Πρόσφατες κριτικές από τον Pave

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Worth noting:
I have owned this since the original release on Capcom's own (Digital River) Store (August 25th 2008).
I primarily just wanted to boot-up and see if this Steam-version runs in the first place.
Yes, you'll need to install "AGEIA PhysX v7.11.13" which the Steam-installation provides automatically on the first boot.
But otherwise on my setup? No, I wasn't forced to go hunting for "3-year-old PhysX legacy drivers" or anything else like that.
And the game is running just as well as it is supposed to
( though obviously perhaps better than what it did back then 13-years ago on my "ATHLON 4600X2" although even back then the game was super well optimized ).

Here is my computer as of writing this (with the most up-to-date drivers, BIOS (yes, "TPM 2.0"-enabled) and software:
- Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX X570-F Gaming
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
- GPU: Sapphire Radeon RX 590 8GB NITRO+ Gold Edition
- RAM-amount: 32GB
- Two Monitors with 1680x1650 and 1920x1200-resolutions
Max resolution output of this game is 1680x1650.
And yes, it has the default "borderless-fullscreen"-default if you try to output past the max-capacity of your monitor.
So, in order to move the game-window to larger monitor, you'll need to turn the resolution down enough (E.G. 1200x800) in order to get "borders" to move the game window around.

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As for the game itself, it's the same as it was back in 2008.
As in it still functions and full-on -playable with gamebreaking bugs I am aware of
( well okay, there have been some feature-update(s) sure before "Grin" was shutdown.
And I am uncertain if Capcom has since released any maintenance-updates ).

The (optional) tutorials are still very comprehensive alongside the challenge-courses.
The gameplay itself still superb like it was were back then.


But as said at beginning, better into the details yet once again was the main point of this "review".
But to primarily post that the game indeed actually can be run with modern equipments
( even if mine is like 3-years old at this point as of writing this ).

If you can get this game for even cheaper than the current 9€/10$-asking price, and the game runs on your setup, this game certainly is well the buck
( especially since I personally bought this for 15€ originally ).
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Welcome to totally 100% "Orange_Juice"-universe where all kinds of girls (and boys) keep flying all around the places.
...Well, aside of course currently being board-bound. But that's another story you can unlock yourself in this game.

"100% Orange Juice" on surface might be your ye-olde "attack-defence"-dice-rolling-board-game
(and for the most part it is).
But there are various elements that are far easier to pull-off as a online-video-game.

Most important being the card-deck being built by all the players in collectable-(non-trading-)card-style:
The deck consists 48-cards; 10-cards from each (four) players and 8(-blank)-Hyper-cards which are dependant on which of the players/characters pull this card out of the deck.
Each player can bring three (3) of each cards unless there is a "Max 1"-stamp on the card.
And like collectable-cards in real-life, one is able to gain more these cards one-at-the-time via the booster-packs each "theme" costing different amount of stars
( it might sound really slow experience at first. But in reality the game is quite generous, so this shouldn't take more than few hours of super consistent-active gameplay to complete ).


As for the general-gameplay itself, the best description for the most part is "Utter chaos!"
"Anything goes" and "It's Everyone's Game" are also fitting because even when things seem to go completely "South" one can have that deciding dice-roll or otherwise making a seemingly impossible-style comebacks in a super-underdog-style.

The same thing of course applies to more "tryharding achievement hunting":
Even with meticulous plannings and executions, either due singular mistake or just utter sheer bad-luck, a victory against Co-op boss might be thrown out of the window just right at the winning round/chapter.


As of writing this, there are three (3) main-game-modes beside the "Story / Campaign"-section:
"Normal (PvP)" and the variation "Bounty"
In both modes the players race to "Final Norma"
In "Normal" it's mainly whatever means necessary be it "bullying" and so on.
In "Bounty" players need to complete fetch-quests and mob-hunting Bounties in order to win.

"Co-op" is all (four-)players against a boss (and their minions), where generally speaking dice and rest of other random-number-generation(s) are always against you.
But that doesn't mean you necessarily will be completely out-of-luck-either since by playing-by-rules the players can do various interesting (semi-meta-)tricks. Or maybe by sheer determination one can also win or at the very least last over 30-rounds/chapter in order to collect the 100%-payout of oranges and role-XP.

