There’s supposed to be a whole war for Atoma going on, but I’m having a hard time believing it. After playing through the prologue again, there was a lot of fighting in the background that really made it feel like I was taking advantage of a chaotic situation (and Scabs throwing grenades).
Meanwhile you go through a mission and there’s basically no ambient combat going on. Just a bunch of random dudes patrolling and the occasional horde. For areas like Hab Dreyko that are supposed to be heavily-guarded holy ground in enemy territory, this makes sense, but in other areas lke the Carnival, the most you ever get is a bridge with very occasional las-fire being traded in the background.
Bring DoW 1 atmosphere: ravaged streets of Barros, with craters, collapsed buildings, tank traps, destroyed vehicles, barbed wire, trenches, etc. Add new hazards such as mines, machinegun emplacements, sniper nests, mortar pits.
I’ve said this since the launch of the game. Even the missions themselves don’t lend themselves to feeling like wartime missions.
Obviously not all of them have to. An advantage to a 4 person team, as you said is being able to “infiltrate” behind enemy lines.
But picking up a metal recipe book, fixing a water filter and turning on a cooling system don’t really give the feeling of operating in a war zone (even if those things are important, they aren’t “cool”).
The most you’ll ever see is the tutorial mission where there are npc’s shooting and running in the background. Adding the strafing run to the end of Enclavum Baross was a nice touch, but I wish it’d strafe the inside of the arena and clear the last of the chaff.
Even if we see las fire and bolter shots etc from allies and enemies on the outskirts it would be cool. And hearing distant popping of rifles and screams.
Escorting a stranded tank would be such a cool mission too
