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by Dream Cast 02/08/2018, 5:37pm PST |
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One thing I didn't mention is the health system: unlike in a lot of modern shooters, health in War for Cybertron doesn't regenerate automatically. Which sounds promising, until you realize that means the ONLY way to refill your health bar is by smashing health crates and collecting the Energon cubes inside. Between health crates, ammo crates, weapon crates, and the rare overshield crate, that is entirely too much crateplay for my taste.
Here's how I would change things, if I were Prime: I would get rid of all the crates. I would make ammo unlimited, and I would make each enemy drop an Energon cube when you kill him (bigger enemies could drop more than one). So far, so Earth Defense Force, but here's where it starts to get cuh-razy. I would make each Energon cube worth 20 (or maybe 10? better playtest it) points of energy; these would convert to percentage points of health on a 1:1 basis, with every point of energy in excess of 100% health instead permanently increasing your FIREPOWER stat. (Permanently until the end of the level, I mean, I'm trying to shmuppify things not RPGify them.) Your FIREPOWER stat would boost the devastating efficacy of your awesome laser weapons.
I think a system like this would reward aggression (by encouraging chasing down enemies the way the game as it is encourages chasing down crates), punish recklessness (every point of energy spent restoring health is one less point spent boosting FIREPOWER), eliminate downtime/crateplay, and exaggerate the difference between skilled and unskilled play. That last one is especially important, since making me want to get better at the game is also how you make me want to play it in the first place. I thought Peter Cullen's voice might be able to do that on its own, but far from making me like a dull shooter more, it actually made me like Optimus Prime a little less. :-[ |
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