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Mercenary Kings on PS4: It's Contra/Metal Slug meets Monster Hunter

Not feeling it so far. Thought it was gonna be straight up side scrolling shooter like contra. Not big on crafting in games. But maybe it'll click after playing through a few levels.
 
I dont really care for this game. I was excited to get home from work to play it. Now that I've played it for about an hour and half or two. I was not happy with it. Glad it's free though.

It's some little things that adds up that I dont like.

- The delayed jump, i've taken too much damage because when I tried to time my jumps, I did not take into account of the delay. Why would they add that in a twitch based shooter like that??? It feels like they added that in there for artificial difficulty, but its more of an annoyance than anything. Theres like three bullets coming at me, If my character jumped when I pressed the button like I thought he'd do, he wouldn't have taken any damage, but he jumped too late and got hit.

- Cant shoot diagonally, this is pretty much the game killer for me. shooting up, down, left and right is killing the enjoyment for me. It's like my mind cant get over that because I constantly keep trying to shoot things thats coming at me from an angle, like those stupid robots flying towards you closing the distance and I would try to shoot them, but I keep forgetting I cant shoot in that direction. I have to put myself in harms way to line up a shot. I could shoot diagonally in hard corps and metal slug, so my brain is accustomed to it and when I try to shot at an angle and cant do it, my brain, its like……..WTF??? and gets hella confused.

- Respawning enemies, since I cant shoot in an angle, I sometimes have to run back and jump to take the shot, because the enemy has closed the distance since they are coming at me from an angle but when I run back, the enemies I JUST KILLED about two seconds ago is there, and I run into them, and ake some damage, so now I got to kill the re-spawned enemies and plus the enemy I was trying to kill before. This is just another annoyance, but i wouldnt mind it if I could aim diagonally so I can at least take them out from a distance on a higher or lower platform and wouldnt have to back track and move so much.

- Gear of war reload mechanic, for some reason, that reload mechanic, just doesnt feel right in this game. I see it adds a level of difficulty, but I just dont like when an enemy is like one second away from hitting me because I cant aim diagonally and i finally line up the shot and try to take the shot, only to start the reload mechanic and in the rush of spamming the shooting trigger trying to kill this fool, I dont pay attention to the bar, and dont hit the reload button in time and i get hit and jam the gun and cant shoot for a period…….man got dammit.

I get so frustrated because with the way the aiming is, it encourages lots of movement and character placement to line up shots since you cant shoot diagonally, but the respawning enemies is a direct violation to that as if you move a bit too much off the screen, now you got more enemies to deal with.

So yea, I pretty much suck at this game, but its strange because i was really good at contra and hard corps and I own and beaten all the metal slugs on xbox 360 on the harder settings so I thought this game would be more like those games as I loved those games. But I see there's a lot of differences in this game that I dont like.

Man, im just glad this game was free, because i'd been mad if I paid for it. Aint mad or bitching or anything, I just didnt want to post "didnt like the game" and kept it moving without at least telling you why I didnt like it. So I aint gon sweat it. Just gon delete it and move a long.

dude... endure the fact that you can't shoot diagonally
 
I feel it's very misleading to put this game next to or even near Monster Hunter, Contra or Metal Slug because it plays more like a Newgrounds flash title.
 
yeah... but u can't shoot diagonally...

Lol! But seriously, nice! Gonna be downloading this today!

I feel it's very misleading to put this game next to or even near Monster Hunter, Contra or Metal Slug because it plays more like a Newgrounds flash title.

I get this vibe a lot from people playing indie titles a lot; they seem to be under the impression the quality is up with old 8/16-bit classics, and call it retro. Yet the truth is many of the titles just aren't, and should have actually dug into some real classics before hyping the indie stuff up.
 
Yup, you're correct. Only certain guns let you shoot diagonally in Metal Slug.

Yeah even with the HMG if you're shooting forward then tip it upwards you have the bullets spread in a diagonal motion but you're not truly shooting diagonally.I'm just being nit picky though. Just thought it was weird being that he said he beat all the Metal Slugs on higher difficulties.

Your avatar changing mid reply threw me off.
 
