The spiritual sequel to the gangbuster games "Left 4 dead" and made by the same team! Using similar mechanics: achieve missions while running from safe room to safe room, culminating in a final battle.
Graphically: it's amazing. I mean, for this kind of shooter. Are there prettier games? Sure; but they use what they got pretty well here. There's a fair bit of variety in the ridden common, more than just different coloured tops and pants. It's not as frantic as l4d, but the enemies are slightly tougher individually, and the special enemies are actually a challenge DESPITE the giant glowing weak point to shoot for massive damage. The characters themselves don't feel like they're sprinting everywhere, much slower, much heavier feeling. The weapon sounds so far are pretty good, I've only used like three assault rifles so far, but the reports have bite, and I'm loving the "clonk" sound from the bat. And the goopy sounds from enemy gibs are... rather juicy. To me ears, they've done a good job on sound design.
Here's where the game differs from l4d. There's an MMO like element to it for weapons. Stats, rarity, accessories. You can find all kinds of weapon mods when out running around, bigger clips, muzzles, stocks and such, and that's just what I've found so far. It's applied automatically when you find them. They also differentiate ammo between the kinds of weapons: so no generic piles where you restock everything: if you need shotgun ammo, and can only find pistol: you outta ammo, son.
Currently, the base characters FEEL like they carry less spare stuff. Only one grenade, and only one other... thing. The fourth slot SEEMS to be for literally everything else. Found some kind of medical item? Hope you don't stumble across a mission item or a barricade part: cause you will drop that bandage. Also: not even five minutes into the game: one character literally said "pills here" and... oh, it was just so many happy memories. I don't know if you can adjust your perks to allow you to tote more crap, but then... there's a lot I don't know yet.
Touching back on weapons and the MMO concepts: there's a bugger ton of customization available. I haven't touched it at all, except to watch the intro movie where they explain how you go about unlocking the cosmetic extras. Long story short: you play specific game modes, and do missions, and you earn points to spend that way. On top of all that: there's a deck building aspect to character stats customization. You create you deck from cards you earn from playing, and at the start of every section you get the option to chose one of five to give yourself a new perk for that round. So on top of everything else, it does seem like each round will be unique simply because you literally have different perks in every round.
And the story missions... I don't know if there's just the SINGLE story mission, but the one I've seen is comprised of four acts, with the first three acts having FIVE PARTS EACH. I played half a l4d campaign tonight: and only made it across the street. Like, literally. I ran crossed a truck yard, and ran down a tunnel.
I'm enjoying what there so far, and looking forward to seeing more, figuring out more, but this is definitely a "better with friends" game. The AI players are, to be frank: stupid. They respond slowly, often sit around idle when others are downed, seem to focus SOLELY on the player when using meds (which includes not healing THEMSELVES.) and seem incapable of using the wall mounted medical cabinets entirely. Their aim is actually pretty good, and they stock ammo pretty well, but they also don't bother switching weapons when they discover them, sticking with the base, level assigned stuff. I've also seen them use exactly one grenade... and they used it badly. Literally just chucked it out there... after we had already cleared the path. The poor thing tried so hard to do it's job, but just wasn't where it needed to be... The friendly player AI almost seemed to be an afterthought, but then: you are supposed to play with friends. Or randos, since you can literally just jump online. I did notice that it seems to support crossplay as when I was in the character menu, there was a PC icon next to my name.
Anyone else currently own this recently dropped title?
Graphically: it's amazing. I mean, for this kind of shooter. Are there prettier games? Sure; but they use what they got pretty well here. There's a fair bit of variety in the ridden common, more than just different coloured tops and pants. It's not as frantic as l4d, but the enemies are slightly tougher individually, and the special enemies are actually a challenge DESPITE the giant glowing weak point to shoot for massive damage. The characters themselves don't feel like they're sprinting everywhere, much slower, much heavier feeling. The weapon sounds so far are pretty good, I've only used like three assault rifles so far, but the reports have bite, and I'm loving the "clonk" sound from the bat. And the goopy sounds from enemy gibs are... rather juicy. To me ears, they've done a good job on sound design.
Here's where the game differs from l4d. There's an MMO like element to it for weapons. Stats, rarity, accessories. You can find all kinds of weapon mods when out running around, bigger clips, muzzles, stocks and such, and that's just what I've found so far. It's applied automatically when you find them. They also differentiate ammo between the kinds of weapons: so no generic piles where you restock everything: if you need shotgun ammo, and can only find pistol: you outta ammo, son.
Currently, the base characters FEEL like they carry less spare stuff. Only one grenade, and only one other... thing. The fourth slot SEEMS to be for literally everything else. Found some kind of medical item? Hope you don't stumble across a mission item or a barricade part: cause you will drop that bandage. Also: not even five minutes into the game: one character literally said "pills here" and... oh, it was just so many happy memories. I don't know if you can adjust your perks to allow you to tote more crap, but then... there's a lot I don't know yet.
Touching back on weapons and the MMO concepts: there's a bugger ton of customization available. I haven't touched it at all, except to watch the intro movie where they explain how you go about unlocking the cosmetic extras. Long story short: you play specific game modes, and do missions, and you earn points to spend that way. On top of all that: there's a deck building aspect to character stats customization. You create you deck from cards you earn from playing, and at the start of every section you get the option to chose one of five to give yourself a new perk for that round. So on top of everything else, it does seem like each round will be unique simply because you literally have different perks in every round.
And the story missions... I don't know if there's just the SINGLE story mission, but the one I've seen is comprised of four acts, with the first three acts having FIVE PARTS EACH. I played half a l4d campaign tonight: and only made it across the street. Like, literally. I ran crossed a truck yard, and ran down a tunnel.
I'm enjoying what there so far, and looking forward to seeing more, figuring out more, but this is definitely a "better with friends" game. The AI players are, to be frank: stupid. They respond slowly, often sit around idle when others are downed, seem to focus SOLELY on the player when using meds (which includes not healing THEMSELVES.) and seem incapable of using the wall mounted medical cabinets entirely. Their aim is actually pretty good, and they stock ammo pretty well, but they also don't bother switching weapons when they discover them, sticking with the base, level assigned stuff. I've also seen them use exactly one grenade... and they used it badly. Literally just chucked it out there... after we had already cleared the path. The poor thing tried so hard to do it's job, but just wasn't where it needed to be... The friendly player AI almost seemed to be an afterthought, but then: you are supposed to play with friends. Or randos, since you can literally just jump online. I did notice that it seems to support crossplay as when I was in the character menu, there was a PC icon next to my name.
Anyone else currently own this recently dropped title?
