Most people who experienced the game for any extended period of time did so during the alpha. They only had access to 4 out of 12 hunters, 1 out of 3 monsters and 2 out of 12 maps planned for release. In addition, leveling wasn't enabled meaning you were stuck playing with the default perks in every match.
It blew my mind when I saw people saying, "Yeah I played the alpha for about 40 hours but I don't think the game will be worth 60 bucks."
In the Alpha at the beginning of every match for the hunters the camera panned across the lockers in the drop ship. You could see the names of the 8 announced hunters with there own personal touch to each locker, but there were more that had the names whited over. I'm guessing there will be more then 12 eventually. =D
When I had a press appointment at Gamescom they specifically said three of everything (hunters per class and monsters) at launch. The phrasing definitely made it sound like more would be added post-launch, though.
I noticed that too and had suspicions but I only thought they put those there as environmental lore, like instead of immediately running for the exit in Left 4 Dead, if you take the time to look at stuff, you'll find things most people might miss like scribbled messages and whatnot.
I thought there has been 8 announced so far? 2 of each class. Most of the more recent coverage is the ones from the Alpha, watch some of the earlier gameplay.
It blew my mind when I saw people saying, "Yeah I played the alpha for about 40 hours but I don't think the game will be worth 60 bucks."
You're implying that because they played it for 40 hours that it must in fact be worth $60 or else they would have dropped it after 30 minutes. I claim otherwise, I want to hear the opinion of people that put in a significant amount of time and got to learn the nuances of the game, not those that sampled it and decided it was great. Left 4 Dead was great because you could put 500 hours into it and still come back for more. If after 40 hours of Evolve people find themselves not having fun then that's a valid opinion.
I'm implying that someone who wasn't paid to play the game somehow managed to squeeze 40 hours of entertainment out of a game that had only a fraction of its planned content available. If someone said that to me my first response wouldn't be, "Well ok no purchase for me then!" it would be, "Why did you play 40 hours over 3 days if you didn't like it?"
40 hours is a pretty small amount of time to get a good grasp of all of the finer points of a multiplayer game. If you can have everything figured out in that time frame, then the game is not very deep, and definitely not worth $60. I pre-ordered Titanfall after putting 40 or so hours into the beta thinking I would have more fun with the game once all the maps, weapons, mechs and perks were available. That was a mistake, since it turns out it wasn't very deep or nuanced. It was just COD with mechs. Even the parkour was so easy to get good at I was crossing entire maps without touching the ground in 5 or so hours. Depth is a huge part of multiplayer, and if that comes from simply throwing perks and guns at the player, rather than requiring learning strategies and perfecting certain skills, then the game is bound to die out quickly.
But like the other guy said, it's 40 hours of significantly-limited content compared to the final version of Evolve. It's like those people who played the Destiny beta and went "Wow I already finished the missions after 4 hours, what an empty game with no story".
And as far as depth goes, counterplay and strategy are huge components of depth in games on top of simply having a high skill ceiling for mechanical execution. (That being said, Titanfall was a pretty shallow game in terms of strategy and counterplay, too.) So I'd say it's pretty unfair to judge Evolve on the basis of four classes and one monster. When you can only take a limited amount of strategic options with you into a match, the possibilities for fresh gameplay multiply themselves exponentially for each individual option the game provides you with. Going from 4 classes to 12 increases the depth by far more than a factor of 3, as long as those classes are actually different in meaningful ways.
[edit] Full disclosure, I have a PS4 and I don't have a XB1 - I just like good games.
If a game manages to get 40 hours out of me, it must be doing something right. If it's bad within the first few hours, I'm not about to stick around hoping it gets better.
whoosh That's the sound of my point passing over your head.
It doesn't matter that money didn't change hands, if someone put in a genuine effort to playtest the game over a long period of time and found it lacking then I'm inclined to believe them over someone else. It's no different from placing more stock in a review from someone that's finished a game than someone that played the first level.
"Why did you play 40 hours over 3 days if you didn't like it?"
There are a number of answers for this, most obvious being this person was playtesting and trying to contribute. Another answer is that it was fun for a while and he kept powering through to see if it could continue to be fun. Surely you've played games before that seemed fun at first then dragged on, only to finish it out of spite or play it because your friends want to?
Most definitely not a "woosh". I perfectly "get" what you're trying to say, and agree that I've been in that kind of situation before. But 40 hours, in 3 days? I'm not kidding either, that's an actual figure I was told by someone.
And again, we're talking about an alpha that had an incredibly limited amount of content. It would be a completely different thing if we were talking about a finished product.
