equipment that can be enhanced and tons of passive skills that add small percentages that can also be enhanced. Most operators do okay at E1 level 50, while some exceptions need to be raised to E2 to operate at full strength like Angelina (but those can be counted on one hand).
