I haven't used lockon fire but I didn't come across this bug while using Joyrun dragon, the punch thingy, homing Mim, Tentakill, Overclock and spiderbots. I guess it's an issue with lockon.
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People are definitely dropping off from this game, I remember seeing 1-2% achievement rates for the latter main mission completions. The majority of achievements I got in the game were rare at the time
The issue with lock-on specifically should be fixed with the patch that dropped friday on steam, so whever that drops on xbox, it should be fixed there too!
Is there going to be difficulty levels for those of us playing single player only? Came across a hoard of guys there is no way in hell I can get past them on my own. Very clearly designed for co-op.
Is there any chance we can get cross play between Steam and Xbox?
I'd like to buy the game on Steam but all my friends are playing on Xbox.
You must be right. When I finished that main mission last night, I got an achievement for completing it, and only 9.7% of players had done so.
thanks, i'm playin on pc game pass, guessing that patch will hit there when it clears for xbox
I just fully completed the game.
I had an absolute blast from start to finish, one of the best games I played in last years.
Played on Series X, luckily didn't have any important bugs (worst I had was the looping sound that has been already patched).
I really really really hope a dlc/sequel/anything is already in the works and imminent because I want more. Right Snefer ?
Already started a new playthrough at hard that I would like to play with some friends.
The graphics (which is amazing) brought me in but I stayed for the gameplay and the story, which I really really liked. The world of Veles is fantastic, I want more of it. NOW.
Really liked some characters and some concept introduced (the AGI, etc…). Nothing new but it was awesome to play.
Also loved the gameplay mechanics, the various combinations of weapons, energy based augmentations and….everything really.
To people finding spikes in difficulty (bugs aside) I suggest to tinker more with the augmentations and weapons. Some combos are incredibly effective for specific sections. Places where I constantly died were a walk in the park after some gears change.
Congrats to the devs, I know you are probably busy squashing bugs now but you really created something special.
If I may suggest something….I found the first 5-10 hours a bit too obscure story wise.
I mean…it's pretty straightforward but a ton of jargon is dropped and sometimes I had to re read dialogues 2-3 times to understand them. Maybe it's just me.
After over 25 hours tough, I know the archeology as my real neighborhood.
Amazing game, back to the game.
I had an absolute blast from start to finish, one of the best games I played in last years.
Played on Series X, luckily didn't have any important bugs (worst I had was the looping sound that has been already patched).
I really really really hope a dlc/sequel/anything is already in the works and imminent because I want more. Right Snefer ?
Already started a new playthrough at hard that I would like to play with some friends.
The graphics (which is amazing) brought me in but I stayed for the gameplay and the story, which I really really liked. The world of Veles is fantastic, I want more of it. NOW.
Really liked some characters and some concept introduced (the AGI, etc…). Nothing new but it was awesome to play.
Also loved the gameplay mechanics, the various combinations of weapons, energy based augmentations and….everything really.
To people finding spikes in difficulty (bugs aside) I suggest to tinker more with the augmentations and weapons. Some combos are incredibly effective for specific sections. Places where I constantly died were a walk in the park after some gears change.
Congrats to the devs, I know you are probably busy squashing bugs now but you really created something special.
If I may suggest something….I found the first 5-10 hours a bit too obscure story wise.
I mean…it's pretty straightforward but a ton of jargon is dropped and sometimes I had to re read dialogues 2-3 times to understand them. Maybe it's just me.
After over 25 hours tough, I know the archeology as my real neighborhood.
Amazing game, back to the game.
Not really. The entire game is perfectly playable as a single player game. You could try mixing up weapons and augs a bit.
The Steam version already has difficulty levels. I think the other versions are defaulting to "normal". Difficulty levels are coming to Win Store / Xbox.
Back from my vacation, and the first thing I did this morning was fire this game up.
