So, there was this little release back in Summoner Wars original run called Alliances. It was an interesting big box packed full of goodies and surprises. The concept behind it was the various game’s factions paired up like an elementary school’s Valentine’s Day social and then awkwardly stepped on each other’s toes at the evening dance while realizing with sinking despair they had nothing in common.
No doubt they hung out with each other afterwards regardless of this fact.
It was a fascinating little project, however, as it created interesting thematic and mechanical mashups. The decks featured some of the most complicated rules and some of the most creative ideas. But were they good?
Well, that’s a different story.
Alliances came out near the end of Summoner Wars life cycle and so the designers had a better eye for what was strong and what was not. Alliances thus… struggled with trying to present interesting, innovative and compelling decks that did not tip the balance for those that had come before and were still dominating the discussion amongst the enthusiast community. Which is to say the decks were hobbled in their design to make sure that their parent factions wouldn’t be grossly unbalanced from their release.
As such, the mashups of the generally considered weaker factions were better than those that were formed from the originals considered powerful.
Which led us to the Tundra Guild.
I hate the Tundra Guild. Frothingly so.
And here we have the Tundra Guild returned.
Don’t be fooled by Plaid Hat’s marketing speak. The Polar Dwarves are not the first new faction. They’re those disgraced little snow midgets trying to sneak into the club with some fresh fake IDs. You thought no one would notice? Ha! We notice. And we’re keeping a close eye on you.
What an absolute unit. She looks standard enough but boy is her power so well constructed around her deck.
I’ve been skeptical of Svara and her little frostbitten fleas since they first previewed. And now, getting my grubby little hands on them I am proud to proclaim…
… well, I must admit that they aren’t half-bad. I so desperately wanted to hate them. But, dare I say, they’re actually quite good. And the more I play them the more I like them. Are they strong? I actually think they are. There’s a fair bit of layers beneath this ice. They’ve also got their own unique tempo compared to the other factions.
Furthermore, they absolutely abuse the new Build Phase and I love them for it.
My initial impression of the faction was in the gutter due to my preconceived bias. But I think they’re the third strongest in the box. Perhaps, with some time, I may even consider them the second? And hey, at this rate, they could be the best deck by the end of the year!
So what makes Svara stand tall amongst giants?
It’s certainly not her stock standard stats. Her ability is further unremarkable on first blush. Pushing around gates like some frigid, battlefield Sisyphos.
Granted, this is some mild spoilers, but her ability is meant to address the weakness of her slow cursed common yet to be previewed. However, shuffling around gates isn’t necessarily a terrible idea. You can’t really talk about Svara without getting a little into the weeds about the new Build Phase so, I suppose, let’s get into it.
Knee-high walls in gaming are getting out of control
The original Summoner Wars had the infamous walls that rather dominated the discussion and tactics of its release. These 10 health absolute units could only be placed on your side of the board and, for the most part, once down they never moved. You only had three of them, giving the tantalizing prospect of smashing all your enemy’s walls and leaving them unable to summon anything for the rest of the game.
Course, you didn’t, because 30 health worth of attacks in the last game where health pools were tiny and attacks were off the chart meant that you never really had a chance to swing for the fences when it was always better to be eating our opponent’s forces for lunch and preparing to have your champions duke it out in the mid or late game.
But here, in new Summoner Wars, things are different. For one, your bonus gates are half the health now. But you have an extra one to compensate. Furthermore, gates can be placed anywhere so long as they’re adjacent to your summoner (as well as the back three rows of your board). This means you can get aggressive summoning points rather handily on your enemy’s side which is a terrific source of pressure.
Svara, naturally, has these same capabilities. But even more than that, she can drag her gates with her. So any gate dropped early for funnelling or to clear your hand can eventually migrate like the ancient glaciers to your opponent’s side. And there’s really no better way to block an enemy’s summoning point than parking your own gate right in front of it.
Svara draws this weird ice curtain with her cold war, shrinking your opponent’s movement options as the game drags on. Naturally, “just shoot the gates” is a reasonable suggestion. Except it’s hard to do when feral bears are ripping your face off at the same time.
Look, it’s our old friend from the Tundra Orcs. Only it’s leashed to being close to your summoner but can now be your regular gates as well as Svara’s other toys!
Not to mention Svara has the amazing Parapet. This is a stupid waist high wall of the shooting genre fame. It won’t let you summon from it but you can fire over it while your opponent is absolutely baffled that you disappear from sight mere moments after lobbing some snowballs in their face. It doesn’t just provide your units a shifting shield of five health – it actually shuts down lanes as no one wants to leave their units vulnerable to the parapets’ defenders while they try to blow up the stupid thing.
Then, to lend Svara a hand with her gate rolling, she has Glacial Shift. Once again, we’ll get into how this event helps your little construct common later but even having it for repositioning all your gates and parapets is pretty damn helpful. And while I’m starting to find myself burning gates in other decks for the magic, you can be assured Svara is going to play all three of hers.
Ice Ram is fun. Vital? No. Overwhelming? Not really. You can win handily without ever using it. But is that really a victory?
And with all these structures littering the field, Ice Ram becomes such a lovely little tool.
This is worthy of Svara’s epic slot. The dream, of course, is to pair Ice Ram with Glacial Shift to just come crashing into your enemy’s face with all your buildings. However, I find even getting 1 or 2 assured damage and some reshuffling of enemy units to be worth it. Svara has some decent tricks in her event suite that she isn’t reliant on to secure an advantage. They’re merely additional threats that may, or may not, come out and this keeps your opponent on their toes.
Finally, if those poor fools do think “Man, these ice gates and walls really are ruining my day, why don’t I just kill them?” Svara has Ice Repair to make them regret having this entirely justified and rational thought. This is, perhaps, the best healing card we’ll see. Costless, two health across the entire battlefield is probably not going to be replicated for anyone else. And I’m not mad about it either.
Perhaps the best healing card in the game. Which is funny, because there’s actually a healing faction and Svara ain’t it.
And this is what I find beautiful about Svara. She’s got an excellent suite of event cards that you don’t need to hold for the best moment. On the other hand, you can carry one or two for an opportune moment and still get a good payoff for it. I never really find myself saving a card for “just the right moment.” I can squeeze some value from her events at any point.
So, I finished my NaNo! Woot! An entire novel done in a month and do I feel accomplished. Alas, it did take up a lot of my time and motivation, so I was not able to track progress in pretty much everything else in my life. So that’s unfortunate. But I’m in full celebratory mode for the moment so I can’t be bothered to be fussed about it!
I was doing a rather in depth look at the reboot of Summoner Wars. Except, as it turns out, my project came to a conclusion just as access to the beta came about! So there goes all my wild speculation! Now I can get some actual experience with the game which now makes it poorly based speculation!
For those who are only mildly interested, and to give myself a little more time to get familiar with the decks against things that aren’t boneheaded AI, I’m going to do a quick summary of my thoughts for each of the decks releasing in August. Don’t fear, I still plan on doing deep dives on the others. Largely because I don’t have much else to share on the blog currently.
So let’s get into the quick faction breakdowns!
We’ll begin with the factions already covered more in depth in my April reviews. First up are the Breakers. Who I will no doubt misname as the Benders. These mistakes happen with IP updates, I’m certain. Just bear with me.
Tacullu
Tacullu got a face lift but that has not dampened her power. He was a terror in 1.0. And I think she’s a terror in 2.0 as well. She’s got a rather economic deck packed full of powerful ranged units. With the odds to hit change, however, her lack of melee options is now significant. To compensate, she simply has a large store of dice to throw. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got bad accuracy if you and your friends are all packing uzis.
All rights and images reserved to Plaid Hat Games who make this lovely game that I lovingly love.
More important, however, is that Tacullu still retains her control over the battlefield. I was pretty cold on Mind Control when I first previewed it but now that I’ve seen the other factions, it’s a very good epic event. Its usefulness, however, is matchup dependent and I think this will add to making the Breakers a more difficult faction to master though they do allow a lot of mistakes as well.
They’d be what you’d call a high floor and high ceiling faction, I suppose. However, their tricks have few counters from what I’ve seen. Positioning was always important in Summoner Wars and now with commons sticking around longer, it’s more important than ever. Tacullu has unfettered control over where units will go and how you can block out her attacks. With all her pushing of allies and enemies, expanded movement on her own soldiers and limited movement on her foes, it’s very hard to keep her out. She can assassinate, she can trade with her high base attack and she has several pressure release valves if the opponent gets on her too strong.
And that’s not even getting into a discussion of the economic advantages you can squeeze out with Mind Capture.
Overall, she’s probably one of my favourite factions so far and I think we’ll be seeing a lot of her in the future.
Sneeks
On the flip side, we have poor Sneeks.
The Cave Goblins certainly capture the feeling of a descending horde of gnawing rats. Unfortunately, I don’t think they do well against a field littered with giant cats.
Sneeks offers some fun tactical consideration and planning with Sly, however. And it’s great not having to be concerned about your economy since most of your units and champions are free. However, their low health and attack make them rather tricky to wield effectively. I think the key to success with the Cave Goblins will come down to effective use of their fairly respectable suite of events.
However, when one of your strongest units has a measly 1 health, things are a bit tricky to squeeze out a victory.
I will say, however, that Sneeks has the best chance of benefiting from the expansion of the game. Almost all of combo synergies revolve around 0 cost units which are common enough across factions that I think he’ll have a rather expansive pool after all is said and done to make him a tricky deck to face.
Does that compensate for his poorer base deck? Well, I’m not one to judge.
Abua Shi
Kait’s favourite faction has returned with a much more theme fitting name as the Savannah Elves.
They feel more like alliance faction between the shadow and jungle elves from Summoner Wars 1.0. Which is weird because mechanically they’re the most similar to the Deep Benders.
Oh well!
