Overcoming new challenges
Hey there, Thorns! I'm LP, and I'm new to the team behind Every Day We Fight. The team thought it could be interesting to share my take on how the gameplay feels for newcomers.
"Scramble!"
Combat kicks off with Rifters engaging my squad, and I'm immediately given a tactical choice. I need to scramble to safety to avoid losing a unit. I've not played many tactics games that allow for reactive gameplay, but my hundreds of hours of experience in other turn-based games kicked in to put me through the motions. That quickly shifted as I was required to zoom in, aim, and shoot Rifters to survive. Wild, I was not expecting an experience resembling an FPS game. As I'm processing all the possibilities, I notice I can explode objects. Which begs the question, what can't I shoot?
"A tactical retreat to be sure, I'm not running away or anything."
"Explosions! I've got to make more explosions!"
On my way down a nearby broken bridge, I noticed a few explosive barrels nestled in some trucks and cars. Shooting my surroundings to get places wasn't originally on my bucket list, but now I find myself looking to make as much noise as possible in the open world. Many gamers will probably ask the same question, is there friendly fire? Short answer, yes. It even goes both ways as I discovered when 2 Rifters shot each other while tracking my scrambling Thorns. Shooting a conveniently placed barrel allowed me to parkour across a bus and make it over the bridge as I continued on.
"Don't miss, don't miss, don't miss..."
Frozen in Time
All along the broken bridge, I saw these ghost like people just standing there. The frozen people, is what I'll call them for now, give me the chills every time I come across them, as if they're bound to come to life at a moment's notice. There's an eerie stillness in the world and I came across several. I wondered what exactly transpired before this freeze frame in history. Luckily the world's full of little lore tidbit you can peer into to glean more info. As I hopped from one story to another, I naturally found myself surrounded by more Rifters, maybe they're related, I guess I'll find out after playing more.
"What if we're actually the ones frozen and they're the ones looking at us? Woah."
Skilling Made Easy
As I progressed through the open world, I defeated enough Rifters and my Thorns managed to level up, opening a whole new world of possibilities! The branching skill builds offer some interesting choices, and each point invested leans into the build you're going for even more. I could already envision early on what I wanted each Thorn's final form to be in my head, but I frequently reiterated my decisions. The farther along you get in the city, the more enemy types you encounter, naturally your strategy needs to be adapted.
"Phew, no spreadsheet required."
I hope you enjoyed this Dev Diary and my first impressions. I'm looking forward to diving deeper into some of the Rifters the Thorns will face off against in our next Dev Diary on April 8th.