Initial impressions (PC Gamepass), the world itself looks incredible. The detail is insane. I've never been a twin stick shooter guy, so I'm still getting used to the combat, hopefully I'll get better at how to use the two sticks properly. Right now I basically roll, shoot, roll, shoot and I know that method is going to run out fast. I am experiencing stuttering in some areas, reading through some of the thread, it's great the devs are engaging on here regarding the status and getting the kinks ironed out.
Overall, from my first few hours, I can tell I'm going to really enjoy playing this. Crazy how I had all this hype for CyberPunk to quickly be squashed away, I had no idea this was even a thing until a few months ago. It's already filling that CyberPunk world itch.
Initial impressions (PC Gamepass), the world itself looks incredible. The detail is insane. I've never been a twin stick shooter guy, so I'm still getting used to the combat, hopefully I'll get better at how to use the two sticks properly. Right now I basically roll, shoot, roll, shoot and I know that method is going to run out fast. I am experiencing stuttering in some areas, reading through some of the thread, it's great the devs are engaging on here regarding the status and getting the kinks ironed out.
Overall, from my first few hours, I can tell I'm going to really enjoy playing this. Crazy how I had all this hype for CyberPunk to quickly be squashed away, I had no idea this was even a thing until a few months ago. It's already filling that CyberPunk world itch.
Got tons of crash to desktop (Steam version) during and just after Celine mech encounter boss fight. Had no issues before. Seems super random too:
- Changing weapon to the energy sniper rifle
- During the loading of Celine's cutscene
- Randomly during the fight (2x)
- Walking out after finally beating the boss.
Otherwise I agree with other posters, the first 7-8 hours were really hard to get into the story! I started to finally dig it when yCorp was introduced. The narrative reminded me a bit of Dune, throwing tons of in-universe jargon at you; not expecting you to understand but just "live with it".... but in Dune you don't have to fight or pick augments/skills. It was hard for me to differentiate what's actually important for gameplay, for the immediate mission narratives and for the deeper lore. It's trying really hard to not break the fourth wall, but still has to open tutorial pop-ups.
- Changing weapon to the energy sniper rifle
- During the loading of Celine's cutscene
- Randomly during the fight (2x)
- Walking out after finally beating the boss.
Otherwise I agree with other posters, the first 7-8 hours were really hard to get into the story! I started to finally dig it when yCorp was introduced. The narrative reminded me a bit of Dune, throwing tons of in-universe jargon at you; not expecting you to understand but just "live with it".... but in Dune you don't have to fight or pick augments/skills. It was hard for me to differentiate what's actually important for gameplay, for the immediate mission narratives and for the deeper lore. It's trying really hard to not break the fourth wall, but still has to open tutorial pop-ups.
finished it, took me exactly 20 hours with all side missions, also used quick travel rarely because I enjoyed the combat so much
I'd give it 8.5/10, I think this has by far the best topdown shooting gameplay I have ever seen in a game, on top of that it looks absolutely amazing and feels great in general
the many bugs have been discussed at length, it's just weird to me how a game that feels and looks so polished has so many bugs.
some decisions were also strange, like level 2 sidequests in areas that need to to clear level 10 main missions first, the game has many inconsistencies like that. in the early and midgame you often feel confused what can be done next which leads to a later clearing of side missions that are too easy then.
also not a big fan of the upgrade system for the weapons, the problem is you basically have to spend them before you know what you will get in the future and might need the points instead, so planning is not really possible.
I played on normal and thought the difficulty was fine, cleared the final encounter on the first try. overwhelmer and disintegrator were my favorite weapons in the game, I can see the homing guns may be more efficient, but they were just less fun for me.
general advice from me would be to focus health first, I think it's by far the most important stat, then use gear to increase armor and not perks. many enemies shoot from outside the screen so I think a lot of health and resistance gave me the most advantage.
I expect the bugs to be fixed sooner or later and when they are you get a game that does not offer that much outside of combat and graphics, story and characters did not get me hooked at all and the RP mechanics felt very superficial and imbalanced.
