I remember that Tanabe said that the number of missions of the game ascends to 22 + bosses. Could someone tell me how many are in total then?
And what does the
So, a friend of mine bought the game and told me the visuals are much better on screen than in all those youtube videos. He also told me that the soundtrack is really good and that the sound design is great and worth playing with headphones. He also mentioned he's having a LOT of fun in co-op as long as you find the right guys.
Can someone confirm the above? I'm not sure of I should pick it up...
Besides the above, I'm only concerned about the missions and objectives being distinct enough as I love diversity and not the same plain scenarios here and there.
First part: this is true for all 3DS/DS games. They always look better on the actual machine and look like crap blown up in trailers so of course that's true.
I have been really surprised at how much mission variety is in this game. It makes online play a little hit or miss because if someone does not read the mission stuff the can make it REAL hard to make progress, but the game is no shooting gallery that is for sure.
First part: this is true for all 3DS/DS games. They always look better on the actual machine and look like crap blown up in trailers so of course that's true.
I have a big Samus tattoo on my left arm so I know I'm supposed to hate this game as a Metroid fan and whine that Nintendo is just letting this franchise die, but I really enjoy this game. Good thing I've not been a big man baby ever since they announced this thing and gave it a chance.
I went ahead and picked this up despite not liking the design. I have supported lesser series for shittier entries. I am sure I will enjoy this well enough.
This game is winning me over with its mission variety and jolly cooperation. Just fought a "Lao-Shan Shun" that my team completely murdered by focus firing it down while it was frozen in its vulnerable state.
The thing that is bugging me right is movement speed.
This game is winning me over with its mission variety and jolly cooperation. Just fought a "Lao-Shan Shun" that my team completely murdered by focus firing it down while it was frozen in its vulnerable state.
The thing that is bugging me right is movement speed.
I disagree that this game looks better on the 3DS's screen. At least not played in 3D. This game uses a lot of bright colors and lights and bloom, and most of that shit cross-bleeds.
I don't understand the review that said you don't get to use your special ammo enough. Not only can load up on a ton, you can pick more up on the field.
I don't understand the review that said you don't get to use your special ammo enough. Not only can load up on a ton, you can pick more up on the field.
Not to mention Super Missile downright breaks the game as long as you don't miss.
Elite Pirates can take forever to take down and the game throws them at you quite alot in the back half, but that's why the game has its weakpoint system: most of the pirates have very obvious points in their animation where they expose their head (very similar to old light gun style games like house of the dead).
The best thing about saying "Check your MODs" is that people actually do it. Why they trust my advice, when they know their mods better than I do, is beyond me.
The best thing about saying "Check your MODs" is that people actually do it. Why they trust my advice, when they know their mods better than I do, is beyond me.
So, a friend of mine bought the game and told me the visuals are much better on screen than in all those youtube videos. He also told me that the soundtrack is really good and that the sound design is great and worth playing with headphones. He also mentioned he's having a LOT of fun in co-op as long as you find the right guys.
Can someone confirm the above? I'm not sure of I should pick it up...
Besides the above, I'm only concerned about the missions and objectives being distinct enough as I love diversity and not the same plain scenarios here and there.
I DO agree with the graphics, while the art style uses a lot of straight edges and not many shapes, the lighting is great and helps create great atmosphere with each level. I find the graphics fantastic really. It is the art style that some people can't adjust to, but it doesn't bother me. The game is smooth on original 3DS. Edit: The animation is top notch too. The vistas are impressive as well as your drop ship flies in to each new location. The scale is fantastic. Reminds me a lot of Kid Icarus, but not quite to that level. Edit: And as others said above, 3DS games always look like shit on Youtube, obviously! Quite a resolution difference there...
I'm only on the 3rd mission so far and playing Solo with the lone wolf perk and 3 AI drones on each mission (deciding to take 0, 1, 2, or 3 AI drones could almost be like adjusting the difficulty level perhaps). So far I'm completely in love with the game. The controls are some of the best I've played since Uncharted on Vita, thanks to gyro aiming. I don't even use Lock On... except very rarely... I mainly use Gyro. I strongly recommend it! I don't shoot at something unless I'm holding R. (I really wish I had a N3DS so I could play with 3D enabled and still use Gyro aiming.)
So far the missions have been varied and fun. The music and sound design is quite good, in that it sets up the atmosphere quite well. In the first level you are entering the instillation and it feels desolate... like nobody has been there in some time... the doors are frozen over and ice breaks off and drops as they open. Mission 2 was a complete change of scenery, a desert temple full of puzzles and not much combat at all. Mission 3 was familiar as they released a full video of it before, but it was so much better to play it for myself than watch that video. Especially solo.
