Thoughts on angel of death

[Help]

Almost finished the campaign and honestly just wanted to vent. I like to play games on the highest difficulty usually, for the most part its satisfying and forces that GIT GUD mentality. completed many games as a challenge.

This game I just don't find fun to play on max difficulty, I feel like its an absolute struggle to keep on top of health and armour, feel like i'm being constantly chipped to death and punished when committing to melee i'm playing the game solo as i'm an idiot and the AI is just awful, I've had them get stuck on terrain and just watch me die as I get downed and I reckon the deal throttled damage too. I felt like I did more damage to a carnifex when firing at it vs the AI with an auto bolter, that or they just keep missing.

I feel the enemy AI takes a preference to attacking me as the player vs the AI companions too, becomes a lot more noticeable when you're in the later stages of the game and certain heavy enemies constantly barrage you and only you so you have to keep dodging and pray you have some grenades to burst them. Otherwise you have to pray the AI will help you out...

This game in particular just felt like a frustration to play on angel of death as opposed to a fun challenge. Could be playing the game wrong.

[-GK- Paladin]

Same observations as you except I do find it fun in the sense it challenges me to push even harder or find a solution to the problem presented, but I just think using what little cover can be found and speedily eliminating threats helps a lot too. The difficulty isn't really made to do solo. It is very different with 3 other players as enemy doesn't focus on you alone.

[Help]

Originally posted by -GK- Paladin:

Same observations as you except I do find it fun in the sense it challenges me to push even harder or find a solution to the problem presented, but I just think using what little cover can be found and speedily eliminating threats helps a lot too. The difficulty isn't really made to do solo. It is very different with 3 other players as enemy doesn't focus on you alone.

Yeah I mean I tried using a cover approach and taking things slowly, its just a case of being chipped away which forces you into melee to try and get some armour back. I just think the game plays awkwardly for the difficulty and as you said I don't think the mode was intended to be played solo.

[AdAstraWill]

Originally posted by Help:

Almost finished the campaign and honestly just wanted to vent. I like to play games on the highest difficulty usually, for the most part its satisfying and forces that GIT GUD mentality. completed many games as a challenge.

This game I just don't find fun to play on max difficulty, I feel like its an absolute struggle to keep on top of health and armour, feel like i'm being constantly chipped to death and punished when committing to melee i'm playing the game solo as i'm an idiot and the AI is just awful, I've had them get stuck on terrain and just watch me die as I get downed and I reckon the deal throttled damage too. I felt like I did more damage to a carnifex when firing at it vs the AI with an auto bolter, that or they just keep missing.

I feel the enemy AI takes a preference to attacking me as the player vs the AI companions too, becomes a lot more noticeable when you're in the later stages of the game and certain heavy enemies constantly barrage you and only you so you have to keep dodging and pray you have some grenades to burst them. Otherwise you have to pray the AI will help you out...

This game in particular just felt like a frustration to play on angel of death as opposed to a fun challenge. Could be playing the game wrong.

Just a note, a lot of the reason it feels this way is because Single player (unfortunately) is balanced with Co-op in mind, making single player actually kind of ass to play on higher difficulties. Veteran is the "ideal" but angel of death is basically ruthless difficulty from operations and without anyway to upgrade your gear its going to feel awful.

[Help]

Originally posted by AdAstraWill:

Originally posted by Help:

Almost finished the campaign and honestly just wanted to vent. I like to play games on the highest difficulty usually, for the most part its satisfying and forces that GIT GUD mentality. completed many games as a challenge.

This game I just don't find fun to play on max difficulty, I feel like its an absolute struggle to keep on top of health and armour, feel like i'm being constantly chipped to death and punished when committing to melee i'm playing the game solo as i'm an idiot and the AI is just awful, I've had them get stuck on terrain and just watch me die as I get downed and I reckon the deal throttled damage too. I felt like I did more damage to a carnifex when firing at it vs the AI with an auto bolter, that or they just keep missing.

I feel the enemy AI takes a preference to attacking me as the player vs the AI companions too, becomes a lot more noticeable when you're in the later stages of the game and certain heavy enemies constantly barrage you and only you so you have to keep dodging and pray you have some grenades to burst them. Otherwise you have to pray the AI will help you out...

This game in particular just felt like a frustration to play on angel of death as opposed to a fun challenge. Could be playing the game wrong.

Just a note, a lot of the reason it feels this way is because Single player (unfortunately) is balanced with Co-op in mind, making single player actually kind of ass to play on higher difficulties. Veteran is the "ideal" but angel of death is basically ruthless difficulty from operations and without anyway to upgrade your gear its going to feel awful.

