Imperial Dane
13 Feb 2008, 22:45
Well i got the Beta and thought that i would post my impressions so far and probably add to it as i play it a little more.. anyhow:
Well i started out with the campaign.. placing me out in the middle of some jungle without the slightest clue as to what was going on, after clicking around a little.. i did figure out :) I then proceeded with a rather dull walk through the jungle, ending up with me somehow clearing the level.. without any sort of story progression or any deeper knowledge as how to play the game.
Second level loaded, and i saw those lore tidbits in the loading screen and thought : Cool ! :go: That was a nice detail as to how to fill in on the background and what was going on (especially the last mission), of course things quickly got nonsensical, with the main character.. who was some honourable military honour guy from a megacity.. who then ends up living with mutants and being with a mutant girl or soemthing. That irked me in several ways, first... it made no sense from what little knowledge i had of his character portrayal. Secondly it made no sense considering what kind of background he had at all.. i mean high tech leader guy living among primitives ? Still keeping his high tech lord commander gear ? And that mission was also quite easy.. and again. Nothing special happened somehow, no story progression of noticable kind and no real thought required about anything.
So with fear i proceeded to the third mission.. once more a dull mission, which has me fight with only one character against several troopers and rippers at once.. okay, i learn of the betrayal and i walk back towards the village.. battling the evil apprentice and his minions.. only to lose, for the apparent reason that some defenders at the other end of the village was out of reach.. and then i got bored with it.
So the campaign.. i really sincerely hope that a lot of work is still needed here in your opinion.. because it is really boring and unimaginative.. and not sticking together at several points.. And it also leaves out all the cool background lore you have and such.
Impression from multiplayer games:
Well this was more fun.. and as i quickly learned.. I LOVE HUMANS ! .. which i normally also do in other games.. but here it was really a pleasure, the troopers, the judge (just lacks a naming thing so i can call him dredd) the robots and.. the SHOCK TROOPERS ! They are awesome, teleporting in, killing all hostiles and then retreating, i do hope you give them the voices they do deserve :)
I liked the overall abilities, and though it took me some time to build on xenolite and grab artifacts.. it is fun. I just somehow feel that the humans are overpowered compared to the other two races..
The whole ability tree thing: Uhmm.. i can't see the point in this, the items don't do much and xenolite doesn't really come in so the ability tree seems redundant.. and it would still give small bonuses, like the items.
I think you should change it to reflect the influnece of the character and the resources he has available. You could take a look at age of empires 3 home city section to get a basic feel of it. Not saying you should copy it, but look at it and then be inspired by it.. i mean you mention that the shock troopers are sent from the home city.. so why not allow that ability to be purchased through influence.. and then upgraded so they could be permanent.. or be even more when they arrive.
Oh well.. those are just my thoughts for now.
Well i started out with the campaign.. placing me out in the middle of some jungle without the slightest clue as to what was going on, after clicking around a little.. i did figure out :) I then proceeded with a rather dull walk through the jungle, ending up with me somehow clearing the level.. without any sort of story progression or any deeper knowledge as how to play the game.
Second level loaded, and i saw those lore tidbits in the loading screen and thought : Cool ! :go: That was a nice detail as to how to fill in on the background and what was going on (especially the last mission), of course things quickly got nonsensical, with the main character.. who was some honourable military honour guy from a megacity.. who then ends up living with mutants and being with a mutant girl or soemthing. That irked me in several ways, first... it made no sense from what little knowledge i had of his character portrayal. Secondly it made no sense considering what kind of background he had at all.. i mean high tech leader guy living among primitives ? Still keeping his high tech lord commander gear ? And that mission was also quite easy.. and again. Nothing special happened somehow, no story progression of noticable kind and no real thought required about anything.
So with fear i proceeded to the third mission.. once more a dull mission, which has me fight with only one character against several troopers and rippers at once.. okay, i learn of the betrayal and i walk back towards the village.. battling the evil apprentice and his minions.. only to lose, for the apparent reason that some defenders at the other end of the village was out of reach.. and then i got bored with it.
So the campaign.. i really sincerely hope that a lot of work is still needed here in your opinion.. because it is really boring and unimaginative.. and not sticking together at several points.. And it also leaves out all the cool background lore you have and such.
Impression from multiplayer games:
Well this was more fun.. and as i quickly learned.. I LOVE HUMANS ! .. which i normally also do in other games.. but here it was really a pleasure, the troopers, the judge (just lacks a naming thing so i can call him dredd) the robots and.. the SHOCK TROOPERS ! They are awesome, teleporting in, killing all hostiles and then retreating, i do hope you give them the voices they do deserve :)
I liked the overall abilities, and though it took me some time to build on xenolite and grab artifacts.. it is fun. I just somehow feel that the humans are overpowered compared to the other two races..
The whole ability tree thing: Uhmm.. i can't see the point in this, the items don't do much and xenolite doesn't really come in so the ability tree seems redundant.. and it would still give small bonuses, like the items.
I think you should change it to reflect the influnece of the character and the resources he has available. You could take a look at age of empires 3 home city section to get a basic feel of it. Not saying you should copy it, but look at it and then be inspired by it.. i mean you mention that the shock troopers are sent from the home city.. so why not allow that ability to be purchased through influence.. and then upgraded so they could be permanent.. or be even more when they arrive.
Oh well.. those are just my thoughts for now.