Slowly making my way through this - some ways into Chapter 3 right now - but just wanted to reflect a bit early because a lot's been on my mind playing this. It's fun. I'm playing for the first time on hardcore as I did with my first run of the base campaign, and it's tough in ways that feel both stupidly unfair at times yet riveting. Since finishing the remake I was surprised to find a lot of my peers on here were conflicted about the combat, and on further reflection (now that I have a reason to come back to the game) I can absolutely see why. Sometimes you're backed into a corner and there's just jackshit you can to do avoid taking a hit because stunning someone in the head with a pistol is random, which is poor design.
Sometimes in this DLC there are sections where it's better to just run past people because there's just no way you can take on the enemies, and while I will say it makes for some pretty neat horror to be scared of getting absolutely demolished by a random civilian getting the perfect angled stab into you while you're trying to maneuver past, it does certainly feel unfair when you die as a result of something so unpredictable. So, as a game that people hope to replay over and over, especially when compared to the original's fantastically predictable mechanics that allow you more control over getting better at the game, I can see why people felt like leaving so much up to RNG is just annoying. You see it constantly with the speedrunners when they lose hours of progress due to bullshit. I'm playing another game right now, Persona 3 Portable, on the hard difficulty and it's got a similar problem. Sometimes things are just brutally unfair because the enemy patterns become unnavigable and there's jackshit you can do about it. But I'd be lying if I said the release of tension when I finally figured out a cobbled-together strategy to get past something ridiculous wasn't enthralling. So, I guess maybe that's what a lot of these devs want - even if it results in reloading saves unhappily constantly - and while I don't know if I like the way this is designed overall, when I beat back two chainsaw sisters using nothing but my rifle with all my knives with fully upgraded durability breaking on my first try, knowing how unfair things could get if I failed the good run that had been given to me, it felt like exactly the kind of memorable situation I wanted more out of from the base campaign.
Maybe the DLC will drop the ball in the last two thirds, maybe the new story changes will suck, so I'm definitely writing another review of this when I'm done, but as stupid as some of the fights are, my first 2 and half hours with it have been great and I think this is one time I agree with the big industry review sites that this might be GOTY. Maybe the DLC is so good because it avoids trying to recreate things from the original and the devs have to design encounters with the new combat system more in mind.
Sometimes in this DLC there are sections where it's better to just run past people because there's just no way you can take on the enemies, and while I will say it makes for some pretty neat horror to be scared of getting absolutely demolished by a random civilian getting the perfect angled stab into you while you're trying to maneuver past, it does certainly feel unfair when you die as a result of something so unpredictable. So, as a game that people hope to replay over and over, especially when compared to the original's fantastically predictable mechanics that allow you more control over getting better at the game, I can see why people felt like leaving so much up to RNG is just annoying. You see it constantly with the speedrunners when they lose hours of progress due to bullshit. I'm playing another game right now, Persona 3 Portable, on the hard difficulty and it's got a similar problem. Sometimes things are just brutally unfair because the enemy patterns become unnavigable and there's jackshit you can do about it. But I'd be lying if I said the release of tension when I finally figured out a cobbled-together strategy to get past something ridiculous wasn't enthralling. So, I guess maybe that's what a lot of these devs want - even if it results in reloading saves unhappily constantly - and while I don't know if I like the way this is designed overall, when I beat back two chainsaw sisters using nothing but my rifle with all my knives with fully upgraded durability breaking on my first try, knowing how unfair things could get if I failed the good run that had been given to me, it felt like exactly the kind of memorable situation I wanted more out of from the base campaign.
Maybe the DLC will drop the ball in the last two thirds, maybe the new story changes will suck, so I'm definitely writing another review of this when I'm done, but as stupid as some of the fights are, my first 2 and half hours with it have been great and I think this is one time I agree with the big industry review sites that this might be GOTY. Maybe the DLC is so good because it avoids trying to recreate things from the original and the devs have to design encounters with the new combat system more in mind.