I did not expect a Broken bro in this Sea of Dread.
I liked Raiders of the Broken planet, but its character design was a tad too grim and edgy. Need a mix with some nice and attractive characters there too, not a cavalcade of unlikeable assholes that mostly appeals to the teenage edgelords. Having the antagonist being able to ruin the game and pitting players against each other in a game theory exercise when the loot is divided sounds like a great idea on paper and fits the setting & context, but that's another part of what ruined the game.
Warframe would be a good model to base a possible sequel around.
Love the End Mission Reward Theme, it really set the mood. Floppy drive at the end? *Chef's kiss*
I was there day1 brother , back when the game wasn't F2P.
I wholeheartedly agree with everything you said minus the character thing, shit, I'd play a Lycus standalone sandbox game (motorcycle & metal OST included) any day of the week over the usual games we get today.
Anyway, it's a shame, sure, it always was a GaaS title but Mercury Steam fucked up BIG time :
- Bought the game day1 ? Game has almost non existent player base? Tough luck, here's a "deluxe" version with 4, 20$ character skins barely 3-4 months after launch.
- 20 ~ 60 Eurodollars character skins
- The antagonist thing kinda ruining the game with players getting frustrated with them not coming back.ever.
- Months upon months of waiting for new mission packs.
- New chapters/missions packs that...never came.
- Balancing issues
- Game becoming F2P and becoming utter shit and even more grindy.
I could go on and on, let's just say that the devs were fucking tone-deaf when it came to any criticism and didn't know what the heck to do with the game.
Again, it's a friggin' shame cause Mercury Steam are really great when it comes to their artists , in fact, I'd say that art-direction is their strongest point (Clive B' Jericho, Castlevania LOS, Raiders etc), shame about the head honchos over there that seem to ruin their games one way or another, the potential is there, it's just that they keep shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to many things.
Anyway, I had a good 2+ years of playing the game religiously with 2 of my buddies.
PS: I'm now into Exoprimal and...I can see some parallels (the low player count specifically), hope it doesn't share the same fate as Raiders/Spacelords ...
Cheers