After having gone through these maps dozens of times, one thing that’s limiting the replay experience is how similar each run on the same mission can turn out during moments where you have to stand and hold position while a timer runs or during the finale. There’s no bosses, just waves of goons and in some places it can be the SAME goons every time. The worst offender that comes to mind is waiting on the elevator to come down after scanning the bodies for codes in Vigil. The specials and elites will always spawn in the same places and you can have your shot pre-lined up to liquify the snipers before they even have a chance to look down their scope. This is far from the only map that has this problem.
The AI director really needs a wider range of deployable during these moments or at least have the occasional boss charge into the area.
Agree with this. The only exits I think works is the ammo raid map and the map with the 2/3 bridges that breaks and you have to run quite a distance through multiple horde spawns. Can’t for the life of me remember the mission.
Ammo works because you do the objective up until you enter, no holding out or waiting. Pressure and you have to react to stuff happening.
Same thing with the other mission, though it’s easier. Things can still go wrong though so once again you have to be on your toes.
Others, meh… usually as soon as you are done with the “last” part of the objective, you know you have won the map so the rest becomes tedious.
If this is a wider criticism of events, I would like these “hurry up and wait” events (the hacking ones, mostly) to be shorter and trickle more mobs between horde surges. They all feel just a hair too long.
Edit: And they interfere with penances (such as maintaining max warp charge stacks for an entire mission)
For example, the smelter mission should have you trying to get to the elevator as you’re being chased down. It should start spawning hounds, mutants, trappers. It really need to make you feel like you’re getting away by the skin of your teeth.
Assassination missions should already have adds spawned in, I don’t understand why a heretic commander wouldn’t have a platoon of cultists at his command to defend them, or why the enemy stops attacking after you kill them.
The mission with a lengthy run is Hab Block Dreyko. Best finale in my opinion.
Aside from that I can’t say all finales feel anti-climactic. I still like them as they are having spent over 150h in the game already.
Yeah, more variations on these events would be great - maybe these parts of the maps could be expanded with more randomized/modular elements - different room layouts, objects & obstructions, horde spawn locations etc.
By the title, I thought you were going to talk about events like the very end of missions. The only one that has a remotely challenging extraction phase is Hab Dreyko, and it’s really fun - but again, repetitive. While in many others you just walk down an empty hallway to a lift or to the valkyrie, it’s a very short trip and there’s no enemy spawns