Review after 100% Chapter 1.

[Vλgaβoηđ]

I definitely recommend the game, for the price it exceeds most other games in the same price category. That being said, what I am about to tell is out of good intentions and not malice.

For 80% of the game that I liked in it, there is 20% that I either didn't like, or I expected to see.

I'll start with basic stuff.

-Optimization, for the majority of time it runs butter smooth, dipping during extreme explosive combat. But there are certain locations, mainly those that have vision to the "skybox". And yes, this is something I've tested.

Two locations stand out: the Funk Toy Office and Exodus Plaza, they both have a skylight window, which has visuals to the huge background skyscrapers, which, on closer inspections are quite detailed. Looking at them my FPS drops into the ~40, from 60-80. Graphical settings barely affected it.

-Multiple Markers. For when you are secret hunting or saving resources for future levels, being able to mark multiple locations with different color coded markers is a must, especially on higher difficulties. So it was to my surprise that we are limited to 5.

-Can't bring items with myself on the train. Again, this is for secret hunting and using the multitasker. I don't know if this is an engine limitation, but seeing how we are able to transfer the item between levels, I thought it was odd we can't do the same between Safe Rooms. It would've saved a lot of time, instead of backtracking a lot.

Side note, Starlight "level loading" decontamination rooms between the main hall and each respective also don't save what's on the floor. Tested by dropping the multitasker on the ground before exiting, didn't transfer it, but if you hold it in hands, it does transfer.

-Starlight Green Office window bars are bugged, you can just pass through them if the glass is broken. You can crawl back with props, so it's not that big of a problem.

Now we get into the meat and bones.

-Guns. Seeing how difficulty doesn't change damage, certain guns are way more useful than others.
So far my simple tier goes as is:
Pistol - S+, with all upgrades minus the useless Elephant Round, it's a versatile weapon that I use for both CQC and mid-long range.
Shotgun - A, good one-shot kill weapon, but unreliable even with respective upgrades.
Rifle - S, excellent all around weapon for the whole game.
SMG - B, ammo guzzler and barely good vs swarm enemies like the manhacks and crawler mines.
GL - S, it's a grenade launcher. And after getting the hilarious Secret Upgrade, Frag and Acid is OP vs Juggs and SqL groups or just big groups. Ice grenades I haven't found use.
Plasma Rifle - B+, it's okay. S+ - when you get the Gravity Gun upgrade.
Sniper Rifle - C, used to counter snipe, that's it, I haven't found any other use.
Railgun - ?, honestly, I don't know. It seems good, but I've only used it against two Endgame Juggs, and even then they were weakened by Acid nades.

Penetrator - F, worst gun hands down. The only redeeming quality is the Nail Turret that makes it A++ tier. Ammo guzzler with rare ammo, worse damage and accuracy than an SMG makes for worse applied DPS. For something that should be a stand in for LMG, it doesn't feel like one. The upgrades are super expensive and you get them way later on, when instead you can upgrade S+++ tier frags and mines for way cheaper.

-Dawn gameplay wise. There is a huge missed opportunity here, which was only dipped in. In general I like slow movement, if it's justified, like in Selaco, however, the sliding and dash make it feel out place, by clashing the speed of all three.

So we have a relatively normal walk/jog default speed, but then when you slide she has some kind of boosters in her thighs that propel her faster than bullets, more so if you jump, but then you use the dash and it feels like a sidestep. Maybe it's just me, but these different speed numbers give me a cognitive dissonance, something that could've been avoided by having a simple sprint. But that's just basic movement.

Upgrading Dawn on the other hand, now that's where the potential is. Yeah, there is the 4000 melee upgrade and the health w/ bandoliers upgrade secrets, but those are way too basic. Take for example the Portable Health Packs, why not use CULTIC's system, where excess health packs are stored for later and you use that to heal, and each consecutive Portable Health Pack increases the amount held or healed. Or, why not use Gwyn to upgrade Dawn's base speed? Yes, there is Bunny Hopper, but that is temporary. So, why not buy/find an upgrade that allows to store these buffs like in Quake? Same thing for Armor, maybe we can get an optical cloak or thermal goggles ourselves. Maybe get some boot upgrades that allow to jump higher, there's lots of potential here to upgrade not only our arsenal, but our gear and body too, even in Chapter 1.