I would like to see deeper systems with choices and consequences from Neon Giant in the future, but honestly, the combat was so good that I will probably be there day 1 for whatever they do next, be it an expansion, a sequel or something completely new.
I'd give it 8.5/10, I think this has by far the best topdown shooting gameplay I have ever seen in a game, on top of that it looks absolutely amazing and feels great in general
the many bugs have been discussed at length, it's just weird to me how a game that feels and looks so polished has so many bugs.
some decisions were also strange, like level 2 sidequests in areas that need to to clear level 10 main missions first, the game has many inconsistencies like that. in the early and midgame you often feel confused what can be done next which leads to a later clearing of side missions that are too easy then.
also not a big fan of the upgrade system for the weapons, the problem is you basically have to spend them before you know what you will get in the future and might need the points instead, so planning is not really possible.
I played on normal and thought the difficulty was fine, cleared the final encounter on the first try. overwhelmer and disintegrator were my favorite weapons in the game, I can see the homing guns may be more efficient, but they were just less fun for me.
general advice from me would be to focus health first, I think it's by far the most important stat, then use gear to increase armor and not perks. many enemies shoot from outside the screen so I think a lot of health and resistance gave me the most advantage.
I expect the bugs to be fixed sooner or later and when they are you get a game that does not offer that much outside of combat and graphics, story and characters did not get me hooked at all and the RP mechanics felt very superficial and imbalanced.
I would like to see deeper systems with choices and consequences from Neon Giant in the future, but honestly, the combat was so good that I will probably be there day 1 for whatever they do next, be it an expansion, a sequel or something completely new.
Just finished the game, last fight not too difficult, managed to not die once. Went in as a level 28, with Propulsion Leap and Homing missiles augmentations. Story definitely got more interesting in the 2nd half. Be interesting to see where the story takes us with that post credits scene.
Not too many complaints. Bugs for one, though these manifested more during co-op play. Playing single player, not too many, copies of bosses is the main one.
Civilians not really reacting to things going around, some would flee but then others will just happily go about their lives. A bit of a jarring experience.
Lack of things to spend uCreds on, I finished with just over 800k. What can I spend them on? Would be good if there were fun games to do on the side; in Stimtown people kept commenting that I would be awesome in the Dome, guessing some fight area. Would have been cool if that was an actual thing.
Difficulties are already present on gamepass versions. Playing on series X and they're present under Settings -> Gameplay
Not too many complaints. Bugs for one, though these manifested more during co-op play. Playing single player, not too many, copies of bosses is the main one.
Civilians not really reacting to things going around, some would flee but then others will just happily go about their lives. A bit of a jarring experience.
Lack of things to spend uCreds on, I finished with just over 800k. What can I spend them on? Would be good if there were fun games to do on the side; in Stimtown people kept commenting that I would be awesome in the Dome, guessing some fight area. Would have been cool if that was an actual thing.
Difficulties are already present on gamepass versions. Playing on series X and they're present under Settings -> Gameplay
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After having played it for about 10ish hours today, I've noticed a bunch of things that are really bothering me about this game:
- Weapons feel like crap, even though I've upgraded them (currently at rank 8), they don't seem to do a lot of damage.
- Who the hell decided on this respawn system? Why do I need to walk 600+ meters again to reach my objective whenever I die. Surely someone should have thought during development that this would not be a good decision. It's especially annoying when you've finally reached your objective, only to get killed and have to get through all the enemies all over again. A great example of this being a shit mechanic is when you're on a mission that requires you to defend for 2,5 or so minutes. If you die, you spawn out of the area and need to go through the door again, take the elevator, and run back to the panel. Why not just have the player start off at the panel whenever they die. It's just extremely frustrating.
- Enemy spawn locations. How many freaking enemies can spawn during a confrontation. I've noticed I'm spending less and less time paying attention to the beautiful world design but instead find myself paying more and more attention to the mini map. Why? Because enemies have a tendency to spawn all over the freaking place, which includes behind you. There doesn't seem to be a single encounter where I'm not suddenly swarmed by 5+ enemies that show up out of nowhere.