A base mechanic in Summoner Wars 2.0 is the boosting mechanic and the Savannah Elves are here to showcase it on release. They are, however, still focussed on large wild animals but this time they need a little tender loving care to become the big scary beasts from before. All of their units interact with boosting in one way or another. Either they get stronger from boost tokens or they help give boost tokens to their friends.
On the flip side, everything is expensive. Course, given enough time, the Savannah Elves can turn their regular commons into cheap champions in terms of strength and health so it feels warranted. However, they also feel rather slow. Losing their investments in time and events also feels rather poor, especially if you can’t get decent trades for them either.
I personally find them in this weird middle zone. They’re capable of rather surprisingly powerful turns off a summon or two combined with some token shifting and events. But in between these bursts of power, they struggle to keep up with their opponents.
They’re a tricky lot to pin down but I’m not certain their tricks are as potent as the Breakers so familiarity will leash their effectiveness.
Which, I guess, is accurate to their 1.0 incarnation. I feel they’re more effective than the Cave Goblins but have struggled to get them rolling compared to the others.
Svara
I’ve been taken aback by the Polar Dwarves. Yes, they’ve been touted as Summoner Wars 2.0’s first new faction. But let’s not kid ourselves. Beneath that sheet is Old Man Hogar and we don’t really need the Mystery Machine gang to figure this one out.
I won’t ever hide my disappointment with the Tundra Guild from the alliances box. When Svara appeared, I was expecting… well… more disappointment.
Even my first impressions were pretty low. I’m coming around to the idea that this may have simply been biased.
I… kind of like Svara. I think she’s pretty strong. Her whole deck revolves around structures which have had a rather tumultuous history in Plaid Hat Games. And this might be the first time they’ve actually done them well.
She’s a defensive deck that sports a very powerful punch. I originally thought she’d be very combo event based but I think those are just some cute tricks she can do to catch her opponent off guard rather than relying on Glacial Shift and Ice Ram shenanigans. Ice Mages pack a huge and cheap punch. And the massive health pools are actually difficult for her enemies to take down. Ice Golems are terrifying with the sluggishness hardly a brake on their strength. Shifting structures is simple enough with Svara already but that they can be summoned like structures and serve as mini gates makes them hard to avoid.
And if you’re ever worried that their attack is too weak, just toss some Ice Smiths on them to make the problem go away. If that’s not enough, you’ve got some Bear Cavalry in the back pocket.
Svara’s biggest weakness is that she has possibly one of the worst champions in the game. But she also has some decent ones as well so it’s hard to be chuffed. This is a very strong deck that is slowly growing in my evaluations.
Sera Eldwyn
Sera is back with a vengeance baby! Tired of being considered one of the worst factions, the new and improved Summoner Wars 2.0 Vanguards are insane.
Absolutely nuts.
I will say, I like the mechanical similarities she shares with Ret-Talus. It really does feel like an opposite sides of the same coin sort of relationship. They both pull into their discard for units and such, but Sera’s has a rather impressive ceiling to it. It comes with a cost, however, which makes her deck exciting.
In order to recycle your units and have access to infinite magic, Sera Eldwyn must be on the frontlines attacking enemies. It puts her in a precarious position which is good because her deck has a phenomenal potential for crushing any game that gets into the late game. To get there, however, she has a very rocky early and mid game to contend with. Her units are expensive and, honestly, a little weak. Their cost is more of an investment, however, since you can play six, seven or more Citadel Knights in one game.
Which does feel oppressive. Granted, you’ve got to keep something alive on the board so there is some counterplay.
She’s a tricky one to navigate, I feel but has the punch to really be effective if done well.
Ret-Talus
Summoner Wars 2.0 is really a story about redemption.
Barring the Breakers, all that was dusty and old is new and shiny. Ret-Talus had a rather poor reputation which was only ever polished up in the last days of Summoner Wars 1.0.
This time, however, he’s coming out of the gate swinging.
And what he’s swinging are noodles.
Sorry, I’m not going to make this about his art. Ret-Talus is a rather powerful, exciting, combo-oriented deck all about murder, death and unlimited power. Power.
Power.
Unlimited power.
Sorry, I’m still just blown away by how good this deck is. The basics are simple. Stuff dies, you get stronger. But it gets better. See, killing stuff is necessary to win the game, so your opponent rebuffing your assaults works in your favour. And to rebuff your assaults, it leaves units for you to kill to get stronger. And you really don’t care about your stuff dying because you just bring it back for the low, low price of a little health. Oh, are you near death? Just heal up after a massive turn of delicious massacre and repeat the whole process again.
That there’s a bunch of ways to force the sacrifice of your units, which then makes all your other units stronger, is simply gravy. You’ll have these board states where one unit dies and it causes a whole cascade of effects that ultimately result in your enemy dying.
It’s fantastic and I’d say Ret-Talus is about on par with Tacullu as the deck to beat.
Now, I may think there’s a ranking of power between these decks, but I do want to emphasize that the balance of Summoner Wars 2.0 is a lot better. I think all the decks are much closer in effectiveness. You’ll probably notice the imbalances when you’re playing the extremes rather than anywhere else. And even then, the Breakers can lose to the Cave Goblins. Kait’s done it in the demo already. Which is great news if you’re a sucker for underdog factions. It’s also exciting since it makes predicting what’s good or how matchups will shake out rather murky.
I’m excited to really crack this nut open and I’m so happy to see Summoner Wars returned to form having clearly learned all the lessons of the past and much improved because of it.
Summoner Wars and all rights and images that pertain to it are a product of Plaid Hat Games.
Last but not least for our second Summoner Wars 2.0 faction preview is the head honcho of the Benders herself, Tacullu. And might I say, she’s never looked better. Because she’s a he now. And everyone loves a nice set of boobs, right?
I’m not certain it’s going to be possible to discuss this first set of factions without referencing the old Summoner Wars games. Partly, Plaid Hat brought this on themselves by filling the first release with a whole bunch of old factions. And since they all appear to be a refinement of their prior incarnations, a little context feels necessary.
I mentioned before how Tacullu in the original was incredibly oppressive to play against. I don’t think he was the best summoner in the game but he was certainly a strong one. However, he was pretty miserable to play against. This lay in a one-two combo of his summoner ability and his events (though his commons certainly weren’t helping much there either). He bore the dreaded Magic Drain event, which was a pretty hefty economic swing that also encouraged passive play and murdering your own units. He also had Mind Control, which let him steal commons that tread onto his side of the battlefield. Mimic let him snipe your events from your hand.
And then there was Counter Summon as his summoner ability.
Now, Mind Control and Counter Summon both required magic on their part. Which meant, once again, Tacullu was best served by burning all his resources so he could steal or dispel yours. Which meant that he wanted to sit back in a safe location to build up those resources while forcing your units to come in through precarious attack lanes that would allow him to steal or kill any force that came at him. Champions could easily be Counter Summoned if they were cheap or strong. And powerful commons gave him the double swing of you losing the unit and magic spent on it while he gained it.
You would think the best tactic would then be to flood his board with cheap, weak units that weren’t ideal to steal. But then we get back to his commons which were, on average, slightly ahead of the curve for slightly less than standard price. So it wasn’t a great exchange either.
It’s with these issues in mind that I think we need to examine Tacullu 2.
If you’re interested in Summoner Wars, you can always preorder the game from Plaid Hat Games website. If they receive enough preorders/subscriptions then we might get some free cards to go with it!
First thing’s first. Tacullu launches with arguably the best stat line of the first six summoners. This is a surprise, to be sure. It’s a bit of a dangerous line to walk, as well. I believe the reason she has 13 health and 3 range strength is because she’s stolen old Summoner Wars Gulldune’s Mind Capture ability. Frankly, this is a better way to deal with permanent mind control. I really didn’t like Gulldune and considered him one of the Bender’s worst champions. Ironically, his ability on Tacullu is way better.
First, you have access to Mind Capture from the first turn. Part of Gulldune’s issue was that you couldn’t rely on getting the champion out when you needed him. Either you could draw him in your opening hand when you had no magic, stuffing your draw if you really wanted to save. Or, worse, you never draw him because he’s in the bottom of your deck. Even with A Hero is Born in the deck, he was too unreliable to build your strategy around and too inconsistent to use opportunistically. His 2 range attack ran a decent risk of missing altogether. Furthermore, you could only really reliably capture units that had almost no health, basically feeding that magic back to your opponent when your turn ended. He was essentially best for getting those last few dice on a summoner hiding behind his own units which is a pretty niche role to fill.
Tacullu, however, always gets a benefit from Mind Capture.
Sure, you are still losing the magic from outright killing the unit so you don’t want to use it willy nilly. And yes, the units are less apt to immediately snag you the victory as you’re probably capturing those that are on your side of the board and threatening you. But that’s the beauty of having the ability on your summoner. It will always be there regardless of what best use of the ability arises. The only time you’ll miss great opportunities is if Tacullu is out of position or she misses.
And I think that’s where the higher strength and health comes in. I get the feeling Plaid Hat wants Tacullu to be a more aggressive summoner, pushing forth with her mind controlled units to overwhelm her opponent with the brainwashed masses. She has the strength to threaten most commons on her own and the health pool to afford a few reticent dice rolls.
Will that be how Tacullu ends up being played?
Ehhh… I’m skeptical. I think she will still work best passive: let enemies trickle in, capture choice targets and methodically pull apart the enemy’s plans and economy. But the option for aggression is there, which is to her benefit. Especially since, once again, she doesn’t really come with anything that forces uncooperative enemies to her.
This brings me to her epic event Mind Control.
This event has been incredibly reworked. And, I think it works best as an offensive tool. Which, ironically, makes it arguably her weakest event in the deck.
For 0 magic, you can take control of all champions and commons within 2 spaces of Tacullu. This is incredibly powerful. Except it’s subject to the regular rules of the game. Primarily, this means that you can only move and attack with three units. And since you’re apt to have your own out, getting a hold of a huge army for a single turn is a lot less useful. Furthermore, you don’t get magic for killing your own units. So while you’ll probably play this as a pressure valve to turn the enemy’s troops against each other, you won’t be getting anything for your trouble. Especially since it’s played during the Summon Phase so you’re at the mercy of your opponent’s movements for how effective it is.