Yeah even with the HMG if you're shooting forward then tip it upwards you have the bullets spread in a diagonal motion but you're not truly shooting diagonally.I'm just being nit picky though. Just thought it was weird being that he said he beat all the Metal Slugs on higher difficulties.

Your avatar changing mid reply threw me off.

It's probably easy to forget, given how common the Heavy Machine Gun is in Metal Slug. If one hadn't played it in awhile, they'd fail to remember.

April Fools is over, so I went back to my classic avatar.
 
Not to reiterate what has already been said, but yeah, I'm not really feeling the controls so far. The jumping feels clunky to me and I wish shooting was on the R1 button instead of the square button. I am enjoying the crafting and RPG-like elements though.
 
Anyone playing this with remote play on Vita?

I played a mission yesterday. It fits nicely, because the L/R2 buttons aren't much used, and they're mapped to the touchscreen (top corners). There's nothing mapped to the backtouch, so no accidental pressings. It ran nicely too, but when I was hit my character got invisible instead of blinking. Maybe the game on PS4 is 60 fps, and then on the Vita it drops to 30fps and the blinking effect gets messed up. Just a guess.

Didn't try online, tho.

Wow this game is hard or I suck. I had 3 mins left on the first mission and died twice by the time I finished.

I failed the first mission twice from timeout because I got lost. Three (sucessful) missions later someone here told me there's a map. Gamechanger.
 
So far the game doesn't seem to have a ton of diversity, but it's still fun to play with friends. And the game hasn't crashed on me at all, so it must be a case by case thing.

EDIT: Again, the one thing though that I dislike is that INVITE mode still allows people to jump into your game like it's completely open. Me and my friend are just trying to get stuff done and then new people...like "I just started and decided to jump into a random online game" new people, come in and get killed and end the mission before we can finish. It's just annoying. We pretty much have to quit and invite again and then try to roll through missions before someone can jump in.
 
Yep I love this game. I made it to the city area so far am starting to get some real nice pieces for my gun, the music is great, and I love how wide open the game is. If I had any complaints it's that I would like to know "where" the bosses spawn on the map because search for them can be a pain in the ass especially when they run away and you have to chase them.

Early in the game (don't remember which rank) you can buy a bionic mod that allows you to see enemy health and know where the boss is on the map (yellow skull). By the way once the boss has escaped once you always know where he ran off to (mod or no mod).
 
I went to check this out, saw that its rated M, walked away. Devs need to grow up. Nudity and gore in a side scroller? Comon. That's just pointless.

The game this is inspired by, Metal Slug, doesn't shy away from killing and maiming its characters. But of course, you'd know that already had you actually played any of them

I dislike the reloading because it slows you down too much if you don't watch the bar constantly, and enemies don't have that same attacking restriction. I assume it's a non-issue when you get better guns.

And why does this game have so much loading? What is it loading? All of the environments are smallish cut and paste areas.
 
I do not like the clunky movement and jumping. Since Super Meatboy there is no excuse for this kind of unprecise controlls.
 
I do not like the clunky movement and jumping. Since Super Meatboy there is no excuse for this kind of unprecise controlls.

So all indie devs have to utilize Team Meat's mechanics? It's a different game friend, the emphasis is on shooting, not moving and shooting!
 
Okay I've just downloaded this, was very interested in playing through it but I'm also getting frequent stutters. It started with stutters, the loading screen stutters and parts of the opening level does so too for me.

:-

It has a really nice vibe from screenshots I've seen of it but I'm being put off playing it until there's a patch to address the stutter. It might not be widespread but for once I'm hit with issues, an uncommon thing for me.
 
Anyone been reading the comments on this article on the PS EU Blog?

The sense of entitlement is hilarious to read, I've been arguing on there with a particular person who was deluded enough to think we would be getting AAA retail titles for PS4's Plus every month.
 
You have to go right back to the start of the level when you die? That's not fun!

If you find another infirmary it will be set as your spawn point when you die.

Protip 1 : Buy adrenalin shots, revives you on the spot and can be used to revive friends
Protip 2 : You can use the radio to order C4/First Aid kits/Pokeballs (only with areas with no boss)/Teleport you to your current spawn point for "free" (only uses radio battery which refills after each mission).
Protip 3 : When you're close to finishing a mission, order items with the radio and put them in your storage back at base, kits are expensive yo.

is this the OT?

