At this point I'm just morbidly interested to see what their take on Spider-Man is like.
The Cosmic Cube villain sector launched today and was about 20 minutes of fun, but still super easy.
I was impressed by the new villain sector, actually.
Not blown away, but impressed. Ran it on max difficultly solo with my 150 Thor; wearing a mix of All-Father and...what's it called, Asgard's Scion maybe?....legendary gear, spec'd for melee/lightning damage, with a defensive rating lower than it should be (and a 'meh' ranged rating). And I tore the level apart until the final battle, where some new mechanics caught me off guard. I prevailed in the end of course, but for the first time in a while I was actually engaged with the game.
The outside map felt more expansive than the typical Taskmasker or Abomination map, there were plenty of secondary objectives to collect, the map layout felt different (might've just been me tho), and the visuals were great (the main AIM base looks cool from a distance). Inside, they recycled an old layout but it's one they only used in one or two other missions so I haven't played it to death.
We get a couple cutscenes, and a "post credits" kind of stinger that I swear is setting up the next threat post-Kree (and if I'm right I am totally down for it). I feel like this mission did wrap up the primary AIM plot, like I had hoped. That was a big "pro" for me.
The rewards aren't anything special; a hero set legendary and, I dunno, some polychrons or something. But those aren't *bad* rewards for a villain sector either. Not like this was a big campaign mission or something.
I went into this with humble expectations and hopes, and they were surpassed (again, not hard to do, but still). This mission didn't reinvent the wheel, but it did make noticeable improvements and aimed us at the next chapter. The thing is too long for quick gear grinding runs, and the rewards aren't worth pursuing over other options so I feel like the replay value is limited, but it *does*do a few things we haven't seen before and that'll provide a nice change of pace once in a while.
Unrelated note; a while back I came across an article claiming that another data mine has found new information about upcoming heroes. I dunno how reliable the source was but they claim that the amount of coding attached to character's names indicates that the next four releases will be She-Hulk, Winter Soldier, Captain Marvel, and War Machine. Maybe in that order. Gotta admit, the list seems weird to me. Carol I get. But why these legacies with limited Avengers history, and not original/franchise leads like Ant-Man/Wasp, Scarlet Witch, etc? I want Bucky and Rhodes in this game but getting Steve's former sidekick before we get Wanda or Wasp seems kinda....off brand?
"We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."
~ Black Panther.
The mechanics themselves were good but the boss fight for me was a cakewalk. I did it on Challenge IV but admittedly I did it with Hawkeye using a Bag of Tricks build. Particle damage on both melee and range with the Pym potentiator on 3 of the 4 gear pieces plus the Pym artifact so I'm doing an extra 90% Particle damage on every shot. The numbers get really insane if i pop Hunter's Arrow and get the battery effect going
Last edited by Steroid; 06-23-2021 at 07:56 PM.
Nice. I'm actually gearing Clint for a similar build. Still farming the right pieces for it.
No, my issues with the mechanics were gaffes on my part. Wasn't watching Monica the first time she popped her kill mechanic (was dealing with a trash mob behind me for like, one second!) so I didn't know what to look for the second time. Dropped the Bifrost on top of her and fell through the hole below her. Just idiot stuff like that. And my Thor isn't good at ranged combat at all, which didn't help lol.
"We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."
~ Black Panther.
The main mission chain part of the Cosmic Cube event was fairly easy and luckily doesn't require any multiplayer. Quick heads up though, unlike the red room and tachyon anomaly events you don't get a piece of exotic for every character. You get a set of Exotic for the hero you complete the main mission chain with only.
Yeah, I'm not sure if I like this approach better or not.
I felt like the tachyon rewards were extremely generous; fairly limited grinding and every hero gets an exotic? That was a nice reward considering the problems the game has had (those of us who have stuck with the game deserved a quality reward for doing so), but it didn't do much for replay value either; I knocked the event out in a day or two, got my exotics for everybody, and then had little reason to log back in.
These rewards feel better as far as balance goes. Maybe a little too grind-y, as you gotta hit every ultimate a bunch of times with each hero to finish their individual mission chain, and that can take some time. Took me almost a week to get everyone's exotic (didn't play a ton either, but for that week I had a reason to log in and run a mission). I feel like I earned the exotics here, while with the tachyon event I felt like I was getting more than I paid for (which was good, but not really the kind of balance I wanna see as their standard).
Mostly I just want to see them change the mission parameters some. Rather than "use each Ultimate X times" for each hero, mix it up some! Maybe Cap should save X hostages, Hulk should smash X vehicles, Tony should open X chests, etc. Something that doesn't feel so repetitive and grindy, at least.
Oh, apparently in this month's update we'll be getting the tachyon event's "multiple of the same character" feature added to the game as a permanent thing. Devs are listening to fan feedback, which is good. They changed around their time table a little too, pushing the Wastelands patrol feature behind Wakanda and moving the.....multiplayer Hives? Omega missions? Something.....into the July spot.
Cap's Endgame skin looks fantastic, and they even changed the shield to the MCU one. First time they've changed a weapon design, I think. Bought that skin as soon as I logged in (and still have more than enough marketplace cash for Thor's Endgame skin, whenever it shows up).
You know, I've been more forgiving of this game than a lot of people (maybe because I'm just a casual gamer) but I do feel like the last few months, the game has been delivering some pretty solid stuff. Not making the kind of big changes we want to see, but they definitely seem to be moving in the right direction and the odds of this game making legit improvements and living up to its potential....maybe that's starting to feel a little more likely and less like blind optimism.
"We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."
~ Black Panther.
Yeah, should be interesting, and this wouldn't be his first go-around with Marvel, given that he voiced Magneto in X-Men: Evolution about twenty years ago. Hoping he can bring some of that vocal energy to T'Challa/Black Panther, and I'll admit . . . the rendition of the Panther Habit here is pretty cool.
The spider is always on the hunt.
And apparently everything in Wakanda is originally built; no repeated graphics, terrain layouts, or anything. That's an opportunity to fix a lot of the problems we still have and provide the variety and options we're looking for.
I really hope this DLC is successful. I still think there's a quality game buried under all the disappointment, and if Wakanda can realize that potential there might be a future for this game.
"We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."
~ Black Panther.
So T'Challa hits in three days, along with a new Event, a new MCU skin for Cap (Avengers 1 costume), and a new character UI. Maybe a few other things I haven't heard of.
And so far I think all of it looks pretty gods damn good. Like, 10/10 for this game. T'Challa's combat looks fun, fluid, and true to character. Wakanda looks beautiful, and the new enemies and status effects look interesting, with some new tricks we haven't seen. The Panther skins are among the best the game has offered.
What does everyone else think, now that we've seen some content? Are we hyped, or are we thinking this just looks like more of the same? Is this gonna be a big step towards redeeming the game, or is this the last futile gasp before servers are shut down?
"We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."
~ Black Panther.
i think the core content is too shallow for even a successful dlc to really save
that said, maybe this dlc will change things drastically enough and lead to other big overhauls so that'd be nice but probably too optimistic