So, I finally jumped into the game and had a good 4 hour gameplay. Played as TEC, and tried out many things. By the end of the 4 hours I had a pretty good feel of the game- and it was 4am I had to stop get some sort of sleep!
Some things came to mind right away:
Ship Models- While a few are simply badass and aweseome (TEC Capitals... Hell, all the caps in general are fantastic), most frigates and crusiers are just okay, others are just ugly looking. The Javelin LRM comes to mind as well as the Aeria Drone Host- both leave me thinking- "ugh, I almost don't want to build that just so I don't have to look at them." Whether the devs update the models or someone mods the game, I only hope that in time, all the ships will have a fantastic design... just like Homeworld2.
Tracking Gun Turrets- I thought this wouldn't bother me but it did. In a post-homeworld 1 era, your turrets have to track- no excuses. We, the gaming consumers have come to expect it- no matter how many ships are on screen.
Limp Ship Explosions- one word- Puny. Make em bigger, badder, and they need more debris (maybe a setting in the visual options so people can adjust it for the performance of the cpu.)
- The Research Tree isn't as ideal as I had hoped it would be. It was a bit difficult understand what did what, and what I needed to get something else. I ended up just doing "just research everyting" mindset. I can only anticipate that over time I'll master the tree. The critics were right when they said there was a steep learning curve- maybe that's the point of RTS4X.
- No Single Player Campaign- I thought this wouldn't bother me, but it does. The skirmish settings are fantastic, and multiplayer looks to be very promising. I do play multiplayer but I probably play single player just as much (if not, more) because I enjoy the stories and plotlines- I want to know what happens- do the Advent get their revenge? do the Vasari discover what is hunting them? If it's financial reasons why the devs cut it out that's fine, I understand. It's the first product of Ironclad and after 4 years of development they had to release a product and finally make some money! But I think this is a spot that really needs to be revisited and a lot of critics pointed out in their reviews.
Overall, the game is great, and I know the devs will not stop development even now after release. It's their baby- their first child. I'm sure they will perfect it.
