I think that the issue of a skill point cap at level 31 really sucked a lot of the excitement I had for the game after finishing the main campaign.
I played the entire thing solo, on Guerilla difficulty, and enjoyed every second of it. I donāt think I need to go into why I enjoyed it, that has been covered by fans of the game already.
However, I fully expected to play this game for a thousand hours before I got bored. I wanted to be able to watch my character optimize their combat potential by reaching max level, and now Iāve learned that I am hard capped after I earn 5 more points.
There is a massive oversight of potential in this skill point cap (I must specify, the oversight is also due to the lack of a respec). As a solo player, I want to be able to have every node maxed out and feel like my character has grown and learned from the world they are a part of, but only one specialization is allowed, because as it states it is a specialization. As a player that occasionally plays with friends as wellā¦ I can understand the desire for a cap. Having 4 maxed characters could absolutely change the game dynamic and reduce even the most difficult enemies Iāve encounters to cannon fodder.
From a design perspective, and how the game has been structured, with multiplayer in mind, I understand why it was implemented. However, with the amount of player feedback I have seen, a solution is needed.
Allowing respec
Removing cap
Raising cap and allowing respec
Removing tree specific progression walls (needing to put points into lower nodes to reach better ones in that same tree)
Using harvested robotics to award further skill points
Regardless of what the change is, I think some change needs to be made because the current system just feels suffocating to a game that encourages player-centric playstyles.
Spoiler alert
Putting this here just to protect the eyes that cant help but glance at the first few words.
We good? Alright
In the final moments of the game, a certain environment is introduced that is not seen anywhere else in the game. A very specific āmedicalā feel to it. I think that final area, is a perfect area for a respec opportunity that makes sense within the lore. We use the different components of the bots to better streamline our combat with them. Vision modules, EMP modules, Fuel canisters, we even steal the ammo they have off their body to use on bots in the future. Whoās to say biological enhancements are out of the question? The final main quest proves that there is a neurological connection between the robots and humans. We could use the robots as a sort of external storage space, awarding us extra skill points because we are expanding the space that they can occupy. Imagine destroying FINX, then stepping back into the lab, inserting a scavenged floppy disk to reprogram a microchip scavenged from a high tier enemy, then implanting that into yourself using the chair in that final room. A whole quest can be dedicated to finding out how to operate that machine and do the procedure safely. Whoever designed it must have lived on the islandā¦ maybe they kept an audio journal?
Regardless, the skill point cap needs to be addressed in one way or another. Hopefully the explanation inspires a fix that logically can exist within the confines of the world.
Thanks for reading,
Matillion
