Date played: May 24th
Platform: Xbox One
I played through 5 chapters of Act III, and it was the most interesting part of the game so far... with one exception, which I'll get to soon. Having escaped First Minister Jinn's robots, JD, Kait, Del and Marcus head for a mine near a big fort from the time before the war.
It wasn't long before we encountered some weird shit. A gelatinous, disgusting blob or organic matter stood in the path the team wanted to go through. Marcus cut through it with his chainsaw, only to find a human corpse undergoing some sort of transformation. Soon after that, we found dozens more pods, but they were more mature. When we sliced those open, a new enemy type emerged, a transformed (evolved?) human that became a feral, dangerous beast.
So this is the part I didn't like... Those enemies, nicknamed Juvies, are interesting conceptually, but in battle, they are fucking awful. They don't have a lot of health, but they move very quickly, dodge well and jump around a lot, making them difficult to hit. It's really rare that I enjoy these types of enemies in video games... The worst offender is probably the Flood from the Halo series. In this game, it wouldn't be that bad, except that the Xbox One is getting pretty slow and old, and it shows. These guys become so much harder to hit and track because of the poor framerate... Still, I fought my way through them quite often, either with the Gnasher shotgun or the Lancer assault rifle.
Another new enemy appeared, nicknamed the Snatcher. As Marcus prepared to fire on it, a second Snatcher appeared and grabbed Marcus, storing him in it's large belly, then ran off. JD was devastated, but determined to find his father. Kait was also affected, mainly because she now understood how her mother was taken. It's also obvious that the Snatchers capture humans to put them into those pods.
So the group follows the Snatcher's trail to find and save Marcus. This leads them through the historical site of the fort. This place is fucking huge, and it's filled with lots of big, interesting buildings. The architecture in this series has always been fantastic. It's rare that buildings in video games feel real, but this game nails it.
Soon enough, another new enemy type emerged from a nest in the ground, very similar to the emergence holes in the previous games. They are even destroyed by frag grenades, just like the first games. These guys are called Drones, and they are basically Juvies that evolved a bit longer. They carry guns, they are tough motherfuckers and they are very fun to fight.
There were lots of big battles as we moved throughout the fort, and those are always a lot of fun. Playing on Hardcore means I die a lot, but so far, I haven't hit a point where I can't progress, so I think I'm gonna be ok. Speaking of difficult stuff, another new enemy type caused me lots of trouble. Pouncers are quadruped beasts that are heavily armored and that pounce on unsuspecting humans from a long distance. The problem is that they take a LOT of bullets to kill, which means that each battle is a struggle. I died a lot against these guys, but I'm starting to see that letting them attack my teammates first is a good way to beat them.
At the end of the fort, we found a hole in the ground where the Snatcher went, so of course, we followed. The hole led to some catacombs, crawling with enemies, then later, we reached the mine that Marcus was talking about. The next level was another "special" level, where the team had to defend a position with the help of a fabricator and it's powerful defenses.
The whole scene was set on a giant excavating machine, meant to carry people and ore back to the surface from the mines. However, the machine was heavily damaged by the enemies, which led to some complications as we went down. I died a lot here also, but after a few deaths, I found better strategies to deal with the swarm of enemies.
I stopped playing after we reached the bottom of the mine, but I'm excited to see where the game goes from here.
Platform: Xbox One
I played through 5 chapters of Act III, and it was the most interesting part of the game so far... with one exception, which I'll get to soon. Having escaped First Minister Jinn's robots, JD, Kait, Del and Marcus head for a mine near a big fort from the time before the war.
It wasn't long before we encountered some weird shit. A gelatinous, disgusting blob or organic matter stood in the path the team wanted to go through. Marcus cut through it with his chainsaw, only to find a human corpse undergoing some sort of transformation. Soon after that, we found dozens more pods, but they were more mature. When we sliced those open, a new enemy type emerged, a transformed (evolved?) human that became a feral, dangerous beast.
So this is the part I didn't like... Those enemies, nicknamed Juvies, are interesting conceptually, but in battle, they are fucking awful. They don't have a lot of health, but they move very quickly, dodge well and jump around a lot, making them difficult to hit. It's really rare that I enjoy these types of enemies in video games... The worst offender is probably the Flood from the Halo series. In this game, it wouldn't be that bad, except that the Xbox One is getting pretty slow and old, and it shows. These guys become so much harder to hit and track because of the poor framerate... Still, I fought my way through them quite often, either with the Gnasher shotgun or the Lancer assault rifle.
 |
| These are Juvies, and they fucking suck |
So the group follows the Snatcher's trail to find and save Marcus. This leads them through the historical site of the fort. This place is fucking huge, and it's filled with lots of big, interesting buildings. The architecture in this series has always been fantastic. It's rare that buildings in video games feel real, but this game nails it.
Soon enough, another new enemy type emerged from a nest in the ground, very similar to the emergence holes in the previous games. They are even destroyed by frag grenades, just like the first games. These guys are called Drones, and they are basically Juvies that evolved a bit longer. They carry guns, they are tough motherfuckers and they are very fun to fight.
There were lots of big battles as we moved throughout the fort, and those are always a lot of fun. Playing on Hardcore means I die a lot, but so far, I haven't hit a point where I can't progress, so I think I'm gonna be ok. Speaking of difficult stuff, another new enemy type caused me lots of trouble. Pouncers are quadruped beasts that are heavily armored and that pounce on unsuspecting humans from a long distance. The problem is that they take a LOT of bullets to kill, which means that each battle is a struggle. I died a lot against these guys, but I'm starting to see that letting them attack my teammates first is a good way to beat them.
At the end of the fort, we found a hole in the ground where the Snatcher went, so of course, we followed. The hole led to some catacombs, crawling with enemies, then later, we reached the mine that Marcus was talking about. The next level was another "special" level, where the team had to defend a position with the help of a fabricator and it's powerful defenses.
The whole scene was set on a giant excavating machine, meant to carry people and ore back to the surface from the mines. However, the machine was heavily damaged by the enemies, which led to some complications as we went down. I died a lot here also, but after a few deaths, I found better strategies to deal with the swarm of enemies.
I stopped playing after we reached the bottom of the mine, but I'm excited to see where the game goes from here.