And now Mind Control has to contend with Tacullu’s Mind Capture itself. Why take a common or champion for one round when you can have it permanently?
Ideally, you wouldn’t. Now, I can see this event getting higher priority if you need to push in against an entrenched foe. But between your Wind Mages and Archers, you’ll likely be applying enough ranged pressure that your enemy will want to come to you.
Also complementing this awkward “best as an offensive event but you’ll likely not be playing like that” event is Blast. With a rather mundane name, this event is anything but mundane. It’s a surprisingly flexible tool which, much like Mind Control, will likely really benefit from the discard pile changing to hidden information.
Blast can work defensively, unlike Mind Control, as you can use it to murder weak commons during the movement phase. And, unlike Mind Control, you can actually position to use it most effectively. This can allow one of your units to get through a blocking line to deliver some surprise damage upon your enemy. Or it can soften up a choice target for Mind Capture. Or it can just move a pesky unit out of the way so you can get in a Wind Archer strike. This flexibility certainly warrants its 1 magic cost. And yet, ironically this cost generally prohibits me from using it all that often.
I find Wind Mages generally address my movement needs most of the time while also adding another body to the board and 2 strength range to boot. So, it’s not bad, I just find it’s redundant most of the time. Certainly not something I’d be keeping in my hand.
I think there’s a missed opportunity for the insides of Tacullu’s sleeves here. Some sort of juxtaposition from the otherwise cheery expression and unassuming pose.
Tacullu’s third event is the peculiar Hypnotic Call. This card is both powerful and limited. Being able to target commons and champions anywhere on the board is fantastic. Being limited in where you can move them is less ideal. It’s a good balance but moves Call into a more niche roll. Perhaps its most consistent use is providing Tacullu that extra strength on attacking that unit, helping to secure a Mind Capture on a valuable enemy with a bit more health. More rarely, you can move a blocker out of the way for a Wind Archer. You can even use it on your own units, though the movement restriction makes it a bit unwieldy to use it in that context.
Finally, we come to what I consider Tacullu’s best event. Perplexing Tempest is fantastic because it actually really helps Tacullu’s defensive game. Possibly more than her offensive though it would certainly be of benefit there too. Reducing the enemy’s movement by 1 can halt an advance or guard against a fresh defence. And getting both two turns in a row can really swing a game as it lets you just eviscerate your opponent with multiple Mind Captures and powerful ranged barrages. And the best part, there’s really no point in the game when it won’t be good. So you can play it immediately upon drawing and almost always benefit.
So it’s not that Tacullu’s events aren’t bad. It’s just that her units are better and the events don’t compliment them as well. I mentioned that Sneeks is an event driven summoner who really revolves his strategies around their timely play. With Tacullu, however, I think you’re more apt to be building them for magic. They’re just a little too restricted. They’re a little too narrow in focus. And their payout simply doesn’t justify holding them when you could be drawing and paying for your champions.
Now, certainly as the end game begins to crystalize, you might be able to see where some might be determining factors. A timely Blast in the last few rounds can be vital. But Tacullu largely wants to play reserved. Perhaps, if a Deep Dwarf faction releases or something else in the big box shows some surprises, these will become much stronger. But for now, they’ll mostly be filling up my magic bar.
Regardless, I’m going to make a bold prediction and say that Tacullu will be one of the strongest summoners out of the box. Perhaps one of the strongest in the game for a long time to come.
Summoner Wars and all rights and images that pertain to it are a product of Plaid Hat Games.
The new Summoner Wars Benders remind me very much of the old standard for a faction. They have several strong commons which they’ll play while playing defensive on the board while they build up a large pile of magic to summon powerful champions to seal out the game. I’m not sure if this tactic will shake out to be the best, but it appears that it’s Tacullu’s initial gameplan.
Thus, her suite of champions should really encapsulate that strategy with some really powerful cards. And… it’s not too far off the mark. Certainly, they’re more intimidating than Sneeks but Sneeks also will likely have some of the thinnest champions in the game.
But first, let’s address the elephant in the room.
If we were to judge cards based on the beard metric, Gwalark would certainly be ranked #1.
Gwalark returns to Summoner Wars as a core champion this time. However, much like his prior version, there’s a lot left to be desired with him. Certainly his improved strength is a boon and 3 more health helps to make him a bit tankier. But, and it’s a big but, he still leaves me wanting for something that costs 6 magic. I can grab three Wind Archers for his price and they have a greater strength and longer range than Gwalark. Mind Witches have equal strength for a sixth of the cost. Is 8 health enough to justify that large investment?
I’m not so certain. I think it’s got a decent chance of sticking around for a turn but for his cost, Gwalark better have a banger ability to make me want to really consider him.
And Levitation isn’t that ability.
It’s not bad, per se. It’s merely niche. Gwalark can bypass an opponent’s defences, passing over structures and units alike, to bring his 3 strength where needed. He can even grant this ability to nearby commons. And that’s pretty much the best case scenario for him. Soaring over your enemy’s blockers with an archer or two to try and deliver the finishing blow. However, he’s not packing the biggest punch to do it himself. And he’s in a deck that already has such great movement control that comes for a cheaper cost. Between events and Wind Mages, you can probably already disrupt their formation and sneak through for a fraction of the cost.
So Gwalark really shines if your opponent is fortified two units deep but still in range of a fly-by attack?
I’m just not feeling it.
In contrast to Gwalark, we have the return of Kalal. Originally, Kalal was… meh. Incredibly expensive, for the first Summoner Wars, she came a little hardier and much stronger than her peers. And, frankly, she’s at it again. Yes, she clocks in at a staggering 7 magic. But you’re getting a lot for that magic. Granted, over Gwalark, you have only an additional strength. But strength is good. Plus, you get her greater push. Wind Mages are fantastic for clearing blockers or pushing enemies into archer firing lanes and Kalal can do this at a greater range giving you even more power in pushing your opponent around.
I still find it weird to have Bender units with a decent chunk of health to them.
And she’s immovable herself. So she’s a reliable blocker. At least for the moment. We’ll have to see how many force effects get printed. But thankfully Steadfast is more of a perk than an important component of her toolkit. Do I think she’s worth the cost? Yes, and largely because she’ll outlast Gwalark. Gwalark’s issue is to play him effectively, you’ll be throwing him into the lion’s den. Kalal, however, can be put to the board and protected, extending the presence of her 4 strength while enabling the rest of your forces. It’s a slower, grinding style of play but seeing that the defensive advantage hasn’t been eliminated from the game, I think Kalal fits far easier into the Bender strategy.
Lastly, we have Gulldune. And boy is he different.
I mean, he had to be considering that Tacullu stole his identity.
New Gulldune is a bit of an oddity in the Bender lineup since he’s their only melee option. This means that the Benders are a little less accurate than average. It also means that strength stats are even more valuable for him since each die is more likely to hit. Furthermore, Gulldune stole the best champion’s ability from old Summoner Wars!
I’ll close out yet another preview post on praising the improvement in the art direction. Praise is just as crucial feedback as criticism.
So yes, 4 melee is great. And sure, 6 health is a little unimpressive for a melee champion. But when you’re getting Telepathic Command and the ability to give your high strength commons an additional attack each turn, you’ll be glad you made the investment. In comparison to the old version, tying Telepathic Command to 3 spaces from a melee attack against an enemy does neuter some of its power. Gulldune is going to be putting himself in danger. Your opponent will prioritize him when he drops to the field. But on the other hand, he’ll probably assist in blowing up anything that was on the board when he drops. So he’ll ruin pressuring champions, forward gates or wiping out a massive weenie rush. He’ll likely give you plenty of opportunities to reverse the momentum of a game in your favour.
And goodness, does he look good.
So, as a Bender, I’ll be holding onto a champion. Maybe two. And I’ll wait to get that magic pile built up to throw them down. Kalal is great for bolstering your board state with a powerful artillery piece or building pressure against a defensive opponent. Gulldune is fantastic for power plays, either sealing a victory or eliminating your opponent’s present threats.
Well here we are with more Summoner Wars previews. Gosh, how I’d missed this game giving me easy blogging content. We’ll be looking at the new, improved, remodeled and ready for action Breakers 2.0. Tacullu is back and has never looked better. Because she’s a girl now. And has boobs. Everyone loves boobs.
But seriously, I couldn’t be happier with the visual redesign of the breakers. I didn’t hate the original Summoner Wars envisioning of this weird, catsuit clad psychic lady faction but it was disappointing that these people were, ostensibly, the representation for an Eastern civilization and they had none of the flair. I wouldn’t mind seeing some recycling of that old design (updated of course) and, you know, we have Cloaks sitting there on the horizon. Considering the Cloaks originally were just dirty Benders, here’s a great opportunity to just shift those visual directions a little.
Summoner Wars and all rights and images that pertain to it are a product of Plaid Hat Games.
Anyway, I still don’t like the style even if I’m over the moon with the direction. I’ll take my wins where I can get them. But we’ll save art comments for the units themselves. Let’s take a look at what we’re getting. We’ll try things a little differently and begin with the factions commons this time.
New Benders look like they pull a lot of inspiration from the Benders second summoner Shiva. And that couldn’t make me any more happier. First original Tacullu was a nightmare. Sure, he was a top deck but his gameplay was so awful. I’m usually one for “control” style decks in card games. But Tacullu epitomized the stalemate strategies that bogged old Summoner Wars down. He punished opponents for crossing into his side of the board and, thus, opponents were better of sitting and waiting for him to come to them. Except, there was no reason for him to go to them (in most cases) so you just had two players staring at each other and playing chicken.
It was awful.
I’m sure there’s lots of wind jokes I could make. I went with none of them.
