I'm personally judging them by the effort it must of had to take to make them, any special VFX and how cool they generally look.
I'll also be including default skins and will explain why I think they are good or bad.
#5 The Good: Schneider - Remote Unit - "4n3sk4"
For those of you who are aware of the anime FLCL (Fooly Cooly) and know the red-variant of the character Canti. You could greatly appreciate the fact that this skin exist in the game. Now if you don’t that’s fine too, This alone might be reason enough to get Schneider. I mean who doesn't want to replace Schneider with a Robot.
#5 The Bad: Mikah - Space Mechanic
I have this skin on the tail end of the top-5 list because it leaves me conflicted. I love the badass Tattoos on her and I want to see more of it, but much like Schneider’s FTMG skin, running around as a Mechanic version of a favorite character is Mildly interesting at best.
#4 The Good: Ginebra - Sabertooth "Heavy Armor"
Theirs nothing like a black sleek suit of armor and when transformed, glowing red eyes to make you feel like a cut above the rest. I’m not going to lie, Using this skin usually makes me feel like a boss. I can’t do a lax mission while using this skin its either I go hard or change character.
#4 The Bad: Doldren - La Parca
I love Doldren, the mans Death on two legs and I have nothing wrong with his Default outfit, but this *IS* his default outfit just with a Coat and a neck sash on. I noticed that his suit is slightly more brighter but come on its a smidge bit lazy.
#3 The Good: Iune - Emnu Nadi
Perhaps its my own personal bias opinion but if it weren’t for the remaining top 2, this skin would be the most interesting skin in the game. “ahem” Ok so that aside it always bothered me that saying the Locals are Aliens. From a visual stand-point they’re just humans with white hair and the sclera of the eye is black/Grey. This skin is Majestic as hell, more so than with HIVE’s Destiny’s Bride skin and far more fitting of the title Alien then the other Locals.
#3 The Bad: Alicia - Default
I’ll just get to the point, That face. I actually thought she was on drugs when I first saw her, with her red bags under her eyes. Couple that with her odd hairstyle (even with scars she can still figure something out) and bright orange leggings had me staying clear of her and never getting the chance to use her effective powers. I understand the idea was something along the lines of making her look like a Rebel which is Feint but there but she comes off as Trashy. (But I cant deny she has a great body though for what it's worth.)
#2 The Good: Shae - Emnu Dagan
Now very much like Iune’s Emnu transformation, Shae also altered herself, albeit a far more sinister and evil look. Now I’m not sure if her design was inspired from the antagonist of the Berserk anime but she looks a whole lot like Femto (Griffith). Which is making a statement because that demon is the epitome of cruelty. Which speaks volumes for her character. (great for antagonist role play) Playing as her with this skin makes you feel like you should be a Loner and be some kind of uber assassin which is fun as hell.
#2 The Bad: Schneider - Fishtank Murder Groupie
When you see Schneider, let alone a Groupie version of him, the word Badass doesn’t really come to mind. Perhaps because we already learned how agitating he can be, is what had me place him so low but none the less this skin will seem to only be interesting in niche groups of players who are interested in Dubstep,Trap,House, Techno and so on.
(I messed the order up a bit)
1# The Bad: Hans - Default
If this list was determined by mission effectiveness, Hans would be in the top 5 best, but visually speaking when seeing him for the first time you could easily gloss over him to the more aesthetically pleasing characters besides him. At first glance I get a sense of a washed-out old man who seems past his prime and doesn’t even look threatening to boot. I could imagine him being the type to throw an empty beer bottle as he slurs his words. To make matters worse you never see him in the story except the 1st mission so you never get the chance to see if theirs more to him than expected.
#1 The Best: Loath - Grendel
Before I begin praising this skin I want to say a small gripe. When you have an amazing look but are generally unable to act as you appear it generally sucks, and I’ll get more into that in a second.
