Grand Soiree Review

I will be sharing my thoughts on the modes throughout this event, along with issues, and other possible ideas / fixes.

-= Gold Rush Duos =-

This mode was an absolute blast. It was amazing to play with a friend who knows how to play without having some 3rd random ruining the fun. The complaints I have about this game mode is that at launch there was so many bugs and issues. So, enjoying the mode was not plausible for me. These bugs were the resetting of revives, respawns, grenades auto throwing, etc. Other issues are things such as the amount of Code: Nets as well. The main thing about this mode, is that Mastiffs and Krabers were made plentiful. While for most, we all just said “DIBS!”, but after the 5th time being shot from a galaxy far, far away, I was wishing the amount of the powerful weapons were in lower quantities. Yeah sure… some guns weren’t available, such as the Devotion, Havoc, and Spitfire, but this was understandable.

Bring it back? - Yes

-= Live.Die.Live =-

This mode was… how should I put it… lame… I found it annoying downing players, only for them to drop right on my head a few seconds later because the ring just closed. My complaints for this mode was that when you’re waiting respawning, you *must* wait for the ring to finish closing. This was brutal because trying to hide from all the thirsty players was a challenge. Unsure why respawn beacons were turned off as well. The idea of this mode was sound, but I feel the execution wasn’t the very best.

Bring it back? – Please… don’t… unless some functions are reworked

-= Third-Person Mode =-

This mode was by far one of the amazing experiences, but the issues with it was the item pickups, pings, and things like that. Player animations didn’t line up (like on the zipline), it was hard to know if you had a grenade in hand and if it was thrown. While sometimes the grenade wouldn’t equip. Regardless of these issues, the mode was still epic to play. Played several matches for the fun of it.

Bring it back? - Yes

-= Always Be Closing =-

This mode was not as I expected it to be. I thought that players would spawn in with predefined weapons, (like in the Train mode), or at least be given a chance to loot areas to get gear before the ring never stops. Instead, the ring moved super slow. The presentation of this mode, was a Pathfinder running from the ring, trying not to get engulfed by it. However, escaping didn’t require you to even sprint. At least, I didn’t need to very often. Other issues with this mode are that most of the armor is white, with a few blues, and even fewer purple and golds. Wraith was a good choice to use in this mode, because when the final ring closes, you just phase. Then everyone takes damage and when it starts hurting you, they’re all down by then. I had won a few games standing still in the dead center and phasing. Players also camped the final ring, which was highly annoying. Recommendations to improve this mode is to make the “final ring” an unknown. Make the ring close in, but constantly changes which direction it’s going to close in. This would force players to keep on the move and no one will know where to camp. If a Pathfinder scanned a beacon, he should have said “Hmm... friends, servers are offline.” (I don’t remember even seeing a beacon but just saying). This mode was presented as “Always be closing”. What we got was “Always be slow camping”. Other thoughts are to make the loot a bit more worth it.

Bring it back? – If it’s gets fixed

-= Armed & Dangerous =-

This mode was one of the difficult ones to win in for me. Most of the pros and bots farmed players who tried to play this mode. The armor was limited, which makes some sense because snipers can one shot. But, at the very least; having better armor would have been awesome. This mode could have been slightly more balanced.

Bring it back? – This mode was more fun during the Void Walker event. I’m unsure what really changed since then and now. So, I’m unsure if it should come back.

-= Kings Canyon After Dark =-

This mode was and still is, amazing. We all awaited to see King Canyon’s again. It was so nice to be able to go to Skull Town, Bunker, and all our favorite places. The amount of thermal scopes made it kind of frustrating and any Caustics with the season 3 skin (yeah… looking at you), they were like someone turned on Bloodhound’s ult. I had a hard time seeing people, but that didn’t bother me, but it was too funny seeing a red & blue glow throwing traps 100+ meters away. I legit switched my skin to the season 2 one. I can’t really complain about this mode. I really enjoyed it.

Bring it back? – Yes, and we all know Kings Canyon is returning too

-= Dummies Big Day =-

This mode…. missed the mark and the expectation that I had for it. While it was interesting to have a random ability, it was the fact that it was random. Out of nowhere, loot falls around a player, dummies show up, or everyone within an area (friend and foe alike) all gets healed. While the tactical was a random item that isn’t always helpful. I had personally expected each legend to be a color, (like Wraith being purple, Pathfinder being blue, Crypto being Green, Caustic being Orange, Wattson being light blue, Octane being lime green, Bloodhound being red, Gibraltar being yellow, Mirage being white, and Lifeline being pink.) Or, each legend was a random color. Such as there being a legend who was blue, green, red, etc. This fits the “dummy” aspect as you don’t know what someone could do, and players could have fun with the surprise. Another thing I expected was the abilities were mixed. Such as a dummy being able to grapple and throw a bombardment, or to place fences and link portals. Every legend’s passive, tactical, and ultimate would be mixed around for “testing purposes”. While sure, that would be crazy and cause an insane difference in the gameplay. The tactical we did get was mostly useless, our passives had no real purpose, and our ultimate affected the gameplay. You could be fighting and accidentally heal everyone around you. Such as that dummy you got to low health. Or, you drop loot and it allows someone to swap armor. Or, perhaps you got the decoy one in an area where it’s obvious which one is you. Being unable to choose / know what ultimate is going to pop out made this mode hard. Not to mention that all pings and voice lines were in chat. I thought the dummy would have some sort of computer voice. But they were just quiet. Some issues I had was in the match I won. I downed two players and went after the 3rd guy, when one of the guys I downed got back up. I don’t know if someone used a healing ultimate, if they self-revived (they didn’t have gold knockdown), or if somehow dummies can just get back up. Either way, this mode didn’t live up to what I thought it would be. Also, why is this identity-less dummy using Bangalore's opening animation & finisher?

Bring it back? – Maybe

What did you guys think of these modes?