[Xbox] Atlases and Conquerors and Metamorphs, Oh My.. - Compliments and Criticisms

Compliments:

General - I have to hand it to the content-design team (or guy.. or "Magic 8-Ball") - A very good job was done with extending the life of existing content while providing a net bonus for players in terms of engagement and feedback. Well done. This is the sort of approach that needed to be taken. The Team/Person/Partially-Inanimate object responsible for coming up with the idea did a great job of merging some nice design practices.

(Edit:Add - To be conciise: The Team managed to find a way to triple the value of the "Atlas" content while still making it "interesting and engaging" for the player. That efficiency and cost-saving approach while still "adding" content to the game was pretty startling to see at work. From a business perspective - Good Job. Those people should get a bonus for success under tight constraints.)

Atlas - It's "new." No more chasing after RNG patches on the ground with what was fairly minimal "feedback" for the player. The player was simply shown how inept they were at "building their Atla" in the previous system. In the new system, the player has much more "feedback" in terms of their actions and much, much, more "engagement" with the game in the new Atlas mechancis. Players "chase" the Conquerors and interact with NPCs and are given a "Quest" with successful efforts. While somewhat similar to the old system, the new system does a much better job of engagement.

Conquerors - Well, honestly, kind of "meh." However, they are irritating and pompous, so I identify well with them... The "story" is interesting, though, and much less amorphous than "My daddy is a bad man and does bad things." Their mechanics are.. fair. I can understand that there may have been a desire to re-use existing content and just set up an instanced custom arena. This is the "Holiday Season" and time for implementation and review/bugfixes may have been a concern. But, the "mechanics" surrounding the "chase" coupled with the interaction with the game's NPCs has to be given a double-thumbs-up. Good job, even if it's a bit shallow and direct on the "story" end.

Metamorphs - Well.. uh. OK, I get it. At least it's not chasing Towers and trying to target them on console while getting improperly touched by nasty mobs. And, it's not trying to throw "nets", either. So, yeah, you could have done worse than "construct a Frankenstein and then bring it to life so you can kill it" kind of thing. It's efficient, though, and didn't require a ton of content generation I guess. So, as in a compliment - You could have one worse. :)

Criticisms:

General - iguess.jpg

Atlas - Chasing after maps is still an issue, especially for those in the very "end-game" of the Atlas. This may be by "intent" but due to marketplace limitations and rampant price-gouging, consolers are at a serious disadvantage when it comes down to benefiting from your end-game content development. IOW - They get less accessibility than you intend, in general. BUT, for early and mid-game Mapping, I haven't had an issue with getting Maps... yet.

Conquerors - They are very unimpressive at low levels, a bit more dangerous at higher spawn levels. While I can't say for certain, it seems like not much work was done there to balance them out in terms of progression and challenge/reward on either end of the spectrum. I hope that if they remain a "feature" that much more is done to present them appropriately.

Metamorphs - Just... no. These things were picked out of a jar straight from Content-Hell and plopped down in the game. Tier 3 Map, my AG got one-shotted... That's 50,000 hitpoints plus a couple of extra minion levels plus whatever bonuses it was getting from me/its gear, etc, etc... Insta-gibbed by "Mr. Nasty, the Irate Proctologist." I, as well as the rest of my minions, ended up wiping three times before I gave up. I was decently geared, over-leveled for the content, and with a build that could easily survive higher Tier maps at the time. Insta-gibbed... "My fault" for picking all the toughest options? That's pretty severe, if so, in terms of "gameplay." I have little in the way of knowing exactly how "tough" those abilities are. There's some fluid meter that rises in response to choices... but that doesn't tell me what sandwich that Metamorph likes to eat when it's not made of player-characters. It's exactly like what I used to do in college when trying to figure out what would make a really nice mixed drink. Sometimes, my experimental bartending would turn out just fine. Sometimes, it'd be a whopper of a mistake that quickly led to spastic toilet-hugging behavior and regret.

And, the "rewards" don't seem consistent with the difficulty the player has to slog through in order to get a chance of obtaining something interesting.

There was one Metamorph I couldn't even engage. I couldn't get close to it due to a ground-effect/aura/sigil it placed. The only class with melee mechanics able to engage it would have to have be a very strong Life-Leech build. My fault for picking that combo of affixed abilities and the fairly straightforward build I had? No. It was just stoopid-tough. :)

(To sum: The Metamorphs have ridiculously overpowered abilities at times and the groundspawn and other AOE effects the player has to defeat literally "eat" minions for lunch or present the player with nearly impossible obstacles to overcome - Ungood stuff. Oh - Where the heck are "eyes?" Release the fix for consoles, please.)


Overall - Not disappointed as a player, pleased to see a good meld of business, cost efficiency, and basic design principles in the League distro, but the additions do need some polish and balancing work if they're going to be implemented in "Standard."