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After numerous "close-ones", most of the times the feeling, to me at least, tend be more of simple:
Oh well...time for another round!"
Why?
I'd say the most important being the general "loop" being quite short (usually between 15-30-minutes) alongside the uncertain-chaos pretty much negating the "unwinnable-snowballs".

And very importantly the "outside"-game-section is worth mentioning too:
Just playing until the end tends to you give you a nice sum of "stars" and various other currencies that can be used in-game-store to purchase various kinds of cosmetics and other useful things not limited to boards/fields/maps and new cards.

In other words, there tends to be an actual feel of constant progression without having the need to sitting hours-on-end to simply waiting everything to end
( provided of course that gamespeed is being kept at max alongside the turn timers aren't turned-off or at 90-seconds ).

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Now it's also worth noting that base-game is very-very bare-bones character-selection-wise. Although there is also two rotating selectable characters each week. And of course if you jump-in mid-session you're allowed to play with the character that is already on the board.
That being said, I for one highly recommend eventually get the complete-edition of this game:
Each of the (non-mob-)characters are uniquely voiced
( aside for character-variations that are unlocked by owning other Orange Juice-universe games ),
they have their own theme-music,
and aside for specific cases they either miss some "event"-cosmetics or they might even same extra-exclusives
(E.G. "Debut Kiriko" ).


The base price of ~6€ is low enough already.
And getting the full-game for max 70€ makes seem like a bargain in comparison to numerous other "freemium" and "Triple-A"-games.

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So, if you like simple-chaotic-free-for-all-board-games, this is a very reasonably entry-priced one.
There are of course intricacies alongside some more myriad secrets, so reading through the Wikia is highly recommended.
But otherwise generally this game has a very low barrier-of-entry to both board-game-newbies and veterans alike

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Nothing new I am writing about, so I'll try to keep it simple with the worst-of-the-worst offenders in my (current) book:
If you already have experience with "Grand Theft Auto (5/V) Online", the experience is pretty much the same here:
Some things are done better;
some are worse;

But the most importantly the "foundation" is the very same "Peer-to-Peer"-multiplayer which was not (that) good of a solution in early 2000's and has only gotten worse
(( mind you, "Peer-to-Peer" in which everyone is a "host" certainly still far more better solution than "listen-servers" in which only a singular player is the "host":
This means in case of "Red Dead Online", majority of the things continue as normal even when you get separated from the session/lobby without the needs of "host migrations" or otherwise things just ending like in "GTA Online" in which things are worse even outside "Heists" and other "closed"-sessions )).

There might be no "Orbital Cannon" here in wild(er)-west. But that doesn't stop "people" from setting you up on fire which spastically flung all over the places when your pockets are chain-exploding.

Basically, if you can think of a way "modders (or trainers?)" can ruin things, they will certainly do it, just in like "GTA Online" but even worse here
( mainly because there are no options to avoid them completely unlike in GTA Online especially due lack of anything resembling private sessions / lobbies, as of writing this ).

But of course, most importantly "Rockstar Games / Take-Two Interactive" not hosting any of the gameplay-servers means that they don't need to take any accountability for pretty much anything. And thus everything is the fault of (paying customer /) players themselves.

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"Overanimation" has gone so far too overboard here it simply prevents gameplay ever more than in "GTA V/5 Online".
Some examples:
- "Jumping" and therefore "vaulting" is somewhat contextual in the sense that, yes, you're freely able to jump around on flat-open grounds. But if you'd want to jump on say table or some specific boulders, the jump animation won't even initiate next to these objects.
Perhaps most importantly you cannot jump / climb onto wagons / carriages
("falling" onto them is something I personally have yet to test ).
And just to clear, I am not talking of the context-prompt-jumping from horse-backs onto other context-targets (trains, horses, etc.). But the actual dedicated "jump"-button, whenever that is not "pickup/stow/etc."-prompt.
- Outside the cutscenes, the characters cannot even do a simple "spin" without making a wide circle, which in practice means that tend fall off very easily on narrow surfaces
( "workaround" is to aim with a gun and then turn with the "camera / aiming-reticle ).
- Do not even dare to brush your horse if you're more than one micrometre away from the designated spot;
sure, you do the brushing-animation all fine, but that simply isn't "counted" thus the "brush-warning-light" simply does not go away until you're on the "correct-level".