- Enemy levels make no sense. One moment I'm fighting enemies that are my level, the next moment I'm fighting mobs that are double my lvl. Oh, you go do that level 11 main quest, just note that you have to go through an area filled with lvl 17+ mobs. Like it just doesn't make any sense.
- Quest tracking feels incredibly outdated. Why can I only see my active quest on the map? It would have been so much better if you could see all of your quests whenever you open the map, just so you can tell if you can do multiple quests in an area. Now I'm wasting time clicking through every single quest to see where it takes place.
- Why is this game giving me quests that have a recommended lvl that is way, way lower than the area it takes you too? And not only that, half the time you get to the door only to find out you wasted all your time trying to get there because the door/elevator or whatever won't unlock until you've reached a certain point in the main story. A perfect example is one of the first side quests you pick up. Its recommended level is 2, which makes sense considering you've just finished the 'tutorial' area. However, attempting to reach the elevator that you are required to take, you're greeted by lvl 8 and higher enemies who basically 1 shot you. Once you do survive and reach the elevator, you'll find out the freaking door is locked. This happens with so many side missions and it's annoying af.
- few other nitpicky things. Why do I need to hold the button down for almost every single action :| either increase the speed or have it just a single button press, but this is tedious and unnecessary. Same goes for using the cyberdeck, why does the player first need to use the cyberdeck to unlock a door or chest, before having to press another button in order to open it. I feel like it would have been a smoother experience if you open a chest and the game just checks if your cyberdeck is at the right level. Also, why can I only compare my main weapon whenever I'm at the gun shop? Whenever I want to compare my secondary weapon with the weapons at the gunsmith, I need to change weapons in the menu. Why not just add a function that allows me to check it inside the store. Lastly, why is there no fast travel between layers? :(
A few posters above were talking about how there definitely seems to be a drop-off in players based on the % of people that gained certain achievements. And to be fair, I can completely understand why people might drop it. It's a gorgeous game I think it definitely has potential, but the points I mentioned above are the reasons why this game is just "ok" to me. It's not bad, but at this point, I can't really say it's a good game either.
- Weapons feel like crap, even though I've upgraded them (currently at rank 8), they don't seem to do a lot of damage.
- Who the hell decided on this respawn system? Why do I need to walk 600+ meters again to reach my objective whenever I die. Surely someone should have thought during development that this would not be a good decision. It's especially annoying when you've finally reached your objective, only to get killed and have to get through all the enemies all over again. A great example of this being a shit mechanic is when you're on a mission that requires you to defend for 2,5 or so minutes. If you die, you spawn out of the area and need to go through the door again, take the elevator, and run back to the panel. Why not just have the player start off at the panel whenever they die. It's just extremely frustrating.
- Enemy spawn locations. How many freaking enemies can spawn during a confrontation. I've noticed I'm spending less and less time paying attention to the beautiful world design but instead find myself paying more and more attention to the mini map. Why? Because enemies have a tendency to spawn all over the freaking place, which includes behind you. There doesn't seem to be a single encounter where I'm not suddenly swarmed by 5+ enemies that show up out of nowhere.
- Enemy levels make no sense. One moment I'm fighting enemies that are my level, the next moment I'm fighting mobs that are double my lvl. Oh, you go do that level 11 main quest, just note that you have to go through an area filled with lvl 17+ mobs. Like it just doesn't make any sense.
- Quest tracking feels incredibly outdated. Why can I only see my active quest on the map? It would have been so much better if you could see all of your quests whenever you open the map, just so you can tell if you can do multiple quests in an area. Now I'm wasting time clicking through every single quest to see where it takes place.
- Why is this game giving me quests that have a recommended lvl that is way, way lower than the area it takes you too? And not only that, half the time you get to the door only to find out you wasted all your time trying to get there because the door/elevator or whatever won't unlock until you've reached a certain point in the main story. A perfect example is one of the first side quests you pick up. Its recommended level is 2, which makes sense considering you've just finished the 'tutorial' area. However, attempting to reach the elevator that you are required to take, you're greeted by lvl 8 and higher enemies who basically 1 shot you. Once you do survive and reach the elevator, you'll find out the freaking door is locked. This happens with so many side missions and it's annoying af.
