Recent reviews by Ser Lamont

Lots of potential but any desire to play is drowned in horse piss after the initial fun of lootin' and shootin'.

Story:
- Nope

UX:
- Language adaption was obviously put through Google translate or version 0.2 of ChatGPT. Could be forgiven without everything else going on.
- Uses a lot of key words but there is no/it is very hard to find out what they mean. "When shot enemy gains 1 stack of X." Well what does X do? Desperately needs a BG3 'Details' function.
- Fast travel is quick and doesnt hang around.
- Playing with other people. Super easy, I like that the dynamic joining between players if we happen to be doing the same mission in the overworld. But in general it suffers from a problem ARPG's do when in parties where its suddenly "OMG ABILITY VFX ABILITY" and everything's dead. Did I do something? Was it them? Im not sure of my imapct here but another mob is spawning so "OMG AB...

Gameplay:
- More drops than Borderlands, 95% of is an auto dismantle.
- Movement system is stock UE. Warframe "gets away with it" because its over a decade old.
- Maybe has three different quests. Clear enemies, stand on thing for X time or collect Y and deposit it at Z.
- Balancing between classes is almost non-existent. I made the unlucky choice to put time into leveling a Damage Over Time class but the DOT ticks are maybe every 1.5 secs with long cooldowns and laughable damage per tick that I may as well have just shot them. Meanwhile jumpy jumpy Triple D, scrunch bum gym leggings can nuke everything with their passive ability. PASSIVE. Of course, eye roll.
- Grind fest.
- Crafting gets its own category.

Crafting:
- Time gating. The biggest culprit and is an immediate turn off and if we can collectively agree as an industry to . No need and is so obviously barefaced money grabbing its sickening even in today's industry climate. I have no problem with cosmetics, I don't necessarily mind pay for convenience classes so long as they can be obtained in game (within a reasonable time frame) but time gating can jump up its own ass and die. ♥♥♥♥ you.
- Time gating again because ♥♥♥♥ you.
- Resource gathering is obtusely grindy. Its so plain as day that your are being frustrated into pulling out your purse, its not even cleverly done with psychological tricks. It bare faced snake oil ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. May as well have a giant neon sign that beams "Sunk Cost Fallacy".
- On top of that for many items you are required to craft components that themselves are made up of multiple resources, which themselves took a small arthritic cats lifetime to acquire. Compounding further, to upgrade your Reactors for example, you need: x2 of X crafted item. Ok cool I have enough for that, lets see the next upgrade = x7 of X. Hmm quite a jump, how long does it take to craft? 40 minutes? ♥♥♥♥♥ sake, wait I can only craft ONE AT A TIME. THE "BLUEPRINT" TO CRAFT SOMETHING CANNOT BE USED WHILE IN USE. I CANT HAVE TWO OF THE SAME THINGS CRAFTING AT THE SAME TIME. This, as you may have guessed, was where I promptly quit and uninstalled.

BONUS

Design:
- Lets go back to our Damage Over Time character. Their passive is that their abilities become stronger per stack (1 enemy currently poisoned) the more enemies that are currently poisoned and their active abilities are all some variation of AOE or direct hit poison effect. Immediately you have a problem, in order to stay strong you need to keep things alive but the objective is to kill things. And in a game where you can kill most enemies with just bum ♥♥♥♥ weapons in < .5 seconds this is a big problem. There is no decay on your passive stacks it just goes as soon as the enemy that had it has died. I think the highest stacks I could get over roughly 10 hours of gameplay was 6 out of a possible 15 max. I would have to actively choose not to kill things to gain higher stacks. A fundamental, intrinsic problem. Never mind I couldnt tell the difference other than "oooh number go up". Why not have them decay? Immediately that solves a major part of the passive and entourages the fundamental gameplay of shoot ♥♥♥♥. And lets not even start on multiplayer. DOT where everything (outside of the main bosses, of which there are only ever one enemy and occasionally 4 adds so yet another case for the redundant passive) gets nuked, yeah ok. I can feel useless in the bedroom, I dont need it from my escapsim.
- There is so much I would love to deep dive into that Im considering writing up a design document on it because its so apocalyptically not thought through. I mean its just, gaaaah *gestures hands out in front with fingers splayed*

To sum up, I was hoping this could be my turn-brain-off and listen to podcasts, youtube, TV shows etc game and it could be had some things be different. But unfortunately this game requires more IQ to play than was put into the design process. And time gating, ♥♥♥♥ you.