Especially horse-animation-wise, this all feels far worse than the year-2010 "Red Dead Redemption":
Like back then it was somewhat funny, as seen with "GTA 4/IV Billboard Glitch with Police"-videos.
Now all these animation-dependant things are just obstructions
( E.G. things not taking damage from (bow &) arrows because the "damaged"-animation didn't trigger, despide the body-sized blood-splatter on the body and ground near them that the hitbox had been hit from point-blank ).

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And (for now) lastly, the naturally-deranged Harriet Davenport is so obsessed turning you into yet another drug-addict that she puts a complete full-stop progressing "The Naturalist"-role. for the reasons unknown
( could be a bug triggered by a chipmunk being trampled by a carriage I was escording during a Stranger-mission, for all what do I know ):
25-Gold-bars well spent on content I never have any further access to...

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Obligatory “worth noting just in case”-forewords:
I am certainly not writing anything “revolutionary” or otherwise new.
And generally I try to look at from a perspective “what other games of like this” offers when making comparisons and other related comments heavily influenced my own preferences.
So, as always, “take this following content with a grain of salt”.
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Main-review-part:
As a media-franchise, “Armello” has been a very interesting one from the get go.

As a “board-game” and generally as a “game” it is able to fulfill at least two of the biggest cardinal sins of game-designs:
- Lack of player agency
- Withholding gameplay information from the players

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The Lack of Player Agency:
The lack of player-agency is especially highlighted on all players who are in the “receiving-side”.
Or to put it overly-simplified: “If you’re about to get damaged/demised, there is for the most part nothing you can do about it.”

In games generally the gameplay revolves around risk-management, even further in “player-character-parametre (/role-playing-game-stats)”-games.
The “problem” snowballs whenever there is no risk to begin with, primarily by the complete lack of fail-conditions.
This happens with everything that is meant to happen with 100%-success-rate when the conditions are triggered, which while as a concept are nothing new, rather it’s the how of “risk-free-high-rewards” these things are.


Let’s for an example take the “Berzerker”-ability of the character called “Fang”:
The main “bread-and-butter” of this ability is that whenever he is the attacker/assaulter
(that is the one initiating the battle-encounter),
if he happens to “slaughter” their opponent
(causing +3-damage further after the “killing blow”,
I.E. opponent would have health/hit-points of minus-3 after the battle),
the battle ends / opponent is not allowed to counter-attack.

When combined by the fact that this character (“Fang”) already starts from get-go with (lore-fittingly) high amount of face-off-fighting-capabilities
( he has 5-hit-points and is allowed to throw 6-dice during combats ),
he can be a little too easy to use as a “bully” especially if he is able to be the assaulter against much squishier or other lesser face-on-fighting-capable players.
Yes, the “risk-management” with “Berzerker” is that from the start Fang suffers 1-damage every “morning/dawn” considering this “Rot” being very difficult to get rid of generally speaking.
But for a “steam-train”-Fang it generally tends to be just a minor nuisance in the grand scheme of things, especially once he is able to turn this dawny-health-loss into health-restoration by becoming “corrupted” and also reign supreme in “Rot-battle” where he gets even more dices to roll during battles.


Then there are “instant-actions” which happen outside your own turn.
During the turn of the player, they’re immune to “tampering” of other players.
Or in other words, no opponent is allowed to play any actions directly onto-them outside their own turn.
The players outside their own turn alongside not currently engaged in combat however are allowed to fiddle with each other with no limitations.
The problems of “instant-actions” surface yet once again in form of “high-rewards-zero-risks” in the sense that everything played directly onto the player-token succeeds without a fail as opposed when the card is played as a “Perril”.
In other words, as an example, generally speaking using a damage-card directly-on the player is “smarter” than playing these cards before-hand as “traps” in hopes of hindering or otherwise sabotaging your opponents. Nevermind the fact there is no “predicting” when being played-upon as opposed to always knowing from get-go what the up-coming “Perril” is since the game informs the name of the which has been played on a tile
(aside maybe in one exception-scenario, which we’ll glance upon in the next “sin”).


