I've never bought into the "it's alpha" argument for anything. Plenty of games can get cleaned up along the way but it's rare for things to take drastically different directions between then and release. Alpha is a buzzword for marketing purposes. They've already laid out gameplay, core concepts and mechanics, the engine, how things are going to look, feel, and play. Those are the first things they do, and then iterate and refine until release. It will probably look nicer, play smoother, less lag, more refinement for gunplay, etc as they continue working. Differences of degree, not of kind.
This isn't going to suddenly turn into not an FPS focused on capturing control points from waves of NPCs with progressive grinding for better weapons and stats and probably a cash injection method for getting them quicker.
Games like this rarely, rarely do a 180 in core mechanics and direction this far down the pipe and suddenly turn in completely different directions. Big studios can afford to do that, and even that is not common.
Haters gonna hate is silly. I'm sure there will be plenty of people who like this game. Plenty of people also play candy crush.
I just don't think this particular game will have any legs or bring anything new to the table. CCP has this fantastic IP they they are using to do the most generic, run of the mill grinder shooter, and that's a shame is all.
Eve Online was successful specifically because it was going all sorts of things that other MMOs weren't doing in 2003, appealing to people who wanted something different and not safe. It didn't look or play like other cookie-cutter themepark MMO's that everyone was doing at the time. it was -refreshing- and different. Nova isn't doing that, at least as currently shown. You don't need a gigantic budget or a huge development team, you need good ideas. If you replaced the skins on Nova with any other IP you wouldn't know you were doing anything different.
An EVE Online FPS could feel or play more like a Rust on a conceptual level, something that feels dangerous, rewards cooperation, encourages nasty human behavior and ingenuity.
Maybe it's set in W-Space on some planet after a few different ships crash and you all have to fight or cooperate to get back to K Space. You could even do it round based where the server resets after a few weeks, that would be neat.
I really like the idea of blasting through a bunch of Sansha drones on the hull of a Tempest with my squadmates as a battle rages in the background. Neato! I don't want to stand around a control point and twiddle my thumbs and then run to the last control point and twiddle my thumbs. Why not just make some narrative missions doing the same thing with some randomized level layouts internal to the ship? Boarding actions on Sansha ships! Neato!
Shooters that are fun these days have ways of adding new mechanics or tactical gameplay that isn't just run and gun capture the point. Mass Effect 3 had some fantastic ways of doing this, and even included lots of similar multiplayer gameplay, holding the line sort of thing. Other modern shooters like Titanfall had well-polished shooting with gimmicks like giant mech suits that were super fun. Even the newest 'run and gun' shooters like DOOM remake when 'sticking to basics' amp it up with insane speed and visceral action. If it's not straight shooting then they add some neat twists or objective gameplay like Payday. Maybe this will have a bunch of neat game modes they haven't talked about yet, I dunno?
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Topic: Project Nova: The Re-Dusting (Read 5423 times)