Things I like about BfN
I wanted to summarize things I enjoy about BfN. While GW2 is still my favorite of the 3 current shooters, I enjoy and play all 3 of them and wanted to bring up things I feel BfN did a great job on.
-The upgrade system. While there are upgrades that are either too good or not very useful, the idea of giving upgrades different values and having a total you can use is great. In GW1 it was just random out of packs, with each character/variant having 3 in total. It worked but I’ve never been a big fan of the lack of choice and some are pretty crazy (i.e. Super Commando). In GW2 you unlocked them as you leveled up and you choose any 3 of them, but some are clearly superior to others and having more ammo or more damage is clearly better than having faster regen out of combat. I’d like to see BfN’s system return in the next game with needed changes to balance choices better, remove/rework upgrades that mess things up (Brainium Basher is a huge example). Also, make the icons easier to read at a glance, too many use the same icon and it would be nice to be able to tell them apart more easily.
-Save slots. I had been asking for this in GW2 for years and am so glad it’s in BfN. Being able to save character builds and outfits in a game with so many options is huge. I’d prefer more slots than just 3 (5 or more per character would be great, even if we had to unlock them to do so), and I’d like to be able to name the slots for easy recall (stuff like ‘heal focus’, ‘reviver’, ‘gatling guy’), so you can quickly discern which build is which.
-Customization UI. GW2’s UI for customization, while based on GW’s, is clunky to use. Having to scroll through a single line of choices with so many options is a pain. BfN’s is so much nicer and user friendly. It’s a step up from GW2’s and it should be the starting point for the next shooter’s UI.
-Free Roam Regions. These are great ideas and I love the puzzles, hidden items, and the ability to just jump in and mess about in them. I like how they felt like a natural extension of the Backyard Battleground and the quests we do there in GW2. While they need more reasons to go back to them, more interesting enemy spawns (they’re largely the same mobs in the same spots), and longer story line quests, these are a lot of fun.
-HUD indicators. While I prefer GW/GW2’s actual HUD that has the name of your weapon and I like the visual style more, BfN’s visual indications about how much ammo you have left (in addition to the numeric counter), how it similarly tracks when your weapon is going to overheat, and giving us an actual counter on our abilities in addition to the color change we’re used to from GW/GW2 are all great. Anything that increases our readability of our current status is a good idea.
-New characters. One can discuss which need nerfs, buffs, kit changes, or complete overhauls, but as far as their designs, I’m a fan (barring the swarm characters which are obvious filler and just use the AI models). Space Cadet is an especial favorite as I love the idea of the zombie astronaut in her space capsule and how she presses buttons without any regard towards what they actually do. Acorn’s voice is great and I love the concept of a living mech when you transform into an Oak. Electric Slide is a joy with her disco roller skate theme (I was a kid in the 70s so saw this kind of thing a lot back then), Nightcap is a mushroom character that people have been wanting for a long time and I like her voice style, 80s Action Hero is a great mix of cool and silly we need in a PvZ game, and Snapdragon is a character I expected to see before BfN and the voice fits so well. Wizard is another character with a great voice set and love his whole appearance and mannerisms.
-Victory Slabs/Punchers. Now these are minor to be sure and the lack of being able to use more than 1 slab and a max of 2 punchers is something I’ve brought up many times in the past as it wastes so many pieces of art that took time and effort to make, but they’re still nice to have. Let us set them up per build slot so we can use tons of them and make them feel more rewarding when we get them! Even something this minor is appreciated as people love to customize things in games like this, and these are another way to do so. It would be so much better though, to allow us to use more options from the plethora that are in the game.
-Revive system. I love being able to help get teammates up and how we all get XP for it. I also like that Sunflowers and Scientists no longer bring teammates back at full health unlike in GW2 (GW1 they revive faster but half health). This encourages teams to help each other out, while avoiding how annoying it could be when opposing sunflowers/scientists would constantly bring each back at full health in GW2. This of course was patched to be like this over time in BfN, but it’s a welcome system.
-Objective master. This has long been needed in TT mode as having bragging rights for actually playing the focus of the game mode is something I wish GW and GW2 had. I love this being a thing in BfN.
-Strategies/Gestures/Favorites system. Mostly good here, as GW1 had 4 gestures you could use and GW2 cut that to 2, so I love a more robust system with actual sayings and the little picture emotes, although I wish there were some standard permanently available strategies you could always access quickly when in game (‘enemy left’, ‘enemy right’, enemy behind’, and so on). It’s fine to have to search to say; ‘Praise Dummy!’, but useful stuff for in a battle should be very easy to use in a timely fashion. I like a lot of these we have in the game too, especially stuff like ‘Who loves cantaloupe?’ and ‘For Acorns everywhere!’, although some like the poop emote would have been better off left out.