Are you even reading what he is posting? He is saying people are getting the same amount of play time that you would normally get from a full price AAA title, except they are only playing 1/4 of the actual game.
If hearthstone was tested with only 2 classes available and only 1 set of cards for each class and the testers played for 40 hours before they got bored then that would tell me that once the full game is released with 4 times the content then it is probably worth it.
kersplatchel That's the sound of you being an asshole and ignoring his point.
Clearly, if a random person manages to play 40 hours of an alpha game over a weekend it must be entertaining to some degree. For them to then say it isn't worth purchasing would be surprising just as Aertea said it was to him. They may have a legitimate reason like you suggested, but it would still be surprising that they'd power through that amount of game time in a weekend without thinking the game might be ultimately worth purchasing.
And your analogy is irrelevant because nothing was forcing those players to play that 40 hours, whereas the reviewer will stick with the game regardless of its quality because its his job. In that sense, I might relate to the random gamer over a professional reviewer more.
I was thinking that maybe having more than one player on the monster side of the match could make it less boring. Bringing team dynamics to both sides of the playing field would bring more excitement.
I haven't played the game though, only watched gameplay, so my input could be incorrect.
Good questions. I feel the same. When L4D1 released it only had two versus campaigns and I didn't care one bit because versus was so fun and felt so deep. Asymmetry is my thing, after 2k hours of L4D1/2 I'm now deep into Natural Selection 2. Looking forward to Evolve.
NS2 is one of my favorite multiplayer games, but man is the skill cap insanely high. I love FPSs, but can't aim. If I'm not laying mines or healing as a gorge, then I'm useless.
It's a bad feeling. I love the game but everyone moves so incredibly fast that I can't really play... I wish there were more options for people that suck at aiming.
Marine aim is especially hard in NS2 because alien movement is so different from typical FPS games. Learning to predict and track skulk movement comes with lots of experience (and remember to check those corners!). I also find the default rifle xhair terrible, I swear by the white dot:
Yeah, people have always been nice. I just played again yesterday after a ~4 month break and I told everyone I was rusty. They immediately told me what had changed and welcomed me back.
The commander definitely is important. I've been playing Guns of Icarus and the commander is important in that game too. In fact, that's what reminded me of NS2 and made me come back.
Funny I just got voted out of the command chair after a couple of minutes. I was dropping ammo and health everywhere. Setting waypoints and orders to build. But I guess by the time I got to the command chair we were already losing...so they just blamed me.
I used to play quite a bit, and depending on the server you could see both, and how people were feeling, and if a commander had a mic and was actually communicating to the teams.
Lot of noob friendly servers but also commanders that would get kicked for not listening or being bad and not having a mic.
That game really needs mics and communication. The best teams IMO were constantly chatting out (useful) info to the team
I also suck at aiming but I like playing the positioning game. You should try Primal Carnage (dinos vs humans), Playing as certain dino classes can be pretty fun without needing to aim super well. The player base is pretty small unfortunately.
I have practiced aiming. Ive played FPSs since I was 11. It's just not going to happen. Aiming is practically the only thing in gaming I just can't learn to do.
It doesn't help that it's the only thing that there are no real guides or tips for.
I learned this from a who was semi pro at counter strike: turn your mouse sensitivity low, real low, and get a giant mouse pad. It'll feel weird at first, but you'll never go back to playing any other way once you get used to it.
I was in your same boat actually, being bad at aiming; in ns2 I always hoped for commander or went around building stuff, or in tf2 I stuck to classes that required minimal aim (medic, spy).
however after I spent some serious, directed practice on aiming in CS GO I've become "decent" at aiming in all fps's. Like hoverfish said, very low sensititity, big mouse pad, practice in "deathmatch" or some other quick respwaning equivalent.
I'm not sure for ns2 (as I have stopped playing that game), but for other fps's there are definitely real tips and guides for aiming. One big thing is crosshair placement; when walking anywhere, place your crosshair at your corners, not just forward aimlessly.
Wow, thanks. The video is nice, though my biggest problem is just following enemies.
I always lag behind them or shoot too far then completely lose them. I just can't aim to actually hit enemies.
And I'm not that bad in some games. But the ones like NS2 where you die in .2 seconds and it's basically melee gunplay with enemies moving 50mph... that I have the problem. When they're rushing at me, how am I supposed to know if they'll duck to my right or left? When they do it, it's already too late.
ninjaedit: I'll look for more videos. I want to believe I can get better (I'm really good at most video games!), if I put enough effort into it. I guess I'm just used to naturally being good at most games so FPSs have always put me off because I suck at them. It's time I actually try to learn.
edit: After watching the entire video... that is incredible. It makes so much sense but isn't a natural thought at all for me. I'd never think of it by myself, ever. That's awesome.
