So it’s going to be an overall feedback type of post where I’ll share my experience after ~160 hours of beta and “not beta” and others can do the same in this thread - write an overall impression of the game, some pros/cons, etc.
So at the start the game feels nice as it’s made in a wh40k setting, everything visual is on point, sound is on point - there are some things that break this immersion like lasguns having recoil (let’s pretent that’s because of inner mechanisms working or something), or some phrases not fitting the situation (“Let’s earn our pay!”) but overall it’s a very plesant experience. You see different maps, try out different weapons and feats and have a good time overall
As you approach “lategame” the initial impression fades as you recognize the fact that:
1. Out of all the weapons available only about 20% worth using, and in case of veteran powersword outshines all the melee weapons completely, there is no reason to use any other melee weapon if you can use power sword instead.
2. Most blessings are either useless or unimpactful, this is especially evident for plasma gun as all possible blessings on this gun do pretty much nothing.
3. The only source of progression is the shop that renews every hour. To progress you must wait for a good “base” to craft upon. Kinda like path of exile crafting with only alch/exalted orbs. You get gray weapon with best stats you can find or green/blue with best stats + good perks/blessings and upgrade it to see if you get something good.
4. Killing daemonhosts, beasts of nurgle etc, amound of mobs or elites killed does not impact rewards. Killing enemies which seems to be the main gameplay “action” in the game is not rewarded at all.
5. Collecting scriptures and grimoires do not impact REAL rewards (as experience is useless at level 30 and there are plenty of ordo dockets - they pile up and can’t be used for anything but buying “bases”), modifiers like fog and endless horde do not increase rewards in any way or form either.
6. For now, the only reason to run missions is to get crafting materials, and ordo dockets will just pile up naturally. But crafting resources are scattered across maps to promote exploration, which is not working unless hound is reworked. Maybe it can be dodged, but with any latency problems and/or fps problems it’s close to impossible, unlike dodging trapper’s net. If you “explore” you risk dying to just one dog.
As it is now, I’ve finished my penances for veteran’s cool helmet (which are super bad and force a player to be a burden for his team), I’ve got nearly perfect weapons which I need (apart from bolter which I just don’t like for some reason) and there are no ways to progress and little reason playing further - just “having fun with friends”, but “having fun with friends” won’t keep the game alive for long with such a limited pool of maps, missions, modifiers and weapons.
The game lacks diversity and depth - amount of playstyles you can have is very limited and tools to tailor your characters to playstyle you want are nonexistant (mainly because 80% of blessings make no impact and 50% of feats are unusable trash), progression ends up at about 160 hours into the game.
Even more - for some reason there is no scoreboard so you can’t track your own performance compared to others and it removes competitive spirit that all multiplayer games - pvp or coop, stand on. “Toxicity” is not a reason to murder your own game like that, give people an option to just mute comms and there we go.
I like the game as it is and can recommend it, but it’s clearly unfinished and I’m looking forward for it becoming a complete product with many more weapons, blessings, perks, classes, maps, missions, modes, modifiers etc., but for now it feels like a cozy beta test for a couple of weeks.
P.S. Premium shop is trash, I’d love to buy something there honestly, but current veteran cosmetics are bad and I have to wait for 10 days to give devs my money for some reason - I really doubt that type of premium shop implementation helps the game from the business perspective - you don’t know your target audience, fatshark.