Its one thing to be Shae and have her skin look like a demon or monster but in Loaths case, he is very much the real deal. Sinister red eyes, reptilian spiked hide and razor sharp claws and teeth. Anywhere else this guy would easily pass as a boss fight but instead he’s on the side of the Raiders. This man is a savage (literally). His beastial form is by far the best playable feature in the game even if its for a small window.
Now the thing is, I don’t want to see anymore of his belching, butt-scratching and luchador flipping we’ve been having with Loath. I’d like to see a base melee chain that is oriented to claw swipes and bites. Emotes where for a moment he flips out and into a Rage/Spaz or you see his right arm beginning to transform against his will before he snaps out of it and has it shrink back. These are the things that will make Loath perfect in my eyes and fortunately this could happen with the new store that’s coming in the future that goodness.
Honorable mentions:
Ginebra - Default
Sorry, for completely professional and very serious purposes I HAD to put Ginebra here for one or more reasons….Da Booty.
Doldren - Prisoner of the Pit of Repudiation
Doldren always was the Reaper among the Raiders, but when this skin came out I thought, “finally something other then a "pretty-boy” psychopath" Now he really fits the bill more so than his default skin.
Loath - Subject #02
I’m just going to say it, I laughed so much every time I used this skin. The thought of a buck-assed nude sweaty man charging at you (the enemy) made every mission that much more fun, not to mention the subtle reminder of the character Wolverine in his Weapon-X days was a nice nod too.
Oh also, the fact that he has a mouth gag like his former ally wardogs is really interesting for me as an Antagonist. I now plan on using this skin when Antagging in any Umbra Wardog related missions, because frankly he as "Subject #02" is the not-so-secret weapon of the attacking wardog party, an Apex Predator if you will.
HIVE - Destiny’s Bride
I always enjoyed seeing how majestic HIVE looks with this skin. The gold ornaments and white organic material looks great and her blue-ish skin only makes it stand out that much more. (If only she had an equally ornate gun to compliment this skin
)
Valeria - Harvester Unit
Valeria’s default skin really set a standard for her personality, she’s wealthy, beautiful in her own way and has a bit of a vampire thing going for her. Then when you see the harvester Unit its like the person driving the car was about to miss there turn and made a really hard left. I’m not going to say her design is bad, its actually really amazing aside from the entire head. I love her limbs, the bladed sections look particularly lethal.
Dis-Honorable Mentions:
Dr. Kuzmann - The Surgeon
I love the Doctor, but I always hated that his Skull was never visible all the time but thanks to his default skin, he looked cool enough to forget about it, here though its essentially a Palette swap of his default skin with added bits. That seems mildy annoying.
Lycus Dion - Mars Mercenary
Part of the thing about Lycus I never liked was the Fact he had a Mullet, How is the most badass immortal in the Galaxy (no not Lobo from DC) is running around with a Mullet. You’d think in his hundreds of years of being alive he’d be interested in trying something new? But I digress, Lycus in my opinion screams badass in just about all his skins, but with this one I just think “Mehh” his metal arms are ok and those glasses don’t make him look any cooler.
Rak Mayura - Great Hunter
Not much to critique about with this skin other than the fact that 90% of the time using this skin will make no sense as far as the climate is concerned. Its about as understandable as bringing just your swimming trunks and or 2-Piece to the Antarctic
Ginebra - Slave Unit
I’m really not a fan of any skin that’s just a palette swap of another. Thats the case here, remove Ginebra’s shoulder pads and add a new model for the head and you have the most expensive skin in the game.
Dr.Kuzmann -Walker from the Deep
Frankly I’m not a fan of playing as a zombie but I can’t deny this is a very out there look. This would be the 2nd fifth council character with an uncanny appearance that diverges from the fifth council staple.
OK, so there you have it. My top 5 best and worst skins but all of these were my personal choices and frankly I was very biased on them. What top #5 would of been more Accurate?