-Teammates and Enemies.
This is something that stood out the most. Story wise I understand a surprise invasion with precision strikes into key locations by invaders and killing the majority of troops. But later on, it's like a whole week or more has passed. Where is everyone? That is what came to my mind constantly, and knowing that we were basically at Day Zero it's even more baffling.

I've booted Brutal Doom, both Extermination Day and Hell on Earth Starter Pack, to remember how that invasion happened, and it's way more intense. E-Day has a longer "intro" part, where you first appear in a military air base and travel(!) to LA, where you later enter locations from HoESP, and during the whole time there are increasing numbers of enemies, some are left behind in set piece locations guarding important objects and sites. So when you finally arrive in LA you see how it's still ongoing. Tanks, planes, marines are fighting, bombing and clawing tooth an' nail against the demons. And all that happens way long after the initial invasion.

In Selaco, I assume that invaders, despite having Mechs, used smaller groups, but what about our defenders? There are no tank, plane, mech or any other military vehicle wreck, at least none that I've noticed. No major battle has happened? Or is it that our allies are incompetent? Which is something that irks me, I at least expected to see one ally, a Lone Trooper, who is still fighting back and managing to hold his own, whom we could lead to safety. Or a group hurdled in a secure location, like one of the many safe rooms. Something to showcase that we aren't the only one who can "fix everything" or fight back.

This comes to the equal problem of enemy quantity. Upon entering Garage level and further on, the amount of space dwarfs E-Day, yet the amount of enemies is a quarter of that. Is this an engine limitation, or an optimization one? I doubt it's a difficulty thing, because with proper tactics and the amount of space the player has ample room for maneuvers to dodge attacks.

Thing is, in the level Starlight, in all 4 zones, the amount is near perfect, especially in the Purple and Green Purple Storage zones. Yes, please, give me that amount but for every encounter including and past Garage. I get it, breathing room and downtime is important, but the long exploration and big maps more than compensate for it.

When I entered Selaco for the first time, I honestly expected a sniper to shoot me or at least some kind of ambush after finding some key items, or the aforementioned Lone Trooper. And while the Blade Runner-esque soundtrack is pretty tits, there is a thing of have too much foreplay. Take the map where for the first time lights go out as an example, drop two Juggs into the parking lot running at you and cackling, that sure would've been cool, I mean I would've need to change my pants, but it would've been cool. It would've utilized the set piece and atmosphere, while giving a nice homage to FEAR, seeing two red visors 10 meters tall in the dark.

The underutilization of the amazing art, map and sound design to enhance the combat experience by limiting the amount of enemies is what holding the weapons back. Yeah, we came a full circle. Because of this issue, most of the arsenal is underused too, because there is no combat scenario where their specialty is needed en masse, or it's too niche to use.

Here is a breakdown:

Pistol is a one-two shot kill weapon in short to medium range. It's perfect to pop heads and single targets down corridors. When you get double and later triple tap, it turns into a hand cannon and makes the Elephant Round obsolete. This is because for the same three ammo, you can 100% kill more quickly all human sized enemies, minus the Plasma Troops and SqL, these two for some reason are super tanky for me. While the ER upgrade not only gives you insane recoil, but it also can't one shot Rifleman.

So in combo with the Pistol you have the versatile Rifle that pops heads at distance like no tomorrow, and has an accurate Burst attack that is very reliable in motion and medium range. Pretty much all upgrades aside from the melee attack and stagger ammo are useful, so much so I preferred it to SMG.

If SHTF, then you have the Shotgun as backup, which is very situational. While it can one shot, it is VERY slow to pump new shells (something a character upgrade can fix *wink* *wink*) and in panic against multiple opponents, the Cricket is better. So it's mainly used to engage a target you know is around the corner, something open spaces don't have, which makes sense in balancing the Shotgun.

The SMG is only good vs up close Rifleman that surprised you and swarms of fodder enemy. That's it. I tried to use it in other scenarios and it wasn't worth it. The only upgrade I got for it was to reduce spread. Maybe there is a hidden use I haven't found, but neither CQC nor range combat is good.

GL is GL, best hard hitting weapon to fully or near fully upgrade and is the main reason for wanting more enemies. It was a joy to use in Starlight against swarms of spawning enemies, so it's a no brainer to get more stuff to blow up.

Plasma Rifle is okay, I've only intensely used it in the Cloning facility against the "zombies". Because of the projectile velocity, open space combat is also limited, since enemies dodge projectiles. The grav gun upgrade however makes the usage of barrels just *chef's kiss" perfect for someone like me who likes to set up mines and traps.

