a buffet of gorgeous animations and sound effects, just a feast for the eyes and ears. whoever is doing the marketing for this game needs to stop drowning everything in music because the one video the game has on its YouTube channel that showcases the sounds is the best sales pitch they've got. listen to how chunky those energy weapons are!
it's been fine-tuned mechanically, too - the key to avoiding damage is rapidly and constantly repositioning around your enemies' predictable attacks. they're varied in a way that continually adds to the challenge without ever making you feel like you died to bullshit: lots of attacks that limit the playable space in different ways keep you dancing around while you dodge more direct, heavy-hitting attacks, so if you're surprised that you died then you probably missed the tell. healing is doled out frequently but in small amounts that expire quickly, so you can only benefit from it if you're willing to risk your skin to grab it. a more skilled player than i might turn this into a really impressive montage seamlessly blending jumping, strafing, goomba stomping some guys, and using the rails to skate out of there, but that ain't me. in fact, the rails are a cool idea that i find mostly useless, since they're finicky enough and enemies are straightforward enough for most of a run that the rails are more trouble than they're worth. in any case, if you feel like getting creative with your movement then you'll likely be rewarded for doing so, since the game challenges you very early to start thinking about each combat arena as a 3d space.
i don't think the game strikes out on any particular element, either - even my harshest criticisms boil down to "this works, but I want something more interesting from you guys". the classes are your action roguelite staples: a pet class, a stealth/assassin class, the works. there are a variety of good builds, but they tend to fall into a few categories (auto-crit, elemental application, marking enemies, a few gimmicks based around your class abilities) and once you settle into one comfortable build, the game will do very little to make you change it. the quest items push you to revisit old areas but i just do not like receiving an item deep into a run that does nothing until i die and reach chapter 3 again. i wish these things gave some kind of buff for the run in which you pick them up, even if its a trivial one.
it's good though, it's a well-crafted game and i'm finishing this review now because i started writing last night and stayed up way too late actually playing the thing instead. starts out pathetic baby easy mode and ramps up pretty significantly until you're convinced that you could have a pro Overwatch career, playing first-person ikaruga as you melt your screen with ricocheting crits and a grenade launcher that carpet bombs them with ever-changing elemental damage. i can't really give a stronger endorsement than that. you get to feel like the best soldier 76 player in the world and you don't even have to play overwatch. that's a pretty good deal if you ask me
it's been fine-tuned mechanically, too - the key to avoiding damage is rapidly and constantly repositioning around your enemies' predictable attacks. they're varied in a way that continually adds to the challenge without ever making you feel like you died to bullshit: lots of attacks that limit the playable space in different ways keep you dancing around while you dodge more direct, heavy-hitting attacks, so if you're surprised that you died then you probably missed the tell. healing is doled out frequently but in small amounts that expire quickly, so you can only benefit from it if you're willing to risk your skin to grab it. a more skilled player than i might turn this into a really impressive montage seamlessly blending jumping, strafing, goomba stomping some guys, and using the rails to skate out of there, but that ain't me. in fact, the rails are a cool idea that i find mostly useless, since they're finicky enough and enemies are straightforward enough for most of a run that the rails are more trouble than they're worth. in any case, if you feel like getting creative with your movement then you'll likely be rewarded for doing so, since the game challenges you very early to start thinking about each combat arena as a 3d space.
i don't think the game strikes out on any particular element, either - even my harshest criticisms boil down to "this works, but I want something more interesting from you guys". the classes are your action roguelite staples: a pet class, a stealth/assassin class, the works. there are a variety of good builds, but they tend to fall into a few categories (auto-crit, elemental application, marking enemies, a few gimmicks based around your class abilities) and once you settle into one comfortable build, the game will do very little to make you change it. the quest items push you to revisit old areas but i just do not like receiving an item deep into a run that does nothing until i die and reach chapter 3 again. i wish these things gave some kind of buff for the run in which you pick them up, even if its a trivial one.
it's good though, it's a well-crafted game and i'm finishing this review now because i started writing last night and stayed up way too late actually playing the thing instead. starts out pathetic baby easy mode and ramps up pretty significantly until you're convinced that you could have a pro Overwatch career, playing first-person ikaruga as you melt your screen with ricocheting crits and a grenade launcher that carpet bombs them with ever-changing elemental damage. i can't really give a stronger endorsement than that. you get to feel like the best soldier 76 player in the world and you don't even have to play overwatch. that's a pretty good deal if you ask me
MiraMiraOTW
4 months ago