- few other nitpicky things. Why do I need to hold the button down for almost every single action :| either increase the speed or have it just a single button press, but this is tedious and unnecessary. Same goes for using the cyberdeck, why does the player first need to use the cyberdeck to unlock a door or chest, before having to press another button in order to open it. I feel like it would have been a smoother experience if you open a chest and the game just checks if your cyberdeck is at the right level. Also, why can I only compare my main weapon whenever I'm at the gun shop? Whenever I want to compare my secondary weapon with the weapons at the gunsmith, I need to change weapons in the menu. Why not just add a function that allows me to check it inside the store. Lastly, why is there no fast travel between layers? :(
A few posters above were talking about how there definitely seems to be a drop-off in players based on the % of people that gained certain achievements. And to be fair, I can completely understand why people might drop it. It's a gorgeous game I think it definitely has potential, but the points I mentioned above are the reasons why this game is just "ok" to me. It's not bad, but at this point, I can't really say it's a good game either.
Yep, I just got around to test it and you are correct. I'll hold off until it's added. Explosion don't make it hitch as bad as it used to but I still see it. It's a much better improvement over what we had previously.
They are headed in the right direction so I'll wait on the next patch that will enable RT and hopefully mitigate the stuttering during explosions.
The only crash I had was playing on SX when I died; it kicked me to the Xbox dashboard. It happened once on console and not on PC.
The game seems to get a lot better after finishing that slow and boring opening mission, though it's pretty rough overall. The mission marker seems to constantly change around the screen and sometimes loses track of where it's supposed to be, as I had the marker on the second main mission just point me to a random vehicle off to the side of the main area and I had to just keep moving to get it back on track. I wasn't a fan of the aim assist being on Medium by default, so I tried the next mission with it off and that was more of a chore than I was expecting. I focused more on an SMG, assault rifle, or shotgun to make up for the difficulty to get more of a fine aim in combat, though my best weapon was a hand cannon that could set dudes on fire, so I had to finally learn how to make use of the cover system that helped a lot. The issue there is that enemies are very aggressive to flanking you, so cover isn't all that useful.
Tried going around and getting all of the side missions to see what else was in the game where only one or two seem doable, but the lvl 2 mission is surrounded by level 8-10 guys that kill me so fast and the elevator doesn't even work. I'm confused by what that mission wants me to do beyond what it says by just going down to the area it mentions. The map doesn't help with this stuff at all since it's full of icons and easy to lose track of where I should go.
Switched to PC to hopefully get a better performance than Xbox Series S, though the borderless window locks to 4k resolution for some reason when I only have 1080p monitors. Tried to turn down the resolution scale to see if I could get it to settle down and nothing really made a big difference even though my rig should be able to handle this game just fine. I guess RT doesn't work yet from some of the other posts, so that explains why it didn't seem to be massively different than the console version. They have some more work to go for getting this game to a good place performance and bug-wise.
Tried going around and getting all of the side missions to see what else was in the game where only one or two seem doable, but the lvl 2 mission is surrounded by level 8-10 guys that kill me so fast and the elevator doesn't even work. I'm confused by what that mission wants me to do beyond what it says by just going down to the area it mentions. The map doesn't help with this stuff at all since it's full of icons and easy to lose track of where I should go.
Switched to PC to hopefully get a better performance than Xbox Series S, though the borderless window locks to 4k resolution for some reason when I only have 1080p monitors. Tried to turn down the resolution scale to see if I could get it to settle down and nothing really made a big difference even though my rig should be able to handle this game just fine. I guess RT doesn't work yet from some of the other posts, so that explains why it didn't seem to be massively different than the console version. They have some more work to go for getting this game to a good place performance and bug-wise.