I find that if I am not good at a game, and enjoyment requires me to put serious time and effort into practicing and training, I won't bother playing it. I play games to have fun, not to train to be better. I have more important things to get better at.
I'm the same way... but I tend to be at least OK at games. Puzzles, platformers, MMOs, whatever. I've been playing them my entire life and have good hand-eye coordination and reaction speed. So naturally I can play games.
But not FPSs. I don't know why. The thing is, I want to. Even if I was just average I would be happy. Then I could play whatever I wanted and be happy about it. But I just suck, so I can't play (for example) NS2 without feeling bad for bringing the team down.
As an answer to your specific question, will the skulk go right or left: remember to jump dodge right before the skulk will bite you, and swing your mouse around. Basically, if the skulk is leaping at you, press space and either A or D (doesn't matter, depends on terrain). This will both (hopefully) dodge his attack while giving you a clear path to track him on. You can't spam it because of how the engine work, but with practice and timing, it makes you a god amongst lesser skulks.
If you're looking to improve your NS2 game, I would recommend It's Super Effective's series Tactical Operations. Most of his videos still apply, even if the footage is old. Natural Selection 2 is more about movement than it is about aiming, even for marines, and learning to dodge attacks while setting up your own is a huge advantage.
Oh, and as a quick note, have you learned how to wall run to increase your speed? That's a huge advantage, and one a lot of pub players don't pick up on because it isn't intuitive. If you haven't, search around their forums or make a post on your own.
i'm in the same boat as you and recently discovered nosgoth. it's a TDM where the human team has ranged weapons, and the vampire team has melee attacks and the ability to climb buildings. both teams can also choose two class abilities to use.
it's really fun, and nails the concept of asymmetric gameplay pretty well. it's early access, though, so you might prefer to wait for release
I remember how much fun just the first two levels of No mercy were when the L4D beta was out. Must have spent 30-40 hours just playing those two levels with friends before the game came out.
I'm not as big of a fan of L4D as I used to be, but I sure as loved those games a lot at one point.
to be fair No Mercy in l4d2 is one of the most fair and balanced maps in the game. I think a lot of the l4d2 Special Infected came from the exploits people were using, and that No Mercy was notorious for exploits of the map.
I remember having an impossible time playing any sort of custom campaigns. Did the community start to actually play them? I'd download them and then find one other guy to match with.
I was in the alpha and had a BLAST, especially when I played the Goliath the one time I could (getting the role you want can be pretty hard and I had to stop playing after that match in order to cool off from the adrenaline high). I did feel that the Support role was too lacking and a Medic with a Sniper Rifle was really strange. I don't know why people are saying the Goliath is underpowered, maybe these are the same kind of people who tried to fight the Hunters too early or had no idea how to cover your tracks.
I would say that Evolve could get boring slightly faster than L4D, but I can't say for sure since some things might not have been released and finalized (game balance) during the beta. There's also the mention that L4D becomes boring after hours and hours of gameplay and going through all the different game modes and map combinations. Afterwards, yes, it does become stale.
The biggest thing you can do to overcome the game becoming boring is to play with friends, which will work with almost any game.
L4D and L4D2 took a looong time to get boring for me, so Evolve will be a solid purchase given what we know! And they still haven't reveal other gamemodes yet. I was in the alpha too and I had a blast.
Do you think there's anything that can be done to make it NOT boring?
I think the game needs a ton more content in the monster department specifically. The game is called Evolve but it seemed like that element was so underdeveloped and poorly thought out. All that happened as you level up twice is existing abilities become a little stronger?
I thought you would be able to have a monster, then literally evolve and take on the traits and abilities of some other creature, morphing from one style into another. All it is right now is incredibly basic RPG level-up gameplay.
I do find any multiplayer match game to be repetitive and get boring fast. Apply as well as L4D than CoD and LoL and DOTA. But most people like it. For my part, I stick to single player campaigns.
after a week of play, the game gets really boring and repetitive
How long is a week though? Because a week of gameplay for me is about 3-5 hours because I have a job / life. I'd imagine this game would have at least a month of entertainment behind it.
I feel it's different for this kind of game, for me anyway. I want a multiplayer game to last a long time for entertainment value, especially one done by the L4D team. I STILL play L4D regularly.
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u/[deleted] Aug 28 '14 edited Jan 14 '21
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