WoW has this to some extent, but imo the reason its less about puzzles and platforming is just because WoW has more stuff to work with. It has small elements of platforming and puzzle solving in most fights, and a few fights have a serious platforming component.
Some examples that spring to mind are Lei Shen, Ji-Kun and Karazhan chess. Ji-Kun is kinda similar to the fight where Abby was jumping through the stupid square holes and jumping puzzle stuff. Just... better (?)
I think most MMO raids (at least WoW and FFXIV) are also far less puzzle-based than Destiny raids. In MMOs its usually more about figuring positioning and the right time to pop cooldowns; and when there are environmental mechanics to interact with, they are generally well-telegraphed and again the issue is figuring out the right timing and just executing properly.
I can't think of MMO raid encounters that had platforming sections or were entirely focused on a puzzle and didn't even have a boss.
Yeah right, the good platforming gameplay and controls of WoW. I'm sorry but that sounds like a nightmare
If we posit that they have 3 people alternating the play sessions once a week (that's each person playing once every 3 weeks) then they're playing pretty well imo.
Perhaps, but I fear it's still not good enough to keep the feature going for long. They've been getting by because the game has thrown them a few softballs, eventually but sooner or later it's going to serve them up something really nasty (I remember a level that was basically a courtyard filled with 10-12 mutons, including my first berserker) and it would be nice if they had a fighting chance at least.
Yeah, you really have to have your upgrade and tactics shit together once the game finally phases out all Sectoids/Thin Men/Floaters, and progresses to the point that Muton is the lowest tier enemy you fight.
The aforementioned 3 easy types of enemies deal low damage (Sectoids especially), always die in one hit to laser fire, and have a decent chance of dying in one hit even to default ballistic weapons. Mutons and above, on the other hand, deal very high damage, very rarely die in one hit to laser fire, and generally laugh at ballistic weapons unless it's your sniper or assault getting a huge crit.
For example, the reason Dan blundered through his last episode with relative success was that he got a UFO mission that was inexplicably almost entirely Sectoids (and like, 2 Seekers and the obligatory Outsider), despite it being IIRC the 3rd UFO to appear in the campaign (and at least the 8th or 9th mission overall). That is the softest of softballs, given that Sectoids and Seekers are pretty much the lowest damage enemies in the game (not counting Drones), so the Outsider was the only real threat in that entire mission.
I dread to think how Dan's next mission will go now that he'll probably be up against at least a few Mutons, though maybe he'll somehow get a Very Easy abduction mission and just fight a bunch of Floaters.
Knowing Dan he probably will; if he's smart he'll ignore the next mission in this storyline that comes up, since it'll be in a day or two and he won't have any good units. Him getting an abduction mission would be the best possible outcome, though; if he gets any sort of UFO mission it's almost a sure thing he'll kill the outsider again.
I had this mission a couple of days ago in my save; they were so much better equipped with their weapons in this and still they got several people injured; my sniper was several ranks higher than theirs, but still, you just put them on top of the train and it cancels out the mutons, even with ballistic weapons. I wonder if anybody after the fact realised that Abomination was pretty much functionally useless for that mission.
Snipers have been functionally useless the whole series because they have not figured out how to use them yet. In my opinion, its because they keep charging them forward for no real reason, nullifying the use of the sniper weapon itself. Then they end up hunkering down or pointlessly reloading. They rarely put them into overwatch with the pistol either.
I would normally have my snipers sit at the back and overwatch constantly, and I don't think I would have been able to complete the game otherwise. They really need to figure out quickly how to best use the sniper, otherwise they are done.
I think you guys may be overstating the difficulty of this game a bit. At least on normal. Maybe ennemy within is just so much more difficult than the original but when I played the game when it came out I had one soldier die during the full campaign.
Alex sure had a few lucky dice rolls there when he left people out of cover but most of his move were careful and considered. Good job! @vinny@alex@danryckert Here's a few things to keep in mind as you guys get better at this game:
Overwatch in the middle of combat is useless most of the time. When facing aliens with guns they will just take a shot and not trigger your overwatch. Be mindful of when it's better to shoot than overwatch.
Always be in cover unless you're desperate. If you're about to shoot or throw a grenade make sure you move to cover before doing so. Full cover is a must and hunker down can help you survive in half cover
ALWAYS have research in progress. You had no research project between missions 1 and 2.
I heard that mech lab is very good. It's also super cheap (50$). Build it!