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Withholding gameplay information from the players:
Let’s get started by the fact that, by default, there is no way to review the past events in this game. Most importantly this is due the lack of any sort of replay-tool.
Yes, there are (optional) log-files created which one can try to read and then perhaps review the past events
(as of writing this, there is even a 3rd-party-project which allows the log-files to be visualized to some extent, but only the end-results).

But otherwise in-game, one is only allowed to see things from their own perspective with no way of knowing what others have been doing during a large portion of this game.
This is especially true when your opponents are “Stealthed”, which not only deactivates their “creature/hero”-state
( I.E. you are not able to play any “On A Creature/Hero”-card ).
But this state also masks all of their other actions unless they have “Scouted” or their Stealth-state has broken otherwise.
This can lead to very confusing situations such as “how did he get X-item” and so on mainly because all the actions, especially info-pop-ups for “Questing” are completely hidden from the in-match “event-feed”.

Various other withheld information includes the current amount of cards in the hands of your opponents, unless these players in questions are in an “Encounter”.


But perhaps the most important information withheld is the location where the “Spirit Stone” is going to materialize next...if you aren’t “cheating”.
The fact is, that the aforementioned log-file(s) do clearly tell to players where the next Spirit Stone does appear
(“SetSpiritStoneSpawnStoneCircle ((+/-X,Y))”),
it’s just that unlike with “Banes”
(“SetBaneSpawnDungeon ((+/-X,Y))”,
there is no visual nor audio-cue indication of the spawning point shown to players.
( EDIT:
There actually is visual-indication where the Spirit Stone will spawn next.
But compared to "banespawn" the visual is very faint "fireflies" which pretty much cannot be seen at all unless zoomed all the way in. )

As hinted, by just simply keeping this real-time-written log-file auto-refreshed, one can also negate any of the “masking” done in this game.
In other words, the aforementioned “Stealth”-state, aside for the mostly “Non-playable-character”-immunity and the chance for “Ambush” and of course not being a “Creature/Hero” while in Stealth-state, is pretty much completely useless against player who simply actively keep reading this log-file while in game.


These are just some of the two biggest “only possible in digital-board-game”-features which are semi-trivial to circumvent
(as you have the tools already given by the game-developers themselves;
you’ll just need to practice on speed-reading and such since these log-files are written in quite plain-English).


So this brings up a question:
What is the point of withholding numerous “normal”-information from “normal”-players, if can “cheating” by glancing over a “piece-of-paper” to find pretty much all the information anyway?..

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The team behind “Armello” set-to somewhat “redefine” a board-game in a digital-form, only to end up making even less of “sense” than a board-game should make by at the same taking away information players would have for the risk-reward-management alongside making “unpredictable”-elements to require zero-error-rates.

An (average of an) hour per session is a very steep and risky time-investment which usually tends to result in the majority of players to sink into a state of “why even bother?..”.

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Due the character-limit, here is the Google Doc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18RxRTJPyiObI0thtUThXW9Zed5LeVsbSzv0S1wFGgy8/
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Foreword:
I am looking at "Crucible" with lenses tinted by "Super Monday Night Combat" and "Dead Island Epidemic".
And for the most part my review is more of
"What this game offers to a old-timer such as myself?"-style:

- There is no three-way matches like the "Scavenger" (4vs4vs4)-mode in "Dead Island Epidemic".
There are, as of writing this:
a 4vs4 “kill-boss-capture/steal-tag/flag”-mode;
a 2vs2vs2vs2 permadeath-mode with a possibility to team-up with another solo-person until the “last-three-person-mexican-standoff”, I.E. a Battle-Royale-Last-Man-Standing-mode;
and 8vs8 “Domination/Control”-mode.


- Comparatively to two other aforementioned games, instead of the player-levels being completely exclusive to themselves, the whole team consists of the singular power-level.

All the gained and gathered “Essence / experience-points” are globally shared with the whole team, alongside the passive-gains from the "towers".
So this means that in all game-modes a singular “jungler” alone
( I.E. the player who generally concentrates on killing non-player-mobs)
can make a huge difference level/upgrade-gain-wise.
This is also included by the fact that “Junglers” can also try to “ninja” various buff-towers that dropped periodically into the map:
These towers come from variety of classic-buffs
(E.G. Damage-boost, healing-boost, etc.)
to some other “interactive”-actions
(E.G. capturing all the harvester/passive-XP-towers, revealing the location of enemy-team(s), generating overshield while using “interact”-button, etc.).

