It has bad stats: at the core it's similar to Rhino/Polaris, except with higher vertical recoil+first short recoil. In terms of role, as can be seen from its attachments (ALS+SPA), it's supposed to be some some sort of close range gun, whereas the Rhino is oriented as a mid-long range one. CQC orientation is odd for 652x143 guns, not very pertinent. The Polaris is similarly oriented but the Polaris has acceptable hipfire to make the ALS+SPA a more valid option. Polaris isn't good, but you can mix decent ALS hipfire with mid-range capabilities somewhat. EM1 has awful-tier hipfire, so it's just bad if used that way, even with ALS. The EM1's only comparative advantage to anything is large mag+fast reload for such capacity. But is that really useful when you look at the competition with better RoF and large mags too?
Well the EM1 is able to beat Orions and SVA-88 and Pulsar LUW in CQC with Resist shield equipped. I dunno. Thats what I experienced so far. And I love that gun!
GD--22S is the most accurate NC LMG, making it imo the equivalent to ursa and TMG. EM1 is the worst gun in the NC arsenal and any competent heavy assault will mow you down real fast at any ranges(but for the <5m where you can strafe and hipfire). BUT if you don't have a very good aim for headshots the EM1 is a good starting gun because of it's low first shot recoil.
URSA and TGM-50 are nerfed versions of NC EM6 / SAW etc...guns. Just like the EM-1 is a nerfed version of the rhino. NC have the best 167 dmg tier LMG's, that's their faction trait.