Important general advice: play slower in high risk situations. Take the time to read the flavor text if you don't know how much damage a weapon or item does (*cough* grenade *cough*) or what certain abilities do. You probably have a play that could save you, take the time to find it.
Abby you did fine. Make sure to look for flanking shots (yellow alien symbol in the upper left). Here's how it works:
(Man case 2 is some bullshit). Don't forget you can get flanked too.
More importantly you need to be a bit more aggressive with your positioning in combat. A grenade is 3 guarantied damage so near the end you could've walked Dan out of cover to throw the grenade at the 2 remaining aliens and kill them both 100%. Leaving soldiers out of cover is totally acceptable in desperate situations and when you're guarantied to kill all remaining enemies.
You haven't been paying attention to any of the new footage if you think that's the case. And MH has always been actiony. Game went full on anime with MH4 and MH Generations.
MH is finally making some much needed quality of life changes that should have happened games ago.
I have been paying attention, as can be seen by the earlier part of this reply. Not on MH4 it didn't. It was this part that turned me off of MH Gen and made me actually quite dislike that game, in fact.
We disagree on that. For me, MH was just fine, these "quality of life" changes do nothing for me except turn me away.
The archaic design choices weren't keeping you with the series either. Looking up google docs for weapon trees isn't what fans like about MH. Spending minutes of preparation time getting ammo and bringing mixing mats for my bowgun into a quest only to realize I forgot to eat or bring cool drinks and being forced to restart the quest isn't what was keeping me with the series. Instantly popping a psychoserum to immediately see where the monster is isn't what keeps fans with the series. Running around the map scouring zones for the monster in case you forgot to bring psychoserums isn't what keeps fans with the series. MH needs, and has needed for a long time, a tutorial. A good tutorial. The handler is as good a way as any to ease in new players. You can't look at the handler as a veteran player and say you don't need that. Because she's not there for veteran players. She's there for new players and I have no doubt you can turn it off. The quality of life changes aren't taking away anything that fans are in love with. Meanwhile other quirky features still remain like cooking BBQ steaks with funny jingles.
The combat , at this series' core, is what keeps fans with the series and MH World has only improved it with additional moves and mobility and new ways to build meter for respective weapons. Monster behaviors have improved with more intricate food chain system. Monsters now actually fight each other instead of being baited into hitting each other. The environments are denser and have more interactivity beyond climbing and jumping attacks. And even the interactive spots in the environment and the monster fighting is optional. If you want to fight a monster with good ol combat instead of environmental trickery, you can still do that. There's just more additional options and strategies. More options is never a bad thing. Co-op is a huge draw for the series and drop in co-op will only better facilitate that.
MH Team has flubbed with new features before and the series has trucked on and maintained a loyal fanbase regardless. Underwater combat? Incredibly divisive with some players hating it and how it divided the level design and some players loving and mourning its omission. Apex predators who are invincible and immune to armor skills except for the use of wystones was terrible. Wystones in general were terrible. Locking said wystones and other gameplay features behind story quests was terrible. Charm farming. Hunter arts were a flub for me. The MH series has had so many new features bolted onto the skeleton that is original Monster Hunter and many of those features fell flat. MH World is the first time the MH team has made some really meaningful positive changes to the core gameplay.
I agree with all of this. I'm not super into the scout flies (which you can disable I think) and how they seem to lead you everywhere but all other changes are for the better. The PS2 ass design of Monster Hunter really needed this retooling. As long as they don't compromise on depth and challenge it's going to be totally fine.
@fontelroy: Well I disagree! I'm also premium subscriber. I think Dan should stay on the team.
Hmm, you say you've been a member since the beginning. I guess you overrule me. Unless....
Yeah, I was being bombastic and I truly do really like Dan. A lot of my favorite stuff on this site now probably involves Dan. That being said, his contribution to this series in the episode was not enjoyable in any way. He just didn't seem to have any care towards playing with any competency and killed off teammates. I was looking forward to seeing the characters of Alex and Vinny as the series progressed, but, alas, Dan happened. I know playing games for the video purposes of Giant Bomb is a unique thing and so not to expect tournament level play, but based on this and other games (as well as his advice to Drew in Metal Gear Scanlon 5) Dan will just seem to ignore any advanced game systems and mechanics and fail his way through.
Yeah, it's a real bummer everyone from the OG team is dead except dan. The only way they can salvage my investment in these characters is to have some kind of redeeming arc for dan the cowardly assault.
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