Original Tacullu was somewhat fixed with the Owl Gryphon even if, to this day, I think the champion is hot garbage. Shiva, however, took the idea of control and made it less oppressive on the enemy. Instead of outright stealing units, Shiva pushed and pulled them, making it hard for the enemy to get where they needed to be.
And for our first new Summoner Wars Bender unit we have the Wind Mage. The Wind Mage will bring back memories of the Controller. And, it some ways, it’s not as good. Telekinetic Blast obviously has greater application, triggering move abilities and targeting summoners alike, but Push has an advantage over it. You can Push without requiring an attack, so no more weird hitting your own gates or units to get that one card you really need it to be.
But there’s more to the Wind Mage that makes it stand out. I mean, first it has 3 health which makes it infinitely more survivable than the Controller. And with an equal strength to the old attack value too. All at the cost of 1 magic. That’s insane for stats but we’ll have to see other faction reveals before we can determine just how favourable this shakes out for the Wind Mage in the end.
Now, it could just be the limited matchup in the demo, but I find while the Wind Mage is good, I generally don’t rely on them too much. I want to keep one or two around or in reserve for getting some tricky pushes so my other units can get into position but overall they aren’t a priority summon for me.
That said, they partner extraordinarily well with the Deceiver.
Don’t be deceived by these ladies’ low attack value… that’s about all I can try to justify their unit name.
I cannot say how complete a re-imagining this unit is from original Summoner Wars. So I won’t bother. The new Deceiver was so successful at deception that we had no idea it was really a Guild Dwarf Defender in disguise.
Original Summoner Wars Benders were a faction known for being paper thin but hitting hard from a range. With a 4 health common at 1 magic, I don’t think this categorization is true anymore. Between that and Stupefy, Deceivers are very, very hardy. Turning special results into lower damage while the attacker is beside a Deceiver is an interesting way of pumping a unit’s defence. It gives any ranged attacker’s target the equivalent of the old Toughness ability. It also brings melee attacks down to a 4/6 probability of hitting. And the Engage ability means that their 1 strength attack is negligible.
You’re not really throwing dice with this unit. You’re putting Deceivers out as walls and forcing your enemy to smash their faces against them. They’ll want to throw their high strength units on the Deceiver as they’ll be more effective in bringing them down quickly. Thus, those precious attacks are directed away from your more fragile core pieces. And they can’t simply walk around because they take a damage each time they move past a Deceiver. And then you’ve got the Wind Mages that can force a unit away from the Deceiver for some automatic damage too. I think they’re fantastic but I’m not sure if that conclusion is biased from just how effective they are against the Cave Goblins in particular.
I feel like this was a weird matchup for the demo as I feel like the Benders have an advantage over Sneeks almost solely due to the Deceivers.
I love all these little visual flairs that bring the faction to life. You get a great visual sense of identity which is important to spruce up otherwise straightforward game mechanics.
Course, as I think about them some more, I’m not certain the probabilities of Stupefy are accurate. Whatever, this is a quick look, I’m not going to sit and do math for it. I suspect it might be even better than my initial impression though.
Next up is the Mind Witch and wow has she gotten better. A boost to strength from the original version seems to be uncommon. Plus, she got a magic discount! And her ability got even better!
Ok, the Mind Witch has lost the ability to mimic enemy champions and summoners. However, being able to target your own commons makes her far more reliable. Old witch was really matchup dependent but now you can ensure there are plenty of good targets for her to copy through your common choices. She can be an additional Deceiver, giving you four more (albeit much weaker versions) of those lovely tanks. She can be a surprise Wind Mage, getting your units that extra space you need to close out a game. And she can take anything good your opponent has kicking around the table. That she mimics after the summon phase really means there’s not a lot of options your opponent has to stop you.
Her inverted stats compared to the Wind Mage comes out more favourably too. There’s no getting around strength is better than health and I’m not sure what the breakpoint in health values are in this game yet to know if 3 health is on the line of usefulness or not.
And so far, the Benders are incredibly affordable on their common list.
Their last unit is their one expensive unit. Coming in at 2 magic is the Wind Archer. Two health is pretty fragile in this game but 4 strength is fantastic. That all of the Bender’s commons are ranged makes them a little less reliable in their attacks but this woman is almost like an improved Cloak Sniper from original Summoner Wars. Swift is great, making it hard to hide from her. And Far Shot, an ability I’ve long considered terrible, works much better in part thanks to Swift. Your opponent is going to really struggle to keep away from that 4 strength and, if they’re melee, it might be hard to punish the Archer thanks to her range.
Also, the artist for the game has done a fantastic job of making units easily distinguishable from each other – addressing a big complaint of mine from the original Summoner Wars game. Kudos!
She’s wonderful for trading enormously well with champions and commons alike. With that said, I’m less inclined to summon her if I draw her in the early game. Generally, I want to be building up my magic pile and the cheaper Bender commons are serviceable at the start. However by mid-game, she’s hard to pass on and in the late game she shines when your opponent is left with very few options to deal with her.
And has anyone else noticed how odd she holds her bow? No? Just me?
Overall, I’m blown away by how good the new Benders are. We’ve broken the Plaid Hat curse (where every faction released with at least one bad unit) as each of these units, at the very least, play different roles in improving the effectiveness of each other. My standouts are the Deceiver and Wind Archer for their plain effectiveness but I’m not disappointed to draw either Mind Witches or Wind Mages.
And looking at their symbols I’m starting to get a better grasp of these subfaction categories. Clearly wind is a faction, so any unit that will bear wind in its name will have that symbol. The eye is likely to be representative of Benders or perhaps Tacullu in particular as it looks suspiciously like the third eye on her mask and deals with more psychic-like capabilities. It’s interesting but we’ll have to wait for more releases to get confirmation on these suspicions.
We’re on the home stretch for the new, polished and shiny Cave Goblins for Summoner Wars 2.0. It appears that standard decks will be coming with a wider variety of commons. We’re up to four (from three). I assume this means we won’t be getting reinforcement decks. Course, if you’re playing this physically, it means that you’re limited to only four copies of your favourite common. Wait, let me double check that there’s a limit on deck building.
Ah, yes. Hard limit of four commons. Well, that’s something to keep in mind. There’s a forced variety. I think it won’t mean much if the game lives long enough to get a wide set of releases. And considering summoners have 3 pools to draw cards from, it should hopefully open up some variety in deck building.
Anyway, we’re here for gristle so let’s dive right in.
I must say, I’m not a huge fan of the card layout. I like that it’s easier to read but why does the unit strength value need to block so much of the art?
First up is the Horde Slinger. I’m assuming, from its name and perusing the rules, the designers are keeping their options open for making events that can boost Horde units and Slinger units separately. This is good as we saw later in Summoner Wars’ development cycle a need to offer some wider but focused buffs to certain units. The downside is, of course, naming is going to be woefully generic. Also, I probably won’t be able to get away with referring to cards by a shorter version of their name for very long either.
Let’s enjoy it while it lasts then!
Slingers are an opera helmet unit. Not sure what to read from this when looking at other examples of the same type of card. The Eater and Blarf share the same symbol. Maybe a focus on attack?
That said, this Slinger is a demonstration of how different Summoner Wars 2.0 is from 1.0. This little guy would have absolutely broken the original game. A strength 2 attack, 1 health for 0 magic? Absurd. Except now, health values have gone up so the 2 strength is probably more on par for what we’ll expect for little units. And that one health is as brittle as ever. In a game where units are designed to hopefully stick around for more than one turn, the Slinger stands out for not being “that guy.”
They will die and they will die by the droves.
Relentless, however, means you can throw these guys down as often as they come, however, as they will allow you to get more dice to the table without detracting from your 3 attackers a turn limit. And needless to say, they combo so well with Sneeks’ events. Obviously Sneak lets them reinforce better. Even having one unit beside their victim with Pile On will make their attack hit even harder. And, of course, Enrage the Horde is wonderful for them.
They’re decent but so flimsy. I’d love more than four in the deck. But, alas, we can’t always get what we want apparently.
That’s a really tiny axe he’s got there. I’m surprised a group that can have metal and leather saddles are still using bone and flint weapons.
Now for the Beast Rider.
This is quite a reimagining of the old card. The only costed common in Sneeks’ deck, the Beast Rider certainly makes a compelling reason for you to build magic. Units with charge are always a threat that you need to consider when positioning your summoner. Now, the charge distance has been reduced to 4 spaces but on the flip side, the Beast Rider gains a point of strength if it goes 3 or more spaces. A 4 strength attack may end up being pretty decent for 2 magic, especially if you consider that its melee and more accurate. At three life, they’re not the hardiest unit but as hardy as any Cave Goblin currently gets.
The biggest downside of Beast Riders is their non-synergy with all of Sneeks’ schemes. They seem decent and a fairly reliable source of at least 3 damage so are definitely not meant to be underestimated. But I’d say they are middling in their usefulness. How much you’ll want to summon them really comes down to how much you’ll want to play The Eater. And I think the Eater will eat into Beast Rider’s usefulness.
I loved Clingers in the original game. Even if Kait kept beating me with them.
Next we have the Horde Clinger. This is pretty close to a reprint of the wonderful Clinger from the original game. And I wouldn’t want it any other way. These Clingers are a touch easier to use since they work well with Sneak and have an additional strength and health. They’re a decent pairing for Sly as Sneeks can get them to position easy enough and their 0 cost allows them to offer Sneeks a fast exit if you summon one behind your starting gate and leave him there. They’re decent, they help you to get more units to the frontline by doubling up movement actions and an all around decent Cave Goblin unit. Just don’t expect 2 health to do much for them.
I stand corrected. We’ve got female goblins.