Don't think so.

Surely responsive controls are something to be expected in any game? All of the complaints seem to suggest there's an arbitrary delay between input and on screen action. I don't understand why that would be necessary. :s

Did the PC version have the delay?

I think it's a design decision, I think it doesn't add much compared to La-Mulana for example (which has an even more severe kind of delayed jump) but it doesn't bother me a lot so I can deal with it. And yes the PC version has it.
I don't think it's a matter of responsive controls or not, it's a different kind of gameplay so there isn't a lot of sense comparing them, it's like me saying that cover based third person shooters shouldn't exist because of games like Vanquish or Max Payne (shoddy comparison but you get the jist).
 
is this the OT?

So all indie devs have to utilize Team Meat's mechanics? It's a different game friend, the emphasis is on shooting, not moving and shooting!
Surely responsive controls are something to be expected in any game? All of the complaints seem to suggest there's an arbitrary delay between input and on screen action. I don't understand why that would be necessary. :s

Did the PC version have the delay?
 
Game is a fun little thing. Gonna invest more time into it when I can. I'm not really big on the visuals though. Characters seem too big and not expressive enough. Still, long live the pixel!
 
I'm getting motion sickness when playing this game - Really wanted to like it too :-/ Such a good premise - retro contra style, but whenever your moving the game background/foreground move along at a snails pace giving the illusion of unwanted blur and what is up with the freeze every time the character jumps..literally feels like this game was rushed..takes way too long to load up and stutters in the menu's and loading..
 
WHO THE FUCK IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE JUMP DELAY


WHO



jesus christ, it's making this game a huge pain in the ass :(


and it keeps randomly crashing, no idea whatsoever on what triggers this :(
 
Really impressed with the amount of depth in the crafting system. Pretty much every complaint (outside of the mission time limit, and jumping) can he fixed through the gun crafting or the bionic mods. The RPG mechanics are much more prevalent then I thought they would be and I dig that quite a bit.

My hope is that they can add a few options:

1. Add a mission replay option so that when I am hunting for mats I can easily restart the mission without having to go back to camp every time just so that I can select the same mission for material hunting.

2. Fix the load times, I don't know if there is a reason that the load times are as long as they are but this would be my biggest gripe right now honestly. It's not game breaking for me, but it does take away from the game a little bit.

Really those are my only two issues currently as I find that many of my previous issues can he fixed through modding your equipment.

I loved Scott Pilgrim so I guess it's not too surprising that I am enjoying this just as much if not more due to the RPG mechanics.

The Jumping is not a problem for me since I used to love Castlevania games and the jumping feels very similar to the earlier games in the series(though I don't remember if there is a knock back in Mercenary Kings from getting hit.
 
How does couch coop work? Split screen or everybody on the same screen? And what happens when someone changes areas?

Protip 2 : You can use the radio to order C4/First Aid kits/Pokeballs (only with areas with no boss)/Teleport you to your current spawn point for "free" (only uses radio battery which refills after each mission).
Protip 3 : When you're close to finishing a mission, order items with the radio and put them in your storage back at base, kits are expensive yo.

Hey, these are some really nice tips! Thanks.
 
How does couch coop work? Split screen or everybody on the same screen? And what happens when someone changes areas?
Split screen, 4 squares. If it's two players, the bottom two squares become maps for each player.
 
So all indie devs have to utilize Team Meat's mechanics? It's a different game friend, the emphasis is on shooting, not moving and shooting!

Nobody has to use Team Meat's mechanics... And Team Meat are not the only ones with a precise movement system but they are well known.
Not an emphasis on moving and shooting? What? You clearly have not played the game... Moving jumping rolling are the things which keep you alive!


Edit: #142 says it:

- The delayed jump, i've taken too much damage because when I tried to time my jumps, I did not take into account of the delay. Why would they add that in a twitch based shooter like that??? It feels like they added that in there for artificial difficulty, but its more of an annoyance than anything. Theres like three bullets coming at me, If my character jumped when I pressed the button like I thought he'd do, he wouldn't have taken any damage, but he jumped too late and got hit.
 
Ugh the only free one this month I want and it sounds disappointing.

