skello! の最近のレビュー

The opening cinematic felt a bit like the trailer for "Two Brothers" from Intergalactic Cable in Rick and Morty - constant "and then X happened and then Y happened and then Z happened and then..." - which felt like maybe I should have been playing through that in some sort of solo or co-op mode. Once you do get to play, the characters you choose from are not very original or interesting - generic combination of national stereotypes with mostly annoying voice lines, nothing you haven't seen a thousand times before. These factors kinda kill my desire to learn anything about the world, or the plot.

The actual game (I played the 3 player co-op) is pretty limited. As you move from one enemy encounter to the next, you unlock abilities and weapons which you perhaps should be starting with. The way it is now, the first half of the game is spent barely unlocking your characters' tactical abilities and charging your ultimate, and you only get to fully use them and combine them later, towards the second half of your 4-objectives raid. You'll be walking across a big map, but always only about a hundred meters before the next blob comes from the sky and drops some enemies on the ground.

The gameplay is held up by the excellent gun feel - shooting and killing enemies is really strong and feels punchy. Movement is adequate (sprint, jump, slide, and some characters have extra mobility), but nothing to blow your mind. QOL stuff is downright missing - there's almost no info on the HUD about your team mates, interaction/ping system is limited to a single location pin you can place and a generic voice line that follows. Enemy design is pretty poor - running guys, dog-like exploding guys, armored guys with a weak point, stronger guys that teleport, shooting guys... nothing new or interesting in any way. The AI is non-existent (or at least, not interesting). The only variable is how many of each kind will spawn in front of you.

I think that for this game to succeed, it needs some pacing rework and maybe some semblance of a story connecting the missions. Make me feel like I'm playing for some goal besides leveling the characters and guns - because the characters are bland and the weapons too (they feel responsive and punchy, but they're all a bit samey same). None of the character abilities fit their expected play style, it feels like they were drawn out of a hat for each character, rather than created with the intention of providing varied play styles and evolving meta.

The game is free, which is great. It definitely makes me more accepting of its shortcomings, but it's also not enough to make me spend any more time on it. It also doesn't inspire hope to see all the crafting menus, battle pass, premium currency and a sluggish XP bar under every character and weapon - it says to me that this game, once complete, will probably not respect my time and end up asking for increasingly more attention (or money) to make me progress. As it is, I don't feel anything is being offered in return.

EDIT Feb 2023:

I can no longer recommend this game in good conscience. At first, The Cycle seemed like a unique extraction shooter with a lot of great ideas and some balancing issues that needed ironing out. However, as the developers continue to make one bad and short-sighted decision after another, the direction of this game is no longer as clear.

The developers clearly don't know what this game should be. The release of a third, heavily gear-focused, high-level PvP map WHILE the game was losing players was not a smart choice, as the already dwindling player base was now going to be split into three maps instead of two.

Instead of somehow bridging the gap between well-geared veterans (streamers with inventories full of exotics) and undergeared newbies (people just wanting to get a feel for the game), the developers decided to add high-powered perks to already powerful gear of players who dominate the new PvP map... thus only widening the gap. Veterans now have access to faster healing, stronger weapons, better backpacks, even wall hacks - courtesy of the Forge, an "end game" area where beginners aren't even allowed to go.

The only mechanic that was "kinda" keeping this in check was the regular wipe system (ala Tarkov), however, the devs have decided to scrap that for some reason. Bored, over-geared tryhards are now roaming the maps desperate for some PvP distraction while beginners serve as unsatisfying cannon fodder for their Twitch streams.

The most recent decision was to add MK2 weapons (not new weapons, same looking and sounding weapons that we already had, just with better number stats), which will again increase the divide between no gear low skill players and veterans with backpacks full of the best weapons. Not to mention that cautious players will no longer be able to recognize an enemy's gun by its sound and pick fights accordingly.

Besides the obvious lack of vision, or any clear direction for the game (like what genre will it be? what do you want the (new) player experience to be?), there are some glaring issues that made the game weak even when it was still confidently a wipe-based extraction shooter. Things like unimaginative copy+paste features seemingly taken from mobile games (rarity tiers, daily login FOMO, crafting queues, archaic and glitchy social features) or MMOs (random fetch quests for factions with sluggish progress bars, insane material requirements for upgrades, bloated economy with dozens of useless items and materials in the game just for the sake of variety).

While at first, it seemed that these were minor issues that would eventually be fixed, the developers' tone deaf decisions so far leave me with little faith.

