(This is also my formal steam review but it?s a First Impressions all the same).
This is another one of those team-based games that require a lot of time to master, and your enjoyment of the game entirely may be based around how much time and patience you have to dedicate to a single videogame.
The game starts you off with no information, the tutorial just tells you what buttons to press but there is a literal ton of cues that you don?t learn just by reading. It doesn?t tell you that killers work in first person and survivors in third, it doesn?t tell you what the hatch sounds like when it?s open or near (Or what criteria involves opening it), it doesn?t tell you that sprinting shows the killer a line of ground scratches that lead to you or how long they last, etc? Yes, I?ve learned a few of these things in my few hours in ingame time (Don?t look at my hours, half of that is in the menus and lobbies just setting up) and yes, you learn as you go but it makes the early levels all the more infuriating when a killer can just hone in on your ass while you?re hiding behind a rock and you have no idea why.
I?ll tell you why: Perks. This leads towards a secondary complaint in the sense that matchmaking doesn?t really seem to exist here. Let?s add on to the fact that they don?t host servers and are instead based around the killers hosting games. Basically, there?s a 30% chance I?ll disconnect in the middle of a game through no fault of my own, but rather people in my game are from entirely different countries who?s internet does not play nice with my own.
Meanwhile, matchmaking: After several hours of play I?m still the lowest ranked Survivor, a couple ranks into killer but I am regularly placed against enemies with a full set of rare and epic perks that allow killers to detect me from ravens flying away from my position and survivors to run around practically invisible and soundless.
Like many team game, this one forces you to find a community and group up with others otherwise you?re likely in for a bad time.
That?s a lot of frustration for a thumbs up, so here?s the core of this review:
Is the game fun?
Yes. It -can- be fun.
When I?m not grouping with other players I seem to main queue as a killer and that?s where my frustration melts away for the sake of fun. Stalking and hitting survivors and giving chase is an exhilarating affair, even when they get away. I?m learning routes, how to handle obstacles, etc. Even when I lose I tend to walk away with enough bloodweb points to progress. Killers tend to get a decent chunk of points regardless of performance so the learning curve is a bit smoother; While playing a survivor can be a short lived affair, walking away with nothing but a couple grand which doesn?t really get me anything.
The game offers a lot of exciting moments, and I?ll wrap this review/first impressions up with an anecdote that I already have from a few hours in;
I main the nurse, her shtick is teleporting. I?m playing against a very experienced Laurie (From the Halloween DLC) who danced with my Nurse through several minutes of pallet-hopping (I had to destroy like seven of them). She was wounded, healed, released from two hooks and healed herself once and kept running between windows and an upstairs exit before I was finally able to get her on the hook for a third and final time. I got ~20,000 points that game (Highest as of this review) and ?won? with two kills, a disconnected survivor and one escapee. I didn?t get everyone but I don?t necessarily have to - I had fun.
That?s what we?re all here for, innit?
This is another one of those team-based games that require a lot of time to master, and your enjoyment of the game entirely may be based around how much time and patience you have to dedicate to a single videogame.
The game starts you off with no information, the tutorial just tells you what buttons to press but there is a literal ton of cues that you don?t learn just by reading. It doesn?t tell you that killers work in first person and survivors in third, it doesn?t tell you what the hatch sounds like when it?s open or near (Or what criteria involves opening it), it doesn?t tell you that sprinting shows the killer a line of ground scratches that lead to you or how long they last, etc? Yes, I?ve learned a few of these things in my few hours in ingame time (Don?t look at my hours, half of that is in the menus and lobbies just setting up) and yes, you learn as you go but it makes the early levels all the more infuriating when a killer can just hone in on your ass while you?re hiding behind a rock and you have no idea why.
I?ll tell you why: Perks. This leads towards a secondary complaint in the sense that matchmaking doesn?t really seem to exist here. Let?s add on to the fact that they don?t host servers and are instead based around the killers hosting games. Basically, there?s a 30% chance I?ll disconnect in the middle of a game through no fault of my own, but rather people in my game are from entirely different countries who?s internet does not play nice with my own.
Meanwhile, matchmaking: After several hours of play I?m still the lowest ranked Survivor, a couple ranks into killer but I am regularly placed against enemies with a full set of rare and epic perks that allow killers to detect me from ravens flying away from my position and survivors to run around practically invisible and soundless.
Like many team game, this one forces you to find a community and group up with others otherwise you?re likely in for a bad time.
That?s a lot of frustration for a thumbs up, so here?s the core of this review:
Is the game fun?
Yes. It -can- be fun.
When I?m not grouping with other players I seem to main queue as a killer and that?s where my frustration melts away for the sake of fun. Stalking and hitting survivors and giving chase is an exhilarating affair, even when they get away. I?m learning routes, how to handle obstacles, etc. Even when I lose I tend to walk away with enough bloodweb points to progress. Killers tend to get a decent chunk of points regardless of performance so the learning curve is a bit smoother; While playing a survivor can be a short lived affair, walking away with nothing but a couple grand which doesn?t really get me anything.
The game offers a lot of exciting moments, and I?ll wrap this review/first impressions up with an anecdote that I already have from a few hours in;
I main the nurse, her shtick is teleporting. I?m playing against a very experienced Laurie (From the Halloween DLC) who danced with my Nurse through several minutes of pallet-hopping (I had to destroy like seven of them). She was wounded, healed, released from two hooks and healed herself once and kept running between windows and an upstairs exit before I was finally able to get her on the hook for a third and final time. I got ~20,000 points that game (Highest as of this review) and ?won? with two kills, a disconnected survivor and one escapee. I didn?t get everyone but I don?t necessarily have to - I had fun.
That?s what we?re all here for, innit?