I’m also mostly soloing. It’s eminently playable as a solo games. Especially if you outlevel the story missions one or two levels, which is trivially easy to do if you’re enjoying the various things you can do besides story missions.
I had a hard time figuring this out as well. For something that pesters you so readily, it’s buried pretty deep. There’s an option in the escape menu, I think under social? You’ll see a panel of various game types you can join, and the bottom right is called something like “answer the call”. It will fast travel you to whomever sent the message.
When you get a call, open the map. On the top right there’s a button that looks like an exclamation point surrounded by lines. Click that, and it will show on the map the various people who have recently made calls for help. Click one of those, then hold the join key (it’s noted on bottom left) and you’ll warp to the person in question.
It’s a clunky system, which is too bad. I’ve randomly helped out a number of people and almost always had a great time. I’d do it more often if the callouts came in more frequently. The game really shines with two or more people, although I tend to spend a lot of time solo exploring the maps.
I did all the side missions, control points, propaganda speakers, etc in theater. The only stuff left is the random stuff that pops up to give you something to do.
The settlement had received a bunch of upgrades, including the battery, video game system, water filtration, and rooftop farming.
I like the game, but it’s a bit samey. After one or two hours of it I tend to get bored. Nevertheless I’m always looking forward to another session.
I think I’d like the game better if the missions were less scripted (not always triggered waves…), e.g. if I could clear a building the way I wanted (with ‘roaming’ instead of ‘spawning’ enemies…, MMORPG-style a la WoW or Far Cry/AC). I see the conflict with the cover-shooter-mechanics and especially with the way missions are implemented/the game as a whole is working…, yes, but sometimes I’d like a less narrowed path of action with more freedom of choice.
OK I have been trying this ‘Rescue Viktar Odea’ mission for an hour now. I have no idea how the fuck you can avoid being swarmed from all sides. There are no choke points.
No that mission, but, yeah. Waves of bad guys have a habit of suddenly showing up behind you or on your flank. I was in a four-man group earlier doing a mission and got overwhelmed by a group of bad guys popping up next of us.
Are you talking about rescuing Vikram from Odea Electronics? I did that one yesterday. I just did what I guess most other folks recommend, hang back, pick off everyone, move forward slowly. And have a shotgun handy when you get charged.
I guess the only difference is instead of a mine I’m using a healing drone, but otherwise I got through that mission first attempt. That’s not intended as a brag, I’m certainly not an exceptional player, just that we seem to be having much different experiences.
But I can appreciate where you’re coming from, I had to attempt the rescue from the MLK library multiple times because I had so much trouble with the boss charging me. Eventually I funneled him up the stairs into my turret, and together we whittled him down.
Just as in the first game IIRC, if you time out or idle too long or crash or whatever, you end up having to do a lot of stuff over. Which has been annoying as we’re still being run ragged by the new puppy here.
Also, as cool as much of the game is, the interface is friggin’ Byzantine, and not in a nice artsy sort of way. Is there even a hotkey for swapping loadouts? I can’t find one. Setting up and altering loadouts is a PITA as well.
One that really, really annoys me. One of the way the game designers tried to get you to move more than you had to back in TD1 is to spawn shitheads – especially elite shitheads – from a door or something really close to you in the middle of a firefight.
It certainly does get you to move, but woo boy I don’t think it’s the right solution.