TLDR: Fun game, good nostalgia value and sharp game feel. However, the hyper density of heroes drown out the 'Battlefront' vibe. Can't quite recommend without quite fundamental game changes, which due to the age of the game, I highly doubt will come.

Pros:
1. Graphics are great (if that matters)
2. Sound design is excellent
3. Meaningful class choices with opportunity costs (with a big BUT in the cons)
4. Fast matchmaking time
5. Back and forth, tug of war game modes create a fun narrative within itself

Cons:
6. Class level-up UI animation are far too opaque and are very distracting when it happens. Should be saved until the post-match summary
7. There should be First Person only, Third Person only and mixed perspective playlists. I'd love to play in FP all the time to really get the game feel of a future soldier in the trenches/crater/forest/corridor with lasers flying around. However, the TP option offers much more functional impact and extraneous information that you otherwise wouldn't have access to. You have much wider FOV, much better situational awareness and the big one see around corners without putting yourself in the line of fire. It can make attacking positions, especially inside ship corridors, very difficult. If there is a clear dominant strategy left unabated then this is what the designers are telling you to do, either complacency or deliberate.
8. The main reason for my writing this. The hero units are far too available in the non-hero dedicated game modes. There would be meaningful opportunity costs for class abilities and class choice IF you couldnt spend the entire match as a hero class. You can even spawn as one of the many lightsabre wielding titans which makes many of the underlying systems redundant when you can start the game and finish the game as a hero unit due to your ability to accrue the resource (Battle Points, which you get by in-match actions and can spend to briefly play as a more powerful unit) while your'e playing as a hero unit, which seems moronic to me. There is no reason to play as any of the base classes. I tried to play the game the way I want to, as a base class while occasionally allowing myself to play as a "super trooper" unit (a slightly better trooper that costs lower BP) or occasionally as a "hero unit" (story characters that are extremely powerful, cost higher BP). This method of play is a virtual simulation of placing you forehead on a grindstone. Turn round a corner oh there's Luke Skywalker and I'm dead; ok go this way instead oh and there's obi-wan and Im dead; YES I finally killed that annoying Rey oh and there's Yoda right behind her (don't even get me started on Yoda, the smallest character in the game, the fastest unit in the game and has the best health regen mechanics in the game, sorry what was the goal here? To create the personification of anthrax?). Its utterly deflating, there so much potential here. To help explain this, at the end of a regular game as a typical mid-to-high-scoreboard player I can easily get >10,000 BP while only playing as hero units for an entire match, the cost of story character units, the most powerful, is usually around, 400-500 BP, uh...yeah. Interesting design choices and as I said before, redundant systems and moronic decision making by the design team. There's even abilities to SPEED up Battle Point generation, I...I...dunno.
8. (cont) This problem extends across all game modes that aren't hero focused already. Just want to fly an X-Wing and shoot at tie fighters? Nope cause Darth Vader in his steroided up Interceptor blasts you out the sky. Want to pilot an AT-ST? Nope cause Yoda is running around your legs slashing away like he's acting out Jack The Ripper. It feels as though the designers don't even understand the basic laws of inflation. It robs the players of so many potential in-game memories and experiencial moments. There no sense of getting the awesome but occassional power trip of forgoing playing as the "super troopers" throughout a match to save up your BP to play as your favourite story character, there no sense of superiority by killing a hero unit as a basic class when there are two more right behind them and there no sense in being a basic class because you accrue BP so fast youre basic class is the super troopers anyway. As I mentioned in the TLDR the 'Battlefront' vibe is completely lost, no feeling of an actual Star Wars battle seasoned with moments of "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ its Vader run!" when it just a jedi fight wrestling match with NPC base classes running around to serve as nuggets of dopamine that are consumed so fast and so fleeting that it would put Ronald McDonald out of business. Doesn't this defeat the purpose of the entire game? There are dedicated game modes for hero on hero action which has its place, there's entire other games where all you do is play as jedis/hero characters. What is this game for if not to allow players to experience what it's like to be a storm trooper slugging through trenches or a Rebel Soldier using guerilla warfare in a dense jungle? What is this game for, what is its purpose?

