Introduction:
Played 26 hours in the first two days and will do some more hours for fun today, but i think i have collected all my needed informations. Highest class being Veteran on level 22, tried three classes. Used all weapons that were given to me at least once. Played all maps several times, played all difficulties at least once except the last one on principle, because i think the highest difficulty should be a challenge for maxed out characters and i cant max out in the beta.
Performance Feedback: 7/10
Played the game on the minimum settings throughout and it still looked good enough for me to enjoy it. It was a rather smooth experience except for latency issues that sometimes made me get hit by enemies even though i dodged their attacks. Nothing major though and i expect that not being the case in the release version. Havent experienced any obvious or gamebreaking bugs. Technical issues like disconnects and crashes were prevalent, but its a beta and i expect those to not be happening in the release version, at least not after the first week anymore.
Map Feedback: 7/10
Atmospheric with good length. Nothing really to complain about, you know how to do maps. Though i would still like to see a Repeat button when the team fails the mission. I also dont see any reason for Secondary Objectives to exist, we tried them several times but could never finish them and yet it didnt matter for our progression at all. Since loot is also not a significant part of the game anymore and some secondary objectives have negative effects on you and your team, i personally dont see a reason to do them ever and if there is no point then why have them exist?
I would also like to see that at least the crafting items you can pick up in a run are shared between the players.
Combat Mechanic Feedback: 9/10
Come on, its basically Vermintide. It should be hard for you to get it wrong. Melee is good, Ranged is fun. Nothing to complain about from my side.
Interface Feedback: 6/10
Its decent, i can live with it. Though i would like to see the Toughness bar from my teammates and an ammunition count, since ammunition items are used individually except when using the ammo crate.
Progression Feedback: 3/10
Most dissapointing part for in the game. Seeing only two weapons being part of the loadout made me sad, because this means for me that build variety is at an all time low with weapons and feats being the only components and weapons dont even have significant traits anymore. Of course i havent seen all but the only trait that really did something for me was on a 350 orange lasgun that gave my shots a chance to inflict burn damage.
The leveling speed was ok, i can live with that, but the unlocking of new weapons is far too slow. I got my first chainsword on level 19 even though i would have certainly liked to play with it from at least level 5 or even earlier. Considering the low build variety we need to have a good amount of weapon options very early on and i dont mean the same weapons with different attack animations.
Class Feedback: 5/10
Here again considering the low build variety its certainly not helping that only 4 classes will be available at release. That wasnt a good idea. Either more classes or have more stuff to do in the loadout, like with trinkets to enhance grenades, shield, health or whatever.
From a gameplay standpoint they are quite similar to Vermintide classes, its fine. Nothing major to complain about.
Weapons Feedback: 6/10
The weapons felt overall decent to good. I love the Lasgun, but i hate the Chainsword. You did bad on that one. I believe everyone expected it to be a crowd control weapon and yet its a weapon that is bad against everyting except single ambiente trash enemies. It should have all the weapon animations from the Catachan Sword with the two horizontal charge attacks.
I am also still not sure how i feel about the same weapons having different variations. On one side this variations allow people to use the same weapon for different threads, on the other side this could have been used for new weapons. Like i have Lasgun with stronger shots and less ammo that is good for sniping, but what about the dedicated Lasgun Sniper weapon in 40k? Do we get it in the relase version and wouldnt it make the Lasgun Sniper varitaion a little bit redundant?
Enemy Feedback: 6/10
Enemies are decent as well. Overall good enough variety considering its just one enemy race again. I can live with it. The Pox Hound speed could be turned down a notch, but doesnt have to be. There need to be more obvious sounds for specials though, it wasnt rare that we were surprised by them, especially Trappers.
Difficulty Feedback: 7/10
Not too easy and not too hard for the first 4 difficulty levels, though having experienced the game as a PUG runner and will experience the game as a PUG runner i will propose two restrictions. Difficulty level 3 should have a Character level 5-10 restriction. 10 would be the safe option, 5 the more risky one. Difficulty level 4 should have a Character level 15-20 restriction, again 20 as safe option and 15 maybe a bit riskier. Again, i am talking from a PUG runner perspective.
The first two levels do not need a restriction and the last level should not be used in the progression phase, but that is my opinion. I am pretty sure that difficulty 2, 3 and 4 will be nerfed soon after release, because people will certainly complain, the same as they complained in Vermintide 2.
HUB Feedback: 2/10
It looks good and that is the only positive thing i have to say about it. I would glady change the unneedingly forced Third-Person View for First-Person View and a Shooting Range to test out my weapons. I dont understand why it has to be multiplayer with random people and why i am not even in the same HUB as my teammates. Not being able to customize it doesnt help either.
Feels like its made to promote character skins.
Honorable Mentions:
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I hope i do not have to do the tutorial everytime i make new character in the release version.
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There is a massive lack of “For the Emperor!” and “The Emperor protects!” in the game. People already asked for a “Rock and Stone” equivalent and it has to be in the game. It just has to be.
Conclusion: 6/10
I know your work since the release of Vermintide 1, which is the reason why i didnt expect much and you showed again that you made a game that is full of potential and you just wont use it. That is not surprising anymore and i wont complain about it because that wont do anything.
But you also got the basics down again and those are the prime reasons why i played Horn of Magnus for hours on end in V1 and why i spent 1400 hours in V2 to collect all available red skins. The base gameplay is just fun.
The beta hasnt swayed me away from buying the game and spent another couple thousand hours into it. But dont take it as validation that you do overall good work. Try to use the protential you create with your work at least once.