The final common in Sneeks deck is… well… there, I suppose. The Horde Climber’s best feature is her free cost. However, swift on a unit isn’t too shabby. It’s a shame that 1 strength really does not get you far in new Summoner Wars. I think that’s going to hurt the Climber more than anything. Sure, you can use her to ferry around Clingers but you can just Sly them across the board much easier with Sneeks. Passing through structures seems pretty niche as an ability. It does allow decent surround for a Pile On attack from a forward gate but that requires so many pieces to fall into place that it’s not worth worrying about. Her 3 health means she may stick around for more than one turn for some Sly maneuvers but she’s overall below the curve for the Cave Goblins. And Enraging Climbers is certainly a “feels bad” moment.
So there you have it. Sneeks commons are… meh overall. Slingers give you some range pressure. Beast Riders hit the hardest but are expensive. Clingers are your best bet for follow up damage to Sneeks’ attacks. And Climbers are just… sort of there. And I wouldn’t weep if something came out so I could replace them.
So last week, we checked out Summoner Wars’ new and improved Sneeks. We took a brief preview of his summoner card and events. Today, we’ll be examining his champions. There’s only three cards here, so this should go a lot faster. Well, it should go a little faster.
Well, we don’t come here for brevity.
Honestly, I think if this guy just started at 1 strength, he’d be a lot more playable. Maybe lower him to 5 health.
First up is the rather disgusting looking Blarf. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a fan of this art direction but I can at least appreciate that the guy looks delightfully horrible. I always appreciate a little filth in my fantasy.
I’m intrigued by Blarf if only because he comes with two deck building symbols. I wonder what the motivation to make him available to a wider pool is. Is it because his abilities somehow perfectly represent the opera helmet and Venetian mask symbol factions? Or maybe he’s so bad that it doesn’t matter if he gets spread around a little more?
Because let’s be clear, Blarf is bad.
Alright, it’s premature to make categorical claims like that. However, he comes peculiarly weakened from his Summoner Wars original incarnation. His best feature is his cost. At zero, not only is he always affordable but, more importantly, he interacts with Sneeks Sly and events. Which is probably what doomed the poor troll… orc… ugly boy. A pool of six health is an improvement over old Blarf. He can serve as a good one turn distraction for your wee goblins. However, his strength gain is decidedly worse. First, you need to trigger Blarf’s Blood Runes at the start of your attack phase. This means you can’t fuel it with fresh kills this round but must keep some magic from the summoning phase so he doesn’t hurt himself. Granted, missing a Blood Rune trigger is only one damage. Which means Blarf can deny himself without costing you an attack but I’m not certain how often those situations will arise.
Furthermore, you want to be paying Blarf’s toll so that he can start hitting. Otherwise you’ve a mobile wall. A mobile wall that will slowly turn into a threat that your opponent will always see coming three turns away. But when you consider old Blarf could gain +4 attack at any point, it’s a bit disappointing.
So he’s largely a Sly platform and not much else.
We’ve never had a female goblin before and I don’t want to be challenged for misgendering in the year 2021. Maybe if Smeg wasn’t literally a walking corpse I could identify it better.
Next up, we have Smeg.
I’m guessing this is Smeege’s younger cousin.
I’m not sure what to make of Smeg. He/She/It is obviously a little anemic. Losing health from the transition over to Summoner Wars 2.0 is not a great sign. Sure, they gained a strength but Smeege essentially had 2 attack with Frick’s ability. I think, once again, comboing with Sly has seen Smeg’s effectiveness get downgraded. That said, a healthier Slinger complete with it’s free attack, is still good. And Smeg is still like Smeege where Smeg’s negative can be an upside. Your opponent doesn’t really want to attack Smeg, hoping that Magic Junkie will make their cost exorbitant. But not attacking Smeg means Smeg can lay on the damage. And failing to kill Smeg means Smeg can reliably deny themself at the end of your turn. Plus, Smeg’s upkeep cost comes after you discard for magic so you can be reasonably assured that you can afford the Magic Junkie tax. Positioning from Sneak, Sly and buffing with Enrage the Horde are all added perks. Smeg’s good and I don’t see any reason why Smeg wouldn’t show up in every battle with the sole exception of the game ending before Smeg’s drawn.
Of note, Smeg is one of a very limited sources of ranged attacks in Sneeks’ army too.
And now, for the main course.
My highlight of the demo was when Tacullu Hypnotized my Eater adjacent to herself, Mind Captured it, then sacrificed Tacullu to keep it on the board at the end of the phase to deliver me the win. Keep on keeping on D.O.U.G.
The Eater was one of the best original Cave Goblin champions. The new Eater still claims that title. He’s received a (probably justifiable) price increase. He comes out heftier (9 health) and stronger (5 strength) but his ability is not as good. He only auto kills your units now at the end of the attack phase so the Eater is more vulnerable to any possible future shenanigans that can change dice rolls. At five strength, he’s likely to be killing most things he’s on, however, unless he’s going after champions. And at five melee strength, he’s apt to be exchanging well with them. The six magic cost is noteworthy if only because Sneeks doesn’t make a lot of magic and Sneeks’ other champions kind of want to skim off your low magic pool each turn.
It might be a little obvious that you’re saving for him, is all I’m trying to say.
So there you have it. The Eater is great! Smeg is good! Blarf is barf!
Well, the great thing about a new Summoner Wars release is I have easy go-to content for blogging! See, Kait! At least I’m being somewhat consistent in my posting!
I want to stress the speculative nature of previews. They are clearly not based on the most rigorous data or testing and, consequently, are mostly first impressions than anything else. However, Summoner Wars 2.0 reviews are a special note. Whereas my reviews of the original Summoner Wars releases was at least founded on experience with the game, it’s really hard to judge the value of the cards when I’m not even certain of the normal momentum and average strength of units in this new version.
Which is to say, the old game had a standard evaluation equation for judging the relative worth of cards. While flawed, this system was based on observed averages of what had come before. We’re in uncharted territory here so saying what is good or bad is going to be a crap shoot at best.
But don’t worry, if you wanted baseless judgements then you’ve come to the right place.
Summoner Wars is a product of Plaid Hat Games. All rights, images and intellectual properties belong to them. Check them out!
We’ll break this down into three posts as Kait keeps telling me I jabber on too long anyway. Our starting point will be the summoner and events. I’ll save a second post for the champions. And the last for his commons. At least this is faster than Plaid Hat’s reveal schedule.
Now, I didn’t have original Sneeks so it’s kind of exciting to see his new version in a product that I have a high chance of actually getting. It’s a little hard to parse some of his card since I’m not entirely certain what everything means. I did, embarrassingly, find the online rules after I did that digital disgorging of my initial thoughts last week. So I’ve given it a thorough read even if I haven’t fully internalized everything yet. Hopefully that arms me enough to not come across as completely moronic here.
Pity comment goes here.
The first thing I want to comment on is Sneeks health. Eleven is crazy high, for the original Summoner Wars. Summoner health essentially sets the “difficulty” of your opponent since the only win condition is getting that value to zero. Only one summoner got to nine health in the first game and it just happened to fall on one of the best decks. But now, I kind of feel it’s ironically on the low end.
It’s clear that higher health is meant to turn summoners into more active participants in the game. Which is a good change. Sneeks wants to get into the thick of the action as well. His three melee strength is of note. First, it’s one of the highest strength attacks in his deck. Second, melee is more accurate than range in this new version. Course, it still comes with its inherent vulnerability.
While I don’t think strength values have risen at the same rate as health, it feels like eleven health really only gives you one turn of vulnerability. In original Summoner Wars, you could argue that ignoring the summoner to clear the board was more advantageous. I didn’t. I thought putting pressure on the summoner would force them to position less optimally but I also concede that this prioritization of attacks was very faction dependent. With Sneeks, it feels like you definitely want to hit him whenever you can. Most of his commons are rather weak and the more damage you put on Sneeks the less aggressive Sly maneuvers he can do without risking a loss.
Course, let’s examine Sly a little closer. This ability isn’t just a port from his first edition. It’s an upgrade. Being able to Sly step Sneeks in during your attack phase essentially ensures that any 0 cost unit which gets beside the enemy summoner is bringing an additional three melee strength attack with them. Sadly, Sneeks can’t Sly his beast riders but pretty much every other option in his deck works. Plus, he’s got other mobility options rather than charge.
Another perk of Sly is that Sneeks can get some very quick, aggressive gates down. Since the first couple of turns your opponent is unlikely to mount a terminal defence, if you happen into your gates early, you can get some very strong early board control. It’s luck dependent as gates have a tendency to be drawn when you least want them. However, since Sneeks has so many zero cost units, having more summon points is very important for him.
I’m curious to see what those deck building options will open up for him. It looks like he’s geared towards trickery and brute force. But without seeing these symbols show up later, trying to judge those options would be the equivalent of reading tea leaves.
Now we have Sneeks’ events. Starting with his personal Epic options.
I won’t be surprised if Enrage the Horde is the gold standard for epic events.
First, I’m not sure who this person is in the art but I wonder if he’s a preview of a Cave Goblin second summoner? He appears on two events with pretty consistent design. Could just be an unreleased unit, however. Possibly a champion. Certainly would be a peculiar reinterpretation of Frick and, seeing as Frick is one of my sister’s favourite summoners, I’m kind of rooting for his return. At any rate, Enrage the Horde gets into the Cave Goblin identity of swarming with a lot of cheap units. Frick let any single zero cost unit to attack twice a turn. Enrage, however, gives you a power turn where all of your free units essentially double their attack for the low cost of one magic.
Granted, this cost isn’t insignificant. Sneeks would rather slam his commons down than build them for magic, so you’re probably running an economy that’s a little light. That’s where Enrage the Horde’s timing comes in. As a Magic Phase event, you can fuel this with any kills during your normal attack phase. The trick, however, will be positioning. Until the release of a Runt like unit that allows your slingers to attack through them, your Slingers are the easiest to assist with Enrage so their firing angles will have to be chosen carefully.
I feel it’s worth holding until the right time. You only have two of them, so you want to keep them as a threat for the enemy summoner. Especially since they know you’ll be running these two.