I hope to have fun with this with randoms later. I don't know if I'll solo it to the end, but likely because i will primarily play at work where there is no Wifi.
I have a big Samus tattoo on my left arm so I know I'm supposed to hate this game as a Metroid fan and whine that Nintendo is just letting this franchise die, but I really enjoy this game. Good thing I've not been a big man baby ever since they announced this thing and gave it a chance.
I don't understand the review that said you don't get to use your special ammo enough. Not only can load up on a ton, you can pick more up on the field.
IGN right? It felt like they knocked 3 points off their score just because they found the main weapon "boring"... wtf it's not boring to use at all! It has 3 levels of charge and is quite fun to use! And as you said, advanced ammo comes quite often (so far).
Played more last night and had a great time. Also the 3d effect in this game is really really good. I don't always use it cause headaches but man it can really add atmosphere.
Played more last night and had a great time. Also the 3d effect in this game is really really good. I don't always use it cause headaches but man it can really add atmosphere.
Still unsure if I should pick this up. I'm short on time and the spare time I do have goes to Monster Hunter. Feel like I'm going to miss out on the online play if I don't get in now.
I impulse (drunk) bought this on the e-shop last night. I didn't like the demo much, but love Metroid. I just played through the tutorial and first two missions solo and I'm pleasantly suprised so far.
I may need to look into a grip though as games that use the shoulder buttons a lot on my N3DSXL kill my hands.
For some reason I always enjoy fighting the bruisers. The enemy knockback in the game has a good feel to it, and the weakpoint spots are well placed. It feels like a house of the dead boss.
EDIT: I'm not getting the ending scene even on my second run of 22. Is it the reward for 100% normal completion?
I think I may realize why I haven't gotten the ending scene, and if I'm right that's well thought out.
EDIT: It's as I thought. The stinger only appears if
You successfully complete mission 17 with the bonus criteria. Although this gets a bit weird when it's possible to deliver some eggs yet not meet the full criteria in multi, but oh well.
Don't know if I'll play through hard mode. I did the first mission and it didn't feel different and I got some low-level loot. A newbie was able to join my game. I thought that was odd. I guess I should try and put some time into Blast Ball.
All in all, I'm quite satisfied with this game. I'd say it's pretty good, although I'm something of a co-op enthusiast. To compare it to a recent 3DS co-op effort, the base mechanics are a lot better than Tri Force Heroes and allows the game to do more interesting things (and I say that someone who wasn't enamored with the Prime games). What I think sets it apart from most other co-op shooters is its approach to mission design and the rich variety it ends up having (some missions are misses, naturally). There are maze-like levels, a bunch of different kinds of objectives, lengthy boss fights, stealth, levels that are like fighting Lao-Shan Lung or Jhen Mohran from Monster Hunter, etc. In addition to that, levels are filled with exploration secrets and secondary objectives where you obtain loot; I particularly liked how some secrets required certain ammo types, characteristic of Metroid. I don't like the character art, especially for the pilots, at least for a sci-fi world, but the world itself is nice for a 3DS game. The music doesn't stand out, but it has its moments (and Metroid flavor). There's a loose plot to the whole thing, including terminals to read inside missions (with a bit of friction with a co-op game's pace, as you might be familiar with if you've played Resident Evil 5), but I didn't really pay too much attention to it and didn't feel I lost anything for it. Towards the end, things solidify and become easy to follow even if you weren't paying attention. In terms of atmosphere and level design coming together, the best level of the game is by far the
facility where you encounter Metroids
.
Combat is competent, but not amazing (so, nothing new really), feels best when your buddy disables a tough enemy and everyone nails 'em Monster Hunter style. The enemy weak points along with mixing lock-on and precise aiming is neat and can be fairly necessary on far away enemies or specific tough ones. The controls, on the original 3DS, can be a bit of a pain (literally) and it takes awhile to get used to; in fact, I'd say I'm still not 100% used to switching in and out of the gyro controls, as sometimes I idiotically confuse myself by either not activating aiming mode when I want to or keeping it on when I want to turn it off. The enemies themselves are overall pretty good, but I do feel they peaked halfway through and you end up dealing with stronger versions or simply more of them per encounter; it's not bad per say, but the combat isn't as exciting as it could be. I wish I was a little faster and didn't rely so much on side-dodges. The major bosses are decent, with some being a little too gimmicky, but there's not enough. One thing that spices up the combat is maximizing your score (killing with charge shots, special attacks, comboing stuff), which gains a lot of relevancy in co-op, as its actually fairly competitive who gets what loot at the end of a mission (high score = first dibs and maybe more picks). Higher score from combat efficiency, along with fast time completion and secondary objectives, means more medals at the end, which act as your levels and provide more inventory space. I appreciate that loot system and medal system has a very soft power curve. I've read complaints that you don't get to use your special ammo enough, but I don't think that's true if you include all the map pick-ups. Combining the mod chip system and the fairly creative "AUX" ammo types, there's a lot of opportunities for builds. Specialization (e.g., healer, elemental damage, enfeebler) can end as a clumsy choice if you are playing with some dumb players though. Well, I suppose the real issue is the lack of communication options in the game (besides spamming "Check your MODs" in a deep voice, that's excellent).