I haven't finished my first playthrough, but have been wondering this for some time.
I very much want to play the game (Steam Version) but the posts about the issues with side quests are very off-putting to me.
Have the devs at all addressed the concerns with side quests?
Have the devs at all addressed the concerns with side quests?
Playing the Game Pass version and while I an annoyed a tad that the ray tracing isn't available, this is such a fun game to play and I always have been a sucker for the loop of upgrading your character and weapons in these type of games. Loving it. Up there with Nier Replicant and Griftlands for my favorite of the year. Perfect podcast game, and that atmosphere and world man.
But...there are some major difficulty spikes though. Don't know if that's worse because I am playing solo or what.
But...there are some major difficulty spikes though. Don't know if that's worse because I am playing solo or what.
I'm currently a lvl 16 and I continue to love this game. Sure there is some honest good criticism here, and to me personally I don't like the way side missions are integrated with the main quest , specially because a) you have to track them separately which leads to you missing some close destinations unless you keep bringing back the menu and alternate between the two; and b) roadblocks when trying to do them even within the recommended level. Also, the lack of haptics when shooting.
Other then that, I'm immensily enjoying it, specially because of the audiovisual delivery (SX).
Other then that, I'm immensily enjoying it, specially because of the audiovisual delivery (SX).
I got 3 my first time, and I got obliterated. When I respawned though, it was down to 1 and I realized what was going on.
Just started last night, having a blast. The developers absolutely nailed the aesthetic, this is what I imagined CP2077 would've looked like. Dilapidated, mechanical, high tech, low life. Kudos on that front. Haven't played too many twin stick shooters, it's an adjustment, but at this moment the game is great at scratching that cyberpunk itch. Haven't run into any bugs yet, I'm on XSX. I will say that if I were playing on a small TV I would definitely have issues reading the text and seeing the graphical details.
Game has a lot going for it, but it seems very empty in terms of what's actually going on in these beautiful set pieces. For what this is, great game.
Game has a lot going for it, but it seems very empty in terms of what's actually going on in these beautiful set pieces. For what this is, great game.
Because you can invest in, and equip skill up points to increase your energy pool. Because their are two powers you can use, and each have their own energy consumption and recharge rates, you could equip some power house moves that use all your energy, but that's unlikely. The cool downs, in my opinion, are their to encourage the gun fight dance (swapping weapons, utility grenades, dodging, use of cover, and augments).
Also, the game would be reallly easy if you could just continuously spam spider bots for entire encounters.
On PC I get crashes regularly no matter what. Some to desktop, some BSOD. Many before the game even launches.
On XSX, at least, it's much more stable.
As fun as this game is, I think I will give up.
I pick a mission, the waypoint leads to an area that's not on the list of fast travel points, so I go by foot. It says 400m.
Okay fine, that's not too bad. I go there... and it's an elevator. I ride the elevator, check the waypoint, now it is 1200m away.
No thanks... why not provide a marker on the area where I can fast travel to? The mission description doesn't say anything about the location nor the nearest waypoint e ither... it's just frustrating walking for minutes and then find out that you can't even start the mission to begin with since it's blocked by a main mission.
I pick a mission, the waypoint leads to an area that's not on the list of fast travel points, so I go by foot. It says 400m.
Okay fine, that's not too bad. I go there... and it's an elevator. I ride the elevator, check the waypoint, now it is 1200m away.
No thanks... why not provide a marker on the area where I can fast travel to? The mission description doesn't say anything about the location nor the nearest waypoint e ither... it's just frustrating walking for minutes and then find out that you can't even start the mission to begin with since it's blocked by a main mission.
Beat the game a few moments ago. Missing 3 achievements. 2 are apparently glitched and the 3rd just involves me dying 8 more times.
Really enjoyed my time with it and it's an 8/10 for me.
If there is DLC i'll be back but i'm pretty much done with the game. Highly recommend it though!
BEAUTIFUL looking game. Wish you could disable the mini map so I can take some pictures.