The rest of these events, however, are less impressive. I’m uncertain which are worth holding in your hand, slowing down your draw speed. They can combo well but the last thing you want is to be holding two or three events each turn and giving your enemy some breathing room from your rush of commons.
Sneak is a pretty easy event to slot in whatever decks have access to the Venetian Mask symbol. Assuming, of course, those decks have 0 cost units.
Sneak, however, is fantastic. It helps you get your army into position either for a powerful Enrage the Horde play or for sliding Sneeks in for some sneaks attacks. Of particular note is that Sneak lets your Clingers move since it’s a force effect! This can help you rescue any that have been abandoned in the boonies by forcing them to an adjacent unit then moving that unit after the event resolves. It’s free too! I don’t like to hold on to this event for more than a round, however. If it lines up for a power combo, great! If not, it can be good to get helpful positioning now.
More dice is rarely a bad thing.
Pile On is decent. Makes things hit harder if you’ve surrounded them. While the dream is to play this with Enrage the Horde for double the value, it can create a trap of making your hand stuck with a bunch of non-unit cards. Given that your units are generally on the weaker side, however, you want this event to take down scary champions your opponent might be holding. Given the extra attacks from Slingers and your overall low damage output from your weaker champions and commons, I find Pile On is a necessary event to hold for either risky all-in attacks on the summoner or to get favourable economic exchanges against enemy champions.
Unrelenting? More like Unwieldy, am I right?
Finally, we’ve Unrelenting. It’s odd to see an economy card in Cave Goblins. Granted, this is a weird economy card as it’s more on the denial end rather than generation. It costs one magic to make the opponent’s target prioritization weird for one turn. If you have Sneeks or a champion pressuring their face, this card could have them turn all their attention to those big threats and ignore your little runts as they rush in for combat. Alternatively, you can use it after a rush to recuperate your losses. It’s strong, I’m just not certain it’s strong enough to hold. If I don’t have a lot of slingers on the board, it might just be worth letting go.
So, for me, Sneeks is an aggressive summoner who relies heavily on his Sly ability to get in extra attacks on priority targets or place aggressive gates. He seems rather reliant on his events to compensate for his otherwise lacklustre champions and commons. So he is largely a question of whether those events are strong enough to keep him competitive with other summoners.
So my review of Fallout 4 may be a bit on the wordy side. I blame quarantine for that. But I’ll see if I can’t keep this from spilling into a part three. Wish me luck!
Now, I might be feeling my oats a bit, but if there’s anything I feel qualified on criticizing, it’s writing. It’s certainly the aspect I give the most attention and thought to. Even if it sometimes feels like I’m the only one.
So while there are numerous technical issues plaguing Fallout 4, and not just the ones I covered in part 1 of this review, I can generally overlook design shortcomings if it’s compensated for with strong writing.
But as is often the case, poor design choices can negatively impact the writing.
For whatever reason, Bethesda decided to utilize the much maligned “dialogue wheel.” I have spent way too many articles complaining about how this system doesn’t work so I’m not going to repeat it here. However, Bethesda certainly has taken the crown for the worst implementation. There isn’t an illusion of choice with this one. The options legitimately boiled down to three different versions of “Yes” and a “Maybe later.” That is until I loaded up a mod which replaced the awful two word options with the full response.
All rights and images for Fallout 4 belong to Bethesda Software and its corresponding whatever.
However, the spirit of the problem is still there. Run into a beggar in the street who wants your help and you couldn’t tell them to kick rocks. You could only tell them “Let me think about it” or three almost indistinguishable ways of agreeing to their demands. I can’t tell you why this was implemented. I can only assume the much requested voiced protagonist was the impetus and then the slow realization that it’s way too expensive to voice meaningful choice in a game sank in. Except, prior Bethesda games still gave some semblance of choice and, of course, New Vegas had much more impactful dialogue options with every other character being voiced other than the player.
But the writing doesn’t just suffer from the lack of choice. Your ability to approach conversations was cobbled because there was no skill system to incorporate into it. In prior games, if you had a certain threshold of aptitude in a skill, you would unlock dialogue options associated with that knowledge. So, when speaking to a village about shoring up their defences against a raider attack, if you were skilled in Explosives, you could recommend setting a minefield. But, once again, Fallout 4 has no skills so there was no way to customize how your character responds to a situation differently than your friend’s. Now, they could have used perks, but the chances of people having the right perks available given how niche they were now, I’m guessing dissuaded them from incorporating that option. Finally, their entire “speech” mini-game was giving very sparse opportunities for persuasion based entirely on your Charisma. These persuasion “checks” would be colour coded depending on the difficulty. How this difficulty was calculated… I have no idea. The line would be coloured yellow, orange or red for increasingly harder checks but how your Charisma changed that, I don’t know. I maxed out my Charisma fairly early because I wanted to play someone with charm. But also, I needed a high Charisma because I wanted to play around their settlement feature and several important perks for building were tied to that. For reasons.
And… sigh. That brings us to settlement building.
I liked settlement building. But I like building in games. When Derek and I played Terraria, it was me who spent all the time making our village look… well I won’t say pretty but I will say less like a giant mud square. I spent hours in Starbound collecting different materials and terrain from multiple worlds to create little outposts throughout the galaxy. And my Stardew crew can attest that I skip out on farming in order to make my cottage look as good as I can make it.
As such I downloaded a lot of mods (and I mean A LOT of mods) to improve the building capabilities of Fallout 4. And I would say I sunk the majority of my playtime in building little settlements. This is where my positive gameplay loop developed. I would found an outpost at a spot that looked interesting. Then I would scour the nearby area for materials and items to bring back to my fledgling build. There I would build homes, shops and defences for my settlers. I would establish supply lines between them. I would try and decorate the homes to reflect who lived there. I dutifully tended their (painfully generic) settlement quests. I rushed across the game world (because I was dumb and played on survival mode which disabled fast travel) to defend them from monster attacks.
And I enjoyed it. For a good half of the game, once my settlement got large enough or my interest waned, I would set out to the next site and sprout up a new hamlet. In this way, I completely avoided the game’s main quest. It wasn’t until I decided that I was tired of my current character and wanted to try a different build (ha! As if character builds exist in this game!) that I decided to focus on the story of Fallout 4.
This was a decision I immediately regretted.
See, one of the areas where Fallout 4 truly, severely suffers compared to its predecessors is its main story. It’s skeleton is inescapably recycled from Fallout 3. I was… accepting of the premise. Being the parent searching for a missing child has the potential for interesting divergence from a story where you’re the child searching for your missing parent. Except, any opportunity which Fallout 4’s basic premise establishes is squandered. Often in spectacular fashion. But I’m proficient in Bethesda’s games enough to know that, while it establishes a rather pressing need for you to follow the main story (your child is kidnapped at the ripe age of like… one) I knew there was no actual game mechanic reason to rush after him. In fact, I made the rather obvious observation that in all likelihood my child was already an adult.
Though this was hardly a huge leap of logic. The game presents you, the main character, as a person out of time. See, as you escaped the incoming nuclear arsenal, you’re ushered into the underground Vault with a select few others from your neighbourhood. The facility’s staff reassured you that everything is fine and you’ll be safe while they ushered you quickly through processing. A doctor led you down some tunnels to a room full of podlike chambers where you underwent “decontamination.” No explanation is given before you and your family are separated into different pods and you’re “processed.”
The game then makes it abundantly clear that these pods then freeze you.
If you weren’t familiar with the series, it may come as a shock that the stories take place after this all encompassing nuclear winter. Furthermore, the makers of these Vaults (Vault-Tec) are consistently portrayed as immoral scientists who never had any intention of building shelters to protect people from nuclear fallout. Every shelter is, instead, some highly amoral and exaggerated social experiment. When your pod eventually malfunctions and you stumble out into an abandoned decrepit facility, it’s made plain that your Vault was one running experiments on cryogenics.
And considering that Bethesda was insistent on creating a rather rigid background for your character, diverging strongly from their prior design philosophies, it is immensely frustrating that they never once capitalized on the story of a survivor displaced into the future. They had a perfect opportunity to both give a focused lens into the past of the Fallout series while also reframing a lot of the series tropes through a more critical individual. They do none of these.
As for my “big brain” prediction, given the use of the cryogenics chamber, it seemed pretty clear that your son was kidnapped years before your release. Partly because it was pretty telegraphed but largely the model they had for the child was pretty basic and I already knew that Bethesda doesn’t put children in their games. So I was hardly surprised when you came face to face with your “adult” child.
I was, however, surprised by how poorly the writing team handled it.
This should not come as a surprise but storytelling is the art of communication. And yet, having played through Fallout 4, it’s abundantly clear that Bethesda had nothing to say. This basic premise would at least suggest that the story of Fallout 4 would be focused on upbringing, familial bonds and kinship. Is this person whom you’ve had no hand in raising but is, nevertheless, biologically your child a recognizable member of your family? Or is he a stranger with your face (which would dovetail neatly into their Synthetics plotline)? How far will you go to avenge the loss of your family? What will you give up to save your family?
Fallout 4 asks you none of these questions. In fact, I pressed through the latter half of the game, trying to have a brief, private conversation with my son. The game never allows you to have it. Not even with the hamfisted “I’m dying of cancer… now find me a battery!” conversation occurred. Instead, it whisks you away on a long series of unrelated, uninteresting, irrelevant tasks that the writers try to use as a substitute for high stakes decisions. They throw you, needlessly, into conflict with the game’s four major factions. However, none of these conflicts make any sense because their characters don’t make sense.
And there’s almost a perverse glee which Bethesda takes in highlighting their own incompetence.
As it turns out, the game is ostensibly about Synthetics. If you read my review of the worst quest in computer gaming, you’ll see how frustrated I am by Bethesda’s own contradictions. In there, they could hardly keep what the concept of a “ghoul” in the Fallout universe is straight despite it being fairly well established in prior games. However, they completely fail to provide a coherent idea about what a Synthetic is in Fallout 4 which is more egregious because these were made wholly by Bethesda almost entirely for this game.