Which is why I only like the Penetrator for it's nail turret. I empty a full mag of them in a line, trigger an encounter and watch them do the job for me. Perfect area denial with mines. Mines and frags which beg for crowds of enemies and much like the GL are also a reason for more enemies.

Lastly is the Sniper Rifle, which should dominate in open spaces, but with the way enemies have great accuracy even on Normal and dodge your headshots, which by the way are finicky at best, sometimes one-shotting, sometimes not, it's only good against other snipers. Add to this with not many high ground position battles and meh stealth, it really is a niche gun.

There is nothing to add to the Railgun, I wanted to fight a Mech with it... I didn't get to fight a Mech.

And with that we have 4 main weapons that are used 90% of the time, 2 backup in case the 4 fail and 3 niche guns for less than a handful of fights.

That's it for the major part.

The last two things are Hotkeys and Models. Note: these are nitpicks to the extreme and should be treated as such.

1.Is it possible for the HUD to sync with custom Hotkeys when swapping numbers for weapons. I.e. Rifle is set to 4 by default, if I change it to 2, can the HUD showcase the change? This is something many games don't have, I am not sure why.

2.Models. More specifically, are the 3D models as sprites for Dawn and enemies a placeholder? They do seem like placeholders with the "selection" and "cut" tool halo around them.

[Argosax]

I agree with a lot of your assessments. Except on the penetrator. At base level it's a more aggressive and more closed range weapon than the rifle. But the moment you get the nail bomb upgrade, it becomes *another* grenade launcher with a lot of ammo and a quick reload.

Between the regular gl, the nail bombs, and the grenades and mines...every time i was gonna pick a key object, or unlock something, any ambush would turn into giblets in a manner of seconds.

Also, you are sleeping on the railgun. The acid grenades are better for Juggernauts sure, but the railgun is a one hit kill on everything else, with no set up or preparation any more complex than "point and click" at any distance. And even then is a 3 shot kill on a juggernaut on commander diff

[Weruat]

Originally posted by Argosax:

I agree with a lot of your assessments. Except on the penetrator. At base level it's a more aggressive and more closed range weapon than the rifle. But the moment you get the nail bomb upgrade, it becomes *another* grenade launcher with a lot of ammo and a quick reload.

The penetrator also absolutely chews through enforcers. I think the SMGs with dual wield are also a bit undervalued. At close range they eat through most enemies fairly quickly and are fairly ammo abundant, both SMG and penetrator felt like safe choices for close range due to stagger they pack.

[Nexxtic]

Noted, thank you!

[Josh Has Worms]

Performance wasn't an issue for me but I have the perfect CPU for this game. 7950X3D. Some minor dips in performance in the streets level, outside the coffee shop. Otherwise pretty smooth sailing. Some FPS loss when firing weapons but it stays above 120 and is hard to notice.

Absolutely love this game though. So much care went into it and it shows.

[Borreh]

I love the game but was also puzzled by the logic of the invasion. It's like, everyone's gone and it's a dead city in minutes, and there are moments where it stretches believability, you hear combat sounds *all around you* but you just by accident *never stumble into it*, so I assume the invaders are winning, but THEN I leave cloning labs and a desperate invader soldier yells over radio that they're outgunned everyone's dead and they'll die soon, and I am like... Did Dawn do this? Did she murder all of the invader force? I don't recall being where he is so I guess someone else killed his squad, but I never met a surviving security let alone a civilian, so, what is going on?

[Vλgaβoηđ]

Originally posted by Argosax:

Except on the penetrator. At base level it's a more aggressive and more closed range weapon than the rifle.

Originally posted by Weruat:

The penetrator also absolutely chews through enforcers. I think the SMGs with dual wield are also a bit undervalued. At close range they eat through most enemies fairly quickly and are fairly ammo abundant, both SMG and penetrator felt like safe choices for close range due to stagger they pack.

I think that's where my problem lies. It IS an aggressive weapon. In that case it's more of a playstyle weapon choice. However, I'd like to share my experience with it, to give context where I am coming from.

Normal Difficulty, standard stuff. When I get the Penetrator, my arsenal consists of 4 weapons, 3 of which are the main workhorse. I approach combat in a careful, tactical manner, using my environment for cover and forcing the AI into chokepoints, so that I can use nades and mines, while picking off enemies with headshots at a distance with my Rifle. Anyone who comes close, I simply retreat to the next corner and use either the Cricket or Shotgun, depending on range, but Cricket dominates because of it's firerate and stagger ability.

