The Survivor Thread

Started by Corporal Hicks, Oct 07, 2014, 07:33:06 PM

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The Survivor Thread (Read 52,909 times)

newbeing

newbeing

#45
I'm having an ok time with survivor, but one thing that bothers me is why are there no access panels to reroute power in the survival maps? At least there are none that I've seen. It's kind of disappointing considering their usefulness in singleplayer, not to mention how enjoyable it is to mess around with them to help create distractions.

NickisSmart

NickisSmart

#46
Trying out the DLC, at the moment, especially Salvage. It's been a lot of fun. Trying out Ransome, whose only early defense against the alien is the pipebomb, or a well-placed revolver round into a flammable cannister.

I love the DLC because choice seems to make a big difference. Of course, knowing how to exploit the creature's AI short-comings and memorizing the map no doubt would make this a walk in the park, but I haven't quite reached that stage of mastery yet. In fact, I'm deliberately refusing to research the game play at all and am playing blind. It's much more intense and fun that way, and satisfying.

The campaign is good and I love it a lot. The station is so huge. But you can get pretty far without firing a shot, or using an item. In fact, I was told that you can effectively jettison the first alien without using a single crafted item, or firing a single bullet. The DLC makes this kind of passive approach less attractive, and while I don't doubt that you can still avoid the creature and use very little ammo or crafted items, not using any would boil down to blind luck, in the DLC.

The visuals and music are never dull, and not knowing where to go makes me feel like I'm in the belly of the beast. At first, I died a lot, but as I stuck with it, and started to figure things out, the experience became much more rewarding. For these levels, only having one life, with often only 1 health bar, it really is an intense experience, and some of the DLC is so long that to go without saving is nerve-shredding. But I love it. It delivers a sensational experience. And Salvage and Lost Contact in particular can be played in so many different ways -- different characters, tower sides, item choices/usage -- that each experience feels fresh and new. And dying sucks. But it should suck. If you're not put off by dying at all, then the game is too easy.

So far, loving it. The DLC has very few scripted moments, compared to the campaign, I've had some pretty amazing things happen. For example, the Alien was approaching the room I was in, but there was one of those emergency override things on the walls, so I pushed it, and the door shut in the alien's face right as he was about to enter the room. Or the shotgun guys that show up, who, saw me behind a counter and fired a round only to have the alien show up and eat them all. Or, the Alien climbing into the vents (something I could never get it to do on campaign) with me only holding a pipebomb. Of course, I threw it too late, with the creature too close, and I blew myself up. Stuff like this is unscripted, off the cuff, and incredibly fun, and it happens a lot. I look forward to trying the maps out with other characters.

And people like to complain about the cost of it all, but honestly for $12 for all of the packs, that's a steal. Depends what people want, I suppose. The DLC has no story but the gameplay is better, less-scripted, and more varied than the campaign, and vice versa. Both are awesome, but I find myself playing the DLC more and more. The one thing I'd like is some dialogue, but the game doesn't really need it. It'd be cool, but I played plenty of old-school classics that had little or no story or dialogue, so the fact that the DLC doesn't have any doesn't feel like a negative to me.




NickisSmart

NickisSmart

#47
I was playing Safe Haven, and during the sabotage power mission (mission 8?) I didn't realize that cutting the power would result in the vent hack that I normally use being disabled. So I got stuck. Of course, I ran into the alien several times, hitting it with flamethrower fuel and pipe bombs to keep it away. Well, eventually I think I discovered where to go, but the alien was extremely pissed off at this point. I was inside a vent, and heard a loud banging sound. I couldn't tell where it was coming from because I was in the dark, but I thought, "That's odd. That sounds really loud, almost like it's inside the v-" I realized about a second too late that the alien was in the vent with me. I turned around to try and face it, but again, it was pitch black and I could tell which way was what. I had my flamethrower out, and when the alien grabbed me, I could see its face illuminated in the torch glow right before it killed me.

Just totally awesome. Something like this would never happen in the campaign, and it was a true testament to the AI and the game's ability to throw me for a loop. : )

Corporal Hicks

Corporal Hicks

#48
I've been nailed by the Alien in the vents before in the campaign. Shits me up.  :D

NickisSmart

NickisSmart

#49
I guess I never spend enough time in the vents. Of course, I usually have a pretty good idea of where to go in the campaign; it's just so straightforward. But I played Safe Haven yesterday with Ransome and today with Linguard, and playing with Linguard, there were a couple of the differences and I got stuck, long enough for me to piss off the alien enough for him to crawl into the vents after me. If you make him mad enough, he just bee-lines for you ignores your attacks. I think if you go into an elevator and end a mission, his little "angry alien meter" resets, but in Safe Haven, during this one mission, the elevator was very far off, my health was low, and he was just coming for me and there wasn't much I could. Sure I had the flamer, but he was all over me like white on rice. Just like poor old Dallas.

And that's why this game is amazing. : P

Of course, shit like this happens a lot. Everytime I play it's something new and interesting -- perhaps not to a casual gamer, but I can't get enough of it.

NickisSmart

NickisSmart

#50
The game kept crashing making it hard for me to finish Safe Haven. With a few tweaks, the game was behaving better and today I finally finished it.

Multiple aliens... . _ .

Nothing makes you feel more helpless than hiding behind a chair from 1 alien, only to have another drop drop behind you. The hacking part was pretty intense, though I just laid down some pipe bombs before I started hacking and when I ran out of those, I used the noisemakers. It's pretty easy to get up to that point without using any of those.  The way to make it harder would ideally to make the resources less scarce. All that being said, now that I've started to memorize the routes and levels, there's always an element of luck, and trying to do the whole thing without saving would require playing it pretty safe to maximize the chance of staying alive versus dying.

Next up, Lost Contact!

(I did try out Bomb Seat from the new DLC. Cool map, and neat tie-in to the start of the campaign.

The1PerfectOrganism

The1PerfectOrganism

#51
Does anyone really care about the Survivor scenarios?

The Old One

The Old One

#52
I don't care for them, I don't really do time-trials though. I'm all about the story.

Huggs

Huggs

#53
Quote from: Erik Lehnsherr on Jul 11, 2019, 11:57:16 PM
Does anyone really care about the Survivor scenarios?

Tried em once for like 4 minutes.

I prefer the campaign and its story.

The1PerfectOrganism

The1PerfectOrganism

#54
Yeah. I understand.

Kradan

Kradan

#55
Quote from: Erik Lehnsherr on Jul 11, 2019, 11:57:16 PM
Does anyone really care about the Survivor scenarios?

I actually played a lot of Survivor mode.

Ironb4lls

Ironb4lls

#56
I think they would benefit from having a little cutscene to beef up the story value a bit. And an option to do it without a time limit would be nice, as I love being able to explore other sections of the station that weren't featured in the main campaign. That said, they're a lot of fun, but stressful as hell. Much more so than the main game itself.

Samhain13

Samhain13

#57
I don't remember ever trying those. I don't think there was any achievements so never go motivated to try them and I'm not into those type of thing, not if its just me. Now if it was like multiplayer I might have given a try.

razeak

razeak

#58
I'm going to have to give survivor a try. I just watched my 11 year old get through the medical facility in the campaign. It was pretty awesome seeing how much fear he experienced playing it.

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