Post by: NWR_Neal on May 09, 2015, 10:37:00 AM
For three glorious hours, Splatoon was playable with very few issues.
When Nintendo announced their plans for the demo/beta of Splatoon with Splatoon Global Testfire, the majority of the Nintendo World Report staff expected the worst, especially since the demo was limited to three hours over the course of less than 24 hours. After all, we've all experienced dodgy online experiences, filled with lag, missed connections, and drops. While Nintendo has had sturdy online games in the past year with Smash Bros. and Mario Kart 8, we basically expected mass chaos and overloaded servers since this was their first major online shooter in years. Thankfully, we were all wrong. Splatoon Global Testfire worked extremely well throughout all of our numerous matches. Outside of a few minor connection issues, it was essentially flawless.
That's probably disheartening to hear for all of the potential players who were busy on May 8 and 9 during the specific Testfire times, but even though you might have missed this test, it bodes very well for the longevity and quality of Nintendo's first foray into modern online shooters. Splatoon is loads of fun, even with a demo that limited you to just two stages and four weapons with set-in-stone loadouts.
The two stages, Walleye Warehouse and Saltspray Rig, highlighted different aspects of the game. The Warehouse is a narrower stage with natural choke points, while the Rig was focused more on vertical battles across a layered battlefield. The four weapons each had their own nuance. The Splat Roller was laughably overpowered for new players, but in the rare matches where players knew how to deal with the slow devastation of the Roller, it appeared that the Splat Roller might be the equivalent of Smash Bros.' Little Mac online problem early on. The Splat Charger, which is their take on a sniper, is tough to get a grasp on, but once you do, you can fire long swaths of paint across the battlefield while fending off foes from afar. It's challenging, but the payoff can be grand. The Splattershots were normal rapid-fire weapons, with the Jr. being better for quick firing and up-close combat. All of the special weapons and grenades were also interesting. A well-timed Killer Wail could wind up splatting the majority of a rival team, and the Splattershot Jr.'s shield can make your team temporarily invincible as it can be shared with your teammates like a piece of food in a Kirby co-op game.
Bouncing between stages and weapons never got old during the three hours of play. As a matter of fact, each hour flew by, as it was spent learning and discovering more strategies and tactics for the online fray. The lack of voice chat or friend matches definitely detracted from the overall experience, but it didn't make it poor, just a little restricted. In some instances, it really would have been wonderful to inform a teammate of a plan of attack. A few matches were hideously unbalanced mainly because a team wasn't on the same page.
If there was any issue that came to light in the Testfire, it was that if a player drops, the match is pretty much lost. Outside of the rare Herculean effort, every match that was four vs. three (or fewer) was a slaughter. Players are going to drop from online games; it'd be great if there was some way to counteract that when it happens.
Hopefully we'll be able to play more Splatoon Global Testfire matches before launch. In spite of the time limitations, it was a rocking good time that certainly makes the wait for May 29 all the more arduous.
Post by: NeoThunder on May 09, 2015, 11:11:05 PM
Post by: NWR_insanolord on May 09, 2015, 11:12:59 PM
Post by: Leo13 on May 10, 2015, 12:05:37 AM
Post by: S-U-P-E-R on May 10, 2015, 12:44:57 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/j0xFml0.png)
Post by: Leo13 on May 10, 2015, 01:48:43 AM
Look at all these people who are bad at video gamesI thought that at first, until I hit a match where 3 guys on my team had the roller and nobody on their team did and they mopped the floor with us. I had figured there were ways to overcome the paint roller, but not like that. Great game design might I suggest you not assume that all rollers is the best way to go
(http://i.imgur.com/j0xFml0.png)
Post by: ThePerm on May 10, 2015, 02:11:31 AM
Post by: NWR_insanolord on May 10, 2015, 02:15:53 AM
Look at all these people who are bad at video gamesI thought that at first, until I hit a match where 3 guys on my team had the roller and nobody on their team did and they mopped the floor with us. I had figured there were ways to overcome the paint roller, but not like that. Great game design might I suggest you not assume that all rollers is the best way to go
(http://i.imgur.com/j0xFml0.png)
What do you expect when virtually everyone involved had absolutely no experience going into this? It's one of the issues with keeping it as limited as it was, they didn't give people time to really learn how the game works, so they latched on to the most immediately intuitive option.
Post by: DanteZX on May 10, 2015, 03:03:36 AM
Post by: S-U-P-E-R on May 10, 2015, 05:24:58 AM
What do you expect when virtually everyone involved had absolutely no experience going into this? It's one of the issues with keeping it as limited as it was, they didn't give people time to really learn how the game works, so they latched on to the most immediately intuitive option.
