Enjoying the game but..

[Vulgrim]

It is very, very annoying how often the devs felt the need to drop enemies directly on your head or right behind you.

There are better ways to build tension and increase challenge that don't involve dropping powerful enemies next to you. Also, I've gotten to the point where any time I fight a powerful enemy I already know to turn around because they *always* spawn one or two behind you.. really exciting the first time but cheap and boring every time after.

[Aoji Cresini]

change the difficult, survivalist change some spawns i think...

[ThunderGr]

I can tell there are others about by the sound. Also, I avoid staying on the same place a lot, because they drop from above, as well. As you walk through the corridor you can keep track of places that might be venues for necromophs to jump on you after a power failure or another event.
Also, they do not *always* spawn behind you, if behind you is a wall. I always try to position my back against a wall, when possible, when necromorph assaults happen. If I can't...shoot quickly to delay the ones in front, spin around while moving to the side to shoot the ones from behind, use force gun to throw them back, switch to plasma gun for rapid fire or ripper for close grinding, shoot Shoot SHOOT..aaarrrrgghhh! one dropped on me(franticaly tapping E) *get off me you b*stard*(throwing it off) SHOOT SHOOT....ehm...well...it is a very intense game ;).

[Sammich]

I think that's the selling point for me. The fact that monsters don't just conveniently always pop up in front of you for you to shoot to death before they reach you.

For me, the whole idea of "watch your back" helps build up tension which increases my immersion in the game.

Btw, they don't just spawn behind you, they actually come out of the vents. If you paid attention to the writings on the wall in the earlier part of the game... There are sayings of "stay away from the vents" in blood writing. The necromorphs are smart depending on the area you're in, sometimes running away from a necromorph and entering a door, some necromorphs will crawl back into the vent and pop out in the vent inside the closed door room you're in if a vent is available.

[Vulgrim]

Originally posted by Sammich:

I think that's the selling point for me. The fact that monsters don't just conveniently always pop up in front of you for you to shoot to death before they reach you.

For me, the whole idea of "watch your back" helps build up tension which increases my immersion in the game.

Btw, they don't just spawn behind you, they actually come out of the vents. If you paid attention to the writings on the wall in the earlier part of the game... There are sayings of "stay away from the vents" in blood writing. The necromorphs are smart depending on the area you're in, sometimes running away from a necromorph and entering a door, some necromorphs will crawl back into the vent and pop out in the vent inside the closed door room you're in if a vent is available.

Well, I'm not really sure where you're going with this. I didn't say the game was too hard because enemies pop up behind you, just that it's a neat trick once or twice but after a while you start to expect it and it becomes rote.

That said, I did see what it said next to the vents, but I don't see how it wouldn't have been obvious to most people that's where they're coming from. You're arguing semantics here, they're not spawning behind you in the traditional sense, but it's effectively the same thing if they show up behind you from a vent.

As an aside, I don't think anything I've seen in this game's AI so far can even remotely constitute as "smart". Most of the enemies either run directly at your face or they take cover for a few seconds then run directly at your face.

I think you misunderstood my post, the point of which was that the enemies in this game are actually really cool and pretty creepy, it would have been awesome if they did more with them than just the handful that appear and run directly at you.

[ThunderGr]

This is not really accurate.
1)When you cripple necromorphs, sometimes they just play dead, so that when you close up to stomp them, they take a hit at you.

2)Infectors run around the place to flank you or drop on you.

3)There are those necromorphs that hide behind crates, taking peeks at you before, at some point, decide to charge at you at high speed from an unpredictable direction and, after they charge you, they run back to hiding.

4)Stationary necromorphs, hiding in the corners that you can easilly miss and hit you hard when you pass by them.

5)Range attack necromorphs: They take positions on walls, ceilings or whatever and fire at you

6)Spawning necromorphs: They spit smaller necromorphs that fire at you

7)Artillery necromorphs: They fire explosive things at you from a long distance(Ouch!)

8)Exploding necromorphs: In several variations. You can use them to your advantage if you spot them from a distance but if they are relatively close to you, you'd better avoid shooting at the explosive part...

9)Acid vomiting necromorphs...

...and more. Really, what you say simply does not reflect the real situation in the game.

[Abaddon Spanks]

As jump-scare (not) as this game is, and as frustrating as the controls can be, I for one find stomping the BeeJeebus out of the corpses kinda satisfying...

[MageThis]

OP lost me at "spawning behind you" and the bit about it was obvious they were coming from the vents. I do that in-game, you know, backpedaling as I shoot.

[Vulgrim]

Originally posted by MageThis:

OP lost me at "spawning behind you" and the bit about it was obvious they were coming from the vents. I do that in-game, you know, backpedaling as I shoot.

The enemies travel through vents, that's the obvious part, but the enemies also spawn into the area through vents. I'm not sure what part of this is so confusing.

If you go into a reasonably clear area and watch the vents you'll see enemies shownig up from inside them, not just traveling through them.

That's what I meant by spawning behind you, sometimes you're busy fighting a group of monsters and several of them show up from the vents behind you. REGARDLESS of whether they get there by traveling through the vents or spawning in there, it's nonetheless an annoying trick that wears out its welcome reasonably quickly.

My point was that several sections of the game increase difficulty by doing "cheap-shots" where you're riding an elevator and an enemy drops on you, or while you're busy fighting 5-6 monsters down a hall a handful come up behind you.

Whether they're spawning or traveling isn't the point of the discussion, it's that the game relies on this mechanic as a crutch far too often to inflate the difficulty and that makes it annoying.

[PaulJohn]

It's annoying. Really annoying. The game is alright so far but the whole "oh dear we dropped 3 enemies directly on top of you with no time to react or move" is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lazy game design. No level of skill can help you if this happens. All it forces the player to do is die and then not stand in the same place next time. Yay. Thrilling.