The reason for this approach is that even on Normal, enemies can chew through your armor and health like no tomorrow if you stand too long in one place. Now because of that, the peek-a-boo approach I use with my Rifle is ideal not only in saving on health and armor, but also ammo. This is where the Penetrator (and to an extent SMG) fails for me. It uses the same mechanics as LMGs in BF2142, but with a mag count of 60 the max accuracy isn't sustained for long, and because of the small enemy count, and because they don't group up a lot, I waist ammo, risk health and even if I do manage to get on target, it's applied DPS is lower than if I just two-shot with my Cricket, Shotgun or used the Burst Rifle attack. Then there are also the upgrades which are super expensive and you get the required tech modules way too late, compared to other weapons.

Imo, that is way too much of an investment to consider a weapon good. In FEAR, aggressive playstyle was allowed because of bullet time, something we don't have in Selaco... yet. However, the Penetrator, as I said before, turns into A++ because of the turret. Not only are they more accurate than the gun (they don't use the accuracy spool up), but you can also move them, turning the weapon into a combat tool that compliments your other gear.

The SMG is competing in the CQC category with the Shotgun and Cricket. But, again imo, it's worse because of the ammo guzzling, ammo which I could've used for the Rifle. Without the spread upgrade, it's too inaccurate. Concentrated Fire gives it slightly more options. But the SMG as a whole has the same problem and issue Doom Eternal has, it's way too specialized weapons, i.e. SMG is ONLY all around good & intended vs crawler mines and manhacks. ID Software doubled down on this issue in the DLC, making combating certain opponents REQUIRE a specific single weapon w/ specific mode. That's bad game design.

As I was typing this I did come up with ideas for the Penetrator and SMG which can give them a better niche, something to call their own.

The Penetrator can go the route of the Stakegun from Painkiller. Same mag size, but slower rate of fire. It acts as a huge knockback/stagger weapon, with upgrades increasing these to 11, where upon killing an enemy they can get propelled back and knockdown/stagger enemies in it's path. Maybe there can be a pinning down upgrade that can stop enemies in their tracks. This makes the Penetrator ideal for making breathing room.

The LMG niche can be filled by the SMG. Doubling down on the ROF, one of it's upgrades/modes can be EYE's "Fuller Auto". Triple the ROF, with upgrades that can increase the mag size to 100+ and you have a perfect CQC panic weapon if the Shotgun doesn't cut it. Making it a huge sacrifice of ammo for guaranteed quick kills. Alternatively the taser/shocking path can go the HL2 Hunter route, a burst fire of flechettes that explode, stunning for a short while everything in radius, or firing at a shocked enemy spreads the effect to nearby enemies.

That being said, if you like the Penetrator and SMG - good. Nothing I said should be considered absolute. Maybe it's intentionally made for specific playstyles and tastes.

Originally posted by Argosax:

Also, you are sleeping on the railgun. The acid grenades are better for Juggernauts sure, but the railgun is a one hit kill on everything else, with no set up or preparation any more complex than "point and click" at any distance. And even then is a 3 shot kill on a juggernaut on commander diff

Oh, so it's a 3 shot on Juggs, then the Railgun is S+ easily. The two I killed in Endgame were taken down in two shots, and that was after surviving the Acid+Mine bath I gave beforehand.

What I was telling in OP is a tale old as time of saving up the BFG ammo for the late game boss... only to not get a boss fight in this case. So, yeah, S+.

Originally posted by Josh Has Worms:

Performance wasn't an issue for me but I have the perfect CPU for this game. 7950X3D. Some minor dips in performance in the streets level, outside the coffee shop. Otherwise pretty smooth sailing. Some FPS loss when firing weapons but it stays above 120 and is hard to notice.

My rig is 1070ti and AMD Ryzen 7 1800X with 32GB RAM. I stay above 60 FPS for the most part, aside from the two locations I've described. I do get dips when enemies spawn, but those quickly fade, same if a lot of stuff blows up at the same time. For GZDoom it's very well optimized.

Originally posted by Borreh:

I love the game but was also puzzled by the logic of the invasion. It's like, everyone's gone and it's a dead city in minutes, and there are moments where it stretches believability, you hear combat sounds *all around you* but you just by accident *never stumble into it*, so I assume the invaders are winning, but THEN I leave cloning labs and a desperate invader soldier yells over radio that they're outgunned everyone's dead and they'll die soon, and I am like... Did Dawn do this? Did she murder all of the invader force? I don't recall being where he is so I guess someone else killed his squad, but I never met a surviving security let alone a civilian, so, what is going on?

