Let’s talk about why the game is not as good as you want it to be.

So, I’ve played 16 hours, leveled one class to rank 10, and, in general, earned account rank 28. I think my opinion should count now. I’m not some guy who played 0.5 hours and refunded the game after leaving a bad review. That’s the sign of a drive-by reviewer from the review-bombing swarm (not).

Ahem, so. Let’s compare it with games that already exist on the market, and then with what could have been borrowed from them so that the project could actually be called a real sequel, and not literally an add-on for the first game (if they had just released this content as an expansion to the first game for 20forthosewhoalreadyownitand30 for those who don’t, I think people would have been much more forgiving, but the greedy hand, well, whatever).

Let’s start with my favorite old-timer, Mass Effect 3. Oh, how much time was spent in that multiplayer and in attempts to clear Platinum with randoms, mmm, I’d love to jump into crowds of geth on a Vanguard right now. Why not MEA? Well, I played it when its life cycle was already ending and didn’t get the proper experience, and the addition of vertical movement added more chaos to the gameplay than tactics, so, yeah, it didn’t click with me. “I got distracted.”

Basically, there you had the same horde mode with increasing difficulty, with stronger and more numerous enemies, but with lots of maps and, most importantly, every few waves there were specific objectives that forced us to move around the map instead of sitting in one place for all 10 waves. That’s exactly what this horde mode is missing. Objectives within sessions and more varied map design — not visually, but structurally.

My second pair of beloved session-based games are DarkTide and Vermintide 2 (I admit I haven’t played the first one). And, well, we all know they have hordes too. Yes, basically there we are also constantly repeating tasks, but the enemy composition keeps changing and there are different conditions (here that’s handled by cards, so it’s roughly the same), but the real spice is unexpected hordes — not a scripted moment where you just have to walk into a corridor and then out of it so the script triggers and you can simply stand in the doorway and mow them down with lead, but actual surprise enemy spawns. I don’t know about you, but by the second playthrough of a level you already literally know all the scripted fight setups, and that’s not exactly exciting.

Though I think right now the game is completely unprepared for such events, because every level is basically a corridor with no tactical flavor, and your job is just to hold some corner for efficient play.

But we’re talking about what could have been in the game, not what we have. I don’t see the point in comparing it with HD2 or SM2 — the concept of HD2 and AFE2 is too different, and although SM2 is somewhat similar, there the levels are closer to DarkTide or Vermintide: more open, more maneuverable, with periodic random hordes or encounters.

I’m not saying it’s a bad game. It’s the same as the first part, and that’s the bad thing — we didn’t get any evolution of the concept.

For example, they could have taken a note from Dark Descent, with well-designed semi-open levels and objectives within them. Even if, in addition to the main story, there were generic side tasks during each session, it would have been a much more interesting experience.

And of course, each session could have had routes generated differently, or the player could have been given a choice: spend time and go into some building for the same loot boxes with skins as now. Or, for example, give two routes where one is fast but dangerous and maybe requires loudly breaching a door, while the other is longer but safer. There are tons of ideas.

But this project doesn’t have them, and that’s sad.

I don’t know whether the goal was just to squeeze more money out of fans by following the Miyazaki route and making a second game out of the same assets, or whether the publisher pushed for it, but what we have is basically a project with about 20 hours of content, and only the true builders who love numbers will stick around in it.

PS Blame GPT for the translation, but I hope he translated my text as accurately as possible.