Strain42 said:
I've been excited for Splatoon (I don't own it because I don't own a Wii U yet) and it seems like most people who give me opinions on the internet have all be praising it wildly. But the thing is...they were all people who I expected them to say that stuff before they even played it.
Yahtzee genuinely liking this game came as a huge surprise to me, a nice surprise, like getting a onion ring mixed in with your french fries.
I'll admit that I was excited for this as soon as I seen the announcement but it honestly blew me away with how fun it is.
Yeah, it was lacking a little content on launch but, now, less than 2 weeks after launch and we've already had 2 new weapons, 2 new maps, and a new game mode added (all for free!).
The 2 map rotation is actually a great idea, when I first got the game I assumed it was to pad out the experience using only 5 maps (the rotation is technically 4 maps now because ranked battles are on a separate rotation, and there are now 7 maps) but I believe it's a deliberate design choice; The maps that are on the rotation have a dramatic affect on which weapon you choose.
Blindly going into a map rotation of Arowana mall and the skatepark with a roller is going to get you destroyed, there isn't much flat ground and there are lots of ramps and walls, it is possible to do OK with a roller but you would be far better off using a different weapon. Same goes for pretty much all weapon types, each map has it's strengths and weaknesses and having the maps on a rotation forces you to think strategically before even jumping into a match (either that or just Aerospray RG).
It is just all round fun, I finished the single player and all the amiibo challenges, hit level 20 obviously, and reached rank B+ in ranked matches, and I still play every day at some point. It's addictive, there's a huge difference between turf wars and ranked matches, trying all the different types of weapons and learning effective strategies keeps me busy; while I do have preferred weapons (Blaster for ranked, Aerospray RG for turf) I've had great fun playing around with other weapons I've been killed by in various matches, I noticed a guy with a splattershot pro killing me a lot in this 1 match so I bought a set of gear to compliment it and gave it a whirl.
I'm glad Yahtzee didn't make a big song and dance about voice chat, like most reviewers do (even though yahtzee isn't really a reviewer), I don't see how it could have made the experience any better, the matches are too fast paced and short to require any over-arching super coordinated strategy, the gamepad gives you a real time view of exactly what is going on and where the ink is, if I had voice chat I would just be yelling at the 12 year olds and/or CoD players rushing for kills rather than inking turf, and they probably wouldn't listen or care anyway, so what is the point? You would get a small advantage if you used it and the other team didn't but honestly not that much, it would just be people pointing out things you can already see and should be looking at.
(You can also press up on the D-pad to signal all your team mates you need help, and super jumping makes giving this backup easy)
Main complaint is the RNG gear abilities, there is something oddly satisfying about the RNG landing on something you want, but it's utterly infuriating when you roll useless abilities for the weapon you are using. I guess they needed you to spend your money on something (30000 for ability reroll, or to add an ability slot to an item that isn't full).