My opinion after 100%ing the beta map - "completing" the beta | Forums

[heavenpunch]

Pro's:
Shooting feels really nice, bullet drop and travel time etc.
With a GTX970 the graphics look promising enough to see how the game can look with optimization, (40-60 fps on high with medium textures)
Core mechanics of the game are fine (drone, scouting etc.)
Weapon customization is useful
Playing in co-op opens the opportunity for cool game mechanics

Con's:
Map design is **** : The map is essentially empty, the landmarks are guarded by 7 guys. you clear them to actually find nothing. Landmarks in themselves are also worthless, there is no joy in clearing them and not much to discover

Missions are too short, and lack identity: Missions literally do not take longer than 5 minutes, it takes as much time to get to a mission as it takes to complete it, it is pathetic. I even accidentally did a mission without even knowing it was a mission till I saw on the map that I had done 3 missions already.
The side quests are the same: collect the chopper, deliver it 500m away. Press e to activate this antenna, now drive 200m to the east and do it again, congratulations!

Driving and flying is awful: I play on pc, so this might be different for the consoles. It is just clunky, not interesting, especially planes are bad. And worst is, you drive and fly all the ****ing time

The game is too easy: Now I know this part of the map is the most easy... but still, on 'ghost' difficulty there is no incentive to stealth anything. Four people with decent aim can just run in any stronghold and take down the whole place in around 4 minutes (we timed), press e to collect the skill point and... oh wait, there is nothing more to do in this game.

Lack of team play: This might be due to the lack of difficulty, but at some point I would solo objectives while my squad was making this game into GTA simulator, and the missions we did with the 4 of us, we ran in without any communication.

The unlockable skills are worthless: Since it expected that every open world game now needs intense character customization and RPG elements, of course Wildlands needs to comply. However, all unlockable "skills" are nothing but quality of life improvement. They do not add anything to the core game play. I really want to unlock +20% vehicle damage and a grenade launcher for my assault rifle to be able to unlock the elite skills that as far as I could see removes bullet drop from guns, the only good mechanic in the game. Btw, I was planning on going sniper only, but its good to one shot those nasty cars too.



And now to nuance a bit. This is a beta of the first hours of the game, what means a lot will certainly improve. Driving and flying I hope, will hopefully feel better and more intuitive.
Team play is dependent on difficulty and difficulty will increase probably (?????), also more gameplay mechanics might be introduced the more progression you make, and the core game play in itself is strong enough to make it good things happen regarding the requirement of actually being a ghost. the other districts of the game, are hopefully packed with more enemies and interesting landmarks.

On the other hand, the missions are just bs, boring and short. The skill tree will most likely stay the same, too bad, but for a game like this, I think most of your playstyle depends on the weapon you choose and the mods on it. And to be realistic, non of possible improvements might happen.

I am not convinced this game will be a good game, experience tells me this will be a title in the realm of Mafia 3, that will bore after an hour of 10-12 due to repetition and lack of challenge. So, at least I am not planning on buying.

[GiveMeTactical]

Nicely done... more so because I finally found someone playing on PC... even if perhaps not the Campaign but I hope you can answer a few questions that have been lingering since a few years back.

Pro's:
With a GTX970 the graphics look promising enough to see how the game can look with optimization, (40-60 fps on high with medium textures)

Can you expand on "enough to see how the game can look with optimization"... Are you saying the game already do this or you are hoping that with more optimization the game can and will accomplish this. If the latter then you already worried me because from all the negative posts about the beta, I doubt very much optimization can be had at release.

Con's:
Map design is **** : The map is essentially empty, the landmarks are guarded by 7 guys. you clear them to actually find nothing. Landmarks in themselves are also worthless, there is no joy in clearing them and not much to discover

It was evident from the other videos shown that, even as beautiful as the world looked, it seems they are still a couple of years behind on coding the rest of the things they wanted to implement to the world... like more flora, fauna on some of the empty spaces and specially more bodies.

Missions are too short, and lack identity: Missions literally do not take longer than 5 minutes, it takes as much time to get to a mission as it takes to complete it, it is pathetic. I even accidentally did a mission without even knowing it was a mission till I saw on the map that I had done 3 missions already.
The side quests are the same: collect the chopper, deliver it 500m away. Press e to activate this antenna, now drive 200m to the east and do it again, congratulations!

Driving and flying is awful: I play on pc, so this might be different for the consoles. It is just clunky, not interesting, especially planes are bad. And worst is, you drive and fly all the ****ing time

The game is too easy: Now I know this part of the map is the most easy... but still, on 'ghost' difficulty there is no incentive to stealth anything. Four people with decent aim can just run in any stronghold and take down the whole place in around 4 minutes (we timed), press e to collect the skill point and... oh wait, there is nothing more to do in this game.

