CosmicSploogeDrizzle

I think even if the server issues persist for much longer (which I hope they won't and don't think they will), HD2 will likely have much more people playing it long term than HD1 ever did.

Hell yeah, Mario extraction shooter, can't wait!

Honestly though, the extraction shooter part of this isn't even the most compelling component for me in a vacuum. For me it's how the extraction element contributes to the larger galactic war story. It reminds me of why I liked Hades so much but otherwise don't like many roguelikes in general. The run-die-repeat mechanic of Hades only worked for me because it made sense in the story, with each time you die the House of Hades changes bit by bit and the story progresses.

Devs should come up with a story they want to tell or a work they want to build first, and then from there walk it back to find the gameplay loop, rather than say, "Extraction shooters or so hot right now, how can we shoehorn this loop/mechanic into a game that otherwise has no soul."

What sold my friends on this game was me saying, "it's starship troopers DnD with the Devs as the dungeon master and the aggregate of players making the story decisions."

Hopefully this release makes Sony attempt it in the future so we can see.

It really is crazy that this game is 100x more successful than HD1 (and growing). This is the definition of Suffering From Success. I hope they can continue to fix issues quickly. It's already much better than at launch. I'll take a queue over constant crashes and disconnects. There are still crashes and disconnects for some people, but for me I am experiencing it much less.

And I think you are absolutely justified to feel disappointed. We are all suffering from the success of the game I feel.

Yeah, this weekend it is breaking records for peak players. People like you are all hearing about it via word of mouth and getting pressured by friends. The first game was 10 times less popular. HD2 sold in 4 days what HD1 did in lifetime sales. The Devs just weren't prepared for this level of engagement and interest. Hopefully they continue to improve it (it is already better now than at launch). For now you unfortunately just have to sit at the screen and it'll eventually let you in.

I totally get the initial frustration, but I think the game is obtuse intentionally because you are a lowly uneducated grunt in the lore. You are meant to just figure it out on your own. That may seem like a lazy excuse, and it might be, but it's a design intention. The tutorial is intentionally barebones and then your character is literally cryogenically frozen and then thrown into battle.

The not receiving the rewards is on the server side though. All day yesterday I didn't receive any rewards, but today they all showed up. That is something that will get ironed out.

The punching in the codes I believe is a balance choice that is there to make it a challenge in the midst of battle so you can't just spam orbital strikes when you know you're about to die like most people do with grenades in FPSs. There is a lot of physicality to the game from reloading early making you lose the rest of your rounds, to being able to change machine gun rpms or to check remaining ammo (hold the reload button if you are unaware), to being able to sustain specific limb damage, among other things. In this way, the codes are a gamified version of a soldier calling in an actual air strike in war.

I'm level 11 now and have unlocked a fair amount of cool weapons and strategems. I'm still having a blast.

I don't think you have seen much of the game if you think it's just like all the others. But to each their own. The objectives are actually pretty unique and contain multiple parts. Probably the best mission designs I've seen in a while compared to majority fetch and escort quests that plague most games nowadays.

With that being said, what are you playing instead?

Yeah, they have made a lot of strides in the right direction. I got the game a few days after launch so I wasn't hit with the worst of it. Matchmaking has been decent. Some crashes in the heat of epic battles had me yelling, "NOOOOOOO!" But I just launched it up again to get back into the fray. 50 percent more XP this weekend to make up for the crashes is gonna be sick.

They just need to keep improving matchmaking and reducing crashes. It's amazing that in spite of these issues it is receiving overwhelming praise. I usually have to spam quick play 5+ times before it'll find a match. The good thing is that since lots are having issues, once you do connect to a party I find most players stick together for multiple missions.

thanks for letting me know, I guess I'll be posting X links for now. Maybe I will also copy paste the tweet details so people dont have to click the link if they dont want to

The beauty of being PvE is it allows them to have multiplayer and still drive forward an overarching story for the whole community. We are all contributing to the world together and experience it together. I am so surprised by this game is the best way possible. I can't recommend it enough to anyone. Also, PvP is such a competitive market. My favorite part of the Division wasn't the dark zones, it was playing PvE with my friends (until the enemies got too spongy at higher levels, that is)