I think reflections are way too easy to do. You can just mash the button repeatedly and have atleast a 50/50 chance of reflecting anything thrown at you. Rockets are one thing, but people online are reflecting sniper bullets all the time. Furthermore, it would be understandable in cases where someone was just firing every time as soon as the weapon's reload time was over, because that would make the reflection timing very obvious, but people seem to be reflecting most often out of the blue.
One one occasion, this guy who didn't even know I was there and was fighting someone else just happened to turn around and hit reflect in time to reflect my shot and get a headshot (he admited as much over voice comm). In another game, one player actually apologized to another player for getting a cheap reflect headshot and anounced that it was totally pure luck, following about a complaint about how often people get lucky sniper reflects. I have had my sniper shots reflected back at me by bottom of the scoreboard n00bs mashing the L button on multiple occasions.
Reflecting a sniper bullet back into someone's face logically should be much harder than shooting someone in the face with a sniper rifle, and yet in UC2 getting a reflect headshot is far easier than actually aiming at someone's head, you don't actually have to aim at all and the timing is pretty loose. IMO, sniper reflects should only be a headshots if your timing is SUPER exact. Furthermore, this whole reflect business would be much less fishy and much more skill-intensive if you actualy had to aim your crosshairs where you wanted to reflect the shot.
Furthermore, I don't think doubling the damage on reflected shots is really necessary, as reflecting is allready powerfull enough. Obviously, Epic had to work hard to make sure melee weapons were not totally underpowered against ranged weapons, but I think they went overboard with certain features.
The 3rd person camera has a lot of problems in tight hallways and corners. Whenever you have the misforune of backing up too close to a wall, you must suffer through the camera trying (and failing) to keep itself trained on you without going through the wall. Often, both you, and sometimes your opponent, will just drop completely off the screen...it's extremely disorienting, and in situations where you are trying to keep away from an aggressive melee attacker, if you back into a wall, not only are you immobilized, but you're blinded as well, so you're completely ****ed.
Since the game doesn't allow you to go first person for melee combat, you just have to suffer through the camera problems of 3rd person durring melee. I have actually come to prefer the 3rd person camera for ranged combat as well, because the wider field of view makes predicting and leading opponents a bit easier, so most of the time I have to suffer through the camera glitches with the ranged weapons as well. I may try to get in the habit of switching to 1st in tight areas, but it's difficult to remember in the heat of the moment, and the black button is not very well suited to using durring fast action either (atleast on the small controller). And, since melee combat is still about 50% of the game anyway, switching to 1st person is not going to solve all your problems, particularly since tight corridors are the most likely place to use melee weapons over ranged ones.
It also seems the camera problems have influenced map making as well. I would have liked to see more tight corridors in the maps, remiscient of UT99 and Quake III, but with the 3rd person camera as glitchy as it is in those areas, it is clearly a practical impossibility for UC2 maps. Most are big, open, and empty like UT2k4's Rankin.
Obviously, UC2 is the first real attempt at crossing the genres, so I don't think it's worth being too picky or critical about the design and how it compaires to other fighting games at this point. However, I would like to point out that in fighting games, character variation is not just about "light characters versus heavy characters" which Epic guy stresses so heavily in the XBM demo video. The biggest differenciation comes from individual techniques, fighting styles and moves. However, in UC2, the character's attacks are all the same, except for speed and power (range doesn't even seem to come into play). The main variation then comes to the "adrenaline moves" which are not moves or attacks so much as temporary stat boosts. Yes, they have attempted to provide a few adrenaline moves that actually fit the bill of special attacks; the "burst" moves like Anubis's energy burst and Szalor's blade whirl, and the projectile attacks like Szalor's poison and Lauren's Siphon. However, these are pretty cursory, and fit into a format (every adrenaline move is either a stat booster, a burster, or a projectile). Here some types of features which UC2's melee combat would have benefited from:
vertical attacks- the regular attacks in UC2 are all horizantal based- the character does a spin attack so it doesn't matter whether the opponent is in front, beside, or behind, they will still get hit. However, if they are above or below, they will not be hit. It would have been nice to have some uppercuts or overhead smashes to attack opponents jumping over you or standing on a step below you.
stright/stab attacks- attacks which don't sweep horizontally or vertically, but simply stab straight out to greater outward range
manuevering attacks- instead of a simple, straight dash in, you could have arpoaching attacks which dodge and weave in from an angle, or lead in with a roll to pass under high attacks
range attribute to weapons- right now, it seems like speed and power are the only variations to differen't characters' weapons. Range doesn't seem to come into play, but it should- characters with spears should have greater reach than characters with short swords, at the cost of speed or power.
These are just a few examples of how melee combat and character variation could be given more depth. Instead we'll just have to settle for every character having the same R, L, B, and jumping R and B attacks, with a set of cookie cutter adrenaline moves.
It's not that I hate UC2, I've actually been enjoying it lately, and I'm looking forward to the full version's release, but there are a large number of little things here and there that piss me off about it.