That's what's so funny, these scrublords declaring something OP NERF PLSSSS after playing an hour at most.
Post by: Enner on May 10, 2015, 06:21:49 AM
Hopefully, having full access to the full game's customization and abilities (i.e. perks) systems will prove to give Splatoon a long life.
Post by: geckog7 on May 10, 2015, 08:45:29 AM
I could never get used to the motion controls. It is just awkward. I was constantly getting up off the couch and holding up the controller when things were getting tense and my aim was not going where I wanted. Seems like a waste to dedicate a face button to resetting the camera as well.....
Post by: Shaymin on May 10, 2015, 09:58:49 AM
Post by: geckog7 on May 10, 2015, 10:39:29 AM
Post by: broodwars on May 10, 2015, 10:56:40 AM
What do you expect when virtually everyone involved had absolutely no experience going into this? It's one of the issues with keeping it as limited as it was, they didn't give people time to really learn how the game works, so they latched on to the most immediately intuitive option.
That's what's so funny, these scrublords declaring something OP NERF PLSSSS after playing an hour at most.
That's the nature of a demo, though. You only get 1 first impression, and the first impression that's easiest to reach on Splatoon is that the paint roller is overpowered. And it is. I had a match where I & another player on my team were the only rollers and we...well...steamrolled the other team (53 % - 21 %). I lead the team in points by around 2-3x, and I had the most kills on the team. Considering the roller feels like it's meant to be a support role, that doesn't feel quite right.
Yes, there are counters to the roller and if you're going to play roller your teammates need to be other roles, but it's so easy to both quickly cover areas in paint (the only part of the game that matters) & get kills with that it feels OP. It excels at everything it does, with its only weakness being range.
As for me, this demo pretty quickly turned me off the game. What I played was OK (I won 2 matches & lost once, with a disconnect as well), but this game is just way too simple and shallow for my tastes. In the demo at least, it came across to me as Baby's First 3rd Person Shooter, with very little depth and a lot of quality of experience UI perks common to the genre just missing (such as the ability to see your team's loadouts before committing to your own, as well as the ability to change loadouts mid-fight). There's an audience for this game, but it's just not for me.
Post by: NWR_Lindy on May 10, 2015, 04:10:26 PM
Post by: Phil on May 10, 2015, 06:27:44 PM
Post by: yoshi1001 on May 10, 2015, 06:40:54 PM
Post by: Enner on May 10, 2015, 07:03:34 PM
As for me, this demo pretty quickly turned me off the game. What I played was OK (I won 2 matches & lost once, with a disconnect as well), but this game is just way too simple and shallow for my tastes. In the demo at least, it came across to me as Baby's First 3rd Person Shooter, with very little depth and a lot of quality of experience UI perks common to the genre just missing (such as the ability to see your team's loadouts before committing to your own, as well as the ability to change loadouts mid-fight). There's an audience for this game, but it's just not for me.
The UI fumbles I'll give you, but I don't understand the criticism of the game being too simple and shallow. I can only speak from observation, but compared to Gears of War, all Splatoon is majorly lacking in options and management is a secondary weapon and traditional reloads and ammo pools. Being able to sprint, cloak, and reload in squid form simultaneously looks like an interesting substitute to the traditional options that Splatoon has eschewed. I believe this change will only further prove more interesting as players get used to using the squid form more often and with greater offensive and defensive prowess (An example being a Youtube video azeke shared in the Splatoon! thread https://youtu.be/k4HfKeGzTy0 (https://youtu.be/k4HfKeGzTy0) ).
As for the lack of stuff to do, the full game appears to have a lot more variety in weapons and tools as well as perks. Some of the perks on the clothing look to be a bit too boilerplate (damage up looks to be boring and overpowered for shooters) so hopefully the metagame on the perks will turn out interesting.
Then again, I'm coming from having spent a fair bit of time in Battlefield 3 and Planetside 2, two gargantuan first-person shooting machines. What I'm seeing in Splatoon! is something I'm in search of: an experience that is relatively uncluttered and focused.
What I'm most curious about is how they'll handle player dropouts. Since the game will have leveling, and player level will allow them access to better gear, if there isn't anything stopping players from dropping out of matches with lesser-geared players it's going to suck really bad.
I'd imagine that Nintendo's EAD development team thinks the adequate counter to this are the short 3-minute rounds. I have doubts it will play out that way. We haven't heard yet of a disconnect penalty. I hope there is one.
