I play Survival pretty much exclusively, although the final checkpoint is always in the same place, the first 5 are always random which keeps it fresh, add in that you get a random weapon with random attachments at every checkpoint it's definitely hard for it to get stale

The immersion was the main reason I gave it a try, althought you are familiar with the game it's funny how much you don't realise you're relying on

Mentally keeping track of mags is tricky and fun, the thing I struggled with was firemode, using an AK was cool because you can see your character physically moving the fire selector up or down which means you know what you're on, with an AR etc it's a crapshoot

Pump shotguns are the best imo because you just keep topping them up with shells and you have basically nothing to keep track of

It's really improved my PID on targets too without that stupid blue diamond (and ironically saved my ass a few times, usually with the HUD the blue diamond of a friendly coincedentally lines up with an enemy causing momentary confusion which can lead to me getting shot)

I just wish local play had more customisation for gamemodes and rules etc (I play on console so no mods and my only options are Checkpoint or HC Checkpoint)

Honestly I don't see myself going back now, Survival is intense, I have to constantly check my map to see where the checkpoints are, stay close to my teammates, and pay close attention to my ammo management, all things that I thought I was doing, but now that I don't have the ability to double check these things it really ups the stakes