As a member of this forum I can’t hold my tongue any longer.
Every few years a fresh new (or freshly rebooted) game idea comes along. MMO, lane defence, team shooter, battle royale, etc. These type of games cater to the masses, and as a result, we have to suffer insipid copycats, sometimes for years afterwards, as publishers ran by CEO’s that come from industries such as packaged goods demand their studios crank out similar crap.
Few publishers are willing to buck this trend. Even fewer still are willing to risk everything on a new IP.
Along comes Avalanche Studios, creating a brave, new, open-world IP about fighting a guerrilla war against machines in 1980’s Sweden. From what I understand, they felt so strongly about this game that in order to avoid any publisher compromising their vision, they published it themselves, absorbing the financial risk.
What happens? Everybody and their dog attacks it. We finally have a fresh and weird and awesome new IP and everybody is jumping the queue to be the first to tear the game a new one. I can only imagine the heartbreak the devs must have felt reading all those shit reviews and posts. Even worse, we have a non-AAA game, built by a non-AAA sized team, sold for a non-AAA price and yet reviewed with AAA blockbuster expectations.
I can understand this stupidity from the journalists on most of the gaming sites. They’re primarily staffed by non-gamers desperately trying to maintain relevance in a world where people can go on YouTube or Twitch and know whether a game is for them or not within heartbeats.
What I can’t understand is my fellow gamers attempting to do irreparable damage to the reputation of this game. Yes, the gameplay loop is very weak at the moment. The much touted Persistence system, one of the main reasons I myself bought the game, resets every time you turn off the game, and respawns broken machines constantly when you don’t. Worst of all, there are all the bugs. So, so many bugs. However, the devs are on record stating this game will be supported for a long time with free and paid DLC. So the bugs will get fixed and the other issues will be addressed in time.
I’m not trying to defend the state of the game at release. I am asking as a fellow gamer that you have some perspective and some patience. The game has been out for a week. The PS4 version hasn’t even received its first patch yet. I’m asking that you not kill off a daring new IP while it’s still in its infancy.
Guerrilla war against machines in 1980’s Sweden. What a premise for a game.