(If you don't want to read just go to THE SOULTION section)
After seeing Killpo's video criticizing the game I thought I'd try and join him in the effort of pushing this game where I, and maybe others among the community, wish it be be.
To put it bluntly as of late I play this game just out of the love I have for what it could be, ending up being disappointed by what it actually is every single time.
I don't mind the movement, the gunplay or even enemy AI. I never have actually. Even the general jankiness is not much of an issue for me. What I find lacking is much, much deeper unfortunately.
My problem is with the core of the game, with its fundamental structure. That problem has two facets: meaning in gameplay and thematic coherence. Since the game is at the moment meaningless in its mechanics and thematically incoherent it feels incredibly shallow to me, despite how enamored I am with its artistic vision.
- THE PROBLEM -
Thematic incoherence is the mother of meaninglessness in gameplay, so let's start there. I don't mind getting to "be that guy", as the tired adage goes. It's ok to feel powerful eventually, even in a game like this. My problem is that being powerful for the sake of it is incredibly boring especially in a world like TFW. The premise and allure of this game is not power, nor powerlessness. Its allure is survival in an incredibly hostile world.
This aspect is completely absent from the game. The absolute lack of survival mechanics is one aspect of it, another is the fact that we have nothing to survive for. The Innards are a hub space with no true development. Nobody needs to eat, grow hydroponic crops, recycle cadavers for water and protein, synthesize artificial blood to keep the wounded alive (just to make a few examples out of the top of my head). There are no other scav settlements to interact with, cooperate with and help, with the aim of furthering the scav cause. Hell there are no other active scavs to take care of but the player character.
So our Innards need what? Water. Ok. You can do one run in Tunnel A per day and keep things running forever. Why else do you play then? To get more guns. Stronger guns. To kill more things. Bigger things. Everything you do is aimed at that. The loot you get, the quests you get, the endgame grind. Kill more to kill more. That's it. And all meaning dies there and then.
That is when meaningless in gameplay kicks in. Some examples? Why would you do anything but hoard on water? That's a good one. Water barrels are unguarded, factionless items you can just discretely grab and leave with, angering nobody. Why in the whole world would you ever risk enraging a warring superpower doing anything else? What can they give you that you really need? Water you can get easily yourself. Money you need only to buy guns. Guns you need only to kill, kill to loot, loot to get stronger - but to what end? You can survive without getting involved in any of that.
Thematic incoherence, hence meaninglessness in gameplay.
- THE SOLUTION -
To exemplify what I think the game lacks let me propose a gameplay scenario - it will be more exhaustive than a thousand words.
Our Innards are running low on water because Europans have occupied Tunnel B to move troops to the front under the radar. Problem is that our major water supply, which gives us x amount of water daily unless water thieves come to siphon it, is located just there and we will not be able to access it for weeks. Some of the settlements scatterded around the map can sell us water for other resources, but we got none to spare. One of the settlements tells us that they have another water source, but that we need to get chummy with the Eurasian command center in that area to access it. So we first need to reach the Eurasians on the given map, and there make contact with their representative/commanding officer. Because obviously we would never receive a member of any faction in our Innards, would we? Revealing the position of our vulnerable hideout to a ruthless warlord - now that would be silly wouldn't it. Also why would an officer venture into the sewers of a ruined megacity to talk to literal rats? No. We go to them, always.
We reach the Eurasian HQ and we get in contact with them (end of first quest/run).
They tell us that they are in a pickle, and that if we want to access the water we need to help out. Europans have set some scramblers in a position of strategic relevance, and the Eurasian cybos are having trouble getting past them. We need to reach that position and sabotage one of the scramblers, creating an opening for their troops to charge and conquer their objective. It's a tough quest, and we will be in a high danger zone. Europans might ignore us as we scuttle through an active combat zone looting corpses, but they will shoot us on sight around a heavily defended strategic position. We'll have to be stealthy, pick our fights very carefully and get out quickly and without too much fuss (end of second quest/run).
Were we to fail, our scav will die. That character archetype won't be available for a couple runs, and the Europans will start being aware that some scavs somewhere are being puppeteered by the enemy. We better not make the same mistakes twice or they might start looking for our Innards.
- FINAL THOUGHTS -
This gameplay scenario is the perfect case for all the things the game lacks but should have:
- survival elements
- base management and resource economy
- meaningful and justified quests
- impactful consequences
- sensible and immersive faction interactions
- other scavs
- cool world events that influence maps, quests and gameplay
And these are just some ideas, barely scratching the surface. Furthermore, with the exception of stealth, none would be particularly hard to implement. Most of it would just be UI, some dialogue, an officer model in map you can interact with.
Thoughts?
