This has not been a good week for me when it comes to gaming. Two game releases I was watching out for and not enough time to properly review either. Ah well, at least there are these first impressions.
So Star Wars: The Old Republic finally released it's first expansion, Rise of the Hutt Cartel. Other than the level cap increase from 50 to 55, there are quite a few nice changes. Class talents and abilities have been tuned for the additional levels, but I cannot honestly say if any balance issues were fixed or if any new ones arose. There were some interesting playstyle changes due to some change, like adding yet another ability to the Jedi Shadow tank rotation for additional threat. I also did like making the Mercenary's Kolto Missile baseline rather than a talent.
Interestingly, gear levels didn't quite jump as high as I would have thought. A gear level of 126 is recommended for level 50 hard mode flashpoints and 146 for level 55 ones. That means that anyone already in Black Hole/Campaign gear will be able to just jump right into the group finder once they hit 55. This also means that they already outgear much of the new leveling content.
Case in point, my own Jedi Guardian is mostly in Black Hole/Rakata gear and the first set of quests really did not pose much of a problem. I was even ambushed by a level 51 champion droid while AFK (lesson: never afk in hostile territory) and still beat it with my companion dead and was down to 64% health when I got back to my keyboard. The first Heroic 2+ quest did not pose any challenge at all to solo. I am pretty sure newer players or those who has new 50s would find things challenging and may want to run some level 50 flashpoints to help gear up.
As far as new content goes, Makeb has a pretty interesting story. Granted, I've only finished one set of missions, so I cannot give much of an opinion on it overall. Same with the new operation and additional hard mode flashpoints.
From what I have seen, Rise of the Hutt Cartel is pretty much just more SWTOR. Whether that is a good or bad thing remains to be seen. I will be playing more once my time frees up, but I have yet to get really excited about it. Time will tell if Bioware manages to bring the game back up into prominence or simply maintained the status quo.
Highlights
- Finally! Transferrable set bonuses on old set gear! That has been on the want list for like...over a year. Better late then never I suppose. Now my Shadow and Assassin can look like less of an idiot. This also means adaptive gear is way, way more valuable. Well, the good looking ones anyway.
- Following up with the first point is that new gear looks absolutely awful. I really, really need to know what goes on when they design the gear.
- Consolidated planetary currency. Thank goodness for that. A definite plus for those leveling characters and they can allow currency earned to be carried over to the next planet.
- Bioware made sure to get more voice acting done for new content which is always very much appreciated. Nothing irks me more than content where my character does not say anything; likely due to not being able to get the original voice actors.
So some friends convinced me to give Defiance a try last weekend, so I gave it a try. I gotta say that I hope my first impressions don't last.
The game took a very long time to download - almost 30 minutes and was later plagued by a number of connection issues. While such issues are not new in online game launches, most end up stable enough by the first weekend. This was certainly not so and the most play i've gotten in the weekend was just past the first major story mission; maybe 1-2 hours in.
Over the past week though, I was able to get a few hours of gaming in and I am happy to say that it is a fun game. Not a great game by any stretch, but fun nonetheless. Still not enough to really give a full review, but it's impressions give me enough to talk about.
One thing to note first though, is that Defiance is not a redefinition of an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game), though it certainly fits the MMO category quite well. It is basically a third person shooter with a Massive Multiplayer map (seewutIdidthur?). It definitely does not fit well as an RPG. Other than a decent character creation screen, there are hardly any roleplaying aspects in the game. You play as a silent character that really just tags along with whatever the main characters are doing. So yeah, it's a typical shooter.
Speaking of the story, it is pretty lackluster. Considering that this game has a tie-in with an upcoming TV show with the same name, one would think that they will want to get people hyped up about the show through the game. I've seen the trailers for the show, and it came off as pretty bland, but I still definitely check it out. The game itself does not add anything to build anticipation nor does it even provide any good backstory for the world.
All I can gather is that aliens immigrated to earth which ended up devastated by....something. Mutants (mutated by what, I have no clue) and raiders (various factions, but all the same), form the token organized group of antagonists in addition to "hellbugs", insect-like aliens that are really rather generic non-human enemies. Some even remind me of Half-Life headcrabs.
Enemy AI is ... well, decent I suppose. There are some that dodge out of the way during combat, but I can't really tell if they dodge in response to an attack or just to move into position. There is also little variety with the AI among same types to the point that they become incredibly predictable. Much of the challenge in the game is really due to suddenly becoming overwhelmed by enemies. Many, many times, I carefully snipe 5 raiders and then find 6 others spawned right next to me.
