I think it’s time for me to write my feedback of the Resistance update as well. Since i’ve had some time to play it, including building my base and surviving all three difficulty modes in base defense.
Lets start from the beginning:
When you 1st play the Resistance update and if you’re not in the Forest region, you can’t tell that something has changed. But once you venture to the Forest region, you’ll see new and overhauled POIs. Of course, not all POIs have been overhauled (e.g IGA, Lilla). So, there is still room for improvement, that is, unless devs are deciding to leave some of it in the original, abandoned state, which i’d prefer.
Once you venture near Lergerbet, you’ll get the pop-up of new mission, that directs you to Lergerbet. From there, you’ll find a letter from one of the main NPCs and it’s a nice continuation to the lore. Explaining what has happened and what plans there are for future.
Along the way, you’ll also find new collectables, messages in a bottle. Their execution i also like, since when lore was told by the side missions, now, the lore is told in those little messages. Every message in the bottle has a tie-in to the setting, in which it is found. My only regret is, that i didn’t read every message as soon as i found it. Instead, i read them all after i found all of them. But that’s on me.
At some point, you’ll make your way to Tylöveden mountain, to destroy FNIX’es base. Here, there are some lore vs player conflicts that i find hard to comprehend.
- How come, a player, who is supposed to be a teen, is able to waltz into the FNIX’es base, easily take out the guarding machines, infiltrate the base, plant explosives, and get out before the base blows up? While several of the ex- and current military members, who have planned and coordinated the same attack, with far better knowledge and combat experience, fail miserably.
- Player blows up only the small outpost on top of the mountain. While it’s clearly seen that FNIX’es base is far bigger and most of it is inside the Tylöveden mountain. It feels strange that Resistance wants you to build their base on top of the still active FNIX’es base. And it’s no other random base, but instead the biggest FNIX’es base we’ve seen so far.
Once you’ve constructed your base, you have an option to call in the machine attack. While why that attack happens is explained in the lore, it doesn’t make sense that player is able to dictate when that happens. It should be the other way around, on lore aspect. But i guess, it’s made for player convenience.
After every successful defense, there are rewards for the player. Besides the crafting materials (which i guess the other Resistance members are secretly giving to you for your efforts), you’ll also get the experimental consumable crafting schematic.
That i find a bit hard to understand, mainly as of why you get it and from whom. One could say that Resistance is also providing these for you but on the schematic itself, it’s clear that it was developed by the FOA. It is possible that Resistance got their hands on those schematics and they are now sharing these with you as well. But one question still remains: Why isn’t Resistance using the schematic to craft the gear for themselves? Since when you have an unlimited access to all required crafting materials, including the rare and radioactive Uranium + schematic on how to craft it, then why not to craft it? Lore has left player to believe that Resistance needs anything they can possibly get, to fight against the machines.
Base building mechanic itself is easy to understand and simple to use. Though, the limit of modules that you can craft (e.g 150 wall pieces), in my opinion, is too low. Namely because some decorations also are counted as Walls and the big area what is given to us, in where to construct the base, can easily accommodate big and complex base.
At current moment, you can construct only one layer of wall, around the outer perimeter and that’s about it. You have a bit left over to construct few more wall pieces but you’ll be hitting the Wall build limit fast. I did.
As far as the base modules themselves go, what we currently have, are barebones. Few different wall pieces, gate, one pillbox design, one watchtower design and few decorations. Though, it’s seen that we get more variety to base modules at a future date, in form of payed DLC, which i don’t mind.
I’m that kind of person who loves base building, especially when i get to choose between several different modules and are not restricted by limitations. However, i’m not so sure that base building fits GZ and it’s essence.
In the early days, and until the Resistance update, GZ was all about where player is just random being, who happened to walk into what we now know, a machine overtake, led by FNIX. Trying to make sense of all of it and somehow survive. But now, with Resistance update and base building, player has been made into a hero and leader of the mankind, against the machines.
I know that the lore needs to go on, and perhaps, at some point also end. However, i’m not sure that the base building is proper way to continue the lore. And just because base building was a popular request by the player base, doesn’t mean it needs to be added to the game. There are several, popular requests, that haven’t made their way to the game. To name the few: PvP and player controlled motorized vehicles.
Though, don’t get me wrong. Base building, as such, when viewed alone, has good potential to evolve into something good and overall, i like it’s mechanics. But in the grand scheme of things, i don’t think it is a good fit to the GZ.
Though, when it comes to the loot containers, you can find ammo from 3 different kinds of boxes: small metal one, big green one (rarely) and the new, Soviet ones.