Really enjoyed my time with it and it's an 8/10 for me.
If there is DLC i'll be back but i'm pretty much done with the game. Highly recommend it though!
BEAUTIFUL looking game. Wish you could disable the mini map so I can take some pictures.
I didn't have much trouble completing the game on normal and I also prioritized health and reload speed, while making sure to pump the rest a bit. I maxed health and critical chance (20%), while boosting reload speed and energy a good amount. Put fewer points in the rest, but made sure to put points into everything.
I don't know if the devs are still reading in this thread but if they are, hear me out …
So speaking of Diablo I...
In the 25ish years since it's release, I can't think of another game that oozes atmosphere quite like the first Diablo. Diablo I is a mood... I'm not sure what that mood is called, but I know neither of it's sequels managed to capture it or produce their own unique combination of sound design and graphical palette capable of hijacking the player's consciousness in a way that they forget they're playing a game at all and are just in... A mood.
One could argue that perhaps Dark Souls came close... But for so much of the game, the soundtrack is either non existent or so overblown and grand that it snaps you back to reality...
All that to say, I have found another game that is a mood.
The Ascent.
Both the graphics and the sound design are completely overwhelming.... In a good way.
At any given moment there is TOO much detail to take in every pixel of the game. I have no idea how the devs managed to fit that much crap on screen but they did it. And the audio is constant... Like Tristram's soundtrack in Diablo I, it just eats into your brain... But instead of classical guitar, it's pulse pounding beats with theramin and otherworldly chanting choruses like the Blade Runner 2049 and Ghost in the Shell soundtracks had a baby...
The other night I was playing The Ascent and my wife went to bed asking if I'd wake her at midnight so she could feed my 1-month old daughter...and then it was 3am and I snapped out of my trance.
So good job. If y'all can just fix those Xbox achievement unlocking bugs, The Ascent is my current front runner for GOTY.
So speaking of Diablo I...
In the 25ish years since it's release, I can't think of another game that oozes atmosphere quite like the first Diablo. Diablo I is a mood... I'm not sure what that mood is called, but I know neither of it's sequels managed to capture it or produce their own unique combination of sound design and graphical palette capable of hijacking the player's consciousness in a way that they forget they're playing a game at all and are just in... A mood.
One could argue that perhaps Dark Souls came close... But for so much of the game, the soundtrack is either non existent or so overblown and grand that it snaps you back to reality...
All that to say, I have found another game that is a mood.
The Ascent.
Both the graphics and the sound design are completely overwhelming.... In a good way.
At any given moment there is TOO much detail to take in every pixel of the game. I have no idea how the devs managed to fit that much crap on screen but they did it. And the audio is constant... Like Tristram's soundtrack in Diablo I, it just eats into your brain... But instead of classical guitar, it's pulse pounding beats with theramin and otherworldly chanting choruses like the Blade Runner 2049 and Ghost in the Shell soundtracks had a baby...
The other night I was playing The Ascent and my wife went to bed asking if I'd wake her at midnight so she could feed my 1-month old daughter...and then it was 3am and I snapped out of my trance.
So good job. If y'all can just fix those Xbox achievement unlocking bugs, The Ascent is my current front runner for GOTY.
I went for health, reload and tactical recharge. I think I put around 10 into cit but stopped after I got the OP Overwhelmer, there was just no point after that.
I'll try out The Overwhelmer when I play the game again. I tried out a variety of weapons but didn't give everything enough attention due to the limited upgrade points available. After the half-way point in the game I mostly stuck with switching between fully upgraded ABR Commander/EBR Enforcer. Homing rifles are fun.
After I finished the main game I had enough upgrades to fully upgrade one last weapon, so I spent them on The Dealbreaker and used it to lay waste to the last side missions I had.
Finished this last Friday afternoon and wanted to let it sit a moment in my head before coming back here to comment. Overall, I'd still recommend checking it out, especially after a few more patches get pushed out - although I'd even say diving in now is fine depending on your personal tolerance level for some jank/bugs (at least on Xbox).
