Totally agreed. I feel like the first game was tight and concise. It knew what it was.

I don't think the hub world worked well, it made it all feel disconnected and less impactful.
I think the motorcycle segments could have been cool but it controlled like a wet noodle and was again, not really needed in the first place.

I also really don't like the new dialogue for Jack but that is more of a personal opinion. The dialogue in general really didn't work for me. The first game felt dire. The second one feels like marvel movie dialogue and I just done need it.

I'd also like to add that the perk system thing wasn't something I really enjoyed either (along with the new blocking mechanic). The first game was really build around you utilizing the tools you had. The deflect timing and movement were so strict that it felt so rewarding to pull it off. And the second one feels like the combat itself is easier but the levels prohibit that.

Even in level design I felt that this game was weaker. The first game felt a bit more concentrated and careful. The second game felt open but in a bad way. It just felt like you have to find out the way it was meant to be done and do it that way. There were more enemies and it just felt too chaotic to be rewarding.

In short, i think the issues i have with combat come down to how consistent the first game felt, and the second one felt less predictable, and i do mean that in a bad way.


I don't think this game is terrible by any stretch, but the first one is a gold standard for making difficulty feel rewarding. The second one is just plain frustrating sometimes.

I think it has some minor improvements in design (particularly the upgrade menu and integration of your abilities into navigation) and the boss fights are genuinely good, but in its totality, it's several steps backward.

-The level layout has much weaker flow to it, particularly the combat arenas.
-Many levels are just too long.
-The ultimate system makes no sense with this style of gameplay.
-The combo system doesn't work with the level design (It can't be continually sustained with fast gameplay like it could be in games like Hotline Miami)
-The bike sections are too long and there are too many of them.
-The bike controls poorly.
-Pillars of Creation.
-Optimization was really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bad at launch, and 1 season pass later, we're still waiting for improvements.
-The hub area puts a sharp dampener on the flow of the game.
-They removed attack-based parrying and shifted it to a block button which works on a small delay and gives poor feedback.
-Kill sfx and vfx are (imo) weaker and less impactful.
-Combat arenas are meant to suit multiple approaches which is good in theory, but it ends up having no real flow or pattern to it.
-The enemies that run around (introduced in the Hel DLC for GR1) are given too much freedom and you can end up having to search around to figure out where they scurried off to when trying to chase you.
-Many new enemies are redundant.
-No wave mode.
-No kill run mode.
-Scion enemies have poor audio feedback (can't tell what they are by sound because they all have the same gargling sounds)
-This one is very specific to speedrunners, but they reduced the coyote time, making SDSJ maneuvers less effective.
-No one was asking for an endless motorcycle mode, it was the weakest part of the game.
-The "roguelite" mode is lacking in substance and poorly balanced.
-Hardcore mode barely remixes levels and mostly just adds in more environmental hazards without removing all the story stuff like the first game did correctly.

I might be forgetting some stuff and probably am, but that's what I can remember right now.
EDIT: Oh right, it kept introducing new environment mechanics up until the very last level, which would have been too many to remember if they hadn't forgotten to keep using the previous ones. And those platforms you pull to yourself... what a terrible choice on all metrics.

Originally posted by Rehtaelle:

I think it has some minor improvements in design (particularly the upgrade menu and integration of your abilities into navigation) and the boss fights are genuinely good, but in its totality, it's several steps backward.

-The level layout has much weaker flow to it, particularly the combat arenas.
-Many levels are just too long.
-The ultimate system makes no sense with this style of gameplay.
-The combo system doesn't work with the level design (It can't be continually sustained with fast gameplay like it could be in games like Hotline Miami)
-The bike sections are too long and there are too many of them.
-The bike controls poorly.
-Pillars of Creation.
-Optimization was really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bad at launch, and 1 season pass later, we're still waiting for improvements.
-The hub area puts a sharp dampener on the flow of the game.
-They removed attack-based parrying and shifted it to a block button which works on a small delay and gives poor feedback.
-Kill sfx and vfx are (imo) weaker and less impactful.
-Combat arenas are meant to suit multiple approaches which is good in theory, but it ends up having no real flow or pattern to it.
-The enemies that run around (introduced in the Hel DLC for GR1) are given too much freedom and you can end up having to search around to figure out where they scurried off to when trying to chase you.
-Many new enemies are redundant.
-No wave mode.
-No kill run mode.
-Scion enemies have poor audio feedback (can't tell what they are by sound because they all have the same gargling sounds)
-This one is very specific to speedrunners, but they reduced the coyote time, making SDSJ maneuvers less effective.
-No one was asking for an endless motorcycle mode, it was the weakest part of the game.
-The "roguelite" mode is lacking in substance and poorly balanced.
-Hardcore mode barely remixes levels and mostly just adds in more environmental hazards without removing all the story stuff like the first game did correctly.

I might be forgetting some stuff and probably am, but that's what I can remember right now.
EDIT: Oh right, it kept introducing new environment mechanics up until the very last level, which would have been too many to remember if they hadn't forgotten to keep using the previous ones. And those platforms you pull to yourself... what a terrible choice on all metrics.

Originally posted by Rehtaelle:

I think it has some minor improvements in design (particularly the upgrade menu and integration of your abilities into navigation) and the boss fights are genuinely good, but in its totality, it's several steps backward.

-The level layout has much weaker flow to it, particularly the combat arenas.
-Many levels are just too long.
-The ultimate system makes no sense with this style of gameplay.
-The combo system doesn't work with the level design (It can't be continually sustained with fast gameplay like it could be in games like Hotline Miami)
-The bike sections are too long and there are too many of them.
-The bike controls poorly.
-Pillars of Creation.
-Optimization was really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bad at launch, and 1 season pass later, we're still waiting for improvements.
-The hub area puts a sharp dampener on the flow of the game.
-They removed attack-based parrying and shifted it to a block button which works on a small delay and gives poor feedback.
-Kill sfx and vfx are (imo) weaker and less impactful.
-Combat arenas are meant to suit multiple approaches which is good in theory, but it ends up having no real flow or pattern to it.
-The enemies that run around (introduced in the Hel DLC for GR1) are given too much freedom and you can end up having to search around to figure out where they scurried off to when trying to chase you.
-Many new enemies are redundant.
-No wave mode.
-No kill run mode.
-Scion enemies have poor audio feedback (can't tell what they are by sound because they all have the same gargling sounds)
-This one is very specific to speedrunners, but they reduced the coyote time, making SDSJ maneuvers less effective.
-No one was asking for an endless motorcycle mode, it was the weakest part of the game.
-The "roguelite" mode is lacking in substance and poorly balanced.
-Hardcore mode barely remixes levels and mostly just adds in more environmental hazards without removing all the story stuff like the first game did correctly.

I might be forgetting some stuff and probably am, but that's what I can remember right now.
EDIT: Oh right, it kept introducing new environment mechanics up until the very last level, which would have been too many to remember if they hadn't forgotten to keep using the previous ones. And those platforms you pull to yourself... what a terrible choice on all metrics.

I absolutely whole heartdly agree with most of your points here the only ones I'd disagree with are; The combo system,and the optimization.

I think the combo system is nice, and is a nice incentive to get kills faster, and rewards me by making me go faster, to get kills faster. The optimization, at least in my experience was actually okay, I probably had at most 3 crashes throughout my first few days playing it.

I totally 100000000000000000% agree with pillars of creation, should be right at the top. Absolutely trash tier mission, what is a MOTORBIKE doing in a game about PARKOUR? I saw it in the trailer, sighed with disbelief. Pillars of creation is when I actually stopped playing on my first playthrough and thought, yeah I'll continue with this another time.