The campaign is a joke

[TopPerson]

Just finished le """"campaign"""". Wow, what a half-assed dumpster fire. The number one issue that makes the so-called campaign so empty and shallow is that the voice acting is like 30-40% complete.
The campaign was the thing I was looking forward to the most in this game, and the most annoying thing is that the basic skeleton of it is there. There are 18 missions, which is quite a high number. The scenarios are alright. The little stories or rather the bones of the stories are there.
But it's just a bunch of snippets and pieces slapped together into a half-assed game mode that resembles anything but an actual story. There is just 1 (ONE) incident in the campaign that's actually voice-acted, and it's the discovery of the women in the container in the last mission. The port mission rework is actually amazing at its foundations, so it's a damn shame it's such a shell of what it could have been.
The unbelievable thing is that the overwhelming majority of voice actors are actually quite good. The 911 calls and the briefings are great, but then you enter the mission and it's just total soulless isolation. TOC absolutely SUCKS. Judge is still mehhhh. There is no iconic female police dispatcher giving a briefing at the start like in SWAT 4.
There are no voice lines for 99% of the things that happen. For example, you go into the car dealership to look for the undercover cop, and you find him tortured and massacred. You press F to report to TOC, and Judge is like "TOC, bagging it up." And TOC doesn't even respond, or just gives a copy/paste generic "Copy that, continue with your mission." response. Hoooooly sh*t!
I don't know what the hell happened, but I'm suspecting someone forced them to stop working on the game. Or they just pocketed all the money and decided to quit the project. No amount of tweaks and patches will unsh*t this unfinished joke of a game.
If only you spent 3-4 more months recording all the needed voice acting, the campaign would have been 15 times better and so immersive and emotional.
Apart from lackluster voice acting, they even lazied out on the soundtrack. There's pretty much no soundtrack on the long-awaited "school" (it's a college now lol) level. It feels completely dead and like an afterthought. That brings me to the matter of downgrades. The college level makes it quite clear that Void has pussied out on some things. This is no school shooting level that was promised. There are no kids, like it was shown in the trailers with SWAT interacting with children. It's just a generic active shooter level with regular civilian models. There is absolutely nothing special or emotional about it. There isn't even music to raise the tension and urgency.
In general, there is virtually zero emotional investment when playing this. Even the annoying and unnecessary "therapy" and "roster" systems make it worse. Should have just went with 5 SWAT characters like SWAT 4 and just respawned them for the next mission if they die. 5 properly voice-acted SWAT guys, that's all you needed. How can I get attached to these bots on an endless roster? There is an endless supply of cannon fodder, which defeats the purpose of the whole thing. There are like 5 different faces that keep showing up on the new bots, and at one point I had two Nakimuras on my team, literal clones. Wow, so immersive guys.

All in all, what a heartbreaking disappointment this is. Void either got lazy or was forced to stop working on the project. But hey, I'm sure RoN has made plenty of money, so it's a great gaming success. And you've even got all the tac-shooter YouTubers shilling for you now. Good for you. It's just too bad you worked (allegedly) for 6 years on this project and then just gave up on your dreams, and in your hearts you know it. You left this undone. Sleep tight on your bed made of money, you absolute douches, especially Guntr with all his great talk and promises over the years.

PS: Anyone see the "trailers" in any of the missions? They shoved those in the launch trailer, literally entering the map and doing stuff, and yet I never saw them once??
PPS: Sinner don't delete this just cause I called them douches, please. I'm making a point.
Ok, bye.

[TonyMars]

This is too true, i had to finish the lame ass campaign just to unlock all the maps so i can enjoy them in practice mode again. btw, 0 trailer unit has been spotted so far personally.

[Sgt. Osiris]

I would have none of the problems I have with the game if it was just another early access update. Them calling this 1.0 makes me afraid they're going to jump straight to DLC instead of fixing issues that should never have been a game that's 1.0.