Federation Force is the type of co-op game where your friends can fuck you over. I mean beyond the usual balancing for multiple players and relying on others to revive (and sometimes heal) you. There are timed missions which rely on every player opening a door together. Every mission has a pool of special ammo to start with and it's fairly possible for a player selfishly and aimlessly grab more than their fair share (likewise, with pick-ups on the field). There's a mission that takes place in a crazy sci-fi storm where a player can decide to open a shelter door and just fuck up everyone inside's shit (or pull out the thing your escorting). Some secondary objectives require no one be hit by a certain thing - this becomes fairly tough if you are up to four players! It can frustrating, especially if you are not in-person or not communicating through some 3rd party chat program (it lacks Monster Hunter's great communication tools). However, do not think I'm pointing this out as a flaw. I love that it matters what other players do and the single best metric to find whether co-op actually has "meaning" is to see how much other players can affect you and the result of a challenge. I strongly dislike the type of co-op where it's mainly just something layered on top, either not considered in the overall design or purposefully sanded down to reduce frustration. It becomes mechanically irrelevant, at best a part of the aesthetics - shallow (see: Journey). It can be played solo, it has a chip that handles some balancing (at the expense of 1 slot, which means a little less build variety); I've only played one mission this way, wasn't terrible, but I wasn't interested in continuing this way. As for variable party sizes, I think playing with a pool of 2 or 3 may be better than 4 (I feel the same about Monster Hunter, actually). It also matters a lot if the people you are playing with are not trying to speed-run the thing while you are playing for the first time. My first impressions of the game was actually quite bad, because of this in comparison with struggling with the controls, few equipable mods, and the first few levels not being particularly exciting. Overall though, I'm glad I bit the bullet and got this game early, because it's bound to become dead fairly soon (local play is still always an option though).
What control setup are you guys using? I've tried both using the c-stick to aim along with the gyro and I can't quite commit to one or the other. Would love some feedback on what you chose and why.
Do people agree with the complaints about the AUX ammo being limited in quantity? I've seen in it a review and I even saw it in a post. I don't really see how that's the case though, maybe with a party of 4, but not nearly so with a party of 2 or 3.
Do people agree with the complaints about the AUX ammo being limited in quantity? I've seen in it a review and I even saw it in a post. I don't really see how that's the case though, maybe with a party of 4, but not nearly so with a party of 2 or 3.
Depends on the mission. For some of the earlier ones they give you a pittance, but insects make up the bulk of what you go up against.
I don't know what Jose's playing style was like, but I always had a tendency to conserve offensive items and only use support as needed. I would say that the weight and number given for a few of the items could be re-balanced a bit, but as of now they're definitely not underpowered (outside of slow beam=, although it's the only one that has no travel time so you don't need to worry about leading your shot). I would say that the 3 elemental weapons could be adjusted a tad (freeze is too strong), though.
Started playing with some randoms last night and had a lot of fun! Even replaying old missions. Actually it was quite satisfying to be the only one who seemed to know where all the mods were hidden throughout a level. Playing through solo first and taking your time has its advantages.
I had one major problem where we were fighting the M7 (?) boss with the tilting platform... I was downed and kept falling through the platform over and over and over and over... I think it was happening to one of the teammates too. The remaining guy had a difficult time reviving us because of this.
This game does something that I've been waiting forever to see... Proper. Multiplayer. Cutscenes. In too many games, everyone is the same person... or you are a group of 3 just to be solo during any cutscene that occurs. In this game, each of the 4 players exists in the cutscene as themselves. It is nice to play with 4 players just to see the animations they did for everyone.
I think I may realize why I haven't gotten the ending scene, and if I'm right that's well thought out.
EDIT: It's as I thought. The stinger only appears if
You successfully complete mission 17 with the bonus criteria. Although this gets a bit weird when it's possible to deliver some eggs yet not meet the full criteria in multi, but oh well.
