Square/Enix Outriders

I like the general premise of why we're on Enoch, and us barreling into the future - while cliche - is at least plausible. However, one of the first issues I've seen with the games story is that it likes to throw a lot of characters at you, and a large number of these characters do very little to ground you with the world, or bring additional characterization for either you or the people of Enoch. This is most evident in how the game likes to introduce characters, only to then kill them off in less than 4 minutes of screen time. While I think the dynamic between Jakub and Channa was decent, many of the other plot elements were just meh. Jakub and Dr. Zahedi are probably the only fleshed out characters in the game IMO. I also found there to be a serious issue with the games ending/resolution, and how it contradicts statements that were made LITERALLY 15 minutes before the final boss fight. I'm not talking about some subtle plot point here. This plot hole is a pretty huge freaking deal.

Outside of that, the setting itself is visually okay. I think the skybox can also look pretty good at times as well. My biggest complaint with the world itself is how small the maps can be (I'll get to that later). Finally, I do like that the game does try to provide some lore through journal pages and updates. It at least catches you up to speed on some of various elements of the games story that aren't fully explained in game, such as the destruction of an Earth ship called the Caravel.

Overall, I like the differentiation between the skills and passive health regen mechanics for each of the different classes. It kinda reminds me of ME3 in a way, especially the Demolishers Leap Attack that could damn near be called a copy-cat of Andromeda Biotic Warp ability. Their respective class skill trees are fine from what I've played, though there are set patterns to them. For example, the top tree tends to focus more heavily on weaponry and your classes unique ammunition ability. Middle tree is more about survivability, and bottom tree tends to be about going all out with your powers.

There are some class skills that are more worthwhile than others, and the underperforming skills tend to require a significant amount of investment on your part when it comes to mods and class skills. I also think some of the animations need to be reworked some because some skills leave you far too vulnerable to enemy fire. For example, the Pyromancer has an ability that lets you send a column of flame at your enemies. The problem is that, if you're in cover, the game will keep you out of cover for an extended period while you perform the animation for said ability. The duration of these animations, when used in high world tier difficulties, can put you in a bad spot. (Pro-Tip: I'd recommend using said ability behind tall cover since it goes through walls).

For the character creator, your options are pretty limited honestly. There aren't many presets, be it facial structure, markings, hair, etc, to choose from. This is pretty common in most looter-shooters I've played, though I'd say the Division 2 had the most options of any that I've played. This game is on the low-rung. The one thing I will give it credit for, is that you get to go back and change your appearance (including facial structure) if you want.

When it comes to gear, most of the weapons are alright, but I find Automatic Shotguns tend to perform the worst of all weapon classes. When doing high world-tier content they simply can't keep up with how bullet-spongy enemies become, and their reserve ammo is abysmally small (3 clips). In terms of physical appearance, there's nothing too standout-ish about them, or at least not until you get the legendary gear. Don't expect to get attached to your gear for long, or - at least - until your find a really good endgame set. One thing I wish this game had was a transmog system so you could make your armor look like another piece of armor.

One thing I will say the game does really well is the modding and crafting system. You get to the mod (which are basically Perks) off of an armor piece or weapon by dismantling it, and you can then apply said mod to another piece of gear (w.r.t. whether its armor or a weapon). Even better is that this is also allowed for Legendary gear (the highest rarity gear in the game), you can run a Legendary tier mod on your Uncommon weapon if you want. Crafting options also let you upgrade the rarity of your gear (up to purple), up its base level, increase the base attributes of said gear (like how much health you get from shooting an enemy), and also lets you change the variant of a weapon (ex. Do you want to full-auto Rifle, or one that fires in bursts?). It's pretty flexible, and I'd argue it's the highlight of the games loot system.

THIS is the biggest contention point that I have with the game, and many of this games combat woes can be attributed to "Identity" issues. First and foremost, as someone who plays on Series X, this games aim-assist and weapon handling is pretty poor. I literally had to look up a video in order to find settings that would give me decent enough aim sensitivity and "Stickiness" so that I wouldn't get frustrated with the game over time.

