4Game

So i first got this game around the middle of the neon hero event last year, and played it quite a lot at first. Once I'd gotten to Canny i slowed down quite a bit until they finally added the canny story and wound up getting through the first portion of that and into Twine before eventually quitting the game around the start of the Halloween update at PL91.

I really like the concept of this game, and at first the game is really quite fun, but as time went on and the total lack of variety when it comes to missions (basically all of them come down to doing the exact same thing) became more and more overwhelming the constant player retention mechanics (Log in every day, make sure to grind gold so you don't miss out on all the limited time heroes and events) started to feel more like work than an actually fun game. I'd been grinding out all of these weapons and heroes that were for the most part not only useless, but if i even wanted to try them out, i'd have to grind out even MORE xp just to be able to use them at all. I decided to take a break at that point, but i still followed the game to see what new changes were on the way.

I came back to check out the Hero Rework hoping that it might make the game more interesting again. In some ways it has. At least there is some point to collecting all the heroes now, and it makes more of them usable i suppose. I see a lot of people on here complaining that their old builds are less powerful or unobtainable now, but considering how easy this game is i don't really care about the power, which could be easily tweaked anyways. On the down side though the heroes all feel , less interesting i suppose. They're basically just 1 perk now, whereas before they each kinda felt like a whole class. The best part about the new system is that it should make it easier to expand in the future and release many new heroes since like i said each new one is really only 1 perk.

I also like the fact that they increased XP gain for hero and schematics, one of my biggest problems before like i said was that i felt like i couldn't even try out the vast majority of the stuff i unlocked because the grind was much too arduous and boring. Now i feel like it's more reasonable to actually level up new guns and such. I'm not sure why they also buffed survivor xp by so much, I never really even tried to level up my survivors before and got to where i am, mostly because the game doesn't actually change almost at all as you progress in PL, you're doing the same missions with bigger numbers. I suppose i don't care about this change too much one way or the other.

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The new beta storm type is kind of underwhelming if i must be honest. You just kind of run around for 10 minutes casually killing stuff and then you're done. It's giving away tons of super easy survivor xp so i guess that's convenient but it's not exactly interesting. The blu glo extractor mission type is new from when i last played but this is yet another defense type mission , albeit slightly more annoying than most. I think what we really need are actual boss encounters, or perhaps a run and gun survival mission somewhat like warframe has. That's what i was hoping for the new beta storm to be like, struggling to survive and moving around the map aggressively as the storm constantly moves or something. What we got was much less engaging, and the end is usually sitting around in a small circle waiting and doing nothing for the most part for 2 minutes.

Now on to my biggest problem with the game that i think this update only exacerbates. That problem is Epic's ridiculous and excessive love for limited time events and limited content. Everything about this game is always trying to force you into playing by making you worry about missing out on whatever limited time event is happening or coming out. Gotta grind that gold today cause you don't wanna miss out on that hero, who knows when it'll be back after all. This is certainly a successful retention mechanic in some cases, but in many others it just starts to breed resentment for the game, because it starts to feel like a job you have to do rather than something you want to do for fun. Not to mention how awful this is for new and returning players.

Say you're trying to get a friend into the game, and when they play with you they say "Hey that hero looks cool to play how do i get it?" , Oh well you can't anymore is the answer almost all the time. The majority of the content they've ever put into this game be it weapons, or heroes, or events is all unavailable most of the time. A lot of the events have fun dialogue and story that tons of players just can't experience or have to wait nearly a year for it to hopefully come back? This just feels terrible. Why can't these event stories be side quests that players can take part in when they want to, you know like every other game has? The new hero loadout system is especially bad when you consider how the majority of the options are just unobtainable for players who weren't around for past events. What's the fun of being able to customize your load out when you can't get most of the options?

I've never played another game that does this type of thing to such a ludicrous degree. Sure they'll do some time limited cosmetics and little goodies that don't really matter other than to show you played at that time, but they never limit actual gameplay choices like this. Imagine you couldn't pick a talent or a skill in an MMO because you weren't around for some event that happened 6 months ago and who knows when you can get it again? I feel like this game gets rid of the content it makes just as fast as it makes it, and for a game that's so sorely lacking in variety it feels even worse that they do so. This more than any other thing i think is the biggest problem this game has.

What do you guys think? I know a lot of people on this subreddit have been around since the start and have most of the stuff as its come and gone (and i probably have more than most people too for that matter, but that doesn't mean i can't see the problem with this system), but i can't be alone in thinking that the amount of exclusivity and limited time stuff in this game is way overboard. All that said, its not all bad. I'm glad to see more new biomes and map types being added, and the new love storm event has been amusing so far. I just wish stuff like this didn't seemingly go to waste nearly as soon as it arrives.