Agree. Conveniently, Yahtzee released his review partially touching this issue. And you know what, it just dawned on me. The emptiness can be justified, if there was a super effective evacuation procedure. Sure the dead bodies we see is the inevitable "someone has to die", as nothing can be done without casualties. But in general, through notes, at least from Sal, we need to get to a specific location, and after that somewhere else, if I remember correctly it's ACE HQ.

The way I see it, the hospital was a tactical choice to strike, so it was hard to hold off the invasion force to buy enough time and evacuate all personnel, hence the body count.

BUT, and if we give it a bit of thought, the environment detail and storytelling gives us the impression that Selaco is at least Manhattan sized, skyscrapers and all. Now with that kind of size and population, and the implication that Earth fell because of an invasion, there should be procedures and drills in case of future invasions, like this one. Now how would a Manhattan sized station be able to evacuate that amount of civilians so effectively?

Number one is always the media. There is no faster way to send information to the masses. Aside from the obvious PSA/EBS/EAS and Air Raid Siren blasting there should be constantly repeated messages on speakers, tabloids and holo-ad stands telling where to go. Road signs should have clear indicators to ACE HQ, also, the station AI.

Second is the military. In this case ACE troops setting up blockades, outposts and checkpoints to quickly and in fashionably order guide civilians to safety and uphold order to prevent panic, holding the line against the invaders, and when falling back or retreating, they blow up the tunnels and doorway passages.

Third is personal or short range communication, be it through radio, smartphones, wall messages etc. Something that is meant for stragglers or those left behind.

From the amount of cars in working condition and the lack of scenes of outright massacre, and the inclusion of underground infrastructure, I assume there could be a whole system of underground evacuation tunnels at least nearby to each building, like fallout shelters, only connected, and those were used for evacuation.

All this may give justification and explain the emptiness, if it were played on more. That being said, seeing more out-of-bounds combat and noises won't hurt either, along the aftermath of previously fought battles.

Originally posted by Nexxtic:

Noted, thank you!

The pleasure is mine. Really like the game and wish only the best further down Early Access.

[Argosax]

Again on the penetrator issue, i just did some testing and...well, it might be the only weapon where all the weapon mods are ridiculously good. In the rest of the weapons you have to make the very real choice of zoom mode with less recoil and bloom for something that might not be worth it, however, all of the Pen's mods are top tier. The Nail Bomb and Shotgun basically emulate the gl and shotgun and give you a LOT more ammo to be used in those playstyles, while the Nail Turrets can easily pay for themselves and keep you from being flanked.

Compare that to the rifle which becomes pretty meh the moment you take zoom off of it.

[Weruat]

Originally posted by Vλgaβoηđ:

Originally posted by Argosax:

Except on the penetrator. At base level it's a more aggressive and more closed range weapon than the rifle.

Originally posted by Weruat:

The penetrator also absolutely chews through enforcers. I think the SMGs with dual wield are also a bit undervalued. At close range they eat through most enemies fairly quickly and are fairly ammo abundant, both SMG and penetrator felt like safe choices for close range due to stagger they pack.

I think that's where my problem lies. It IS an aggressive weapon. In that case it's more of a playstyle weapon choice. However, I'd like to share my experience with it, to give context where I am coming from.

I think that's completely fair on playstyle choice and your experience with it, I was throwing in my hat for my experience on the weapons. The turret is definitely top tier for Penetrator, but the shotgun and nail bomb both can do work. I think the weapons in the game are designed to be fairly customizable for giving different playstyles different ways to approach them, hence the weapon kits and upgrades and how they work.

[pH. mmSNAKE]

I found the penetrator fantastic. It decent until you get the damage upgrades but few notes about it. Primary fire is fantastic cleanup but even so it kills fairly quickly with couple upgrades, it shines more with nail bomb and the shotgun upgrade. The nailbomb should be fairly self explanatory, but the shotgun fires way faster than you would think. Yeah it will chew through ammo but that hardly matters. It does fine work.

Plasma rifle simply needs the velocity upgrade and it becomes outstanding mid ranged weapon on the move. Bigger issue I found is that it kind of needs that mag upgrade which you don't get until late. Naturally late when you get the gravity gun upgrade it raises the utility of the weapon exponentially.