Yeah fully agree with you there

[Grim@FU_BARRACUDA]

Sick if you play it right away, but later when you are used to the combat system, its a good challenge ;-)

[Mr. Mellifluo]

That Carnifex boss fight almost made me to lower the difficulty. Very frustrating indeed getting done solo

[A Goth Elf]

I didn't enjoy it on the hardest difficulty. I finished it a few days ago and it was definitely just a slog. It definitely felt like no matter how good you got at combat, you were constantly getting all your health chipped away by ranged units and if you choose to attack ranged units, you just get melee'd by units that spawn behind you.

Combined with the infrequent med kits, it just wasn't that fun. I think if you had ways of getting out of the center of hordes and higher tier enemies weren't such bullet sponges, it would be more fun. I didn't enjoy having to unload 90-120 rounds of any of the bolters to kill one Warrior Tyranid at range.

The defense missions sucked so much. So many instance you had to decide between losing half your health or shooting gargoyles off the objective. Never felt like I was getting ahead or better.

[Raider Deci]

Originally posted by Mr_Mellifluo:

That Carnifex boss fight almost made me to lower the difficulty. Very frustrating indeed getting done solo

I actually got through mostly because the thing got stuck on the terrain^^ (close to the door it spawns from)

That fight highlights the problem with Titus being SO damn slow!

[Modern Colonial]

I mostly enjoyed it a lot, the exception were the defense missions (antenna, chain and especially reactor), which pushed into frustration for me. The first carnifex fight is awful too. The AI was abysmal and simply there to pick you up once you go down. I thought the chaos sections were much easier than the tyranid sections (Opposite in operations) and completed them without any difficulty.

[Mr. Mellifluo]

Originally posted by Raider Deci:

Originally posted by Mr_Mellifluo:

That Carnifex boss fight almost made me to lower the difficulty. Very frustrating indeed getting done solo

I actually got through mostly because the thing got stuck on the terrain^^ (close to the door it spawns from)

That fight highlights the problem with Titus being SO damn slow!

The same thing happened to me, but I wasn't quick enough enough to seize the advantage. I managed to beat this hideous thing by repeatedly parrying his attacks. It's sequence of three slashes and a stomp. When his damaged he stops, and starts to shoot some projectiles for three times. When he is that state I proceeded to blast him with the heavy plasma rifle. The Emperor was pleased

[Atlas]

The campaign definitely has some challenging moments at the highest difficulty, which I can appreciate, being a fan of the ruthlessness of 40k.

I was very disappointed that there was no achievement for completing the campaign at the highest difficulty. There were a few moments that took a lot of time and perseverance to "git gud" and once I did, I felt I had accomplished something. I kind of wish there was an achievement to show it off though.

[Help]

Originally posted by Atlas:

The campaign definitely has some challenging moments at the highest difficulty, which I can appreciate, being a fan of the ruthlessness of 40k.

I was very disappointed that there was no achievement for completing the campaign at the highest difficulty. There were a few moments that took a lot of time and perseverance to "git gud" and once I did, I felt I had accomplished something. I kind of wish there was an achievement to show it off though.

Just gotta take pride in knowing you beat it i guess haha

[Help]

Originally posted by Nessie:

I didn't enjoy it on the hardest difficulty. I finished it a few days ago and it was definitely just a slog. It definitely felt like no matter how good you got at combat, you were constantly getting all your health chipped away by ranged units and if you choose to attack ranged units, you just get melee'd by units that spawn behind you.

Combined with the infrequent med kits, it just wasn't that fun. I think if you had ways of getting out of the center of hordes and higher tier enemies weren't such bullet sponges, it would be more fun. I didn't enjoy having to unload 90-120 rounds of any of the bolters to kill one Warrior Tyranid at range.

The defense missions sucked so much. So many instance you had to decide between losing half your health or shooting gargoyles off the objective. Never felt like I was getting ahead or better.

Yeah agree with you 100% I got very tilted at defending those pillars, mainly because the AI was useless, their pathing got broken and you're left to defend the pillars while getting harassed to pieces, best way to beat that I found was to get a bolt rifle w grenade launcher and not miss, everything made it into a chore.

[MrLuckless]

I played the game on the normal equivalent just below veteran and that felt right difficulty wise, then went back and replayed it with 2 friends on veteran which, again, felt about right. My time in normal already clued me in that any difficulty higher than veteran at minimum was going to be an uphill battle with how braindead the AI can get at times. They don't do objectives, they often stand around doing nothing, will often ignore executable enemies and generally act poorly. Hearing that they're getting an adjustment at some point is good to hear. I hope they do similar for operations so that when the game inevitably peters out and players move on to different games, it can still be played solo.

[Chaos]

Yeah, tho to a lesser degree than the one in Operation mode.

The higher diff of this game is nothing but fighting bullet sponge, while I enjoyed having to be careful to not taking too much damage by being somewhat tactical but all the bullet sponges kinda limit your options a lot and make most of the guns feel like ♥♥♥♥.