s3xy_j0nny
02-11-2009, 09:04 AM
z0mfg this game rocks the sockz0rs on MP!
General Gameplay:
Gave it a trial bash last night with leelo0270, SloDaz, Phatso and myself. After some initial faffing about with firewalls etc, we got the MP sorted for all four of us, and each of us took a different character and trotted off as a grrroup to slay things in eager anticipation of the goodness. We weren't disappointed...
As a grrroup, you level up fairly quickly (in 4 hrs we went from lvl 1-13 on MP), and the monsters are suitably tough no matter what level you are. Once you start seeing "Badass" creatures/humanoids, know that you are about to experience the pain, even clustered as a firing squad behind a screaming, slavering, hysterically-laughing, maniac Beserker (thanks, Daz) like the other 3 of us were.
*Be warned: If you liked the 'walk all over the baddies' element of Titan Quest, you will be receiving a nasty shock from this game; By the middle of last night's adventure, there were individual creatures that were poes-klapping our entire group all over the post-nuclear countryside.*
Missions are straight-forward and well-explained (at least as far as we got), and yield cash and/or weapon rewards. There are some funny little cut scenes to introduce new characters/baddie bosses, and the art style is fairly 'comic book' during these scenes. The general game play graphics are, however, fucking picturesque, and pretty low on the system-intensive side of things (even on my old graphics card {8800GTS} I can run everything on max eye candy).
Game play is increasingly reliant on group tactics as you progress to tougher opposition. It's not a case of everyone form a line and pwn the shit out of everything like a shooting gallery, unless you like being swamped by mutant dogs and/or their mutant owners. In certain areas, even our deviously thought-out strats weren't enough to prevent some or all of us getting raped by post-apocalyptic nasties. One thing I can tell you for sure from last night's escapade is that you DO NOT want to be separated from the group when there are bad creatures around; It will lead to nightmares...
Levelling up is supremely straight forward up to and including level 4. Only your overall damage and health increase (automatically) through these levels, so not much to write home about. At level 5, however, you unlock your character's main special ability, and from there on in, several skill trees open up for you to explore, and assign a skill to, with each new level. Use of particular types of weapons gradually increases your character's proficiency with that type of weapon, subsequently increasing your accuracy and damage when using them. Although the character type you are playing influences your starting proficiencies and skill development options wrt specific weapons and ammo, it seemed fairly open as to which form of fire power/weaponry you want to pursue as you get into the game.
Playing as a Hunter (Mordecai):
The Hunter is basically a long-range weapons user like a sniper. You have high accuracy with all weapons, but particular affinity for pistols (specifically revovlers) and sniper rifles, and a big, fuck off-shiny panga for melee encounters (One that looks like it could skin a crocodile. One that Mick Dundee would point to and say "This is a knoif!"). It takes less time with the sniper character for your weapon to 'settle' when in zoomed/scoped mode, allowing for more accurate and faster rate of fire when using long range guns (which almost made my sniping comparable to phatso's cos he was using the female 'Siren' character {moffie-pant!}).
As a hunter, you start the game with a (yes, you guessed it) sniper rifle and not much else, altho the first weapon chest is discovered shortly into the game and you can find a pistol there to complement your long range pwnage. In the earlier levels, a BF2-style 'headshot-with-sniper-rifle-followed-by-pistol-follow-up-to-finish-the-cunt' approach worked wonders on most nasties, but as the monsters get harder, you need to adjust your style of play to lurking and potting creatures repeatedly with the sniper rifle while the hardier squad members tackle them short-range with assault rifles and shotguns (Or big, ham-sized fists if they're a berserker).
Your hardiness/ability to take damage and keep fighting is pretty non-existent as a hunter, even when using a pretty hefty shield as I was last night. You have less health than the soldier or berserker, and can't phase walk out of danger like the Siren, so you obviously have to adjust your approach to fights accordingly. Monsters tend to make a bee-line for whomever has shot them last/is currently shooting them, so I found potting creatures as far away as possible yielded the best results wrt not being mauled into hunter minced meat while you desperately flail with your panga: Put a couple of sniper rifle rounds in a nasty while it's at a distance, and make sure there's a soldier/berserker between you and it by the time it gets close ;).
So far, I have used the level ups since skill tree unlock to max out the damage I do with sniper rifles, and increase my already-pretty-good accuracy with all weapons. That particular branch of skills continues into extra xp for killing with crits, increased damage for a short time when killing with sniper rifles, ability to pierce/ignore shields with long range weapons etc. The other 2 branches focus on increasing my basic special ability (some hunting falcon that shits fire on beasties which I've ignored so far), and kickassabilty with revolvers, respectively. Note that by level 9ish and onwards, even with my sniper damage maxed, there weren't many beasties I could kill solely with a sniper rifle, even if I put the first round in them from the other side of the map - beasties are made of pretty tough stuff when you have 4 players MP-ing...
All in all, the game play, graphics and grrroup fun of the game are fucking off the chart. If you don't have the game, make a plan cos there's some longevity and grrreat fun to be had from it. Can't wait to get home and fire up another MP session tonight. :fact:
EDIT: Would be cool if Daz, Phats and Meebo posted about the other 3 character types here...
