A few more things . . . (Gaming)

by cheapLEY , Wednesday, March 08, 2017, 22:49 (2826 days ago) @ CyberKN

I'm not sure if anyone will scroll this far down the page, but a few more quick thoughts:

I'm loving this game, but something about it has been bothering me about the way loot and the weapon and armor sets and upgrades work. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but I think I finally realized what it was. It's that there are three tiers of weapons (I guess 4, if you count the Lodge Weapons) and three tiers of armor, but all but the highest tier basically go unused. The sets you can buy are somewhat limited at the beginning of the game, with only a few purples available in the Sacred Lands. That doesn't last long, however. Once you get to Meridian, which doesn't take long (unless you willfully make it take long), everything becomes available to you. Why would I buy a green or blue tier anything when the purple tier items are only marginally more expensive (besides the lower tier items having less ugly head ornamentation)?

In the grand scheme of things, it's not a huge issue, and it certainly doesn't ruin the game, but it really makes the weapon and armor investment systems feel almost inconsequential. Instead of a nice progression, I went from low tier gear to high tier gear very quickly and easily. I guess maybe that just allows it to get out of the way and allows the combat to really be the focus. But at that point, why have a progression of gear at all?

On a more positive note, I find that I really like Aloy's little quips. I typically find it pretty annoying when the player character talks to no one in particular while wondering around, but I find that Aloy's lines feel natural and often add a nice little detail to the world. For example, when you pick up a plants, she sometimes has a little line about them. Mostly I don't notice, but I picked up one last night, and she just said, "Ew, sticky." It's subtle, but it tells me more about that world (even if it's obvious--some plants are sticky), but it also adds the sense of feel to the game, something you don't often get. She mentions the healing plants being a bitter, sometimes, too. I think it's a just a nice little detail that adds to the world, if only in a tiny way.