nitrile
Bragian Order
Amarr Empire
0
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Posted - 2015.04.18 10:58:00 -
[1] - Quote
I find Planetside 2 to lack a degree of agency. Yes, I'm talking bout the zerg train and yes, I'm sure there's ways to sidestep it and if you're with an outfit I'm sure that's a wholly different experience. Correct me if it amounts to a lot more than freeform pubstomping, but those ongoing fights of random die/respawn are its farms and fields to at least the rest.
There's defensive points to "take" for 5 minutes. But no almost no tactics. The whole thing is reminiscent of three microbial mats in a petri dish and honestly It still feels to me a lot more like a direct marketing application ('you were killed by the following, wouldn't you like to buy this?') than it does a game.
I've not had a console since the 90's. Planetside 2 should then be a default analog for it's almost- PS1 contemporary, Tribes but in PS2 beta, and after release it just didn't hold my interest. Whereas dust has. PS2 hasn't added significant interesting complexity that I can see between release and last week, when I was using it with a console-less friend. Its maps aren't even all that big, considering space between barely matters. It's certainly pretty, but it's also too clean. It's also implemented more in scope than Dust itself has, but I'm not sure that's useful to it, on my terms. Planetside war has nothing on Eve war.
Now, Dust. To me it feels like Tribes (2) did, in a larger context. In a more-or-less arranged match where you can change tactics, usefully. Either yourself or with a squad to make effect the course of a round. It feels like it takes place in a solid, sci fi context and is at least somewhat grounded. Fighting badly uses resources (PS2 you can run repeatedly into hostile weapons, for no discernible negative). Fighting well, even by yourself can change the outcome.
Of course neither do, but Dust feels like your actions have effects, even if it's just for your randomly assigned teammates for that one round.
Vehicles are good, weapons are distinctive (PS2's are totally not) and even if there's skillpoint mountains to be climbed and a bunch of stuff we'd all suggest be in that isn't, you can decide to contribute, even more or less as a beginner. And not just be farmed.
CCP, port it already. And raise the scope to the bar you set for it. |