General Gameplay:
Gave it a trial bash last night with leelo0270, SloDaz, Phatso and myself. After some initial faffing about with firewalls etc, we got the MP sorted for all four of us, and each of us took a different character and trotted off as a grrroup to slay things in eager anticipation of the goodness. We weren't disappointed...
As a grrroup, you level up fairly quickly (in 4 hrs we went from lvl 1-13 on MP), and the monsters are suitably tough no matter what level you are. Once you start seeing "Badass" creatures/humanoids, know that you are about to experience the pain, even clustered as a firing squad behind a screaming, slavering, hysterically-laughing, maniac Beserker (thanks, Daz) like the other 3 of us were.
*Be warned: If you liked the 'walk all over the baddies' element of Titan Quest, you will be receiving a nasty shock from this game; By the middle of last night's adventure, there were individual creatures that were poes-klapping our entire group all over the post-nuclear countryside.*
Missions are straight-forward and well-explained (at least as far as we got), and yield cash and/or weapon rewards. There are some funny little cut scenes to introduce new characters/baddie bosses, and the art style is fairly 'comic book' during these scenes. The general game play graphics are, however, fucking picturesque, and pretty low on the system-intensive side of things (even on my old graphics card {8800GTS} I can run everything on max eye candy).
Game play is increasingly reliant on group tactics as you progress to tougher opposition. It's not a case of everyone form a line and pwn the shit out of everything like a shooting gallery, unless you like being swamped by mutant dogs and/or their mutant owners. In certain areas, even our deviously thought-out strats weren't enough to prevent some or all of us getting raped by post-apocalyptic nasties. One thing I can tell you for sure from last night's escapade is that you DO NOT want to be separated from the group when there are bad creatures around; It will lead to nightmares...
Levelling up is supremely straight forward up to and including level 4. Only your overall damage and health increase (automatically) through these levels, so not much to write home about. At level 5, however, you unlock your character's main special ability, and from there on in, several skill trees open up for you to explore, and assign a skill to, with each new level. Use of particular types of weapons gradually increases your character's proficiency with that type of weapon, subsequently increasing your accuracy and damage when using them. Although the character type you are playing influences your starting proficiencies and skill development options wrt specific weapons and ammo, it seemed fairly open as to which form of fire power/weaponry you want to pursue as you get into the game.
Playing as a Hunter (Mordecai):
The Hunter is basically a long-range weapons user like a sniper. You have high accuracy with all weapons, but particular affinity for pistols (specifically revovlers) and sniper rifles, and a big, fuck off-shiny panga for melee encounters (One that looks like it could skin a crocodile. One that Mick Dundee would point to and say "This is a knoif!"). It takes less time with the sniper character for your weapon to 'settle' when in zoomed/scoped mode, allowing for more accurate and faster rate of fire when using long range guns (which almost made my sniping comparable to phatso's cos he was using the female 'Siren' character {moffie-pant!}).
As a hunter, you start the game with a (yes, you guessed it) sniper rifle and not much else, altho the first weapon chest is discovered shortly into the game and you can find a pistol there to complement your long range pwnage. In the earlier levels, a BF2-style 'headshot-with-sniper-rifle-followed-by-pistol-follow-up-to-finish-the-cunt' approach worked wonders on most nasties, but as the monsters get harder, you need to adjust your style of play to lurking and potting creatures repeatedly with the sniper rifle while the hardier squad members tackle them short-range with assault rifles and shotguns (Or big, ham-sized fists if they're a berserker).
Your hardiness/ability to take damage and keep fighting is pretty non-existent as a hunter, even when using a pretty hefty shield as I was last night. You have less health than the soldier or berserker, and can't phase walk out of danger like the Siren, so you obviously have to adjust your approach to fights accordingly. Monsters tend to make a bee-line for whomever has shot them last/is currently shooting them, so I found potting creatures as far away as possible yielded the best results wrt not being mauled into hunter minced meat while you desperately flail with your panga: Put a couple of sniper rifle rounds in a nasty while it's at a distance, and make sure there's a soldier/berserker between you and it by the time it gets close ;).
So far, I have used the level ups since skill tree unlock to max out the damage I do with sniper rifles, and increase my already-pretty-good accuracy with all weapons. That particular branch of skills continues into extra xp for killing with crits, increased damage for a short time when killing with sniper rifles, ability to pierce/ignore shields with long range weapons etc. The other 2 branches focus on increasing my basic special ability (some hunting falcon that shits fire on beasties which I've ignored so far), and kickassabilty with revolvers, respectively. Note that by level 9ish and onwards, even with my sniper damage maxed, there weren't many beasties I could kill solely with a sniper rifle, even if I put the first round in them from the other side of the map - beasties are made of pretty tough stuff when you have 4 players MP-ing...
All in all, the game play, graphics and grrroup fun of the game are fucking off the chart. If you don't have the game, make a plan cos there's some longevity and grrreat fun to be had from it. Can't wait to get home and fire up another MP session tonight. :fact:
EDIT: Would be cool if Daz, Phats and Meebo posted about the other 3 character types here...