drathbone said:
Thanks for the updates! I lived thru an entire play through of Duke Nukem Forever and have brink more hours than its worth, I'm sure I'll stick with this one.
How about the actual mmo aspect of the game?
Well, I understand why the devs usually just refer to it as an open-world shooter, because it's not...exactly an MMO. At least not from what I played, but it's actually a good thing. When the game is live, you will probably see a lot more players than I did, but I was just fine with being on the same server/shard with 20-30 players, who I'd see periodically. It made the world feel alive, as you'll feel that you are there, with these other ark hunters. Most of the content is open world, and you don't need to be in a group to replay the content, or just help others out. I was actually surprised by how some of the missions did feel like instances, but that's just as a result of the game being more of a traditional TPS, than a traditional mmo. The actual dungeons feel like playing Borderlands in 3rd person, especially during the boss fights, and I have no problem with that. The biggest issue with the game right now, are the forced solo missions. It's not fun to be kicked out of a group, while you were doing a group quest, because the final part of it is solo only. Anyways, I think the balance is perfect for the market it's aimed at, but PC players may find it a bit lacking. The skill trees are great, but you are a little too limited at the beginning, with one core ability and one perk. You'll eventually have 6 perks slots, and 6 loadouts I think. These can be changed at any time during gameplay. For loadouts, you simply press start, then hit triangle. Everyone can fill any role, and working as a team pays off on the tougher missions when going rambo isn't an option. All of the gameplay systems play off of each other very well, and there a lot of possibilities and situations that pop up, and being able to adapt to them very quickly is a welcome advantage. I had a pyro grenade equipped, with a rare magnum that's damage is 1050, but it's not exactly who hit some of the more agile enemies (aka the annoying ass Raiders), so my friend tosses a bio grenade, which sticks them to the ground and makes them move slower. That allowed me to take out quite a few enemies in a few seconds. After playing for a bit and learning how everything works, these decisions come naturally, as it should in any good co-op game. I'm curious as how they'll handle the endgame, as this is a living, breathing series. And the pursuits "achievements" are all listed, showing rewards for mission based on episodes from the show, even being categorized as "Season One", so I don't think there will necessarily be an end game here. It'll be more along the lines of Mass Effect DLC, except there will be new main missions every time an episode premieres, along with game specific content.
With all that said...I'm not a fan of the arkfalls, at all. Repetition is dialed to 20. You literally stand in an area circle strafing and shooting bugs for 20-30 minutes. The progressive arkfalls are more interesting, as there are many of them happening at once, culminating with everyone ending up in one location. The game handled 30 players and at least 20 enemies *very* well. Now that I think about it, there was barely any lag, ever.
Ended the beta with an ego rating of 254, and I think the level cap is 5000. So think about it this way, I'm basically level 2, and a half, and the level is 50. I played through all the available missions, and did quite a few side missions. Seems like there's gonna be a lot of content...
CloacalKiss said:
Stephen has been loving this. Can't wait to try it myself. Too late on the beta key giveaway
Which platform? I had keys for all 3 platforms, sorry.