What we get is some poorly conceived homage to Bladerunner. Synthetics are the creation of the major villain of the game, The Institute, and are robots. Robots that look like people. Which are meant to serve as some sort of shocking technological advancement by a highly technical scientific community. And yet, the game already has advanced AI. Your robot butler from the very start is a highly developed personality machine. Fallout 3 had the President Eden AI heading its Covenant faction. New Vegas both had incidental AI with Yes Man and highly complex cybernetics with Mr. House. So artificial intelligence is hardly something noteworthy. At least it didn’t warrant all the attention which the people of Fallout 4 spent on it.
So then they try to shift the focus on the fact that Synthetics have surpassed the uncanny valley and look indistinguishably human. And yet, the game fails a fundamental question.
Why? Why did the Institute build these machines?
Ostensibly it was for a worker force but the Mr. Handy and Protectron robots are literally littered throughout the countryside. You trip over them the moment you leave the vault. They go into great detail about Synths being used to infiltrate communities by replacing people with a perfect simulacrum. But yet when you ask your son, who developed these machines, why they do that, he literally has no idea. He tries to blame the Railroad for creating these infiltrators accidentally when they try to liberate Synths from Institute control. But then he simply shrugs away the question of why the Institute is so insistent on making perfect replicants of humans in the first place.
But let’s divert for a second to the Railroad. They’re a faction that believe Synths are intelligent life which should be afforded the freedoms and right to life as any other individual. They are, by name alone, making oblique references to slavery and emancipation. But with the very first quest with this faction, their main contact brings up an important contradiction and immediately dismisses it.
For, he explains, the Railroad recognizes that Synths are intelligent machines and deserve freedom and yet they don’t know what that means for literally every single other robot clogging up the streets of Boston. Should they be liberating your robot butler? Should they be seeking emancipation for your computer console?
And just as cavalier as he recognizes the contradiction at the core philosophy of his faction, he dismisses and encourages you to continue on murdering all the Synths in the current dungeon you’re delving without a hint of remorse.
This is endemic with the writing in Fallout 4. Bethesda has no idea what their characters are doing. They have no concept of motivation for the people that populate their stories. As such, pretty much everyone you encounter will act irrationally, contradictory and ultimately capriciously simply to push forward a narrative with no direction. They fail a very basic component of writing. As an author myself, here’s a free bit of advice.
The first thing you should consider whenever you’re about to write a scene with characters is to understand their motivation. This isn’t to say that every character is meant to be entirely logical and reasonable. We know from life that isn’t the case. But everyone wants something. They may behave in ways that ultimately undermine their desires and goals but, from their perspective, they should be striving for those goals. And that’s the issue with Fallout 4.
And it should be getting old by now, but all they had to do was follow Obsidian’s example.
New Vegas has a pretty simple story. The complexity comes from the interaction of its primary factions struggling against each other. But their motivations are simple. All three major players in New Vegas want to control Hoover Dam. That’s it. From that simple desire, we get a rich web of political intrigue. Their reasons, of course, vary too but largely each seek the power produced by the dam to further their own goals. Mr. House wishes to establish an independent city state and can enforce its sovereignty through the power provided by the dam to energize an enormous legion of military grade robots. The New California Republic wishes to fold Nevada into its political sphere of influence and the power from the dam is integral in providing energy for local farmers and businesses to turn the area into a productive economic hub. Caesar recognizes the resources the dam would provide for his invading forces, giving them a large well of water and production to keep his conquering legions steamrolling through the desert.
And then we have Fallout 4. The Institute wants to build Synths… because? The Railroad wishes to free Synths because they’re smart. But not smart like other robots. Or maybe they are. But the Institute is evil for making Synths so we’re going to kill Synths to free Synths for freedom. But only the Synths that look human. And even then, only the Synths that look human and don’t shoot you in some specific quests. The others are whatever. The Brotherhood of Steel wants to kill Synths because they’re abominations. Why are they abominations? We don’t know. Because they said so. They aren’t pure humans. Now take your super soldier serum and cybernetic implants without question. And then there’s the Minutemen.
And I hate the Minutemen.
The Minutemen are literally a neighbourhood watch without a neighbourhood (because for some reason there’s only a single city in the game) that decided dressing up like literal 1700s colonists would make people take them more seriously. Or something. They’re arbitrarily against the Institute because the Institute kidnaps people. But it doesn’t. But maybe sometimes they do. We don’t know. They’re scary so go kill them.
I mean, we could assign motivations to these factions but we would be doing Bethesda’s work clearly after they had finished their product. The Brotherhood wants to establish a military presence in the area. Why? Dunno. The Institute, as it turns out, wants a new furnace and all this Synth stuff is literally irrelevant to what they’re bopping around doing and not integral to any of their initiatives and just a couple of scientists’ pet project. The Minutemen want to establish laws and order though they seemingly have no interest in governance so hope that by scattering isolated communities imperialistically about the land without any support or help will maybe lead to… something?
And how does this all tie back to the personal story of you and your lost child?
Well, it doesn’t. And each major beat of the main story makes less and less sense until the grand finale which hits with all the power and force of a leaky whoopee cushion. Then the game ends in the most generic, unsatisfying little video that tells you nothing of the journey you’ve taken all so that when the credits would roll, you’re snapped back to your character to just… continue putzing around, I suppose.
Because, really, putzing is the only thing that Bethesda does well.
I would be remiss, however, to drop this review of the game without mentioning the best part I came across. Aside from the settlement building, however.
Far Harbour is one of the DLC for Fallout 4 and is clearly the best thing the team accomplished on this project. Ironically, it’s set in a far off harbour detached from the events of the main story and yet it addresses some of the themes far better that the main narrative stoically avoids. It starts with you and your hard-boiled private detective robot sailing off to distant shores in search of a missing girl. There, however, you come across a strange natural phenomenon plaguing the island and three very different measures that its principal factions take to address it. It actually has a decent narrative structure and coherent motivations for its groups. It’s far from brilliant but given the exceedingly low bar that Fallout 4 sets, it stands head and shoulders above the rest of the product.
Here you have a simple conflict between the native fishermen of the island battling a fanatical religious order that has come to the island to safeguard and worship a deadly fog spreading across the land. This fog has forced the original inhabitants to the furthest shores as they cling to the salty rocks trying to keep to their old homesteads and way of life. Pressing them further and further to the edge are the Children of Atom. They see this radioactive fog as divine providence of their god and came to worship the blight. They take umbrage at both the fishermen’s rejection of their tenets and their attempts to repel the holy mist. Caught in the middle is a reclusive sanctuary for escaped Synthetics, headed by your robot companion’s brother and an early prototype, Dima.
Course, standard Bethesda silliness is present. You very quickly discover your missing girl holed up in Dima’s sanctuary where she has convinced herself that she’s a Synth and doesn’t want to return home. The only way you can convince her to do otherwise is to literally fix all the problems on the island. Why? Ostensibly because she’s compassionate? But largely the missing girl serves as a MacGuffin to get you to the action and is otherwise irrelevant to everything else that happens. Furthermore, the direction of the story is less than satisfying. There’s a number of dangling threads that could have been woven into something more interesting. For example, I would have liked an option to reconcile the Harbourmen and Children of Atom by convincing dissenters to strive for peace while replacing the warlike religious head of the Children with the prior, peace-seeking leader they had before your arrival. Some measure of diplomacy and politicking would have added a much needed higher layer to the themes and message. As such, it loses its moral by having a hilariously tone deaf solution for bringing the two factions together if you desperately want both to cohabitate the island.
The story could certainly have been strengthened into something good with greatly impactful decisions. However, considering the original product that this expansion emerged from, it’s hard to be too upset. At least it took some important baby steps. That it also had unique enemies, actually integrated action beats and somewhat developed personalities is enough to laud it for achieving… the basics of most other games. Far Harbour as a location is interesting too, with the rugged coastline offering a nice change from Boston’s muddy brown vistas. And overall, the boneheaded elements are kept to a minimum while maintaining some of the cute wit of the Fallout series. It achieves a unique story, some interesting characters and varied locals that suggests competency on the team. It’s perhaps the best DLC that Bethesda has done for Fallout.
It’s possibly the best Fallout Bethesda has done. Though I admit I’ve skipped some of their other little offerings here and there. It’s a pity that Far Harbour serves as the exception rather than the rule.
Overall, I can’t fault the people who panned the game when it originally released. Their concerns remain valid. And while its clear that Bethesda is listening, as evident by stripping the hilariously two dimensional morality of the Brotherhood of Steel in Fallout 3 away, it still remains they have a long way to go if they want to stand amongst the best of the genre.
On the other hand, these things sell like gangbusters so maybe they don’t need to be critically successful.
Well, it’s the new year. Which means a half-hearted attempt at a new me. Out with the old and all that. Largely, this means I’m going to have a burst of blogging before falling off the waggon much to my sister-publisher’s disappointment! Because at the very least, I’m good at pattern recognition.
Typically, most people get to navel gazing during this transitional period. And that typically results in examining where we came from and analyzing what got us where we are. Granted, I’m not sure there’s much to be said about 2020 that isn’t still raw in people’s minds. As a year, it was a pretty large shock to the collective unconsciousness and we don’t really need lots of words devoted to how much a global pandemic sucks. So let’s just skip right to the point.
I was pretty busy during the lockdown with my writing and nephews. Crowded into a household meant that my personal time was whittled down to a minimum. And with most things closed, it’s not like I was popping out to see movies. And with the television dominated by children, I saw little that wasn’t Peppa Pig. There were few games which I was able to finish and almost no boardgames that I could enjoy with everyone bolted inside their homes.
Thus, I don’t have much to cover for a year in review.
However, if you’ve been following my sporadic posting, this review shouldn’t come as a surprise. Derek and I finally got around to tackling the much derided Fallout 4. And it was only five years after its release! How fresh!