But questions like, who these aliens are, where did they come from, what the hell happened to devastate the earth? Those things are just plan lacking in the game. Considering that it is an absolutely new franchise, backstory does allow more immersion in the world and would make us care about the TV show. Rift was a new franchise that did well to establish the world to it's players. Yes, it was rather simplistic, but it was enough to at least know what was going on and who we are fighting and why. In Defiance, we are just living to get by, with no real way to relate to it's world other than it's yet another post-apocalyptic Earth.
As for gameplay, it is a shooter. I am not exactly the best person to say whether it is a good or bad shooter, but it works out nicely. Coming from playing MMORPGs for years though, the controls were a bit odd. Not being able to mouse-move threw me for a loop at the start, but thats just me not being a shooter person to begin with.
Other shooter type gameplay elements include different weapon loadouts (although only 2 weapons per loadout can be equiped), regenerating health/shields (although healing weapons are available later in the game), and headshots...oh I love headshots. Controls are minimal compared to an RPG and really works better with a console gamepad. Still, the PC setup allows me to make some nice headshots. Did I mention that I like headshots?
The options interface was definitely harder to get used to and shows evidence that the game is a console port. It took me quite a while to figure out how to even exit from the game. Normally, the ESC button brings up the main menu, but this time it only shows the loadout screen. Hitting the spacebar for a radial menu is really not intuitive.
All in all, Defiance is a pretty decent game and, despite several gripes, is genuinely fun. Hopefully the story picks up later on and I actually do want to see the TV show become popular so we get to see how the tie-in works.
Highlights
- Have I mentioned Defiance is free to play? Well sorta. Updates are paid for, but the cost is still unknown. Season pass for all updates in the year is $39.95 but how many updates we will see is also unknown.
- Headshots! Most human enemies die with one well placed shot. Although I would have liked to see effects on different parts - like disarming armshots or slowing legshots.
- The EGO system is Defiance's talent system. Interesting but rather complex so I don't have much of an opinion if it yet. All I know is that I am probably doing something wrong.
- Vehicle driving is fun and has a bit of a learning curve. Being able to run over bugs was a pleasant surprise.
- I like that different weapons have different feel to them. A machine gun fire feels more weighty than a sub-machine gun. Goes the same with different weapons of the same class (i.e. different types of shotguns)
Even for someone who is only mildly into fighting games or DC comics, I find Injustice to be an oddly compelling package. Fighting games have always fascinated me with pretty fancy attack moves. I am not ashamed to admit that my attention to this genre completely depends on how awesome an ultramegasuperduperfinaldashpicnhmeinthecheek attack is. Challenge is low on the totem pole when choosing fighting games and my lack of skill with them only shames me ever so slightly. Granted, setting the bar very low for myself does allow me to enjoy the game even when another player is handing me my ass on a platter.
Since comics these days are all about being as flashy as possible, Injustice did make a lot of sense. I have to say that I did find the game rather fun.
The demo itself was pretty light with only 3 playable characters and one battle mode, but it should be sufficient to preview the most important aspect of the game - the fighting. I liked how playstyles differed with each character; Lex Luthor did feel like someone in a giant mech suit would be and is not as agile as Batman. Even without a change of difficulty, Doomsday felt like a more powerful and sturdy opponent than those before him. Controls were responsive and, thankfully, not too punishing to my clumsy fingers. I manage to pull off moves I wanted more so than most other fighting games.
Speaking of moves, I have to just prostrate myself in praise of this game in the fact that you can pin move lists in the fighting screen. One of the biggest difficultiesI have with this genre is the fact that I cannot memorize the more complex or more powerful moves. Being able to see specific moves without having to pause and go through multiple screens every time is something that ALL fighting games should do. No more excuses.
The superduperspecial attacks are also pretty nice and flashy as expected and easy enough to execute once the special bar is full (just press both trigger buttons on the XBOX). These attacks can be blocked however and, really, can end up being a disadvantage, even if it does succeed.
One thing I did notice was that the special power bar has more uses than charging the megabeatdown attack. Parts of it can be consumed to make character specific attacks more powerful like adding an explosion to Batman's batarang attack, and it can be used to even regenerate health via the wager system.
True to many, MANY, mainstream comics, the game allows for a head on head attack by both players trough a wager. Each player wagers parts of his/her power bar and they go charge each other. The one who wagers more power ends up the winner and can regain a certain amount of health. Not sure what happens when there's a tie as I've never actually won a wager yet. All this does introduce a level of strategy with, sadly, is way beyond me but is welcome all the same.
All in all, I had fun with the demo and I do want to see more of it. It won't be a priority purchase though and my getting it will depend on whether I am enthralled by another game or not.
