vaporwaveaf

I think they accomplish this game’s ultimate goal of portraying the endless cycle of violence and how it can get ugly for everyone so quickly. It’s a simple message but they make good on it. When Abby reaches Haven and the whole town is literally on fucking fire, everyone bloodied and mercilessly murdering each other, not to mention seeing Abby fistfight the dude who literally had a gaping wound in his fucking face, it felt like everything coalesced in that moment and the game successfully illustrated its point.

However in trying to convey its message, I think it asks a lot of the player. I’m not gonna lie, when I started playing as Abby and saw that there were brand new skill trees and new weapons that could be upgraded, I let out a huge ass sigh. Like I just already felt so exhausted by this point. In order to develop relatability and sympathy for this character we barely know, we have to go through all three days of Seattle, PLUS additional flashbacks. But by the end of it I felt Abby’s pain and her sense of loss, to the point where I sympathized with her more than Ellie. The writing was superb, it’s technically a masterpiece and looks fantastic and I enjoyed the experience this game offered, but I honestly never want to play this game ever again.

heuehe

Basically, Titans now take more skill to be earned in this game. As a "hardcore" FPS gamer I don't mind this change at all, nor did I really take much notice to it, until I saw the backlash from people on Reddit, complaining they only were getting up to one titan per game. There are pros/cons to this. In theory, earning a Titan based off kills rather than a cooldown timer encourages players to be aggressive. Thus, including something like a grappling hook in game makes more sense (but is still fun as fuck, regardless.)

However, it doesn't really seem to affect players playstyles. People still camp and snipe. if you're coming into this as more of a casual gamer, having to earn your Titan might be seen as a pain in the ass. If one team is stacked with more skilled players, they can essentially get their Titans faster, leading to a rich get richer scenario (a staple of CoD multiplayer) which affects somewhat skilled players, also, who join a game in progress to see their team brutally pounded. In that sense, I can totally see where people come from when they compare this to CoD. With the lack of AI, lack of ability to easily obtain a Titan regardless of skill, and lack of burn cards, there are less opportunities to feel like a badass if you're a casual player. All those things essentially catered to the casual experience.

For this to be good, to me, they need to bring back Attrition, include more A.I. in game, increase TTK, remove the "Amped' weapons ability, and include a base timer for Titans again which can be sped up additionally by kills.