quinch1199
Dwarven Lord Under The Mountain
Wildlands – A Review after CBT & OBT
General Impressions:
Graphics -
Visually a breath-taking achievement. Simply put the visuals of a living, breathing and realistic world are there…so much so, as to prompt a very real physical response from me! When that fog rolls in from the mountains I physically felt cold to the bone…no other game has done that JUST on visual effects to me.
Gameplay -
Open ended missions that you had the power to choose how you approached them…this all felt right. Often there were missions that, on the face of it and after cursory review looked almost impossible for me to complete but after patience and a proper reccie of the target it all fell into place. Likewise, seemingly easy missions often proved impossible if handled in a sloppy fashion. All this is a positive for me.
One shot one kill for most enemies was such a nice change, whilst those wearing body armour were dealt with logically as well (except for some glaring points to be picked up later).
The story missions were well thought out and varied significantly. They made good use of the environments and terrain as well. I liked the small side-encounters but also wished these led to more things other than a resource boost.
Vehicle use was generally a nightmare! However, land vehicle handling had clearly improved from Closed beta to Open beta vehicles had an odd mix of being too fragile (small bumps did significant damage) but also far too rugged (I shouldn’t be able to take a family sedan up a mountain without wreaking it!). Helicopters….don’t talk to me about helicopters!! The small ones were all but unflyable…at least the large Blackhawks faired much better for some reason.
Whilst the gameplay was solid, missions interesting and varied, graphics were absolutely stunning the question after the two beta tests for me is …. How long will this actually engage me?
This is where I’m concerned as once you’ve completed the main missions and obtained collectables…what then? Additional missions as paid or achievement DLC? That’s fair enough but what about randomly generated and dynamic events? To use The Division as an example we have at least two instances that drag me back… Underground & HVT’s…they’re randomised events/missions that change to a certain extent each time. Do we have much indication of this in GRW?
The answer is … no, not really. More importantly those that do…what would make you want to play those missions?
One of the few random, reoccurring missions was to stop a supply convoy (annoyingly hard!) but the reward…. 2,000 points of supplies…seemed like something I wouldn’t need very often. I had far more supply points than I could spend as spending them was restricted by Skill Points…skill points being a finite resource on each map. Once you’ve collected that medal….that’s it.
So why do I have so many thousands of supplies I wonder?
After 8hrs of gameplay and two regions virtually 100% completed for all items….I wonder what will be coming to promote longevity?
That all said if each region has 5-10 missions and there are 15 regions and it took me 8hrs to clear just two regions….I guess we can’t complain at 60+ hours for a game …can we?
Overall though I had a fantastic time in the Beta testing, I hope a few items are polished before release such as some graphical glitches and the vehicle mechanics. I would also like a way to be able to reverse alert status for UNIDAD in a region…perhaps a mission that makes you more friendly to them. In both regions I was often constantly hounded by UNIDAD on sight and without direct provocation, to such an extent that they would follow me back to a “secure” base even AND STILL BE ATTACKING ME EVEN AFTER A CUT SCENE!
Or chase me from one side of a map right to another…on foot as well as by vehicles! Even after I’d done side missions, broken contact, done everything right. They still caught up with us.
I mean, fine, maybe there’s no such thing as a safe place in a truly open world but I’d love to be able to bribe, cajole or otherwise placate UNIDAD. They’re “meant” to be generally the good guys, even if many are taking bribes etc I feel they’re painted as just another cartel style enemy but with just better guns and armour.
On that matter…UNIDAD troops soak up damage to unnatural degrees. Body armour is one thing but at least fall over and stagger if I triple tap you in the chest! UNIDAD should have better weapons, better Ai in the troops to make them more effective (less stupid) and better equipment but their troops aren’t T-1000 killer robot machines.
Often, actually all the time, I was overestimating the intelligence of the Ai. I look at games like Sniper Elite and realise that Ai doesn’t need to be very brainy or observant to make a good game and I ended up making mistakes or not attacking at all because I assumed a far higher level of observational skills from the Ai.
At the end of the day I was impressed significantly enough that, as a multiplayer co-operative game with players I knew, it was enough for me to purchase and I have. Apart from select small scale missions I can only see me playing this as co-operative but I also feel a game like this would benefit from some form of filter in the match making so that more likeminded players can match up easily. That said…this was a FREE beta….things like that are sure to bring out all the A-holes.