My biggest gripe remains the way side quests are handled at almost every point in this game. They constantly broke the flow of the game by being things I couldn't complete, and then when I could finish them up, it caused a massive pacing problem with it being a chunk of samey content to complete with lots and lots of loading screen.
Pacing in general just felt a little uneven, but I'm having trouble breaking out if that was just from my issues with the sidequests, or actually how the game is paced.
And as others have said, the difficulty can take weird spikes. Thankfully, this was alleviated by adding difficulty options, but it's still not ideal. The timer mechanic was also something that got used one too many times IMHO. And really, I disliked how towards the end - running past shit was just quicker, easier, and safer than actually attempting to engage with the combat scenarios. It became less about tactics and more about just overwhelming you with sheer numbers. Which, I'll admit, can also require a certain set of tactics to counter - but it didn't feel like an interesting change to the combat sandbox, and more just that it was the only obvious thing to do at the end of the game after fighting tanks and giant mechs, and other more interesting enemies - just overwhelm with cannon fodder.
So yeah, the last 1/3 to 1/4 of the game kind of falls apart, or at least highlights all the lacking elements of the game - but that first 2/3 to 3/4 of the game is very good and highly enjoyable with some nitpicks here and there.
My biggest gripe remains the way side quests are handled at almost every point in this game. They constantly broke the flow of the game by being things I couldn't complete, and then when I could finish them up, it caused a massive pacing problem with it being a chunk of samey content to complete with lots and lots of loading screen.
Pacing in general just felt a little uneven, but I'm having trouble breaking out if that was just from my issues with the sidequests, or actually how the game is paced.
And as others have said, the difficulty can take weird spikes. Thankfully, this was alleviated by adding difficulty options, but it's still not ideal. The timer mechanic was also something that got used one too many times IMHO. And really, I disliked how towards the end - running past shit was just quicker, easier, and safer than actually attempting to engage with the combat scenarios. It became less about tactics and more about just overwhelming you with sheer numbers. Which, I'll admit, can also require a certain set of tactics to counter - but it didn't feel like an interesting change to the combat sandbox, and more just that it was the only obvious thing to do at the end of the game after fighting tanks and giant mechs, and other more interesting enemies - just overwhelm with cannon fodder.
So yeah, the last 1/3 to 1/4 of the game kind of falls apart, or at least highlights all the lacking elements of the game - but that first 2/3 to 3/4 of the game is very good and highly enjoyable with some nitpicks here and there.
i tried to do two low level side quests last night and both ended at dead ends i guess bc i wasnt far enough along yet or something. iunno, its fucking annoying so i gave up and started GRIME. doubt ill come back.
really should be some indication that you cant complete something yet.
really should be some indication that you cant complete something yet.
So, is there a bug that makes you lose cyberdeck upgrades? I could swear I found the chest ICE-2 upgrade a day ago and now I'm back to level 1 apparently.
What I don't like, apart from the bugs, are the same respawning mobs you encounter when traversing known territory. I can deal with the distance I need to travel for quests but knowing exactly what mobs are going to bore me around the next corner for the 8th time is a huge turn-off.
What I became to appreciate: when the game throws dozens of smaller enemies at you in a "dungeon"/story mission and the character is sufficiently equipped, I get Crimsonland/AlienShooter vibes from it.
Yep, the same happened to many of us. Terrible first impression that made me stop playing. I did get back into it eventually and find it mindless but pretty fun for the most part. The upgrade system is simple but got its hooks into me. Mostly, I marvel at the environments, however.
What I don't like, apart from the bugs, are the same respawning mobs you encounter when traversing known territory. I can deal with the distance I need to travel for quests but knowing exactly what mobs are going to bore me around the next corner for the 8th time is a huge turn-off.
What I became to appreciate: when the game throws dozens of smaller enemies at you in a "dungeon"/story mission and the character is sufficiently equipped, I get Crimsonland/AlienShooter vibes from it.
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