Trailers appear in Practice Mode once you complete 'Bring Orders to Chaos.' I don't know if they appear in Commander Mode.

[TopPerson]

Originally posted by TonyMars:

This is too true, i had to finish the lame ass campaign just to unlock all the maps so i can enjoy them in practice mode again. btw, 0 trailer unit has been spotted so far personally.

I don't expect Void to do anything at this point other than tinker with the AI in some shallow manner. Maybe they'll fix some performance problems, but that's it. I expect none of the lacking content to be put in.
What's left is to hope for some passion project from the modding community to make the campaign feel alive. Depressing.

[TopPerson]

Originally posted by Sgt. Osiris:

I would have none of the problems I have with the game if it was just another early access update. Them calling this 1.0 makes me afraid they're going to jump straight to DLC instead of fixing issues that should never have been a game that's 1.0.

Trailers appear in Practice Mode once you complete 'Bring Orders to Chaos.' I don't know if they appear in Commander Mode.

Exactly. It would have been a great update. But them acting like it's finished, naming it 1.0, and racking up the price shows me they are done with the project. I have no reason to interpret it any other way.

[SamuelHydeous]

The "campaign mode" was never intended to be anything mind blowing. Don't expect COD levels of effort being put in it ( Not talking about MW3 lmfao ). Here is a development blog from VOID Interactive going through nearly everything a player should be expecting from the campaign mode: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1144200/view/3801661174266563080
I read this blog before 1.0 and I can 100% say VOID delivered on what they promised. At the end of the day, VOID isn't a AAA studio and I think you will be less disappointed if you don't hype yourself up and create high expectations.

[Jackson Barret]

Originally posted by PMC Boykisser Operative:

The "campaign mode" was never intended to be anything mind blowing. Don't expect COD levels of effort being put in it ( Not talking about MW3 lmfao ). Here is a development blog from VOID Interactive going through nearly everything a player should be expecting from the campaign mode: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1144200/view/3801661174266563080
I read this blog before 1.0 and I can 100% say VOID delivered on what they promised. At the end of the day, VOID isn't a AAA studio and I think you will be less disappointed if you don't hype yourself up and create high expectations.

Wheeeew this man is throat deep, you have no idea what you're saying lmao.

[SamuelHydeous]

Originally posted by Jackson Barret:

Originally posted by PMC Boykisser Operative:

The "campaign mode" was never intended to be anything mind blowing. Don't expect COD levels of effort being put in it ( Not talking about MW3 lmfao ). Here is a development blog from VOID Interactive going through nearly everything a player should be expecting from the campaign mode: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1144200/view/3801661174266563080
I read this blog before 1.0 and I can 100% say VOID delivered on what they promised. At the end of the day, VOID isn't a AAA studio and I think you will be less disappointed if you don't hype yourself up and create high expectations.

Wheeeew this man is throat deep, you have no idea what you're saying lmao.

How am I wrong?

[TopPerson]

Originally posted by PMC Boykisser Operative:

The "campaign mode" was never intended to be anything mind blowing. Don't expect COD levels of effort being put in it ( Not talking about MW3 lmfao ). Here is a development blog from VOID Interactive going through nearly everything a player should be expecting from the campaign mode: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1144200/view/3801661174266563080
I read this blog before 1.0 and I can 100% say VOID delivered on what they promised. At the end of the day, VOID isn't a AAA studio and I think you will be less disappointed if you don't hype yourself up and create high expectations.

That's them covering their asses in front of new players a month before their rushed meme release. I've been following the game and all of the team's announcements and discussions since 2017, and none of my high expectations have been "created" by me. I don't care that they announced their downgrade a month before release. They have fallen a mile short of their vision for this game.
All of that is beside the point because even the commander mode would have been satisfactory with proper voice acting, as I explained in the OP. None of their devblogs said "Hey guys, you know the whole voice acting thing? Well we're just basically not gonna do half of it lmao. Get ready for full release!!1"

[SamuelHydeous]

Originally posted by TopPerson:

Originally posted by PMC Boykisser Operative:

The "campaign mode" was never intended to be anything mind blowing. Don't expect COD levels of effort being put in it ( Not talking about MW3 lmfao ). Here is a development blog from VOID Interactive going through nearly everything a player should be expecting from the campaign mode: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1144200/view/3801661174266563080
I read this blog before 1.0 and I can 100% say VOID delivered on what they promised. At the end of the day, VOID isn't a AAA studio and I think you will be less disappointed if you don't hype yourself up and create high expectations.