When it comes to the combat zones, some of the map arena's are far too small, with not enough escape routes to speak of. This can be EXTREMELY annoying when you get up in World Tiers and have enemies rushing in on you to drown you in bullets. One of the games side-missions (called Monster Hunts) had me seeking to take out three large, crow-like birds. These bird enemies have AoE attacks that can almost span a quarter of the arena that I'm in... and the mission made me fight three of them at the same time. Pretty absurd. Another issue with the map design is that if you push forward too quickly, the game will spawn the remaining enemies at you; most often at the opposite end of the arena. This essentially means you're only viably safe locations are maybe  at the sides of the map, or sticking at the entrance to where you came in.

This restriction on your movement is made even more problematic by the sheer amount of ability spam the enemies use, and the sheer size of the AoE abilities. When I first saw the AoE range of an Insurgents grenade, I damn near did a double take at how large it was (at least 15 meters in diameter). In a cover-based shooter, the sheer ferocity and speed at which enemies can deploy their abilities makes cover damn near useless in endgame. While some players may like always being up close and personal, other players (I'm sure) prefer to hide in back and provide support; or pick off enemies. There's a mechanic in the game called Interrupts that's meant to allow you to stop an enemy from casting an ability. After being interrupted, they'll then get a resistance period where you can't interrupt them anymore. It's a good concept, but the duration this resistance is pretty long, and I find that there's often times where my attacks that cause Interrupt don't do anything after the first resistance period is over. I've read online that some enemies actually become fully immune to interrupts after the first, which basically ruins the mechanic.

Speaking of AoE's, some of them aren't even telegraphed (or visualized that well). There's a large enemy creature in the game called a Brood Mother, and she can generate a lingering AoE attack on the ground. Problem is, the visual effects for this attack are so slight that you barely have an idea if you're standing in it or not. Other AoE's come in the form of melee attacks that constantly stagger you, and are often times followed up by additional attacks that can - and likely will - leave you dead if you don't escape quickly enough. Some enemies are also just downright cheap. For example, there's an enemy called the Shaman that has an ability called Chain Lightning, which launches a lightning bolt at you. No matter where you are on the map, even when behind cover, this attack is allowed to hit you. It just doesn't feel right, especially since cover should be your safe haven to regen health.

World Tiers often times end up leading to a hell of a lot of bullet-sponge enemies, the likes of which I haven't seen since The Division 1 launch. Far too often the game becomes a race about how fast you can burst DPS an enemy down, rather than being able to play in a manner that suits your playstyle. I feel especially bad for support players, as they're likely the ones to be shafted the most in high-level play. There's also the absurd amount of damage and accuracy that enemies have. You so much as stick an eyelash out, they snipe your asshole off. So God forbid you run and try to reposition yourself into a new location, because those NPC's are like laser beams. Also, you better pray that the cover system doesn't fuck you over. Because if you're behind a weak cover structure, your skill will either take it out (as I've done numerous times with the Pyromancer), or you'll get stuck on it for too long because the game doesn't register you wanting to exit cover.

At it's core, the issue I have with this games combat is that I don't know what the developers want this games combat to be. If they want me to be up in the enemies face all the time, then the sheer amount of enemy ability spam, staggering , sheer health, and high damage numbers, needs to be brought down. If the want the game to be safer for more cover-based players, than combat needs to be slowed down more. It's the part of the game that has the most glaring faults, and PCF definitely needs to start reviewing the enemies spawn budgets, attacks patterns, and provide some serious rebalancing to many enemies damage values, health, and our own abilities.

I'm gonna keep this brief, since I haven't done Expeditions yet. From what I've seen on reddit, the biggest issue people have with this mode is that the rewards are tied to a time limit. The faster you beat the Expedition, the better the rewards you get. Problem is, they don't grant you alot of time to get the best reward possible. As a result, this has led to a lot of people running Maximum DPS builds. This will absolutely ruin peoples desire to want to run the activity, because what's the point of any other build if you're not killing fast enough? It'll also lead to some amount of players kicking other players out of lobbies BECAUSE they're not running a DPS build. Though I haven't played the mode, I think I'm gonna stick away from it for now. If the issue is as what everyone else says, then maybe they need to go the ME3 MP route and make it more Wave/Objective based. That's much more reasonable in my mind, and still affords players the chance to make their own builds.