The good, the bad, the ogryn (thoughts at level 25)

My current perspective as a level 25 Veteran Sharpshooter
Also, I know the bad list is large but I legit LOVE this game, keep that in mind.

The good:
-The core gameplay loop is very good, mechanically things seem to be behaving properly, and most of the weapons feel responsive.

  • The maps and level of detail are great, as is the music which sets a very good ambiance
  • The classes seem pretty fun thus far.
  • Im having fun.
  • saved achievement progress on completion and not map success
  • rewards tied to challenges as opposed to arbitrary ā€œdo this 100000 timesā€ grinds
  • good unit design
  • fun specials

The bad:

  • obvious issue is connectivity, but I expect this to be a priority fix

  • some of the challenges seem near impossible for quick play, and lock cosmetics behind needing a highly qualified group willing to derp around while you attempt an achievement

  • No private lobbies, which also makes point number 2, on the bad list even more challenging.

  • The progression system gating weapon options behind multiple layers of RNG feels arbitrary and not needed. I can understand for example, gating bolters behind a level, but the fact there are like 7 variations of lasgun and half of them suck, makes early gearing difficult, forcing you to choose between a weapon of high enough quality for your difficulty, or one you like.

  • Leveling is way too long and feels exceptionally grindy (currently) (more on why later)

  • Not being able to select missions and their difficulty setting is really annoying

  • Grims and ā€œtomesā€ being tied to specific missions is fine, but half the time, they havenā€™t been set as modifiers for any missions which makes completing some challenges difficult.

  • There are very few leveling perks, outside of the cosmetics, in so far that, the ability to collect grims and tomes regularly for additional EXP is gone from ā€œmost mapsā€ and could be tied to a difficulty outside of comfort or level reqs, which furthers the slog. Also, weapon rewards are very infrequent and often bad.

  • the weapon vendor, should either offer a larger variety, or let you randomize, even if its for a price, so people are not gated by time in order to get an upgrade, especially in the early levels where you jump from 100 power to 200+ in a span of a few hours.

  • grenades take too long to explode, also why cant I cook my grenades?

  • the difficulty spikes seem at face value pretty absurd when you factor in modifiers. A threat level 3, on its own is a cake walk, but a threat level 3 with additional enemies feels like Cataclysm. Its literally Special Tide.

  • MOST autoguns are hot garbage, the single shot DRM style one is pretty damn good, but any of the automatic or burst fire options do too little of anything, to be a reasonable option, especially with the limited magazine size and ammo capacity.

  • Playing with Ogryns on your team isnt fun. Im sure this is very subjective, and iā€™ve had a few really useful ones, but they are just too large, and tend to opt for a low ammo capacity weapon, so aside from blocking shots, going too deep and dying, they also ammo hog. Not sure how this is going to be mitigated or if there is even reason to, but they seem to lack a lot of cohesion when it comes to group dynamics, which is the entire purpose of this game, especially with the introduction of coherency. May need to be looked at to make them more team friendly.

  • Leveling in general feels a little arbitrary, but I understand why its there, so I wont poo poo on it, but there should be a way to make it slightly faster or more engaging, its a massive slog from 20-30 right now.

5 Likes

If I may add, played way less than you but noticed one thing you didnā€™t mention here.

When playing on map with modifiers that impact the visibility, playing veteran is an absolutely unfun experience.

Both with ā€œmistā€ or just ā€œdarknessā€ you cannot target far enemies unless they are specials and only for the duration of the special ability. Regular but ranged enemies are still not visible.
Which means that when they are finally visible your choice is to either risk shooting your team in the back while they melee, or just go melee as well. De facto playing just a guy with a knife/sword/etc because your main thing, being a ranged guy, is useless.

I donā€™t know what could fix this, maybe the special lasting longer or marking ALL ranged enemies, not just the specials (maybe in different colour) but right now, playing with those modifiers as veteran is definitely not fun.

3 Likes

i agree with pretty much everything youve said here, especially in regards to leveling and Ogryns. The leveling is not rewarding enough and there are no clear reasons to bother leveling up aside from traits which are veryā€¦ underwhelming overall.

1 Like

Howdy,

I have to second the ogryn misery. The close quarter combat map design makes the ogryn a tactical liability instead of an asset. Large spaces are few and far between in the maps (so far) so having a towering no-fire zone that constantly shifts/dodges/stands in the way of ā€˜reach-out-and-touch-someoneā€™ classes such as the vet makes those long distant headshots even more difficult.

Ogryn=Bullet Goalie?

With the zealot and psyker, I can easily maneuver and angle shots to maximize effectiveness. Donā€™t get me started on when the mentioned classes goes full legend mode and -crouches down- allowing us vetā€™s to fire over their heads. (First rank fire/second rank fire, anyone? chef kiss)

Thanks for the read,
Gunship

2 Likes

I would only depate one aspect. Another autogun is not hot garbage. The Braced autogun is amazing.
when not used by the veteranā€¦
Veteran needs a precision weapon for his ults to be helpful. But on a zealot or phsycker it is great. Innately high collateral to mow down crowds. Nearly 3x the ammo of the other autoguns, and solid penetration for armored targets.
Seriously give it a shot. But not on the veteran.

1 Like

or a bolter, that thing might strait up be broken