Naturally player-killing can also net nice chunk of experience-points. Although it can be much slower or otherwise unreliable whether your team is able to finish-off the player(s) in the first place.


Although there is score kept for “last-hits”, generally the “kill-stealing” has been completely eliminated from this game.
As a “SMNC”+”DI:E”-veteran, this actually makes me really happy since at the very least this game has tried to take on different take or at least (secretly) learn from two aforementioned-games
(in SMNC, the players who did damage on targets within 5-seconds or so still got full-credits with the “assist”.
And in last-iteration of “DI:E”, both player-kills and assist were combined into “Takedowns” alongside the addition to “Healing” and “Damage done”-columns).
“Jungling” is highlighted in this game so showing both much “Essence/experience-points” players had been gathering around the map alongside all the activated “buffs/objectives”.


- Communication-wise there is no text or voice-chat.
Everything either done with robust enough “commo-rose” with “ping/marker”-capabilities
(“Look, Enemy, Help, Group-up.Thanks, etc.”). All these communication-quips can be also assigned to specific key-bindings.
There is also semi-automatic-communication happening in “Detect-mode” which also acts as the crouch in this game;
“crouching / detect-mode” also can automatically highlight various pick-ups and objectives on the pocket-map which can also be interacted with the mouse-clicks alongside the “tool/help-box” on all the blips.

Like in “SMNC” the player-line-of-sights are shared thus all the opposing-team-players are seen by the whole team across the whole map
(in practice, if your team-mate sees an enemy-player, this target-player is highlighted in as red-outlines through world-object and also on the pocket-map).
Player-characters also do automatically banter their status
(E.G. a character has “overheated” and thus is only able to melee) similar to how “Brink” automated the communication-system
( for those aware, “Brink” is a game developed “Splash Damage Ltd., and in essence is “Enemy Territory 3” ).


- Matchmaking-wise the game is single-character-single-mode-queue;
this means you’re locked-into the character and the game-mode while in queue instead of being able to choose the character before the match begins.
Depending on the game-mode there either is or isn’t a character per team limitation.

Personally I am happy that I do not need to play the “region-roulette” alongside this game being region-free.


- Setting/Options-wise there is various neat surprises:
-You can for example edit how the subtitles / Voice-to-text shown on the screen
( E.G. Font-size and amount of lines-of-text ).
-Input and Key-bindings covers pretty much everything-everything.
-You can even adjust the mouse-speed-sensitivity character-specifically alongside weapon-specifically if the character has multiple weapons.

In overall, the settings/options-section covers pretty much everything a modern-video game while still maintaining the game-balance without giving hardware-related or other advantages
(“Framerate”-limitation-options to both 60 and 30-hertz is a good plus if you happen to have a beefy GPU but no display-monitor going past 60Hrz;
no more melting GPUs).


- As of writing this, all (10) playable characters are available from the get go;
there is no weekly rotations or otherwise needs to purchase/unlock the characters.
Each character their movement-focused-ability, and abilities #123;
#3 usually is also either the alt-fire-ability or the aim-down-sight-mode of the weapon.
Before each match, one can also adjust their character “upgrade”-choices to suit their own play-styles better
(E.G. whether they want to have their flamethrower reach slightly further away, or if they want to add an “stomp”-follow-up to their rocket-jump-ability).


- As for the in-game store and to which to use cash-currency “Credits”.
This only consists of cosmetics and other audio-visual things such as emotes, emojis, and Voice-lines. Plus also profile-tags and avatar-logos.
Problems: It’s “classically” far too overpriced; a singular skin can cost more than 10€;
at the moment of them even costs 15€ as of writing.

