I agree, I said way back during the closed beta that they would benefit from adding more standard multiplayer game modes.

Unfortunately my criticisms of the game are mounting the more I play it. In spite of a strong like for the look of the world and the characters, the game just isn't that fun to play over time.  Maybe it's the fact that we're playing the same maps on the beta.

Games without antagonists are so swarmed with AI enemies that it's virtually impossible to beat. Single player isn't really a proper single player mode, just the multiplayer experience scaled down, and most of the time impossible to beat. Balance on antagonist matches is completely arbitrary. You never know what you're going to get, and not in a fun way.

I want to love the game. I really do. But you guys seem to be insisting on hinging an entire game on a gimmick. One that has been tried before and failed to gain a foothold, I might add.

On one of the dev videos, the director mentions that it's "not about different game modes." What's so terrible about having your typical deathmatch or capture-the-flag options? If they aren't an unreasonable financial burden to implement, it only adds value to your game overall. 

After getting into this beta, I finally picked up Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. It's fantastic, and you guys are obviously a studio of talented people.  The truth is, I will buy Raiders when it comes out, even if only out of gratitude for being part of the beta.  How much I end up actually playing it, though, I can't say.   

Future tweaks and additions may make the game appeal to me more, but as it is, I just don't enjoy it enough to justify spending too much of my increasingly limited gaming time on it.

The camera doesn't jump around as much, but the screen still goes red, and your mobility is diminished. It's basically the same as it was.

May 27, 2017 BETA Weekend Feedback

Hello, here are my thoughts following this weekend's playing.

If it's possible to speed up matchmaking for the BETA, or have the servers open longer (for example 3pm Friday to 9pm Sunday), it would help in giving good feedback. I set aside as much time as I can to play, but I burn through it quickly waiting 15-30 minutes to get into a match.

If the bulk of the game is replaying levels like ones we have in the beta, the in-game banter is going to get old. I think especially of Dr Kuzmann, who repeats his taunts quite often. It's OK for the first few times, but after you play the level 20 times, you're probably going to be sick and tired of hearing it.

In "Hanging By A Thread," one of my teammates fell off the map and died when a melee animation (he was attacking an enemy) carried them over the edge. Just as players are invulnerable to fire while in melee, I don't think they should be carried off the map. Maybe not an easy fix, and not a huge priority in the grand scheme of things, but still.

Unless I'm mistaken, you can' t activate your special while heavily damaged. I'm not sure that's fair, as it could give you the advantage to escape.

Speaking of fairness, I'm having a hard time deciding what "fair" or balanced is in this game. I'm wondering if it's even possible to balance. Often times it just seems like chaos. Thus far, my observation is that  the average match hinges on a few critical moments,  rather than a maintained constant of skill or tactical superiority. That can be very exciting, but very frustrating if you've spent 20 minutes on a match only to be swiftly and suddenly destroyed.

It appears that if you don't select a reward on the reward screen, you get nothing. That should be changed.

A couple of matches I played didn't have an antagonist. To balance this, the game seems to throws a higher number of soldiers at you. On a small map like the crane section of "Hanging By A Thread," we were quickly overwhelmed. Another time, on the reactor section of that mission, the rest of my team was killed, and all the soldiers on the map swarmed me in the spawn corridor and quickly finished me off. I'd like to have a chance to play under those conditions again to try different things out, but my immediate impression was that it was an unreasonable amount of opponents.

Another person mentioned spawn points. This is sort of a "worst of both worlds" scenario, as both parties can feel they have the disadvantage. The Antagonist can apparently be spawn camped, but they can also take their time selecting a respawn point and easily ambush anyone that's in that area.

EDIT: Didn't realize there was a parrying mechanic. Is that new?

No, it's been there since the start of the beta a few weeks back. I haven't been able to use it effectively, I'm hoping to experiment with all the melee combat more this weekend. You'll notice the AI has no problem parrying attacks!

The game crashed on me this morning. I was playing solo, and Dr Kuzmann had just killed me. The mission failed screen came up, and then it crashed. The error code given was CE-38700-8.

I'm playing on an original PS4, if that makes a difference.

It will be a lot of fun to play this in a good party, where you can communicate . Pairing off characters with mutually beneficial skills, or having one or two of the ranged characters covering for the others. I'm excited to see what players can come up with, and how many Antagonists will be able to stand up to really good teams.