One one occasion, this guy who didn't even know I was there and was fighting someone else just happened to turn around and hit reflect in time to reflect my shot and get a headshot (he admited as much over voice comm). In another game, one player actually apologized to another player for getting a cheap reflect headshot and anounced that it was totally pure luck, following about a complaint about how often people get lucky sniper reflects. I have had my sniper shots reflected back at me by bottom of the scoreboard n00bs mashing the L button on multiple occasions.
Reflecting a sniper bullet back into someone's face logically should be much harder than shooting someone in the face with a sniper rifle, and yet in UC2 getting a reflect headshot is far easier than actually aiming at someone's head, you don't actually have to aim at all and the timing is pretty loose. IMO, sniper reflects should only be a headshots if your timing is SUPER exact. Furthermore, this whole reflect business would be much less fishy and much more skill-intensive if you actualy had to aim your crosshairs where you wanted to reflect the shot.
Furthermore, I don't think doubling the damage on reflected shots is really necessary, as reflecting is allready powerfull enough. Obviously, Epic had to work hard to make sure melee weapons were not totally underpowered against ranged weapons, but I think they went overboard with certain features.
The 3rd person camera has a lot of problems in tight hallways and corners. Whenever you have the misforune of backing up too close to a wall, you must suffer through the camera trying (and failing) to keep itself trained on you without going through the wall. Often, both you, and sometimes your opponent, will just drop completely off the screen...it's extremely disorienting, and in situations where you are trying to keep away from an aggressive melee attacker, if you back into a wall, not only are you immobilized, but you're blinded as well, so you're completely ****ed.
Since the game doesn't allow you to go first person for melee combat, you just have to suffer through the camera problems of 3rd person durring melee. I have actually come to prefer the 3rd person camera for ranged combat as well, because the wider field of view makes predicting and leading opponents a bit easier, so most of the time I have to suffer through the camera glitches with the ranged weapons as well. I may try to get in the habit of switching to 1st in tight areas, but it's difficult to remember in the heat of the moment, and the black button is not very well suited to using durring fast action either (atleast on the small controller). And, since melee combat is still about 50% of the game anyway, switching to 1st person is not going to solve all your problems, particularly since tight corridors are the most likely place to use melee weapons over ranged ones.
It also seems the camera problems have influenced map making as well. I would have liked to see more tight corridors in the maps, remiscient of UT99 and Quake III, but with the 3rd person camera as glitchy as it is in those areas, it is clearly a practical impossibility for UC2 maps. Most are big, open, and empty like UT2k4's Rankin.
Well, I think it's worth pointing out, that as far as fighting games go, Mortal Kombat is not exactly the pillar of accomplishment in the genre. I love fighting games, and like the idea of crossing over the genres, but Mortal Kombat has always been about flashy gimmicks and gore rather than depth of combat. Epic would be much better served to follow the examples of Street Fighter or Soul Calibur, and when they mention Mortal Kombat, it makes me uneasy about whether they really understand what fighting games are about.Sir_Brizz said:
Obviously, UC2 is the first real attempt at crossing the genres, so I don't think it's worth being too picky or critical about the design and how it compaires to other fighting games at this point. However, I would like to point out that in fighting games, character variation is not just about "light characters versus heavy characters" which Epic guy stresses so heavily in the XBM demo video. The biggest differenciation comes from individual techniques, fighting styles and moves. However, in UC2, the character's attacks are all the same, except for speed and power (range doesn't even seem to come into play). The main variation then comes to the "adrenaline moves" which are not moves or attacks so much as temporary stat boosts. Yes, they have attempted to provide a few adrenaline moves that actually fit the bill of special attacks; the "burst" moves like Anubis's energy burst and Szalor's blade whirl, and the projectile attacks like Szalor's poison and Lauren's Siphon. However, these are pretty cursory, and fit into a format (every adrenaline move is either a stat booster, a burster, or a projectile). Here some types of features which UC2's melee combat would have benefited from:
vertical attacks- the regular attacks in UC2 are all horizantal based- the character does a spin attack so it doesn't matter whether the opponent is in front, beside, or behind, they will still get hit. However, if they are above or below, they will not be hit. It would have been nice to have some uppercuts or overhead smashes to attack opponents jumping over you or standing on a step below you.
stright/stab attacks- attacks which don't sweep horizontally or vertically, but simply stab straight out to greater outward range
manuevering attacks- instead of a simple, straight dash in, you could have arpoaching attacks which dodge and weave in from an angle, or lead in with a roll to pass under high attacks
range attribute to weapons- right now, it seems like speed and power are the only variations to differen't characters' weapons. Range doesn't seem to come into play, but it should- characters with spears should have greater reach than characters with short swords, at the cost of speed or power.
These are just a few examples of how melee combat and character variation could be given more depth. Instead we'll just have to settle for every character having the same R, L, B, and jumping R and B attacks, with a set of cookie cutter adrenaline moves.
It's not that I hate UC2, I've actually been enjoying it lately, and I'm looking forward to the full version's release, but there are a large number of little things here and there that piss me off about it.
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A bit too much to remember initially for most console players, though for those that do persist, it will be ultra-cool and provide endless replayability. And fortunately, although there's so much to remember, every one of those features is damn cool and the game seems very nicely polished. Damn satisfying slicing someone up, and the animations rock. Will definately be fun in multiplayer, can't wait to play more.