SMG while it chews through ammo is surprisingly good gun to kill on the move. Noted I only found it really good when having two. I didn't find the other modes that appealing since rifle can just fit that niche better.

Sniper rifle is better from the hip than zoomed. A bit counter intuitive. It's actually a great mid ranged blaster. I found it's scoped use too marginal and the damage on it needs to be tweaked for headshots, but for hip firing with the damage and rate of fire is really good. I found it more accurate than I thought it would be.

Shotgun is god tier. It just requires slightly different approach. Ability to refresh slide becomes incredibly good if you are using environment and layout to your advantage. Simply use in conjunction with objects and slide/melee and it is stupid. I didn't find it that inconsistent with ending thing if my aim is square on them. Blowback is hmm less applicable unless I'm using it wrong, but the double shot is obscene. While yeah it's close ranged beast. Most of the fights are exactly in closer range. So it's applicable to most around the corner bursts and assaults. I found this just as good as Cricket.

Rife is a great all around gun, that I barely used. Yes it works, but I found it too plain and in each applicable case I could use cricket/dmr/plasma at mid ranges or I can use the shotgun/penetrator/cricket at closer ranges. Still I find necessary b&b weapon that functions in any situation.

[GTG3000]

Penetrator is my go-to against Juggernauts, surprised to see you disliked it so much.
Shotgun mode takes them out quickly, and in later half of the game you usually find a penetrator with some ammo every once in a while where big fight is expected.

...completely forgot to try out the grav gun mode on the plasmagun, you get it so late.

Completely agree on the sniper rifle. You'd THINK it would be good for careful one-shot-headshots but nope. Barely used it as a reasult.

Twinned SMGs are really good up close, but boy do they drink ammo. Kinda funny how the shotgun is comparatively bad in the same situation because you are *not* getting a second shot before the enemy can.

Did anyone make use of SMG taser? I found out about it by accident, but it takes so long to reload I forgot about it. It reloads when the gun is stowed, but your swap speed is pretty slow so gun-juggling is a death sentence.

[SilverForte]

Penetrator is actually pretty good, mainly for the alt fire mine and grenade. Primary is good to stunlock enforcers and such.

I'm playing through Selaco must fall and the sniper is much more useful there since you have to play super lame. The game also gives you the sniper earlier at the selaco streets section. I do wish it didnt take so long to unlock the cranial penetrator and charge shot for it though.

[JDR13]

I really like what I've played of Selaco, but it would be great if they could tone down the gore just a bit. I appreciate a visceral experience, but it's immersion breaking (and borderline sillly) when almost every enemy is literally exploding into a fountain of purple blood.

Also, I'd love to see a separate sprint function in addition to the slide. It's feels odd to only have the slide.

[Nexxtic]

Originally posted by JDR13:

I really like what I've played of Selaco, but it would be great if they could tone down the gore just a bit. I appreciate a visceral experience, but it's immersion breaking (and borderline sillly) when almost every enemy is literally exploding into a fountain of purple blood.

Also, I'd love to see a separate sprint function in addition to the slide. It's feels odd to only have the slide.

Set Blood Quality to low!

[JDR13]

Originally posted by Nexxtic:

Originally posted by JDR13:

I really like what I've played of Selaco, but it would be great if they could tone down the gore just a bit. I appreciate a visceral experience, but it's immersion breaking (and borderline sillly) when almost every enemy is literally exploding into a fountain of purple blood.

Also, I'd love to see a separate sprint function in addition to the slide. It's feels odd to only have the slide.

Set Blood Quality to low!

Thanks. I'm not sure how I missed that.

[Kyorisu]

Originally posted by Vλgaβoηđ:

Rifle - S, excellent all around weapon for the whole game.
SMG - B, ammo guzzler and barely good vs swarm enemies like the manhacks and crawler mines.

Okay this warrants a response.
The SMG is actually amazing but you need to be using dual SMGs. With dual SMGs you are triggering enemy pain state all the time. Enemies cannot shoot you back and get stunlocked to death. This makes the rifle a terrible weapon as they share ammo pools and the rifle takes longer to kill things. Always use the SMG it's awesome. Don't believe me? Check out my walkthrough guide on Admiral.

Very far ranged enemies (rare) you can double tap with the cricket or use the sniper rifle as that triggers pain quite reliably as well. That said whatever you choose to spend weapon parts on will be good.