I’ve put a little over 3 hours into this now, I’m definitely enjoying it and in no way do I think this deserves scores as low as it got, 7 seems to be where id be putting it, I do think the game has some major and minor issues though
The world just seems super dead, like there’s nothing happening at all and not in a “where’s all the civilians/arkham asylum way” but in a there’s literally nothing of interest going on at all kinda way
You run across massive sections of land without encountering anything whatsoever, it doesn’t feel good and it’s super unengaging, there should be far more combat/things going on during travels to and from major areas and missions
Kind of related to the first point and maybe I’m just not looking hard enough but it seems there’s way too many buildings and areas that simply can’t be explored which is clearly
Last point related to the world but so far, the world itself just isn’t very interesting
Maybe it’s because I finally played Prey relatively recently but Talos 1 was so interesting to explore, not only from a visual standpoint but because it awarded you constantly with thorough exploration
It all just gives me the impression Open World is not what this studio is about
The combat itself isn’t terrible but it also feels kind of…simplistic? I get that they’ve went for more of a shooter with this vs Prey, where it was literally play/kill/avoid enemies however you want with powers abilities that completely change how you play the game
This has very little of that, you could probably combine all 4 characters together, let the player choose which abilities to get and upgrade and it would still feel far less unique and less play choice that Prey provided! I get that this is supposed to be more of a shooter but that doesn’t stop it feeling super basic and generic for me
The is very subjective but im not a big fan of the tone, im playing as Layla and she’s constantly quipping to herself to the point it makes me appreciate the silent protagonist in Prey! Not only does it kind of kill the tone for me but the quips themselves just make me roll my eyes
Story, obviously it’s very early and it might get more intriguing but Prey’s story was interesting from the jump with one of the best intro’s to a game ever, this has nowhere near the intrigue it did
There’s probably other complaints I have but those are kind of the thing I have off the top of my head! I apologise for the constant comparisons to Prey but it’s imo the most underrated game ever made and a masterpiece, it’s also Arkane Austins last game so to go from it to this is one of the biggest bummers ever
If this was just another studio/game id think, yeah this is fine, not terrible nothing special but with it being Austin and knowing they are capable of sho much more it’s just disappointing
Sounds like a harsh way to put it but after playing it for a but I wouldn’t be surprised if their was some truth to it! At some point you have to decide if it’s better to just get a game out there because no amount of delays are going to turn a game around if it’s just not coming together well and this is sort of how I feel about this
They might have had a vision for this but it was just never coming together the way they wanted and it was better to just get it out there and move onto the next thing
I don’t want to defend redfall here but to be fair if you play the last of us part 2, in the beginning you can see certain npc’s with the exact same model multiple times in the same area.
I’m enjoying it but damn, in terms of visuals and polishing, what happened ? It feels like it’s from 10 or 15 years ago. Did Arkane Austin had immense trouble to learn Unreal Engine 4 ?
The game clearly had an extremely troubled development
I can forgive polish and graphics if the gameplay carries, Prey was hardly top class when it came to either but the game was so damn good it didn’t matter
All the things that made Prey good are completely absent here, the game is just fundamentally flawed
Same with Horizon Zero Dawn. They have like 3 npc-models, I frequently ran into new people i was certain i had allready met, but no they just look the same lol.
Minecraft Legends was whatever at best with promise to be good down the line.
As for your first point, sadly yes. Starfield will need to be borderline generational, anything less would be looked at as a disappointment. The standards were that high even before MS bought them, it’s only been amplified since the purchase.
Surely, an 85+ is not a disappointment. If Starfield is the most polished BGS game ever (even though there will always be bugs in any game), then the only way the game can be affected is if there is something wrong with the game fundamentally. Last year, the primary issue was with the game being unpolished in terms of performance.
Man, looking at Rand al’Thor’s and Spawn Wave Plus’ reactions to their latest videos, I haven’t seen such vitriol since they dragged King Louis to the guillotine!
This just feels like State of Decay all over again. That was also UE4 and had the very same issues. Just started playing the game and there’s definitely a solid game here but mired with bugs. It certainly seems Halo Infinite dodged a lot as I would imagine had they focused on UE4 it could have been similar. I wish they had used other open world engine games like the one Ubisoft uses for it’s Far Cry or the Cry Engine.
Slowly making progress in between other games, did a side mission yesterday to fix the popcorn machine.
Ran into 1 shield vamp and 3 shroud vamps, I need to work a strategy for taking on the shield vamps. As getting to close starts up a auto suck ability, and using smaller space to keep it out doesn’t work for long as it can teleport. Same with the shroud vamps, they can sink into shadow and get into places I could hide, but I think they’re easier to handle as I can see there trail, it’s just finding them in the shroud that takes time.
The shroud vamps also really tank the fps when staked, it’s the most notable drop I have gotten so far.
I have also been paying more attention to the weapon damage and I need to ask if the shotgun shots are stronger up super close or are they not worth using over pistols?
The issue with rating systems is that it furlough usually ends up boiling down to a 5 point system. Which usually goes back to what I’m guessing a bit of people are familiar with. And that’s the letter system.
A
B
C
D
F
Which usually was out of 100. And because of that anything below 60 was failing. I’ve just learned to accept that is usually how most people grade. Some try to break the norm and good on them but people probably won’t see it the same way. Which also goes back to why scores are usually meaningless and what’s written is the part that matters.