Lot of negativity in the forums (For good reason, dont get me wrong, the game needs work!) but i think it’s worth mentioning some of the great stuff of this game
The obvious: The environments, OST, and overall mood of the game are spot on. This is the best iteration of the 40K world I’ve personally played in a video game.
Beyond that too, I find that melee has a LOT more impact than in vermintide. Feels great to smack stuff, and weapons have a lot more specialty than in that game so far imo. Every weapon has its own benefits and drawbacks, and while that was true in Vermintide as well, the addition of ranged weapons makes building your kit feel completely different, and a LOT more personal. I love that I can choose what’s most important to me, crowd control, single target damage, utility, etc, and completely customize my experience based on what items I pick and what they’re good at.
I find the characters REALLY engaging, when they’re saying new stuff at least. I’ve found that the current beta seems to have less conversation starters than the October one did, but I’m sure that’ll change as the full game launches and more lore is allowed to be shown. Call me a heretic if you will, but I dont particularly care for the Ubersreik Five (or four, doesn’t matter). They all feel like fairly standard caricatures of fantasy archetypes, and while they have some fun conversations, the folks themselves just dont do it for me.
Contrast that with this game, I really love the attitudes of each VA. Everyone’s giving it their all, and each VA gives a similar-yet-different take on the character, effectively giving you 16 personalities vs. the 5 of Vermintide. And the conversations, when they’re fresh, are really great. Hoping more of those convos get unlocked as more is released.
The mission structure is really unique. I love the idea that there’s “Zones,” not campaign missions, letting you have a totally different objective in the same area. Seeing familiar locations but traversing them in a different direction or path is really fun, and makes the world feel so much more alive. Plus, it feels a lot better from an immersion side of things to kill off a daemon growth in the city multiple times than to close the skittergate multiple times, the grandeur of Vermintide’s campaigns is great and all but on repeat viewings it gets old.
I love the variety of special enemy types, as well. They’re all unique enough to need different approaches to deal with, the all pose different threats to the team, but (with the exception of the shotgunner and gunner) I never get them confused with each other or forget what they do.
I’m really looking forward to the future of this game. It’s a mess right now, and I’m sure that’s due to a load of crunch going on back at Fatshark HQ, but it’s a mess with enormous potential. Great job Fatshark!