And then there is (of course) a “Battle Pass”.
“Twist” here is that you cannot advance the paid/main-pass at all if you haven’t chipped in 10€ for it.
Or rather you can advance it sure, but only by doing the “daily”-objectives of which there is only three of them, usually totalling only 7-points;
“weeklies” which are always available can only be unlocked/progressed for the 10€ price-tag.
Out of 80-rank, the “Free”-tier only has twelve (12)-items each unlocked around every third (3rd)-rank;
nothing on free-tier past rank-36 if one is even able to get there by only completing the daily-objectives
(as of writing, there is 37-days left on this “Pre-season-Season-Pass”).
(( And before you say:
“But didn’t they give you 10€-equivalent / 1000-credits when you logged in during this Pre-season-phase?”
Yes, they did.
But I am primarily talking for the future;
if the system stays same, then this what I’ve written still is how the system-works, regardless whether the devs end up “giving away the Battle Pass” or not, considering that I could have wasted these credits on something else in the store. ))

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So my current end-conclusion plus wishes:
I want to play this game more.
It has a very good base of allowing me to just-down, queue-up and play the matches.
The “tacit-communication”gameplay-choice of the devs is very interesting and works quite well in my experiences due the well done HUD-elements alongside the robust commo-rose and communication-key-bindings.


I however do not feel encouraged to spend any of the credits at the moment;
I might do some “donations / tips” if the game keeps being improved further.
But the in-game-store prices are simply far too high which is extremely discouraging to me.


I do hope there will be a server-side hosted match-replay-file-system and broadcasting/spectating-mode for us players eventually, just like “Super Monday Night Combat” did use to have.

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Basically it is "Crush Crush" but the handsome man-boy-version.

Writing is still top-notch.

And well, I can't really think of anything else to add than if you liked "Crush Crush" as a nice time-sink, then more than likely you also like "Blush Blush".

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The game is trying to set up itself into "yet another eSports-title"-vibe without having any of the fundamental or otherwise minimal tools available to players.

Most importantly there is no replay-tool of anykind.
Even the match "history" only lists the date, end-result ( Victory or Defeat ), what character you used, which arena (our of two) was played on, and the singular game-mode ( Casual ).

If you don't screenshot the end-result-pages yourself, there is no way for you access them ever again.

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Multiplayer-matchmaking-wise you're also limited to singular region out of four
( Europe, North America, South America, China ).

There is no "single-queue / multi-region"-matchmaking, which can result the matchmaker taking several minutes even when there is only a single (online) game-mode available at the time of writing, since there is also zero-indications where players are queuing at.

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The tactics and strategies for the most part are non-existent primarily because the one carrying the ball doesn't have any disadvantages / there is zero risks to carry the ball.

Add the fact that one of the maps
( Metal God Arena )
consists of just a long singular corridor which has no detours available to the goal-area alongside all the cars travelling the same speed regardless the "class" and the ball carries seemingly travelling faster outpacing all the ranged-attacks / projectiles while also having the "far-too-quick"-self-regeneration of health...

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If there there is one positive thing to say however, that would be the implementation and the progression on the season pass
( dubbed as "Metal Pass" in this game ):

For starters, the "free-pass" is completely filled whether with "Fame"
( free in-game-currency ),
cosmetics, pilots
( I.E. the player characters )
or "lore"-snippets following around the current theme of the season
( for example, "Into The Abyss" if a "Cthulhu / Lovecraft"-themed season ).

As for the progression, it is very generous when it comes to how much time you have available to complete the pass:
Each week there is a set of new missions unlocked which adds to the pile of already available missions.

These missions are your primary source for the progression-points.
So it is debatable whether or not this system is somewhat "biased" against to people who necessarily won't be able to play this game weekly as opposed in bursts;
the "performance"-points awarded towards season-pass-progression in this game simply very insignificant.

One can only have three (3) mission active at time
( four for those who purchase the premium-pass ).
So there no chance to complete the missions in a larger chunks:
At maximum you are only able to complete the aforementioned 3 / 4 mission per a match;
some missions / challenges require completion of multiple matches
( E.G. "Play 2 matches" ).


Another possible downside of this season-pass is that premium / cash-season-pass is not "refunded" unlike in ( most of ) the other fully-completed season-passes;
due this "think different"-mentality, one can only acquire ~18% back
( 240 cash out of 1300 used for the premium-pass ).

Also the premium-pass features far lesser (and diminishing) "Fame"-caches as opposed to the free-pass:
Where as in free-pass you first get 1100-fame several times until it drops down to 800 soon after the half-way the season-pass, the premium-pass only gives 600-fame every ~6th level after 7
( total being 6K-fame with premium whereas free-pass earns you 15500-fame at the end of the season ).