Post by: GK on May 10, 2015, 07:05:54 PM
As fun as the roller was for scoring kills, I felt like I contributed more using the guns. Often I would cover a flank of a roller on my team & take out nearby opponents just to keep him going across the field.
Post by: JasonMaivia on May 10, 2015, 10:23:22 PM
Post by: NeoThunder on May 11, 2015, 02:39:40 AM
Post by: NWR_insanolord on May 11, 2015, 02:46:48 AM
Post by: JasonMaivia on May 11, 2015, 03:18:44 AM
This game just sounds like it's incomplete.
-Having just a shallow 1-on-1 versus mode for offline multiplayer sucks. I was expecting 4-players, but it that wasn't possible, at least have bots to fill up team slots.
-Also, there's no offline co-op multiplayer modes in this game either.
-It also would have been really cool to have two players on the same console play others online, like we do with Mario Kart, or with Smash Bros. against friends.
-Having just 5 stages is terrible. Nintendo said that they're adding more throughout the summer...but that's because the game is most likely incomplete. I definitely wouldn't pay $60 for this.
-What's with the lack of customization options for online games? There's no way to set up teams, you can't choose to play with friends, only 2 stages that's randomly picked every 4 hours, no way to adjust the time limit, and we already know how there's zero communication between players in the game. I just don't want Nintendo handling online games anymore.
Maybe Nintendo will surprise us later on with new modes that will give the game more depth, but right now, it seems to me that the "full" game probably won't be available until August.
Post by: pichael on May 11, 2015, 04:35:46 AM
1) if you like it that much they want you to buy it so don't want to give away too much from their new IP
and more importantly
2) this was a stress tests of the server. I doubt that there will be more people online at once who buy the game then try it for free and condensing it to select times pushes everyone online at once to see how the servers cope.
I thought it was a good idea Nintendo done it this way instead of day one thinking "Fingers crossed it all goes well"
Post by: NWR_insanolord on May 11, 2015, 05:13:23 AM
Post by: Lazers on May 11, 2015, 12:00:55 PM
Post by: Ian Sane on May 11, 2015, 12:33:03 PM
A narrow 3 hour beta seems pretty dumb, unless Nintendo figured the best test would be to have everyone hammer the server at once. A lot of games have problems at release when everyone tries to play at once so maybe this was an attempt to simulate it? It's Nintendo so I feel like I'm giving the idea too much credit.
But I am impressed that there weren't big lag problems. Regardless of the intentions of the test, restricting it to a specific time would increase the connections. You figure if Nintendo's net code wasn't up to par that having everyone try to play within this tiny window of time would cause problems but it didn't so good for Nintendo there.
Post by: Adrock on May 11, 2015, 04:54:28 PM
Post by: Enner on May 11, 2015, 05:00:56 PM
This game just sounds like it's incomplete.
I'm saying this as an explanation, not an excuse: This is probably the new IP tax.
Case in point: Look at Destiny, a new IP, and hear and read how many people felt it was thin on content.
Now Nintendo being weird with the lack of multiplayer options for players to fiddle with, that's pure Nintendo being Nintendo.
Post by: Mop it up on May 11, 2015, 05:50:29 PM
I think it may be a good idea to run three more hours a week before the game releases as well, keep the hype going. Maybe set up a different mode this time.
Post by: Shaymin on May 11, 2015, 08:33:22 PM
How do you all hear about this? I don't own a Wii U anyway but this morning was the first I heard of it.
We kinda stuck it on the front page of the website for at least two days.
Post by: Leo13 on May 11, 2015, 08:48:52 PM
How do you all hear about this? I don't own a Wii U anyway but this morning was the first I heard of it.
We kinda stuck it on the front page of the website for at least two days.
I'm with Shaymin not only was it all over this site it was all over several sites and people at my work were talking about it. I can't imagine not knowing about it
Post by: Ian Sane on May 12, 2015, 12:23:09 PM
How do you all hear about this? I don't own a Wii U anyway but this morning was the first I heard of it.
We kinda stuck it on the front page of the website for at least two days.
I see it now. I don't know. Somehow I just totally missed it. :)
Post by: Caterkiller on May 12, 2015, 04:52:27 PM
This game is soooooo good!!!!! I was absolutely hooked! I didn't even realize I wanted a game like this. The idea of a Mario Paint Ball never appealed to me but after that 45 min session everything about this game had me smiling! The characters now look like timeless Nintendo characters to me, just look at those 3 creepy sharp teeth like the beak of a real squid! This game sucked me in and I am absolutely sold!
Post by: ballisticmedicine on May 26, 2015, 04:26:20 PM
Post by: Enner on May 26, 2015, 06:19:12 PM