It's free so try it atleast. I can't get enough of it personally, a lot of your enjoyment Will likely come from how much you like/dislike the concept of metal slug with heavy rpg mechanics.
 
I tried the game out for a while last night and I'm just not digging it. I wanted to like it from the screenshots, as it's a very nice looking faux-retro game. I was expecting a fun, straightforward Metal Slug style action game but that is not what I got. I have a lot of the same complaints others have.

- Jumping feels off
- Voice work is pretty bad
- Occasional stuttering, hitching, even crashing
- "Crafting" one of my most despised gameplay elements

It doesn't seem like a bad game but it is a bit rough around the edges. Not being able to shoot diagonally doesn't bother me at all. Plenty of old-school games like that. I just wish it was a pure action game. I'll give it another shot before I delete.
 
Really impressed with the amount of depth in the crafting system. Pretty much every complaint (outside of the mission time limit, and jumping) can he fixed through the gun crafting or the bionic mods. The RPG mechanics are much more prevalent then I thought they would be and I dig that quite a bit.
Well this makes me a bit more optimistic. Love me some crafting. :)

This game needs a patch ASAP...fix the jump delay/freeze first and foremost..
If it's existed through multiple versions, I don't imagine the jump delay is going away any time soon.
 
:-(

I've found one more issue, but I'm posting as a beware kind of post, I have a 1080i TV and this causes weird scanline-type issues on some segments. I recorded when it happened to see if it was part of the game or my TV and it runs fine posted on Facebook. Now whether share is captured only at a certain fps and and removes/blends the frames then there's some interlacing issue or something because of my 1080i TV.
 
- The delayed jump, i've taken too much damage because when I tried to time my jumps, I did not take into account of the delay. Why would they add that in a twitch based shooter like that??? It feels like they added that in there for artificial difficulty, but its more of an annoyance than anything. Theres like three bullets coming at me, If my character jumped when I pressed the button like I thought he'd do, he wouldn't have taken any damage, but he jumped too late and got hit.

You have solved your problem. Next time, account for the delay. If the devs are not gonna patch, you will have to adjust like everyone else.

- Cant shoot diagonally, this is pretty much the game killer for me. shooting up, down, left and right is killing the enjoyment for me. It's like my mind cant get over that because I constantly keep trying to shoot things thats coming at me from an angle, like those stupid robots flying towards you closing the distance and I would try to shoot them, but I keep forgetting I cant shoot in that direction. I have to put myself in harms way to line up a shot. I could shoot diagonally in hard corps and metal slug, so my brain is accustomed to it and when I try to shot at an angle and cant do it, my brain, its like……..WTF??? and gets hella confused.

This is not Hard Corps and Metal Slug. We shouldn't be playing the game like it is.

- Respawning enemies, since I cant shoot in an angle, I sometimes have to run back and jump to take the shot, because the enemy has closed the distance since they are coming at me from an angle but when I run back, the enemies I JUST KILLED about two seconds ago is there, and I run into them, and ake some damage, so now I got to kill the re-spawned enemies and plus the enemy I was trying to kill before. This is just another annoyance, but i wouldnt mind it if I could aim diagonally so I can at least take them out from a distance on a higher or lower platform and wouldnt have to back track and move so much.

I'm with you there, but it's no biggie. But it would make the missions where you have to kill a certain type of baddie X amount of times too easy. I was actually hoping for this with the One-Eyed Jack sniper mission.

- Gear of war reload mechanic, for some reason, that reload mechanic, just doesnt feel right in this game. I see it adds a level of difficulty, but I just dont like when an enemy is like one second away from hitting me because I cant aim diagonally and i finally line up the shot and try to take the shot, only to start the reload mechanic and in the rush of spamming the shooting trigger trying to kill this fool, I dont pay attention to the bar, and dont hit the reload button in time and i get hit and jam the gun and cant shoot for a period…….man got dammit.

Hey man next time, pay attention to the bar. I can't speak for everyone, but I've gotten better to reload better in a firefight. I do this, shoot enough to where the clip doesn't empty and manually reload so I won't get caught off guard when I do have to reload. I make it happen on my own terms

Just like any other game, you get better through practice. You'll get better. Don't get too frustrated over it
 
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