I really dont understand and cannot conceive of the though processes that lead the design team to the choices they made concerning the Battle Point/hero unit system, good idea with an execution that mimics the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Hiddenburg.

Please bear in mind I only played during a free-to-play event with roughly =< 5 hours in total.

Pros:
- Great atmosphere and narrative context. A prisoner forced into dangerous servitude to appease supposed higher ups.
- Gun play feels pretty good, some weapons feel great others I find lacking in feel and oomph.
- Sound design in general great
- LOVE the lack of tutorials, you need to remember information to complete objectives. Such as hacking computers for example. No hand-holding is a plus in my books.

Cons:
- Mechanics seem at odds with objectives. The game gives the players so many tools to hold down a small location but the vast majority of objectives and quests, in the time that I played, involved in quickly moving from spot to spot. Two missions were particularly guilty for this. Every so often removing players from what feels intended and comfortable is a great tool but this should be the exception not the norm.
- Stealth seems very arbitrary
- In a game where ammo is scarce and you often have to rely on melee weapons, it is very punishing to use melee. It's clunky and the best I could hope for when attacking with melee was trading a blow for blow outside of stealth, which is most of the time after a certain point. Especially in higher difficulties.
- Progression seems entirely cosmetic and for me I dont care about a different helmet. Id much rather not have all the tools in the beginning and have to play in order to acquire more.

Overall a fun concept but falls just short, for me, of becoming a staple in my crowded library. The biggest offender is the tools the player has not lining up with what the player has to do, that is unforgivable.

A game I really want to play more of but the underlying systems keep me back from pressing the 'Play' button again.

Pros:
- Excellent, show not tell worldbuilding
- Graphics are good (this isn't really a major point for me but may be for you)
- Particle and sound effects are awesome, weapon, ability and grenades really feel like they have impact
- Good voice acting

Cons:
- Lack/no replay-ability value, this is due to:
- Items are always made available at the same time, weapon/gear/grenades are in a pre-determined linear sequence.
This is particularly annoying as the game somewhat poses itself in a borderlands/diablo loot style.
- All characters seem like different shades of grey. Characters dont fell any different from another. My coop partner
and I had built our characters completely differently but during game-play there is no discernible difference in
combat. There will likely 'be' differences but most of the challenge is making it obvious and showing the player that
they are different.
- All vendors have the same items and the same time. This detracts from the hard work they've done world-building, a dingey market bazaar stall merchant will suddenly release a new weapon at the same time a better off merchant with a shop on the otherside of the world/map will. Again that point of linear item progression.
- Player characters too easily blend with NPC's in combat. On a number of occasions my coop partner and I would realise we are shooting each other because the Player Characters and Non-Player Characters look so similar.
- Far too easily exploitable enemies. If you're losing a fight, leave the the surrounding area and the NPCs will de-aggro. Those that you'e killed don't respawn and rinse repeat to kill enemies that are far above your level.

TLDR:
- Excellent surface level elements but underlying systems seem to have been rushed or the designers were complacent with mediocre systems.

Conc:
- I'm looking forward to see what Neon Giant can do in the future but I can't recommend 'The Ascent' even though I really want to because so much hard work has gone into this but it is let down by its mechanics and systems.

Pros:
- Fantastic Gameplay
- Weapons feel unique with great feedback
- Monster design is interesting and each type feels unique, even variants of the same monster have different bahviours (more aggressive, quicker, different movesets).
- Monster animation and design convey behaviour very well.
- Sound design is excellent.

Cons:
- Network issues concerning multiplayer
- Due to the nature of the game it is best played on a gamepad (controller). Similar to how RTS should be played on mouse and keyboard.

Summary:
- Easily game of the year 2018
- Small but frustrating (at times) disconnecting issues but these will likely be ironed out soon enough.
- Better played with gamepad (controller).

Excellent bang for your buck. Finally a hard, punishing and rewarding game.