That's them covering their asses in front of new players a month before their rushed meme release. I've been following the game and all of the team's announcements and discussions since 2017, and none of my high expectations have been "created" by me. I don't care that they announced their downgrade a month before release. They have fallen a mile short of their vision for this game.
All of that is beside the point because even the commander mode would have been satisfactory with proper voice acting, as I explained in the OP. None of their devblogs said "Hey guys, you know the whole voice acting thing? Well we're just basically not gonna do half of it lmao. Get ready for full release!!1"

I agree with the voice acting, though I have 0 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ clue about what they promised before that devblog. Link me to smth maybe?

[Sgt. Osiris]

Originally posted by PMC Boykisser Operative:

Originally posted by Jackson Barret:

Wheeeew this man is throat deep, you have no idea what you're saying lmao.

How am I wrong?

I don't think you're wrong. Its still kind of weird how "dead" the world seems. Just like how they spent all this time revamping the police headquarters and its lifeless as well. Why even include it?

[Trash]

I didn't even bother with the campaign because after the game made me unlock all the levels IN ORDER in PRACTICE MODE, there really is no difference between practice and commander other than some more menus and different SWAT ai characters.
Should have at least left in the old game modes like raid or bomb threat for practice mode just to make it DIFFERENT.
I still like the game but that was pretty dumb.

[TopPerson]

Originally posted by PMC Boykisser Operative:

Originally posted by TopPerson:

That's them covering their asses in front of new players a month before their rushed meme release. I've been following the game and all of the team's announcements and discussions since 2017, and none of my high expectations have been "created" by me. I don't care that they announced their downgrade a month before release. They have fallen a mile short of their vision for this game.
All of that is beside the point because even the commander mode would have been satisfactory with proper voice acting, as I explained in the OP. None of their devblogs said "Hey guys, you know the whole voice acting thing? Well we're just basically not gonna do half of it lmao. Get ready for full release!!1"

I agree with the voice acting, though I have 0 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ clue about what they promised before that devblog. Link me to smth maybe?

There is no link fam. I'm talking about the cumulative vision for this game that's been built up over 6 or more years of discussions and announcements. There could be a 100-point list of the exact things they promised and didn't deliver, like prying doors open with that axe thing, or shutting off electricity, or using ladders, or overwatch snipers, etc. etc. I'm not going over this, it's off point.

[Chubzdoomer]

I agree, you don't really feel a connection to anything because so few people have any real personality or even dialog. This is felt strongest at the police station, where the NPCs had might as well be mannequins.

[TopPerson]

Originally posted by PMC Boykisser Operative:

Originally posted by TopPerson:

That's them covering their asses in front of new players a month before their rushed meme release. I've been following the game and all of the team's announcements and discussions since 2017, and none of my high expectations have been "created" by me. I don't care that they announced their downgrade a month before release. They have fallen a mile short of their vision for this game.
All of that is beside the point because even the commander mode would have been satisfactory with proper voice acting, as I explained in the OP. None of their devblogs said "Hey guys, you know the whole voice acting thing? Well we're just basically not gonna do half of it lmao. Get ready for full release!!1"

I agree with the voice acting, though I have 0 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ clue about what they promised before that devblog. Link me to smth maybe?

I do actually have one good link. Watch this bro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcA7Nwa1L9I

[zachjd]

Yeah that container in Port had me very surprised because I was 100% not expecting that. Some emotion there we don't see. I agree, game does feel shallow.