ORIGINAL REVIEW, SEASON 1:

The Cycle: Frontier is a really interesting PvPvE type looter shooter, with a persistent world (therefore no queuing or waiting for a game in the lobby). Gear up, drop onto the planet and do your tasks (could be mining, hunting monsters, looting for specific upgrade components or crafting materials, or just plain old murdering other prospectors for their loot).

You will get your ass kicked and lose all your precious loot. This will piss you off. But then you will adjust your strategy, start playing like a real scout in a hostile environment, choose your equipment wisely, pick your moments and when you come out on top, you will feel a great sense of accomplishment that virtually no other game will give you.

It's free and has no pay to win mechanics (microtransactions are only for cosmetics).

The developers are very attentive, active on Discord, and seem to be in it for the long haul (no cash grab and ditch happening here). We will watch their career with great interest.

This is a great Star Wars game - progress works in a Souls-like manner (with safety checkpoints and enemies respawning when you rest), but it's nowhere near as difficult. At the same time, just button mashing is not gonna get you far either.

I love the level design and how you come back to already visited planets and gain access to areas you previously didn't have the skill to reach. It feels very organic and satisfying.

The is also decent. Somewhat generic moments and characters, often surprise with a nice twist or a reveal, famous Star Wars cameos are placed tastefully and executed perfectly.

Everything fits neatly into Star Wars lore, without trying to desperately shoehorn in wokeness or unnecessary cameos. It's just a tight package that's very fun for several hours at a time, when you're in the mood for semi-challenging singleplayer at your own pace.

Graphics, sound design, controls, all top notch, it looks and feels great.

Two tips for new players:
- Play it with a controller (I used a generic X-BOX controller.)
- Disable quick-time events in the menu (I found it much more enjoyable to just watch the action in the cutscenes instead of randomly having to press buttons)

My play time reflects beating the campaign at a medium pace and getting between 95%-100% completion on all planets. There is also a NewGame+ mode and an arcade-style practice mode that unlock after completing the story campaign.

They're trying to squeeze as much money out of this game as possible, it doesn't respect your time or your wallet in terms of rewards. Now you can't even enjoy the random cosmetic drops with your in-game currency and are expected to dish out $20 PER SEASON. Out of touch.

In the past, I could always ignore the monetisation and just enjoy the fun gameplay, but Respawn and EA are not doing anything about the awful servers and performance, updates are not much more than cosmetic money grabs, and the player base has evolved into an unhealthy mixture: absolute pros dedicating 8+ hours per day just to this game, cheaters, complete beginners and a dwindling minority of decent, but casual players.

It feels like the "skill-based matchmaking" just puts you up as cannon fodder for the streamers, pros and people utilizing every possible meta and exploit to win. And then, once in a while, you get a pity win by being matched against absolute beginners. Neither of the situations feels satisfying or fun.

I had my fun with this game, but I'm changing my review in 2024, because I honestly wouldn't recommend it to anyone at this point.

The free demo is fun, try it!

Feels somewhere between Portal 1 and Portal 2 as far as complexity goes, except you don't use portals, you use lights and shadows.

Played 2x through the Singleplayer campaign and have put a couple hundred hours into Multiplayer on Origin. Bought this game on Steam as well, because Respawn deserve the money and Titanfall 2 deserves this review and hopefully more players coming from Steam.

The campaign is incredible and worth it on its own. Epic battles, innovative and enjoyable movement, involved well-written story. Some moments will stay with you forever.

The multiplayer is equally epic. The maps and different scenarios are really well built to accommodate for combat on foot as well as in the giant Titans. Great variety of guns, different Pilot loadouts and abilities and different Titans really give you room to find your preferred play style. Parkour is next level in Titanfall 2, the way you can flow through the battlefield is simply unparalleled.

Enough praise, enjoy the game.

Free to play, so give it a shot.

This game is lovingly crafted and it shows in every scene, map and transitions between them.

If you're a fan of true turn-based strategy games like X-COM, this will definitely scratch that itch. But even if you're just a casual gamer looking for an engaging experience, Mutant Year Zero has your back!

Really fun top-down brawler!

Sadly, this game runs pretty poorly on my mid-range PC (i5-4460, GTX960, 8GB RAM), with pretty big loading times, considering the graphics are not that impressive and neither is the complexity of the levels.

Just loading into the main menu for the first time froze my game twice (doesn't help that everything was automatically set to Ultra and the game started loading the 3D character model before I even got to the main menu). Discord call from a friend while I was playing also resulted in a freeze, as did ALT+TABbing for me.

Your mileage may vary, but for me it's definitely not worth the price in its current state. Maybe after some patches and a discount. Refunded within 2h of playtime.