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Having said that about the season-pass itself, the "missions" itself abruptly become a huge grind even before half-way of the pass.
For example, you could start with a mission called "Damage Case" in which you'll need to accumulate 20K damage with your team; easy enough for a 3K-pass-XP-mission.

But then it ramps up really quickly to say "Serious Interceptor" in which you'll need accumulate 150K-damage all by yourself through multiple victories.

You read this right: These progression-points are only recorded if you win the match!
And the reward / "paycheck"?
3750-pass-XP. That's a 1/4th / 25% increase on the points for 75-times / 750% extra work.

Here is an example situation in which nothing but a "victory" matters anymore:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1622508561

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Thankfully the season-pass-missions do not require another live-players:
Being yourself a a lone human-player actually is an advantage or rather a salvation since there is a lot of "cult"-players around who have already maxed-out the season-pass and are more than happy prevent your progression while taunting you with the season-pass-exclusive-items
( it is almost like this game already has the "Activision Matchmaking Patent" already implemented ).

However the yet another downside of the bots is that they're not balanced at all:
You're going to end up playing with clearly inferior bots that do all the wrong things
( not limited to simply not using their attacks on your opponents ).

So in the end you'll end up baby-sitting the bomb-ball to get pass the parts of the maps the ally-bots are coded to fumble 1-to-1 every single time like a clockwork.
Meanwhile the bots of your opposing-team seemingly have a "semi-god-mode" enabled while also "running on tracks" without any slipping or any other mistakes your allied-bots do like a clockwork.

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So what is the take away here?

Frankly told I really am not certain:
I can say that give this game a try, sure.
But I certainly do hope you're at least somewhat more informed than i was when i first booted this game.

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This DLC is simply put expansion of the gameplay-available European-map.

So if you're looking for more content in general, this update provides it.

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However, as a person living in Finland, I would like to deep-dive a little further to the Finnish-content.

To put it bluntly, this expansion barely scratches the surface when it come to Finnish-roads and especially the routes.
So for "Finn-boom-maniacs / Finnomanias", there is simply not enough.

Southern-parts of Finland ( as of writing ) are simply desolate. And there is perhaps a little bit too much artistic and other liberties taken especially when it comes to surrounding areas of Turku
( but this is also primarily due the design-philosophy in this game in which they try to avoid city-centres as much as possible ).

"Turku-Helsinki"-route is simply put "nothing outside Ring III".
This is not to say there wouldn't things next to the road: Very opposite since there is seemingly a lot of handiwork done with the cleared-rocks and such; it looks nice.
But primarily I am referencing to lack of cities, especially "Salo"
( yes, there is a "Salo"-named transit-company; not the city however ).
Alongside the lack harbour-ferry-terminal in Turku this causes some very peculiar detour needed to be taken to rest of the north-side of the Turku-harbour.

Here are some visual-examples:

Helsinki-Harbour - Turku-Harbour according to Google Maps

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1583146407&fileuploadsuccess=1


Helsinki-Turku - route according to Euro Truck Simulator 2

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1583147839

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In conclusion, we're going to need a dedicated update for Finland alone.
Or we might need to get a completely stand-alone-game for Finnish-trucking (or otherwise road-cruising).

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So good expansion with loads of attention to details;
just don't buy this for Finland alone
( at least if you're into studying road-routes that is ).

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"Euro Truck Simulator 2" is a video-game in which you drive and carry around cargo all around European-continent.

That is the most simplest way to put it what this game is.

Do some modifications and turn off the damage-system and you have a decent time-sink.


...I frankly have nothing else to say for now at least.

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EDIT (20201108):
Points gaining-wise things are even worse now.
Here is a link to a Reddit-post which summarizes things quite well:
https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/iym7c4/explanation_of_changes_to_the_xp_system/

To highlight the most important point(s):
- Per match you get less points since they dropped the amount of points per second of the match length from 4.5 to 3.
So from 1350-base-points to 900-points; that is a 450-points less per match.

- “Weekly wins”
(I.E. the up to 21-daily-wins that were “bankable”)
were removed and you’re now forced to play every single day in order to get the daily-bonus, which also is 500-points less than before
(used to be 2500-points per a win; now it’s only 2000/2K (two thousand)-points).

