Circling back to the main point I wanna make: you’ll find very few people complaining about the samples and medals and all that, because Arrowhead is really good at constantly pushing updates containing actual new STUFF to do, on top of a base game that ensures most of the playtime is at least a little different each session.
As it turns out, constant updates and new things can forgive a multitude of sins. And grind that’s completed as ‘normal’ playtime is quite forgiveable when there’s a lot to do.
Fatshark suffers, in my mind, because they cannot or will not fix their own workflow and company so that they can make actually decent amounts of game.
On an unrelated note, can we just go back to a time to earn our cosmetics by completing in-game challenges. Like getting all the Legendary skulls in Halo 3 for Hayabusa Set, 1000 Gamer score in Halo 3 for the katana, or impressing bungie for Recon, or having to do certain medals in Gears of War 3 for certain characters.
I agree, I didn’t play as much of 1 as someone that could speak with more authority. But in my limited time there I found HD2 disappointing when it came to progression.
The popularity of the game speaks for itself of course, but I found personally while the gameplay was an improvement, almost every system surrounding it was a downgrade. At best, overengineered, and at worst, completely nonsensical.
Any time I opened that game over the summer I couldn’t help but think about how little I care for the galactic war. I think maybe a more drawn out version of 1’s galactic wars could have been really interesting.
lot of games have ongoing feature/class story content but dont get labelled live service i mean are games like stellaris hearts of iron , age of wonder s 4 live service? are games like satisfactory and cyberpunk?
it seems to me now the name “live service” has in this case moved from a description , of a cheap/free game that has a business model of continual development to sustain a revenue stream to now be a pejorative used to criticize a game for not having as fast content delivery as we want, its lead to a weird sort of paradox.
You can release a game and abandon it or you can release a game and make it your one thing going forward, but if you fall in the middle ground of releasing a game and supporting it makes you a bad version of either extreme.
This game’s been called a looter shooter by the devs, and I think a live service game too, but calling it one doesn’t make it one. This game was an unfinished release brought to completion with new content being added as a bonus. I’m pretty convinced these buzz words were something the devs had to get creative and come up with to satisfy some bonehead executive or investor, because neither of these labels apply to darktide.
Maybe biased because I consider HD1 the best actual coop game I’ve ever played (shared screen made you work as a team as opposed to solo hero mode), but generally agreed.
The emergent gameplay of 2 speaks for itself and is undeniably more accessible. But, imo, they bogged themselves down with far too many systems with no actual benefit other than they “could” (but could they really? Look at the state of the game).
As a solo example and one that stood out to me as a worry point as gameplay was being revealed, the change to the reinforcement system. Maybe it would have been too tough to keep infinite lives and failure with a team wipe, but it completely erased one of the most endearing and epic elements of HD1 being the last diver standing and getting off that reinforcement as you go down fighting, getting the whole team back with a chance to salvage things. Getting spectated while a timer ticks if you’ve exhausted your body supply is just not even close, full stop.
But, I’d ask, if their original vision was legit this hardcore milsim-lite as they said early on, why was that difficulty lever changed?
I only put in half my HD2 hours (300) into HD1 (150) but my HD1 hours ended up more fulfilling and unbloated by crashes, queues, etc.
Darktide is more stressful than HD2 could be…
HD2 is more quiet…
Darktide is FPS
HD2 is TPS
Darktide is corridors
HD2 is open space
Darktide is melee / ranged
HD2 is full ranged combat
Darktide is a game about hordes
HD2 has no horde
Darktide has generic enemies with increased HP / “armor” scaled with difficulty
HD2 use same enemies with same HP on all difficulties but can throw more armored enemies in higher difficulties and mobs can have additional attacks at higher difficulties
Darktide has a “death” mechanic that punish the player by putting him captured and waiting that his teammates deliver him
HD2 has a system that allows clone replacement. So there is no real dead time in the game because when you run out of clones, you fail the mission
Darktide relies on DLC system (according to the only DLC)
HD2 relies on war bound that you can acquire for free by playing the game.
Darktide uses a highly priced cosmetic system with recolor and no advantage linked. The shop is using FOMO as you can only access few items
HD2 shop proposes armors that give you a bonus for decent prices. You can access freely to all item in shop (no FOMO)
Darktide has 3-4 updates the year with few content
HD2 release war bounds regularly with new content. HD2 get way more patches than Darktide also
Darktide has a in game money that you cannot earn in game (let’s forget the only one time they offered 500 aquilas)
HD2 has also such money but you can earn it in game when playing it
All of this is still possible, I had literally exactly this moment last night in a bug game after emerging victorious underground, the reinforcement limit just means the team just can’t do it infinitely to Wagner their way to victory, though you do get reinforcements back every couple minutes if you use them all up until the time limit hits.
I find the reinforcement limit greatly tightens up gameplay, often people will be silly and do fun things the first half of the game while there are reinforcements available, but will show up and play for real-real once reinforcement limits are actually a concern.
For me, it’s not so much about the story of the galactic war so much, but it’s great for helping play groups decide what to do and incentivize mixing things up. If you’re always doing the major orders in pursuit of the war, you’re always cycling through enemy factions and locales and experiencing the newest content in a way that has at least a minimal level of immersive relevancy.
So much this. I’d say Helldivers right now is openly buggier than DT, but everyone in my playgroups will push through that because there’s more stuff and it has dramatically fewer play barriers, every couple weeks there’s a new enemy or new weapon or new area to explore.
I haven’t played HD1, so apologies if I’m missing something, but if we’re talking this moment?
being the last diver standing and getting off that reinforcement as you go down fighting, getting the whole team back with a chance to salvage things.
Last night playing the bugs with the new underground tunnels, I was the last Diver alive, ran out, dropped the reinforcement strat just as I got overrun, calling the rest of team back, allowing us to finish the mission. Not seeing where that’s different from the statement above (unless it’s that I needed someone else to then reinforce me?), if I’m missing something, please enlighten me?
In HD1, there are infinite reinforcements, but if everyone is dead there is no auto reinforce. If you all die, the mission is over.
As the last player alive, getting overrun and moments from death, if you can get the reinforcement code off before your death blow, you will drop the beacon and get everyone respawned, including yourself, potential saving the mission from failure.
So the stakes are higher in HD1 (imo) without the auto-reinforce budget safety net.
You also have that horrible (imo) budget timer if you use enough lives in HD2 that results in up to 6 mins of waiting to play the game again.
This defines Dartkide. Darktide released at $39.99 USD, its mostly a $15.99 find now-a-days. Consistently on sale, a revolving cash shop with in-game purchases for cosemetics.
I’m going to say it. Time to put on some boxing gloves. Solo mode is lame. The game is best with a group of 4 and YES no bots.
Before you blast me with their promises and rebuttals I would also like to say, I’d love for FS to introduce “solo-mode” so we can see what the minority complains about next.
That said, with regards to the timer, I’ve yet to run into a situation where a team has run out of reinforcements and had anyone waiting more than a couple minutes. At least in my experience, if the team has run out of lives or time, the team is either close enough to the end to extract quickly, or is doing so bad it wipes in short order at that point typically.
I feel the way they have HD2 set up as-is, with full teams, having 3 people down at once (and threatening a wipe) with a competent team isn’t usually too common, but losing individual players happens very frequently, so I feel like the team the pressure and mission completion risk is much heavier overall with the limited lives, even if the acute pressure of being 3 players down or losing all 4 at once is otherwise much less intense.
