Sdoots

Didn't he come out and say that was the closest anyone got to his intended interpretation, but it still wasn't the ACTUAL interpretation he had in mind? I might be misremembering things.

Having finished the game as of last night, I will admit that the argument that "the game is padded out by running back and forth" isn't really inaccurate. A few puzzles are solved by doing just that, essentially. I don't know if I'd say that occurs in nearly the length or duration to cumulate more than a minute total of playtime, though. At some point, you sound like you just didn't want to move a character around.

I fucked that dude up, son.

I wish I was a little more careful reading this thread. I hadn't gotten the secret ending yet, and we haven't been super great at indicating when we are discussing which points. Oh well.

Does anyone know if I can just load into chapters, grab the collectible, then load another chapter and repeat? Or do I need to do an entire second playthrough?

I liked it a lot too, but I kind of get it. You'd end up split up from the group more often than not, and it seemed like something a Trapper would use moreso than a Support. I can say with some experience that the cooldown reduction that he now has is pretty great, though certainly not as flashy.

Some more new things I've noticed:

Challenges give a daily means of earning keys beyond just playing. So far, they've been things like "Play as a Support or a Medic or Goliath 3 times" and "Win a match".

At the end of a match, the post game score report can show you completed "Hidden Challenges". These seem to be things like "Healed 5000 Damage" or "Kept Shields up for XX Seconds".

It now shows what each players first preference is in the lobby before the game starts. It's actually a bit more varied than you might expect. Assault is definitely popular, but there's a decent amount of Medic and Trapper love, as well as Support and Monster.

I get to play my first preference, Support, nearly every game, and my second, Assault, every four or five matches. Monster is my third, and I'd say in the 3 hours I've played since the relaunch, I've probably been Monster 4 or 5 times.

There's a ton of predrop dialogue for the Hunters. I don't know if it's just because I haven't played since the first few months the game was out, but I haven't heard a single repeat conversation. Most of them are great. At the least, the dialogue amongst the crew feels more natural than it does in most games. Hyde sucks though.

Guys, Evolve kind of owns now.

As someone said earlier, the dome is now shared by all Hunters. I'll go over the changes real quick, actually.

• All Hunters have the Trapper Dome. When the Monster is in sight, and in range, holding F activates. Hunters can freely enter and exit the dome. The Hunters and Monster taking large amounts of damage cause the timer on the dome to drop in rather large chunks, which can allow the monster to break out early.
• The Trapper now has a Planet Scanner to replace it. It shows the Hunters the rough direction of the Monster on their compass. Somewhat short cooldown.
• Bucket no longer removes his own head for a remote control UAV. He can lower the cooldowns on the other Hunters instead. I am unsure if other Hunters have had ability changes.
• Hunts are the only mode at the moment.
• Hunts are about 4 minutes long, with the time pausing during combat.
• Weekly rotation of free Hunters and a free Monster.
• "Keys" are the currency earned after matches. They are used to buy characters, weapon skins, character skins, or perks. Perks are also unlocked by playing.
• Playing as the same character consistently levels them up. This doesn't do anything other than move you along their unlock tree. Unlocks include perks, more keys, stuff like that.
• Perks are things like "faster jetpack recharge" and "more jump height". Every perk is in each of the three categories, in differing efficiencies.

Besides length, take into account scope of both the title and the team. It's not a large scale title. It's a beautiful game, yeah, but it's a smaller downloadable, it gets by on art style rather than powerhouse graphics, and I get the impression Playdead isn't a very big studio. One could then bring up No Man's Sky, but that's not really the same situation. Hello Games is using algorithms to generate much of the content there, something Playdead couldn't very effectively do with INSIDE. It's just not the same kind of game.

I realize that not everyone gives a shit about these kinds of things, and for them, 20 bucks for 2 hours is the same regardless. For me, these factors all play a big part in it.

It's more so the part where people got paid off to do it. The thing that angry gamers have been insisting journalists are guilty of for god knows how long now. In this case, it actually happened, but it's totally okay because it's just YouTube.

(Which is actually way worse, because it's fucking YouTube, and the reach that can have is immense.)

I wish there was a practice mode where I could set it to repeat specific attack patterns, and let me practice against them. For example, I'm golden when it comes to the more melee based encounters. When it comes time for bullet hell? I get by on the skin of my teeth, if I'm lucky, or I die and start over. I'm not super far yet, and I know it'll only get worse. Being able to go in and set up a fighting game style training mode where the AI only does one thing over and over, in this case one of their bullet hell attacks, would be incredibly helpful.

Soda Water is bullshit, yo.

@fredddi43: That was me. Glad someone recognized it.

Guys, if you ever have the chance, come out to one of these events. I'm fortunate enough to have had this and the last SGDQ take place near where I live, but I will probably start traveling for it. Entire spaces set aside for pinball and arcade machines set to freeplay, a fairly relaxed practice room with cool shit happening regularly, and more.

I need a nap now.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R really doesn't work unless you are playing on Master, where everything dies in just a few bullets, including you. That makes it feel much more like a survival game. I had a newfound appreciation for leaning in shooters by the time I was done.