My second Beta weekend and second feedback.
I did only play 5 games this time (1 solo 4 matchmaking) frankly the que times (up to 15 mins again) and im sorry to say being thoroughly bored by the gameplay.
i covered most of the issues and complaints i have in my last feedback dont see any point rehashing all that .
I am 44 i have been playing computer games since the day one. and looking down my steam library looking at played times 4 player Co op shooters seem to be a very popular genre for me , the left for deads,Vermintide all 300-400 hours , warframe over 1600 (i suspect ive left that open over night a few tims though)
So why does this game just leave me cold? i chase the cause of teh problem, i dont find it fun , why? not rewarding, why?
And i think its a lack of player agency, in left for dead or vermintide, it doesnt matter how many enemies are coming or how few hits you can take there is always a way to play through it , they ask the player to up thier game and you are rewarded by success or punished by failing.
In this game i just do not get that reward/punishment feeling , im thinking back to the few deaths i received this weekend , hmm there was that time a dropship dropped its cargo on my head and i couldnt see them coming because i was using an anti air cannon and had a locked fov. there was that time i tried to climb a ledge near an enemy (try it you'll see what i mean)
Other than that it was when a punch was dodged and there were 2 enemies or more in sight,
Yes its still my fault for going for the punch in that situation , but my success or failure is not down to me, if they dodge or not is a dice roll.
In games i loved and played for days on end , the situation was always workable you were never dead until you actually went down, but in this situations are either trivial no skill required (press the grapple or punch button being literally the only effort required) or certain death.
its the same problem i warned about in the for honour beta, any players success or failure relies not on the skillful use of their character but relying on the opponent making a mistake.
The Antagonist Mechanic
I do not believe it to be balanceable , there is just no way for matchmaking to accurately assess the strength of a group.
the band you have to hit to make the Antagonist do his job , ie that of making the game interesting and close is very narrow and the two outer ends where one side gets utterly destroyed is very wide.
just one example , you have 4 average skilled players that have been playing random pick up games all night , now these four friends team up, get on voice comms and the same players effectiveness gets massively changed, next time they dont have voice comms or are missing one etc etc, you see you cant measure and match against the variables even if you had an infinite theoretical pool and you wont have that you will have a very limited pool and no guarantee of its spread.
Another issue is some of us, like me want to play PVE co op, Antognist forces the game into PvP , does your game appeal to that market?
i ask because this weekend no Antagonists appeared , and all matches were very easy wins with few deaths.
I would like to see an "Ai director" with varied and controlled spawns of enemies
the addition of different types of enemy , think of the specials in left for dead, they do multiple jobs , they provide a spike in challenge and promote team co ordination
best of luck with the game and thanks for the beta invite, i will happily try each beta release , but at this point unless some massive sweeping changes to the very core gameplay loop are coming this game is simply not for me. and as subjective as opinions are i feel like i have seen enough to say other games have made these mistakes and failed before and right now your making all the design choices i thought of as mistakes that both evolve and for honour made.