So yeah, the “Rocket Pass” now requires far more time than what it used to, especially if you are unable to participate during the double-point-events and/or you’re unlucky with the weekly+seasonal-challenges which occasionally are super luck/dice-roll-based.

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Old-text:
Most brief-version:
Worst implementation of a season pass(es), primarily because it's not only primarily tied to how much time you have available to play this game
( I.E. if you don't have a total time of ~200-hours, you're not going to get what you pay for ).
But there is simply "everything that can go wrong" which prevents any progression on your account regardless of your skill that you have at your disposal.

Or to put it simply, after the minimum "performance" required, all the extra work for the most part simply ain't worth it at all, especially if the action stops the timer during which you're gaining nothing of importance or otherwise being able to use
( I.E. you're being "unpaid" ).

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"Rocket League" is a football / soccer-game in which the players won't be paid their (contract) salary unless they achieve a minimum amount of "performance" in every single match.

And these (specific) "success-points" are only given to the goalies and the scorers;
defenders, mid-fielders, or generally speaking rest of the positions are shafted.

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There is an (officially) undocumented progression stopper in this game to which the developers (Psyonix) still keeping silent of:
In order to "qualify" for the experience / "Rocket Pass"-points you're required to score at least fifty (50)-points per match, unless the game feels generous for whatever after a match.

Yes, the game tells you that "Minimum score threshold has not been met".
But it still doesn't tell what the number needed is:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1582470525


Now that doesn't all that much and shouldn't be too difficult to obtain, in theory.

But the way the game is built it requires far too much of "perfection" in order to be counted for even the "basic"-actions.

I.E. the scoring-system is extremely finicky, alongside the point-sources being pretty much none
( like you can count all of them with a single five-finger-hand ).
And it also doesn't help that there is a very binary or otherwise super hard-coded "last-hit"-for everything.

So gameplay-points-wise it's "everyone for themselves" or "FYGM"-mentality-heavy.


And the "basic-actions" don't even count-in any of the very-basics when it comes to ball-sports:
- There are no points given for general-defending; only, and only if you alone will "kick" the ball out of the "goal-area".
- Numerous times when the ball clearly would go into the goals you're not rewarded for "save" either.
(( In fact, many times you simply "counter-kick" right at the direction of your goal and the game still counts as a save. ))
- "(Goaling) Assists" has to happen in like 2-seconds or it isn't counted at all, while meanwhile the player scoring can get all sorts of extra bonuses ( "Centering", "Shot at Goal", etc. ).
((( Do note that occasionally you may end up getting an "assist" even when your opponent has been juggling the ball for over a minute and then kicking the ball into their own goal. )))

To put it more simply: The point / performance-scoring-system tends to be very inconsistent very frequently.

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This is not to also include that an individual player can increase the amount of "unpaid-downtime" by refusing to skip the instant replays.
Or as frequently refusing to either quit the lobby or clicking the "ready"-button.

But your opponents can deny the progression-points by simply ending the match abruptly.
"Oh, you are missing a single point from the required 50 and your opponents left the match simultaneously thus making the match end in a "forfeit" since we do not allow you to play against bot-only teams while in the online-queue?
Too bad, you get nothing and you have wasted +5-minutes of your life.
Now give us more money you get nothing for
( aside maybe for a receipt of the transaction that accidentally is delivered to your messaging-inbox from time to time ).

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If do you get this game without any extra expenses and want to just play-around with a "just-as-it-is", there is a game to be played
( as in as a "Soccar"-game ).


But if you're into unlocking and progression, or even to get all the content you actually paid for, this game sure makes it so that you won't be able to enjoy or otherwise utilise this product 100-percently.

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Here is also a small mini-guide to those who'd mainly want to concentrate on gathering points to "Rocket Pass".

Time-efficiency-wise the only mode worth recommending is "Casual 2vs2" and concentrate on goal-tending if your allocated team-mate isn't into this.
Not only this 2 vs 2-mode allows having less chances for "point / glory-hogging".
But playing in casual-mode-matches in a row on the same server grands some extra progression-points.
Plus there is almost zero-waiting between matches since the matches also aren't cancelled when a singular player is missing / not joining in since there are bots / AI-step-in-players.

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