Seems the developers read this review and other similar complaints, because in the latest patch:
Cooldown rules are changes on Narrative and Standard modes. Cooldowns are reset after each combat encounter.
Haven’t been able to test it yet myself because the patch is not yet out on Epic. grumbles
They are clearly listening, that’s good. I’ll continue my playthrough today. There’s something about the game that keeps me drawing back. Maybe it’s just the 40 EUR…
I am too stupid for this game. Losing and losing and losing. Now against that damn trees in the Old Town Road-level… There’s something to the game that’s fundamentally different from other TBS-games. Maybe it’s because it doesn’t teach you stuff at all? I have the feeling even the skill tree is a puzzle; just picking stuff and see how it goes really has crippled my ressources; I have the feeling that maybe buying new stuff (weapons, upgrades) is necessary here; it also seems min-maxing is part of the gameplay.
Can’t beat that stupid trees in a sensible way.
Here’s how I do it:
It’s all about ambushes. How many enemies can you kill before any actual combat takes place.
Some character specific tips:
And who would have thought that glass bottles are some of the most powerful items… If you can throw one to lure an enemy away, you can often break up groups of monsters so that they all can be killed individually in a series of ambushes.
I don’t really buy anything but weapon and magic upgrades. Since I kill most of the enemies during ambushes, I have little need for buying health kits.
They are also some of the most expensive normal items :-D
Game-changing! Thanks :-)
Also. I had forgotten about them. Stupid me! Thanks :-)
Follwoing @NI1’s adivce now the fight I couldn’t win at all has become trivial. So I’d still say there is something off in the way the game’s balanced/explained/meant to be played. At least for those, like me, how can’t remember MYZ well and are a bit sloppy at studying the ins and outs of a skill tree (although you can freely reskill I just missed that super-powerful skill).
I will say that the
Cooldowns are reset after each combat encounter.
change in the 1.1 patch made a huge change wrt. balance. Being able to use Jade’s Plasma Shot for every ambush means +30 damage to every ambush shot. And as mentioned before, Elvis’ Glove Shock every ambush is also huge. Feels pretty obvious to me that the game was not balanced with this in mind. OTOH having persistent cooldowns was pretty annoying as well.
Yes, I think so too. Now the game very much plays like Desperados III. I am nearing the frog boss and so far have taken out his entire crew silently.
I know I’m late, but a Shotgun is your friend here. Put Diggs towards the front and the little ones that spawn will rush straight towards him. One shot can kill an entire swathe of trees with a shotgun that has an increasing crit modifier based on number of enemies. And you refill your AP to take out stragglers.
It annoys me how little point there’s to hide behind low cover. Doesn’t seem to affect enemy hit chance at all. My characters have a harder time hitting enemies with no cover.
Game completed! A solid 7/10 game I would say.
The setting was the star of the show for me. I’m a sucker for post apocalypse settings. I enjoyed discovering the back story and walking around in the various gritty landscapes and towns.
I found the story to be pretty good as well, but some of the characters were a bit annoying.
The combat was enjoyable as long as I was learning to master the systems, but became a bit repetitive (as usual) towards the end. After my characters hit max level, I started stealthing past encounters.
The whole game took me about 30 hours including all the side quests. Good length, glad it wasn’t longer.
Some semi-spoilery comments/questions:
What was the deal with armor? Seems they were only cosmetic? A bit strange considering how rare they are with Elvis’ only armor being a reward for the longest side quest.
It’s a bit strange having a party of 4-5 characters that all take part in dialogue but only having 3 during combat. I get that they did that for balance reasons, but still a bit odd. Maybe balance later encounters for 4 characters?
I wonder if there was a better silent sniper rifle than the one Jade started with. The only level 3 sniper rifles I found were not silenced. It’s a bit sad to have a main character use the same weapon for the whole game.
The game felt a bit front-heavy. Almost all the side quests are for the first region. I guess that makes sense considering how few people usually finish games, but still.
Heads up for your purchasing pleasure:
The game is currently 40% off on both Steam and GOG, cutting the price to 29.99.
I remember liking their previous game, but this one seems really difficult/puzzly. And not puzzly in a good way (I like puzzly tactical games). Having to redo skill trees and weapon mods constantly in order to get an ambush done isn’t that enjoyable. I’ve been playing on Alpha Editor difficulty though, which means skills are not all that useful because of the cooldowns.
I’m not sure I’m doing it wrong either. I watched someone playing on YouTube and they were doing the same constant swapping that I find myself doing. But if I’m not doing it wrong, then I just don’t get how this is supposed to be fun. More bottles would help, but you still end up with mobs that you can’t reliably take down with the one or two silent shots you get. Rage is far too infrequent to rely on for ambushes. Don’t know…
I just started a normal game to give myself a break and, yeah, a lot easier. Early yet, but I think with the ability to reuse skills after each ambush/encounter, it is going to be a very different feel.