General Impressions:
Graphics -
Visually a breath-taking achievement. Simply put the visuals of a living, breathing and realistic world are there…so much so, as to prompt a very real physical response from me! When that fog rolls in from the mountains I physically felt cold to the bone…no other game has done that JUST on visual effects to me.
Gameplay -
Open ended missions that you had the power to choose how you approached them…this all felt right. Often there were missions that, on the face of it and after cursory review looked almost impossible for me to complete but after patience and a proper reccie of the target it all fell into place. Likewise, seemingly easy missions often proved impossible if handled in a sloppy fashion. All this is a positive for me.
One shot one kill for most enemies was such a nice change, whilst those wearing body armour were dealt with logically as well (except for some glaring points to be picked up later).
The story missions were well thought out and varied significantly. They made good use of the environments and terrain as well. I liked the small side-encounters but also wished these led to more things other than a resource boost.
Vehicle use was generally a nightmare! However, land vehicle handling had clearly improved from Closed beta to Open beta vehicles had an odd mix of being too fragile (small bumps did significant damage) but also far too rugged (I shouldn’t be able to take a family sedan up a mountain without wreaking it!). Helicopters….don’t talk to me about helicopters!! The small ones were all but unflyable…at least the large Blackhawks faired much better for some reason.
Whilst the gameplay was solid, missions interesting and varied, graphics were absolutely stunning the question after the two beta tests for me is …. How long will this actually engage me?
This is where I’m concerned as once you’ve completed the main missions and obtained collectables…what then? Additional missions as paid or achievement DLC? That’s fair enough but what about randomly generated and dynamic events? To use The Division as an example we have at least two instances that drag me back… Underground & HVT’s…they’re randomised events/missions that change to a certain extent each time. Do we have much indication of this in GRW?
The answer is … no, not really. More importantly those that do…what would make you want to play those missions?
One of the few random, reoccurring missions was to stop a supply convoy (annoyingly hard!) but the reward…. 2,000 points of supplies…seemed like something I wouldn’t need very often. I had far more supply points than I could spend as spending them was restricted by Skill Points…skill points being a finite resource on each map. Once you’ve collected that medal….that’s it.
So why do I have so many thousands of supplies I wonder?
After 8hrs of gameplay and two regions virtually 100% completed for all items….I wonder what will be coming to promote longevity?
That all said if each region has 5-10 missions and there are 15 regions and it took me 8hrs to clear just two regions….I guess we can’t complain at 60+ hours for a game …can we?
Overall though I had a fantastic time in the Beta testing, I hope a few items are polished before release such as some graphical glitches and the vehicle mechanics. I would also like a way to be able to reverse alert status for UNIDAD in a region…perhaps a mission that makes you more friendly to them. In both regions I was often constantly hounded by UNIDAD on sight and without direct provocation, to such an extent that they would follow me back to a “secure” base even AND STILL BE ATTACKING ME EVEN AFTER A CUT SCENE!
Or chase me from one side of a map right to another…on foot as well as by vehicles! Even after I’d done side missions, broken contact, done everything right. They still caught up with us.
I mean, fine, maybe there’s no such thing as a safe place in a truly open world but I’d love to be able to bribe, cajole or otherwise placate UNIDAD. They’re “meant” to be generally the good guys, even if many are taking bribes etc I feel they’re painted as just another cartel style enemy but with just better guns and armour.
On that matter…UNIDAD troops soak up damage to unnatural degrees. Body armour is one thing but at least fall over and stagger if I triple tap you in the chest! UNIDAD should have better weapons, better Ai in the troops to make them more effective (less stupid) and better equipment but their troops aren’t T-1000 killer robot machines.
Often, actually all the time, I was overestimating the intelligence of the Ai. I look at games like Sniper Elite and realise that Ai doesn’t need to be very brainy or observant to make a good game and I ended up making mistakes or not attacking at all because I assumed a far higher level of observational skills from the Ai.
At the end of the day I was impressed significantly enough that, as a multiplayer co-operative game with players I knew, it was enough for me to purchase and I have. Apart from select small scale missions I can only see me playing this as co-operative but I also feel a game like this would benefit from some form of filter in the match making so that more likeminded players can match up easily. That said…this was a FREE beta….things like that are sure to bring out all the A-holes.
