Topic: Pure Xbox Game Club - Halo 2 (Nov)

So….how is everyone enjoying Avengers (those who are playing it)?
The mere mention of GaaS made something click in my subconscious….and I re-downloaded Destiny 2 and bought the latest expansion and went on an absolute TEAR over the last 24 hours, nearly unlocked a Triumph seal.

These types of games are like crack to me

I hate games as service i would rather play lots of games rather than lots of one game

when i played Avengers I did the entire main campaign solo no one joined

nice looking game chore to play

Fair.

Destiny 2 has the best shooting in any first person shooter ive ever played though, bar none. I play a lot of different games and this one, when firing on all cylinders, does it for me. With the current expansion, it’s definitely firing on all cylinders

@Dusk_Actual I totally get that feeling. I'm not the biggest shooter fan, so won't easily play games like fortnite, warzone or destiny, but played mmorpg for years. World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy 14 and Elder scrolls online just to name a few. For me the biggest plus of those games is the sheer amount of content they keep adding to the game keeping it fresh for a certain amount of time. I now mainly play single player games since I missed so many great gems playing only mp games.

Avengers was a whole other beast. It got boring very fast, at least the Gaas part. The campaign was pretty good and I enjoyed it when I played it last year. I did start it up in between to do the story content of some of the newer characters but beside that I won't touch it anymore.

@Lavalera it comes and goes for me, seems like. I’ll be hot ‘n’ heavy w/Destiny for a couple months and then I’ll play a couple/few single player games before dipping back into D2 to see what’s happening.

@ralphdibny Just randoms and the the one player bits so far. A bit of slowdown at times online and a hot of button I'm out lag. But it's fairly infrequent and a game I will be keeping downloaded for sure.

I have downloaded Avengers. Not sure I will finish it but I am in need of a palate cleanser from xenoblade every so often and will give a try.

I have played a bit of the campaign. Definitely different from what I was expecting as I didn't know there was a new super hero involved and how the whole setting was going to be. Gameplay is fine altough a bit button mashing for my taste. The performance of the VA however it is odd so far (specially on dr. Banner) but a lot of that comes from the difference to MCU counterparts for sure (however I cannot say the same about GotG and they are also my favourite from the movies).
Very early on right now at only 10% of the first story part.

@Balta666 I was actually going to post something about the voice acting today. Weirdly, I actually think it's one of the best things about the game! Even if the script becomes a bit rubbish from nonsensical exposition without the characters having any logical way to know what they are saying to be the case; the story shines when it focuses on the personal character moments and relationships between characters and the actors really do a good job of that.

@ralphdibny I am very early on so it may well be that their performances grow on me with time.

Looks like we've lost @Beagle. I hope they are well

Just rolling credits on the Reassembled Campaign now. It's a good single player game that's bogged down by its multiplayer element. Trying to appeal to both types of player spreads the game thin.

Reassembled starts off great but slows greatly by introducing us to elements of the multiplayer side. I feel that this cynical shoehorning actually detracts from later more typical single player sequences. It's almost because every capture the flag, zone control and free for all takes a spot in the storyline that could have been given to one of the more traditional single player set pieces.

The graphics are great and the game performs well. The script is hokey at times, exposition wise and for single character development it leans over into the cringe side of the fence rather than the spine-tingling awe inspiring moments. Not entirely though, there is a balance between the two but it swings wildly rather than toeing the line.

The voice acting is great. When two or more characters are on screen, we get some really nicely performed moments and development. Widow, Kamala, Bruce, Hank are real stand outs. Thor is very much like his movie counterpart. However Captain America seems a little bit too angry for my liking, more like an authoritative jock than the humble "kid from Brooklyn" that makes him so likeable in the films.

The game plays well, I think I have my favourite characters to play as. Hulk and Iron Man are a bit boring. Captain America, Thor and Widow are a joy to play. Kamala starts off good but over exposure to her play style during the campaign grew somewhat tiresome.

I will also say that the multiplayer elements really confuse the game, not just in it's swinging between quality and quantity but also in just it's user interface. It was so hard to just start the game because I didn't know where to find the campaign. Even after I got started, the game throws so much filler your way that I reduced by approach to "following the A" i.e. not touching anything that didn't have the Avengers' "A" symbol on it that indicated it was part of the campaign I was currently playing. I sure hope the additional campaigns have a similar notation to make it easy for me to progress through the menus.