Lack of team play: This might be due to the lack of difficulty, but at some point I would solo objectives while my squad was making this game into GTA simulator, and the missions we did with the 4 of us, we ran in without any communication.

The unlockable skills are worthless: Since it expected that every open world game now needs intense character customization and RPG elements, of course Wildlands needs to comply. However, all unlockable "skills" are nothing but quality of life improvement. They do not add anything to the core game play. I really want to unlock +20% vehicle damage and a grenade launcher for my assault rifle to be able to unlock the elite skills that as far as I could see removes bullet drop from guns, the only good mechanic in the game. Btw, I was planning on going sniper only, but its good to one shot those nasty cars too.

I called it a few years back but I was hoping I would be wrong for my own sake... they invested all the time they had available in the world and forgot about the most important part... gameplay.

Pity... now we just have to wait for a few patches to see if with all these feedback (that they already had mind you) we could get a decent game after a few months past release.

And now to nuance a bit. This is a beta of the first hours of the game, what means a lot will certainly improve.
Team play is dependent on difficulty and difficulty will increase probably (?????), also more gameplay mechanics might be introduced the more progression you make, and the core game play in itself is strong enough to make it good things happen regarding the requirement of actually being a ghost. the other districts of the game, are hopefully packed with more enemies and interesting landmarks.

On the other hand, the missions are just bs, boring and short. The skill tree will most likely stay the same, too bad, but for a game like this, I think most of your playstyle depends on the weapon you choose and the mods on it. And to be realistic, non of possible improvements might happen.

I am not convinced this game will be a good game, experience tells me this will be a title in the realm of Mafia 3, that will bore after an hour of 10-12 due to repetition and lack of challenge. So, at least I am not planning on buying.

Sorry to say that I am not as optimistic as you are for obvious reasons but what the hell... we have waited 5 years, I am guessing we can wait another months and a few days to see what kind of release we will get.

Now onto my questions...

I see that you were playing on Ghost Level but... did you also played in a lesser level to see if the amount of enemies changed as well? or the same amount of guards were on Ghost than a lower level?

Were you playing with a controller or M+KB? if with M+KB... were you able to bind any keys to your liking or you were kinda restricted to a few.

Did you check to see whether a lower res setting made any changes on the gameplay, graphics, etc? I am curious about this because, again, from all the negativity about those playing on pc it seems that we got, yet, another un-optimized console port and not the "The game was made on PC and then Ported to Consoles" like they have been saying all alone.

[AI BLUEFOX]

@heavenounch

HuD on or off? The game is completely different, with everything off.

[BlueRaven97]

I agree with everything more or less. If you go solo though you are forced to stealth. Enemy drop you fast even at normal diff.

And yes. Flying planes is aweful, firing the miniguns from the helis is aweful. Driving is decent. The best vehicle is the motorcycle. Although its animation stutters alot.

[heavenpunch]

Now onto my questions...

I see that you were playing on Ghost Level but... did you also played in a lesser level to see if the amount of enemies changed as well? or the same amount of guards were on Ghost than a lower level?

Were you playing with a controller or M+KB? if with M+KB... were you able to bind any keys to your liking or you were kinda restricted to a few.

Did you check to see whether a lower res setting made any changes on the gameplay, graphics, etc? I am curious about this because, again, from all the negativity about those playing on pc it seems that we got, yet, another un-optimized console port and not the "The game was made on PC and then Ported to Consoles" like they have been saying all alone.

1. I did not, after leaving the final mission, I collected the last few skill points etc. and ended the game, will try it though.

2. I was indeed playing M+KB, didn't even have to change any setting to my liking except mouse sensitivity, now looking more in dept at the settings, you are able to change mouse sensitivity in general, for aiming, for helicopter, for airplane and even the drone. You can choose to toggle or hold a key for aiming, sprinting, crouching and proning and you can enable steering with the mouse for all vehicles. and there is a left handed option as well.
Besides the clunky steering/walking, I would not say that they left behind pc players, everything feels nice.

3. I tried on the lowest settings, after hearing people being unable to play the game at all (due to stuttering and 10 fps), but on medium 1080p I still ran a steady 60 fps, so I cranked it to high, with medium textures and still had up to 56 fps. I did not have any problems related to game play due to my settings or lag or whatever. However, a friend of mine running with a GTX760 sent me some gifs of his gameplay on lowest settings... lots of visual bugs occurring randomly. He had weird animations, people being stuck in the roof of a heli and such. Optimization is still a big issue, but I need to say there is a big difference between the lowest possible settings and medium settings. Because on low all shadows are turned off, it is just undoable. On medium the game is good to play, still annoying, but it didn't bother me or ruin my experience

[heavenpunch]

@heavenounch

HuD on or off? The game is completely different, with everything off.

On, can imagine the game will be a lot harder without a hud, maybe more immersive also, basically you cant use the drone to mark enemies which makes up 60% of the current gameplay