Re: My opinion on BFN
I'll speak from the heart here, as someone who has logged over 225 hours into Garden Warfare 2.
Do I hate BFN? That day will come when Zomboss love plants. I'm always willing to look past flaws of any game to find the positives and fun. Consider this post something of constructive criticism of the game, echoing the thoughts of the original post and the ones who have commented.
Without repeating much of what was said in prior posts, I think BFN has potential that is missing in the overall execution. What I mean by this is that BFN is in a franchise that is bursting with creativity! It's why I am such a die-hard PvZ fan- they never fail to come up with fresh and at times wacky ideas that always put a smile on my face, and continue to impress me. And I won't lie when I say BFN continues this. A PvZ game without charm, humor, and a complete disregard for real world logic is the type of PvZ I adore.
Remember when everyone thought Garden Warfare was such a stupid idea upon reveal? And it went on to become a landmark of how to make a more family friendly shooter. The original game brought in the innovation of it's renditions of characters with different sorts of primary weapons. I speak, of course, of the Variants. It gave you a different character to play as that fit in the same class as the base character. Say you love the Foot Soldier, but wish that he was more tailored to sniping. Boom! Go pick the Camo Ranger! This allowed for near limitless playstyles, increasing as more Variants and abilities were added. And despite a shallow lineup of modes at launch, DLC expanded it to make GW a game one could spend tons of hours in.
And GW2 perfected it all, in my eyes. Great new classes, new variants for the existing classes, rewarding loyal players by letting your transfer your Variants from the first game to 2, ample single player content, a hub for you and friends to explore, and locales that encourage you to play long term to reach the ultimate challenges, and greatest rewards. It was a game for players, a game for gamers, and one where there was never not something to do. I've sunk more hours into it then any game ever- and what it has is a testament to such.
Battle for Neighborville, however, feels like a reboot of the series, one it did not need. All they needed to do originally was to expand upon with GW 2 did in this game, just like GW 2 expanded upon GW. I'm always one for branching out and trying new things, but not when so much of what made a foundation for your past shooters is gone. Variants? Gone. And that really hurts me on a personal level, when that technically gives us a far smaller roster of characters than in GW 2, and even in GW 1. Overhauls have been given to many characters, so of which I like (Rose, Engineer) and others of which, not so much (Chomper, Citron). And small changes to characters like All Star and make me love them more. The new artstyle does not tick me off, but I do prefer the slightly more lifelike tone that GW and GW 2 took with their graphics. Also,they made Citron look like a teddy bear comapred to GW 2! Someone's gonna pay for this!
And this might be a very personal problem, but- the game feels slow. The implementation of a sprinting function has virtually lowered the base movement speed of all the characters. You cannot use your primary weapon while sprinting, and only a select few characters have abilities to use while doing it (Citron, Super Brainz) and considering it's not something you do while in combat, it makes for less electric battles than in the GW games.
But we have to hold hope. I know BFN can go on to do great things. We all do! If we hold hope, and let our criticisms be heard in a civil manner, maybe they might improve the game. Not so much as to bring back Variants maybe, but to try and recapture some of that GW magic I know is hiding away, or make BFN shine in it's own new way, introducing an innovation of it's own. Lets hope we can keep the lifespan of this game long, so we can see it grow. I know we can!