If I had reviewed this game off the back of the opening couple hours then I would have awarded it a firm 10/10, comparable to PlayStation's Spidey game. Truly excellent. But unfortunately the nose dive into introducing the online multiplayer mediocrity tainted any further moments of greatness. It's really sad that it had to be that way. I wish the game was one or the other or that it kept a quality single player story separate from its unappealing (to me at least) online elements.

yeah i think its an ok single player game im not a big marvel fan anymore so it doesnt appeal to me they way it would do others but i certainly wouldn't say its a bad game

I finished the Kate Bishop campaign earlier. I found her super annoying and unlikeable in this game unfortunately. Not really my cup of tea. Shame because I love her in the TV show. I'm playing the future imperfect campaign now. Pretty cool to play as old man Hawkeye

Just finished Future Imperfect, it was a lot better than Taking AIM. Gona make a start on War for Wakanda and play it until I fall asleep

I tried the game for about 6h (in small bursts) but I am done with it as I am not enjoying it.
The gameplay is bland, the characters move so slowly... And the holding X for such long periods is agravating... Apart from kamala I still dislike the voice acting (there is no emotion into it imo).
And as mentioned before the missions system is just very poorly implemented. One time I had to quit the game in order to progress because I was stuck in btw missions without managing to either go back to the shop or choose another mission...

@Balta666 fair play to ya. My characters never walk 😅. I'm always holding down the stick to run and constantly jumping. It's not very realistic but its the fastest way to travel!

I've done the first level of War for Wakanda and just like the first level of Reassembled and Future Imperfect, it is very nice! If this game was just like Shadow of the Tomb Raider then it would be perfect. It's so very similar in its best bits but so very different in its implementation of side content. I wish it just had different maps full of side content that you could 100% instead of a confusing map menu full of achievement/trophy style challenges (kill X amount of enemy etc). A lot of Shadow was filler but it didn't exactly feel like filler as it was Spider-Man like in its approach to just completing the maps.

Even though the DLC road map for Shadow was laughable when it got announced, the final complete Definitive Edition product was an excellent game and I wish Avengers took a similar approach. I wouldn't have touched it until it was complete but I would have loved to see and play a finished product

@ralphdibny I've just rolled credit on the main game and I think you have absolutely nailed how I feel about the game! The bland bloated middle of this game when it's trying to introduce the gear, grind and cosmetics brings down what could have been a truly great game. The first two hours, the character and that final mission are very good. I found locking the final mission behind some collectibles that you had to do side quest nonsense for pretty egregious. I have to be honest I'm not going to tackle the dlc, even though black panther had been some of my favourite marvel stuff, I'm pretty done. I did enjoy most of the characters gameplay, though iron man really didn't do it for me. Kamala was my favourite, though a bit button mashy. It's given me an itch to start up a yakuza game though, I've been thinking about playing kiwami 2 for ages 🤣. Overall, the campaign is decent, it just could have been so much more as a 15 hr single player game than whatever they made this. Cosmetics that don't change anything, a gameplay loop that won't stand up to folk repeating the same quests again and again for drops, constant messages about bloody market place items. For a publisher that has the biggest mmo on the market, you have to question how they didn't input more into the live aspect service of the game.

@R1spam yeah it's so hard to reconcile the way the game puts on the brakes so quickly after a couple hours.

I didnt actually find that final mission side quest thing too bad, I literally entered one mission and got everything I needed from it. That being said, I did choose one that happened to have all the enemies that it asked for parts for so maybe I was just lucky.

Future imperfect DLC was cool but I think War for Wakanda is much better than the rest. It's like a full reskin of the game. Black Panther plays really well too, definitely one of the better characters once you get used to him. Only one "defend the [three fighters]" mission in it so far too and at least the fighters are competent Dora Milaje that can hold their own instead of inept untrained Inhumans that seem to like dying lol

I'd quite like some of the cosmetics if they could all be unlocked naturally. I won't be putting a penny into this game (unless I buy the base game at some point). I know the cosmetics basically pay for the free content but the value from the consumer point of view doesn't add up. You could spend hundreds, if not thousands on cosmetics and all you get are 3 short DLC campaigns. Something isn't right there. If the DLC campaigns were stuck behind a traditional season pass and cosmetics were free then I would be more on board. Of course, this wouldn't make them as much money.

Best of luck with the Yakuza games, Kiwami 2 Is much much better than Kiwami. I've played 0-7 and I've only got the spin offs left to play. I thought I'd give the series a break though after I ploughed through them in the last year or 2