Review: The game could be awesome, but it needs a major rework

[Chi]

I think this game should get a major rework, I don't want to adress the mechs, weapons or any other gameplay system, but the fundamental game direction. Let me explain:

Coming from other wargaming and a lot of other games.
The developers tried to make it quite tactical. It ends up feeling similar to World of Tanks, in terms of vision and overall how the rounds play.
But the problem is, this goes against the aggressive playstyle I feel like the game is designed for. The fights are quick, the complete tactical aspect gets lost. This isn't like World of Tanks, you can hit people way to easy because of size and mobility, so fights are over FAST.

This is why I think the complete game should be based around respawns. I strongly think a one time death should NOT be the way. A respawn system with a capture the flag game mode, deathmatch gamemode or "2 vs. All" gamemode with killpoints would be SIGNIFICANTLY MORE FUN.
And the maps are very big. I love the points of interest, but man do these matches feel empty. The fact so many drones are in between player fights shows the absolute need for more fighting. But in the current state, you cannot just add in more teams, because then rounds are over even more quickly (for some teams) and the supposed tactical playstyle would be even closer to 0. HOWEVER imagine more teams when there are RESPAWNS. As a beautiful comparison, I am strongly reminded of the original Tanki Online from 2010-2013. That is EXACTLY what I think Wargaming should design the game like for a mech fighter.
And it wouldn't be just better for the players, this would mean the developers have way more freedom of choice for mechanics in maps, because failing isn't as punishing and more diversity in mech weapons and builds, which are a big expectation and fun aspect in mech games. Overall I think this change would significantly increase player engagement and fun. For a ranked mode, you could easily make one mode where it's 5 teams without respawn or with only 1 respawn. But then please make the maps smaller.
Cause the current 6-team experience is not good, maps feel too monotone, chaotic and big. I believe respawns + smaller maps are the way for Steel Hunters to be successful.

I completely expect nothing to be changed at all. But the hopes are there. If someone from the developers reads this: Please just try it out as a test gamemode (you must remove the level up systems inside the rounds for this to work btw). If someone in your team has played Tanki Online back in the day, ask them about it, for potential respawns in Steel Hunters.

[Neyreyan_Youtube]

More or less,they need to make changes to how combat works and give a selection of different guns for each mech.
The game should be about personal objectives and stronger more varied pve.
At the end of the beta people were rushing initial tower locations and we would sometimes fight for 5 minutes and then the top 2 teams won anyway.
Level 5 robots with upgrades just shred lower level robots.
We need other objectives so players are not encouraged to fight at level 1-2 and proper extraction so the strongest team doesnt stomp everyone else

[koretego]

Deal braker for me is playing with random teammate :) For WoT it's 15v15 or more. There is chance that someone will know what they are doing. Here? Not sure. Odds are not in favour of this one. I like concept tho. Helldivers is better.

[kikibrik]

Hello! Thank you for your detailed feedback! I passed it on to the teams for them to see what we can take from it :) I like your idea of ranked with 1 life, it would make it quite interesting.

[Avuja]

Counter-point from someone who thoroughly enjoyed the playtest: All of OPs opinions are trash and the game's fine as-is. Devs should maintain their vision because it works instead of worrying about what other games are doing.

[Cizjut]

Originally posted by Avuja:

Counter-point from someone who thoroughly enjoyed the playtest: All of OPs opinions are trash and the game's fine as-is. Devs should maintain their vision because it works instead of worrying about what other games are doing.

Reading through the OP it was also my thought. The game works like this. If he wants another game mode then that is fine though, but respawning doesn't seem to be any "fix" to any "problem" described. I mean I see neither of them.

I do like the positioning importance of the game and the decent TTK. It makes up for more interactions other than a Counter Strike "gotcha". I feel the action is fine, and since the TTK can be quite high, it has to matter when a kill is achieved. It's an extraction shooter too, so it makes no sense to have respawns. And in fact, it DOES have respawns. I've respawned 3 times on a match or had a really annoying enemy that kept respawning because his partner was successfully escaping.

Originally posted by kikibrik:

Hello! Thank you for your detailed feedback! I passed it on to the teams for them to see what we can take from it :) I like your idea of ranked with 1 life, it would make it quite interesting.

If anything you should consider more game modes, but that's an obvious and known request already.

[Drogash]

you clearly didnt play this game at a high level at all, because it is so easy to run away and revive your team,
also its very easy to counter each mech once you understand how each of them play, and no there weakness, every mech in this game has a weakeness, and it is great once you understand the game and know the weakness of that mech