Closed Beta Feedback - Pros & Cons & Worries

After 25h played during this weekend, it is time to condense all the feedback in a single post.
it is going to be long, so apologies in advance for the WoT.

COOL STUFF (Pros):
- Soundtrack:
Holy Throne, Jesper Kid is motherfucking genious. YES/10.

- Atmosphere:
You nailed it.
Dark, damp, inhuman noises, demonic screams, monstrous shapes toiling in the darkness.
I loved it.

- Maps:
I’ve really enjoyed the fact that a lot of map sections possess 2 different approach or lanes so it can be a little bit more tactical also based on what kind of team or special spawns you get. Good job.

-Tactical Approach:
I’ve noticed it in Diff3 and of course it is more and more evident in Diff4 and 5: you need to organize and cooperate much more in DT than what we did in VT2.
like with the “ranged issue” (as I like to call the classic enemy ranged fire team that tends to pin you behind a cover in Diff3+), which it creates a situation where the team needs to enable the vet so he can snipe by defending him. Or follow through the eventual Ogryn/Zealot charge to close in CQC with them. Or when a big special (Bulwark or Ogryn) comes out and Psyker needs to find the space to Brain Splat him (again, enabled by team coordination).
Much appreatiated and a good step in improving the efficency of a coordinated team.

-Melee Mechanic:
After 800h+ of Vermintide 2, I am clearly happy you kept the skeleton of the mechanic, if nothing else not to waste ton of muscolar memory.
It looks a little more forgiving than VT2 (with the recharging toughness and so on) but all in all is ok.
There is something to fix in the RANGE of both our and enemies melee reach (seems a little stretched at the moment, not sure if it was latency related).
Mixed feelings on the slide mechanic but I probably only need to get used to it.

NOT SO COOL STUFF (or the Cons):
- Banter
Not much to say, it is pretty terrible.
Cause for this I think it is clear to many ppl and it is the Character Creation.
I am sure a lot of players would be happy to be able to create their own personalized character but the direct effect is that once you are in a mission, you simply are placed in front of other 3 Ken/Barbie dolls that are utterly generic.
Final result is that it is impossible to get attached to them in any way, shape or form.
The basckground story idea seemed cool in theory so to also be able to personalize the banter but you cannot really develop personalities like that.
You will never be able to create a swearing-insult machine like Kerillian.
You will never create a “I want to go back home but I cannot” type of Bardin.
You will never develop the jailer-prisoner relation between a Sienna and a Saltz.
You will never see the internal conflict between righteousness and pragmatism.

You will never have a POGGERS bridge or a Cousin Okri :frowning:

To many of you these will sound like a disheartened VT2 hardcore fan but the harsh reality is that that banter and those interaction were the glue of the U5 and contributed in creating the fanbase for VT2, sometimes even more than the gameplay itself.

Maybe this approach is in line with the setting, in the end you are one “between untold trillions” and no special snowflakes…but DAMN I am going to miss the interactions.

- No class limit:
To begin with, I was ok with it. But 1 day of beta was enough to understand that it will never work.
A limit on how many of the same class can be in a mission needs to be implemented.
It is not funny to play with 3xPsykers, it is not fun competing for ammo with 3xVet and it is not fun being shot ceaselessy by ranged as 3x Ogryn.
Also I cannot pretend not to see what will happen when you will release a new class, that for 2 weeks in a row we will get party of NEWCLASS x 4.
Or god forbid you pull out a utterly-broken-SotT-tier class and it will be forever spammed in every mission.

- Hub/Mourningstar:
I may be ok with third-person perspective here but at the moment looked empy/useless. Also the inability to test weapons and moveset when not in mission is a critical loss.
I am not sure you are planning for a “test/gym” area for release but you should.

- Tooltip and secret mechanics:
So again, VT2 experience taught you nothing.
What it is so difficult in using numbers instead of bars? Why does it need to be mysterious?

GENERAL PERPLEXITIES:
- Classes:
In order:
-Psyker: the one I’ve played the most. I liked the playstyle, the flexibility given by which ranged weapon you are bringing (force staff or revolver). It looked like the one with the highest skill ceiling in terms of “how good my positioning is going to be so that I can squeeze out as many BS as I can”.
Love it.
- Veteran: True novelty, a fully ranged class. A little boring but critical in disposing of the “ranged issue” / special. needs to be protected by teammates so he can operate at best.
- Zealot: Copy-paste of VT2 Zealot, barring the fact that you do not have a drop of Victor Charisma.
Did not farm high enough to unlock the ShockMaul but that one looked like the good weapon to have.
Also when joined to the “full toughness” career skill and the charge, it is clearly going to be the melee king.
Absolutely not inspired but effective.
- Ogryn: The real dilemma. He does not have a space. He has a charge as the zealot (very lazy here, Fatshark) but he has does not have the toughness sustain and basically he cannot go into cover.
The huge stagger is cool but not sure he will outperform the zealot in higher diff.

- Number of Classes at release:
The elephant in the room: VT2 came out with 15 careers, everyone as fleshed out (if not more) than the ones currently in DT.
Even if you will be able to maintain you scheduling of “1 class per quarter” (BIG IF HERE), it means that in 1 year time we will have HALF of the classes available in VT2 at release.
God forbid what will happen if you in the end decide to go full greed and paywall the new classes.

- GaaS:
There is nothing good in GaaS.
I mean, I am sure financially it has its own merit but the idea that the stoty will change and become unaccessible after a time sound simply like a shitty design choice. You can try to sugarcoat it as you prefer in terms of “dynamic storytelling” but in the end, you are playing with people FIMO.

Cross-class weaponry:
Looks cool that you can now bring your favourite weapon to another class but still leaves a “lazy” aftertaste in my mouth

FINAL EVALUATION:
Game has a lot of potential and was fun to play.
But I cannot pretend not to see the direction you would like this new title to go and I am not sure I like it.

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