As such, I’m likely to repeat myself a little here while I recontextualize the game. If you read my early rant on it, you can probably skip a few paragraphs.
All rights and images for Fallout 4 belong to Bethesda Software and its corresponding whatever.
Fallout 4 was the latest main entry for the series made by Bethesda Software. I make no effort to hide my love for Fallout New Vegas, which really got me into the old CRPG franchise. My first game was Bethesda’s own Fallout 3 after they scooped up the intellectual property through Interplay’s bankruptcy. Derek, however, had enjoyed the original two and was thoroughly repulsed by Bethesda’s massive overhaul of the game and its mechanics. I enjoyed it as I was a fan of Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls games. And, while a bit reductive, there was something to the criticism of Fallout 3 being Elder Scrolls with guns.
As such, New Vegas brought back the traditional complexity and narrative focus that old school roleplaying players expected. I found New Vegas excelled at its world building and interesting character writing – Bethesda’s two biggest weaknesses. Bethesda is great at evoking the excitement of exploration with their games but their worlds are a bathtub of soap bubbles. Each little sphere is fun in its own right but there’s a clear demarcation between their little bursts of fun. A dungeon filled with flesh-eating monsters and poison will be literally next door to a village inhabited only by children. Yeah, the village is neat and cute. And certainly the dungeon is challenging and unique. But taken together, there’s no rhyme or reason for the two to cohabitat within proximity to one and another. On the flip side, New Vegas is criticized for having a world that’s really boring punctuated by small moments of interest. But… that’s kind of how the world works. There’s long stretches of road with civilization gathering and centralizing around important hubs of trade and civilization.
Or, put simply, take a walk outside of any Canadian city and you’ll enter into stretching fields of farmland or sparse woods. Cities are fun. Farms not so much. Whether you want constant amusement from your video games or a sense of verisimilitude is ultimately the decider for style you enjoy.
Now, Fallout 4 was in a weird position. Critically, Fallout 3 did better. Sales wise, I believe Fallout New Vegas edged into the lead. Fan reception? New Vegas took the cake. Furthermore, Bethesda and Obsidian are two very different developers with very different critical successes. I knew, with the announcement of Fallout 4, we were going to get something closer to Bethesda’s earlier output. I lowered my expectations to meet the reality of the product. This wasn’t going to be a good roleplaying game. But it should be a fun little exploration game.
I furthermore had the advantage of listening to the community’s reception over the last five years and it has been… rather chilly. Thus, Fallout 4 became a threat between Derek and I. Once a Game of the Year version released, I was going to punish him with the darn thing. But as time went on, I sort of bought into the ironic glee for the game and was starting to look forward to it.
And, to be quite honest, for the first half of my run, I was actually surprised. I liked it. Now it’s been years and years since I’ve played Fallout 3 but I could still feel the improvements to the company’s general output. Were there issues? Of course. I was almost immediately frustrated with the game during its intro. The concept of its beginning was legitimately good. Fallout 4 opens with you in a place that the series has never explored:
The past.
You and your spouse are getting ready on the morning of the apocalypse. You’re introduced to your family unit. You’re given the opportunity to customize your spouse and yourself. And the game applies its horrific patented melding technology to smush your two people to spawn a melded child for your happy couple. It’s the inverse of what the company did for its prior game wherein you created the child and it teased out two parents and their appearance from there. Your little family unit is then rounded out with a dotting robot butler and the whole package is complete.
Then you’re treated to an idyllic family morning just moments before the horror of the nuclear apocalypse rains down on your head. You’re saved at the last minute by a sudden enrollment into the local underground shelter, called Vaults, that promises to provide you the facility to ride out the worst of the devastation.
And it’s not very long before this wonderful setup starts to fall down around itself.
First, there are some technical issues I had with this beginning. Primary amongst them, is that Bethesda stripped out almost all of the series’ rules systems. For those not in the know, almost all roleplaying games rely upon a system made popular by Dungeons and Dragons that involves various skills, characteristics and special characteristics to make unique adventurers. Fallouts utilized the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system which, outside of renaming a number of the stats, really didn’t deviate too much from the old D&D ruleset. You had various skills meant to represent… well… your skills and these were ranked on a scale of 1 to 100. Your stats (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck) were on a 1 to 10 scale. Personalization came from deciding where your character’s strengths and weaknesses came from. Maybe you’d be a smart and strong athlete who relied on their brawn and smarts to compensate for a rather boorish attitude and the fact that the universe liked to kick the stuffing out of you with constant ill-fortune. Then you had to decide whether you wanted to use those wits and might of yours to sling heavy hammers to crush your opponents or lug around massive gatling guns to turn them into swiss cheese. Or maybe your smarts gave you the aptitude to hack computer terminals and robots while leaving you clueless on how to get through locked doors or the know-how to scrounge for food out in a world that no longer had stocked supermarkets.
It’s an immensely familiar system for anyone that has played any of the numerous roleplaying games out in the market. And I’m not adverse to creating new systems or exploring other mechanics. However, Fallout 4 completely guts this system and replaces it with… well… practically nothing. I learned, only after finishing the tutorial and progressing past the point of readjusting my character, that the system was entirely pared down to a “perk tree.” Your character was determined solely by a 7 by 10 table with abilities scattered haphazardly amongst them. Each one of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats had ten levels. And largely these levels opened access to a (generally) five level perk. When you levelled up, you literally got a single “perk point” which could then be placed into your stat column or used to unlock/upgrade a previously purchased perk.
And that was it. During my time with the game, there was no indication that the game had an upper boundary on how levelled you could be. So, given enough time, literally every character you play is going to be the same. Furthermore, there was such a staggeringly poor explanation of what certain game mechanics did, that I just ignored some stats because I had no idea what a “crit meter” was and I was baffled by which weapons to use because there were only a few weapon perks now split by how fast the weapon shot. Is this laser rifle an automatic weapon or a rifle class weapon? I don’t know. It’s not like the game tells you. Granted, it’s not like it’s that important either since these perks literally just increased damage as the game now incorporated a standard point targeting shooter system.
Which, give me a second to explain.
Fallout 1 and 2 were proper isometric RPGs where your character and their party were third person sprites running across your screen. Combat was determined by a turned based system where you would select a target for your character to attack, the type of attack they would perform and then the system would do all the necessary calculations for whether you hit or not and how much damage you would do. Then the next character or enemy would take their turn. It was simulated dice rolls.
Fallout 3 and New Vegas shifted to a first person perspective that let you run around and point your gun. Yet it still used this older “dice rolling” system where your proficiency with your chosen weapons determined your chance to hit and the damage you did. Which, I confess, would be confusing for new players who aren’t used to CRPGs but maybe have a background in shooters. And there were certainly entertaining moments in New Vegas where you may point your sniper rifle at the whites of your enemy’s eyes only for you to squeeze the trigger and have your shot fly out at a ninety degree angle into the sky.
So the “gun play” was certainly criticized. Considering Bethesda is a roleplaying game company, the updated gunplay in Fallout 4 is fine. Granted, it kind of makes redundant the series’ one unique mechanic: the VATS system. In the original Fallout games, you could choose how you wanted to attack your opponent when swinging/shooting them. You were able to use your Vault-Assisted Targeting System to choose whether to hit their head, arms, torso or whatever in order to inflict certain negative statuses to your enemy. Cripple a leg and the opponent’s movement would be hobbled. Shoot out an eye to make their accuracy plummet. Or simply blow up the grenade in their hand before they can throw it. This system made the reticle shooting in Fallout 3 and New Vegas kind of… superfluous. The one important element was using the VATS system required depleting your action point bar which is how the game determined the number of actions you would have in the regular turn based system of old. Outside of VATS, your action points were used to sprint. So going into combat in New Vegas was juggling using your action points for positioning and shooting.
And yet, though Fallout 4 only made some small adjustments to the system, they really just gutted its usefulness.
So now in Fallout 4 when you aim your gun, your shot flies down the centre of the reticle like a normal shooter. Yet when you enter VATS, your accuracy is now entirely determined by your agility statistic. Furthermore, VATS still sucks up your action point bar. But, unlike the prior games, entering and using VATS no longer “freezes time.” See, in New Vegas, when you activated VATS, the combat paused so you could (oftentimes clumsily) scroll through the various targets and the different limbs you could target before committing to your shots. Now, there was some measure of danger because, after queuing up your attack, the game resumed in a cinematic exchange of gunfire between you and your opponents. So you could be exploded by a rocket while the camera is panning around you as though you’re the last action hero.
Because I like playing on high difficulties, I found the best use of the VATS system was to determine the position of enemies, especially ones that you may not notice. I would often pop into VATS to get a lay of the land before popping out of it to relocate to better cover (minimizing sightlines) before re-entering VATS to queue up my attacks against isolated individuals.
However, in Fallout 4, just simply activating VATS put the game into slow motion. So while you’re busy fighting with the interface to choose the right arm of the super mutant in front of you instead of the dumb mutant dog behind a pile of cars to his side, that super mutant is wailing on your face with his nail board until you’re a bloody, slow-motion pulp. Combine this with the fact that your accuracy is also going to take a massive plunge since it is only determined by a skill which otherwise has no gameplay application and there is really no reason for using the VATS system. Thus, you’re only going to use your action points for running around in combat. So your agility really is only important for unlocking requirements for a few perks here or there and nothing else.
Thus, I had to restart to sort out my character’s “upgrade path” and go through that intro again.
Then the game crashed and I had to go through it again.
And this is the real story of Fallout 4. For every improvement Bethesda made to the game, they inexplicably made other aspects worse. I think I mentioned in my prior rant on Fallout 4 that writing wise, the game was massively improved on its companions. But Fallout 3 had some of the most generic companions in the world so anything was an improvement. Yet, the rest of the writing became far worse. But this review has already sprawled on long enough.
You’ll have to wait for the exciting part two to hear my opinions on the story.
