Should you buy Raising Hell? A DLC review

[Magos Hudson]

So iv completed the DLC and iv got some thoughts on it.

1.The new units are great, and I like all of them, they all fit in well with the factions and dont feel bad to use or fight against, except in campaign the splinter bugs are monsters on brutal just unfair, tanky yet with absurd DPS, and the merc rifle squad is just a reskin of the fed rifle squad just with a better grenade. Same exact stats, same exact upgrade tree for veterancy. Feels like a waste.

2.The missions are all pretty...meh. The only one that felt different and interesting was mission 1, in fact outside of that all of them are very forgettable. But I do appreciate the difficulty of the game has been increased as the base game never felt difficult at all except for a few missions even on brutal.

3.The characters are all pretty poor as well. Zhao and Patel are very flat and dont come across as all that interesting. No grit from Zhao and no menace from Patel it feels like they're just line by line reading a script. Fraiser is ok but honestly feels like the voice actor is trying to hard. I feel like the VA we're under utilized or not directed well, especially Zhao and Frasier.

4.The ending was utterly predictable and honestly really tiring with the whole "The Feds are the real bad guys!" which I mean how? The Feds have repeatedly captured bugs for testing before, I don't even understand why this was a plot point at all tbh. I dont see why it would be hidden or secret at all that a mega corporation is working for the Federation to capture bugs for testing. It feels very forced and just thrown in to make a human vs human mission. I saw the "twist" coming from a mile away and from mission 1 knew what the last mission was going to involve.

All in all I feel like the whole merc angle was a waste of time and they could have just added the merc units outside of the rifle squad reskin to the Feds roster as new troops, would have made for a better story if they cut the mercs. Further the appearence of siding with the mercs in the last mission, and it not being possible, was pretty poorly done as well. Considering between Zhao, Patel, and Fraiser, while all of them are frankly flat and uninteresting characters, Fraiser at least had some character and good dialogue. You could tell his VA was trying his best working with a fairly limited and flat script. The choice of course is taken from us and we gun down Fraiser as Zhao, who is upset that Fraiser would lie about the Federation and Hepeastar? Once again why? Why would a massive mega corp that is working with the federation closely to assist in logistics and galactic trade, have to hide the fact they are capturing bugs for the federation science division?

The whole DLC feels very rushed, and outside of the new units which I think are all great other than the rifle squad reskin and the blister bug needing a nerf. The DLC brings nothing new to the table. The missions are forgettable, the characters are forgettable, the story exist I suppose not that its much of a story. It kind of feels like the story was either thrown together last second, or it was larger, but got cut and they had to just staple together what they had to make something.

All in all, I can say buy the DLC, but really only for the new player made scenarios that will feature the DLC units when they update the editor. You arent missing anything worthwhile if you dont play the DLC campaign, people have made much better content as free scenario campaigns in comparison. Very disappointing in my opinion considering how long we've been waiting for it.

[DeLastOne]

Your conclusion sound like watching Starship Trooper 2 hero of the federation

[Silver]

I am happy i bought the DLC

[JustMonika]

Originally posted by DeLastOne:

Your conclusion sound like watching Starship Trooper 2 hero of the federation

That too, was a terrible DLC.

[TRUMP2024]

I have many hours on this game but the DLC was so awful I refunded it

[[☆] flyboy179]

Honestly this story feels like the devs think they were making a game on Hell Troopers logic. I'm not getting this unless some really primo community content mission requires it.

[Bellcross]

the devs should give more challenge maps were you can play with the new units, not just campaign. And UPDATE the older challenge maps to include the new units!!!