So I just finished the game in Hard. I´d give it an 8/10. So it´s a solid game and I enjoyed it. A bit too short, though (steam says 16h).
But the thing that bothers me the most is that the skills are kind of boring. Also, a couple skills are basically mandatory (Puppeteer, Twitch Shot, Hog Rush) while all the others are either extremely situational or just plain ´meh´.
I ended up finishing the game with quite some unspent points, and spending a lot on the HP and movement buffs, cos at least those are always on and extra movement is always useful for positioning.
In this game you have freaking MUTANTS, so I cannot understand why the devs have not gone crazy with the skills and instead we have the same old boring snares and buffs as in every other game.
And the other problem is that the game basically forces you to save scum. It does not give you the tools to deal with a high number of foes in open combat. You´re supposed to kill as many enemies in stealth as possible before going loud. But if RNGJesus decides to hate you the moment you need to rely on things like Twitch Shot or Skull Splitter to deal 24 or 26 dmg in a single round, then you´re suddenly facing 8-10 enemies and it´s gg.
So I feel the game should give you more tools to handle things in open combat, starting with a 4th squad member or at least some more AoE attacks or Crowd Control skills.
Also, putting the BEST upgrade in the game (Ranger) behind finding enough artifacts… not a good decision. It would have been better to just have some damage modules for the guns that enhance regular damage (not critical) to have a similar effect.
But again, 8/10 so even if I may seem to be complaining a lot, I actually liked the game quite a bit
How is the game fforcing your to rely on these things? You should always have the ability to do a 100% crit or Hog Rush if that fails. There are just so many tools you should have that don’t require you to worry about RNG for stealth kills. It might not be obvious your first play, though.
You can beat this game without those skills if you don’t mind taking a shot or two. And of course the skills are situational, this is a tactics game that lets you set up before every encounter(except Lux). You can choose to use what works best or whatever suits your playstyle to do the deed.
I’m level 6 on my current playthough and I have all my silent weapons maxed and Ranger. That’s 21 damage, add two crits and you got yourself 26-27 damage easy. No need to face that many enemies or for any RNG.
Hog Rush can be “reloading” (it has happened to me). And for a 100% hit, 100% crit shoot… well, you´re not likely to have a build so optimized in your first (and only, for 95% players) play-through.
Well, yes, you can. But it is extremely inconvenient and may force you to save-scum even more. Have a look at ´Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun´ for a game that gives you a HUGE tool box where you can solve any situation in several ways. Here the toolbox is way more limited.
That´s not a normal progression in a normal play-through and you know it
Again, that´s not a normal progression in a normal play-through and you know it. I got Ranger at around level 25, when I started to face 24-health enemies and I was doing 21 silenced dmg max. So I had to GOOGLE the artifact locations and go pick two that I had not found in already visited locations. A game that basically forces you to do that is not well designed.
My first playthrough was on very hard and it was a fiesta of save scumming because of that. I saw it as a tool helping me learn to play on that difficulty but now I rarely need it. To you it seems inconvenient like a crutch you can’t let go of because you’re still learning how to walk. If you wanted “normal” progression you could have played it on normal like the 95% you refer to. No need to save scum when you regen all your health after every encounter and have no cooldowns on skills. You chose a bit more of a challenge and ended up having to rely on the most op skills which left you feeling like they were required, ignoring your other skills in the process. Yes getting punished for bad tactics is inconvenient. From the very start the game is saying to prioritize stealth takedowns and the enemy hp is balanced around this. By level 25 the game hands you Farrow, a walking crit machine with a +2 crit mod on her weapon. You wouldn’t have felt forced to use google if you looked at the tools you had. 100% hit is basic planning, 100% crit is basic math, and Ranger is just exploration. 21 damage plus one crit with a +2 mod was just there under your nose, and that 24 damage would have carried you far. As for the RNG, you could have used Chems Flares, Molotovs, and high ground to banish it back to the abyss from whence it came. Anyway, tactics games are usually better the next time through due to actually knowing some tactics. At least for me that is.
