Tupni
Capital Acquisitions LLC
Dirt Nap Squad.
95
   |
Posted - 2014.04.07 01:16:00 -
[1] - Quote
The game hasn't had any genuinely meaningful improvements in two years.
Tweaks to existing content? Sure, plenty of that.
A few rounds of fresh paint? Yep.
A handful of new weapons, suits, maps? Oh yes, especially just recently, though nothing that isn't a derivative of something else already in the game.
But from June 2012 to now I can not honestly say that there has been even one fourth of the advancement I expected when I started on. PVE? Cooperative play? EVE inclusion? A live economy? A market economy? Money games? Mini-games (a slay terminal in the room would be awesome I'll make a thread now that I think of it)? Deploy-able installations? Battle moons? Corporate/NPC standing? Missions? Trophies? Decorative 'I was there' swag? Plot? MCC shenanigans? Metropolitan combat? Space/ship/station maps? Events that were more than just, 'oh by the way, this is a thing that's happening that doesn't actually affect gameplay at all and you are just as likely to know it's happening as not'? Open, free roam maps? Social hubs? A frivolous function/economy for character/habitat designing? Heavy weapons? Different game modes? Bone fide new vehicles (no, assault dropships are just 'the part in the front shoots now, also you lose two seats')? The meta level? PVP that isn't more than just a glorified Skirm map? Jetpacks? Alternating gravity conditions? A SENSIBLE AND EFFECTIVE TUTORIAL PRESENT IN GAME THAT ACTUALLY GUIDES NEW PLAYERS, AND TEACHES THEM ABOUT CORE BASICS INSTEAD OF A SERIES OF TOOL TIPS?
There's just, no sense of adventure, or growth, or novelty, or progress, or meaning, or risk, or awe. As the game stands, it's little more than any mediocre shooter that could have been made 10 years ago but with a larger map filled with wasted space and maybe better graphics.
To put it another way, when I started this game, I would excitedly invite my friends to play it saying, 'It's going to be great! It may not seem like much now, but soon..." as I listed off all the features present and coming.
Then I started to mention it in passing, that "there's this OK game I've been playing lately, it's not so much right now, but you might be interested, they're going to do all this cool stuff, eventually..."
Then I just didn't talk about it anymore, and now I'm embarrassed to confess that I still play, because when asked why I do all I can say about the game is that at one point it sounded like it was going to be really good before I start mentioning various balance issues, explain the backwards Flavor of the Month shenanigans, explain that no, it is in fact not in beta despite it's basic functionality for a modern shooter and perpetual tweaking, grudgingly mention how somethings are obnoxiously UP with somethings are obnoxiously DOWN, and, to reiterate, Lack of Content.
I mean, the game is decent even as is, don't get me wrong, it is playable, it's just not particularly good and a far cry from great and I'm getting tired of waiting for it to get there (also why I'm not throwing money at it, and haven't yet because I am willing to pay for an enjoyable experience, I'm just waiting for a sign that the game isn't going to collapse on itself within the next year). So save for a secret planned flood of content with a new patch within the next month, a new, firm sense of direction and a promise for steady, meaningful progress backed by the actual thing, say with that Fanfest thing or the upcoming 5.14//14 probably going to find something else to pass the time with. Destiny looks good, hear great things about the Elder Scrolls and I'm super excited about the mega-cross-platform server (fingers crossed), I might even convert to Warframe seeing as it's on the PS4 I guess?
Anyway, just had to say it. |
Tupni
Capital Acquisitions LLC
Dirt Nap Squad.
105
|
Posted - 2014.04.07 23:42:00 -
[2] - Quote
Mobius Kaethis wrote:I'm always confused by people who are looking for an "end game" in a shooter or even an open world RPG like EvE. There is no story line so there can't possibly be an end game. I think you came into this game a) not understanding that CCP develops on a decade long timescale (just look at EvE) and b) even when this game is complete there will be no endgame since players are expected to make their own story. If you are looking for a finite RPG/FPS experience that has an "end game" might I recommend one of the old Dues Ex Games. They would probably meet your needs better than anything CCP develops.
It's not so much about the end game, it's more like I want the game to actually start... It's about the game actually having said Open World functionality and RPG elements instead of it being five maps, a so-so factional system, and shouting either "AMARR JESUS" "FREEDUMB, FREEDUMB EVERYWHUR" "TRIBALISM AND ALSO FREEDOME PLZ" "SECULARISM! Y-yeah!". And currently, even a playful storyline like, "One day I got off my comfy mercenary couch and went to the mercenary lounge and started a mercenary gunfight because lol, we're all immortal" from start to finish relies on a heavy imagination of things that are not present in the game. I mean, there's making your own story in the context of a universe, then there's having to create a parallel universe that has things like, now bear with me, FUNCTIONAL CHAIRS, and an OPEN WORLD THAT ISN'T LIMITED TO FIVE MAPS WITH CROPPED VARIANTS AND ONE OF FOUR SMALL ROOMS WITH NO EXITS. And to launch, start the closed beta, begin open beta, say "yeah we're good enough", launch and nearly a year later from that point have virtually nothing to show for it (a 2-3 year span at least)? Even in the timescale of a decade there is some notable catching up to do...
I mean, don't get me wrong, I've played EVE. I realize that it's basically a dungeon crawler with a handful of astronomical objects, a background image, empty space, triggers for access to internal spaces, some camera effects, a skill system and spaceships (the most feature deep item mentioned) with visual representations of various effects and the capacity of customization. It really only shines in its open environment features (including the presence of NPCs) and how players can interact with said environment and each other using these things. It is this last category and its promises thereof that brought me to Dust, and what in that category of features has been implemented so far?
Diddly.
To put it in words of EVE, It's as though it were 2004, or maybe 2005. You're limited to tier 1 ships and tech, in a single solar system, no mining, no crafting, no e-war, having only 1 quest with 3-5 variants (2 of which are redundant of each other and all derivative of the same concept), no NPCs, no selling, no market, you can't fly around but within the confines of 5 places which have a player cap, you can chat and ally but that's about it.
I mean honestly, development has been so sluggish I have to assume one of two things.
A) The game isn't going to go anywhere within the next ten years.
B) (And this is kind of a secret fantasy of mine because otherwise I'm out) CCP has been secretly holding back on their patches and fixing the current game because they're about to introduce some crazy update with revamped efforts to follow.
The problem is I'm leaning towards A as the likelihood at this point... I want to believe though. |