thatdemoguy
FIRST PERSON/FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS
I need some help folks.
Well, you see, there are three, count them THREE big time AAA titles vying for my hard earned American dollars. Each of them has their merits, and each of them appeals to me for different reasons. The problem is that I can honestly only feasibly buy and play one of them, and if I can't figure out ONE, I probably won't get any of them.
Oh, and did I mention they all come out within a span of 3 weeks.
We have Battleborn, which released on May 3rd. DOOM, which chose the perfect date of Friday May 13th for its release. And then the month of May is closed out by Overwatch on May 23rd.
Yup, those are all shooters.
Oh, you thought I was talking about another AAA title? Maybe one with a certain treasure hunter, going off onto what is being sold as possibly his last adventure? Nah....Uncharted was a guaranteed purchase. That wasn't even a question.
Now as much as I would love to take this space and lambast everyone's favorite annual dose of first person bullets and twitch shooting, Call of Duty, I can't blame this one on good old COD. Even though that particular title has it's own woes and is currently going through an identity crisis where it can't decide if it wants to be Halo, Tribes, or something else. Maybe I will talk about that one later. But right now we are talking about the three aforementioned big budget shooters on the calendar. And unfortunately this predicament makes me wonder if we, as a gaming community are currently suffering from a bit of shooter saturation.
I'm not saying that there's not enough bullets and no-scoping fun to go around, but when three titles that are seemingly so similar come out in such close proximity to one another, especially when all three have multiplayer components that are huge selling points, it only proves to divide the community and could possibly hurt the sales and eventual longevity of each title. I say this because as noted, one of the main draws of these titles happens to be the online multiplayer, and most people who play these games play with their friends. Just going by the events of the last few two weeks, I can see that my own friends are all over the place. So now not only are we presented with the issue of having to figure out which platform everyone is going to be playing on, we now have to figure out which game everyone is going to be playing.
Let's start with Battleborn, the first to release, and quite honestly the one that I am the least interested in. There isn't necessarily anything that I personally see "wrong" with the game per se, I just don't see anything in it that appeals to me personally. I feel the game is lacking in true personality if that makes sense. Yes it has a large cast of characters, but none of them have the charm or seeming lasting appeal of Gearbox's previous monster FPS, Borderlands. This may seem to be an unfair comparison, but when you have to follow up one of the best genre bending titles of the last generation, you have some huge shoes to fill. Plus from all of the information that I have been gathering, this game leans very heavily in the favor of players who are able to take the time to hunt down prime items and gear, thus skewing the balance of the multiplayer. While I can appreciate that they haven't taken a "pay to win" approach, it's still very upsetting to know that when I am able to play, that I will always be behind the 8-ball because I simply don't have the time to grind. This is in no way a knock towards those players who are able to invest the time into loot hunting, which also naturally falls in line with being more skilled at the game, but this doesn't necessarily fit my own personal lifestyle. Plus being honest, if I am going to play a team based shooter with a cast of unique heroes....
....I would want to be playing Overwatch. From the moment that first trailer showed up with the initial character reveals, this game just had a crazy magnetic appeal and the characters oozed a particular charisma that made them stand above those of the characters shown in Battleborn. With each reveal of a character and their abilities that was shown, it was made easier to find a character that was not only appealing aesthetically, but also appeared to have a set of abilities that were dynamic, unique, and allowed each player to express themselves. Yes, it has been said that this is just another average game that is only getting any type of attention because it has the Blizzard name tied to it. Its also been said that the developers have gone out of their way to make sweeping social statements with their character designs. The typical gender roles and stereotypical body types have been thrown in the blender and what has come out is a beautiful mish-mash of characters that truly give each player, regardless of sex or race, someone they should be able to identify with. This isn't high on the reasons the game appeals to me, but I do commend their design choices and I feel it does go a long way for where I see gaming going in the future. This also seems to be the game the good majority of my friends seem to have gravitated towards, which is a definite bonus because I will have a built in squad to play with. I literally have friends that are expressing having serious withdrawals from not being able to play this game since the open beta ended. That's got to be a testament to it's addictive nature. My ONLY gripe with this game would be that as far as I know it is ONLY multiplayer, meaning it has absolutely ZERO single player campaign or narrative. As a person who still enjoys my alone with my games sometimes this is without a doubt a red mark against it. But that's where....
....DOOM steps in. I hate to say I saved the "best one for last", but I have to be 100% honest when I say that this is the one that is leading the pack for me. If only because the main draw of the game hasn't been multiplayer, but rather the single player campaign that the DOOM series has always been known for. It's moody, it's atmospheric, it's kinetic, it's raw. I am hopeful that it is a perfect melding of old school sensibilities with new age technology. In that hope, I don't just want a game that rests on and sells itself on familiarity though. This is where I am skeptical of this particular title. This isn't 1992 or even 2004, I don't want a simple retread of the tried and true DOOM "overrun facility, demons everywhere, hell comes home" story. But if that is inevitably the direction this is going to go, at least do enough to make the gameplay stand out and keep me wanting to play. Then make the multiplayer portion feel like dessert rather than the main course.
This is all so frustrating. Why can't I have a bottomless wallet and infinite time that allows me to play ALL THE GAMES? Alas, I have to make a choice. I may sleep on it for a few days, at least until I complete Uncharted 4, which definitely won't take me long if I can actually get a block of days off. But that's where you all step in. Which of these titles has piqued your own personal interests? Will you be playing one (or more) of them? Do you also feel that it may have been a bit of an error to release these all together? What do you all think I should do? Feel free to sound off in the comments here or hit me with a tweet at thatdemoguy.
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See you all next time!!