@Illfonic: The Summary of MY Impressions

#1

In this thread, I (just) want to summarize MY PERSONAL impressions and conclusions collected in the first months of becoming acquainted with PHG.

I do not want to start a discussion with the entries of this thread. They are just thought to serve Illfonic as a pool of ideas - whether they are right or wrong or in between.

So, please do not comment the thread resp. the entries - I do not want this thread to become overly large.

And, as I have collected quite some impressions as well as conclusions already, I will add the entries step by step, day by day…

For those, who nevertheless feel the need to agree or disagree I will put a survey under every entry, where you can agree or disagree.

#2

I bought PHG for three reasons: a friend recommended it, playing the PREDATOR (not the FT!) seemed fun when watching youtube videos and it is one of the few games coming with crossplay (I am PS4, my friend is PC).

I dismissed playing the PREDATOR due to the annoying controlling after three days. Getting stuck by stones too small to see, bumping into trees during long jump, no button to switch through weapons and so on and on. Not to mention the numerous bugs. I do not like the third person view either.

Some months later I dismissed playing CROSSPLAY. It obviously needed time to understand, that PHG on PC is a totally different game compared with PHG on PS4. The strategies of PC players are quite different from the strategies of PS4 players too - as they can do things, which are impossible on PS4. This leads to: mixed teams are no fun at all - if you ask me. Friend or no friend…

The good news: I nevertheless still like the game, as playing fire team is fun. And it has been shown that the recommendation of my friend was nevertheless somehow a good one. The depth of the game play made me addicted…

  • same for me
  • partly the same for me
  • NOT the same for me

0 voters

#3

My first conclusion:

PHG is a multiplayer game designed for single players TOO - playing the predator is alike playing a single player game with “human AIs” - which are still the better AIs…!
This is a unique selling point - as far as I know, which might still be underestimated by Illfonic yet as:

unfortunately, the annoying controlling of the predator and some game mechanics which favors the fire team (if the FT hurries through the mission, the game might be over before it has started… Or (just!) for PC: the overpowered weapons of the FT) leads to the fact, that in the end just few buyers really play the PREDATOR.

I think, that Illfonic wastes said “unique selling point” somehow…

  • I agree
  • I disagree

0 voters

1 Like
#4

Sad reality is people lost the touch of what games are supposed to be… and this goes to the devs mainly and lesser half to the players.

Devs stopped doing what they think would suit the player the best or what would actually allow the person to achive higher potential.

Illfonic in every case lied to us all whether u like it or not its a sad truth.

And i got proof too lol that can get them sued if some crazy person decided to fight them but they probably have better paid lawyers that can be bribed and cheat the system.

Either way we were all lied to that predator would be stronger than jason.

That both sides will be equel in fair play ratio

Both of those promised things are far off from the truth.

If you want my honest opinion the ratio right now is
FT 70:30 PRED

The truth is devs had an option to involve story mode too and free roam but they didnt stall and put more time into the making of the game… and we all know they had all the time in the world and could have hold it a bit longer until early 2021.

They could also get off from saying that corona ruined their plans and stuff but they decided to publish it knowing it will be harder to work from home than it is working from the firm.

1 Like
#5

Fire team is not fun.

#6

When I played fire team the first time, I was completely overchallenged.

That is due to the fact, that there is a tutorial just for the predator but none for the fire team. I saw the others mudding up and wondered what they were doing as well as how to do that. To be honest, I needed quite long to understand, that you have to look MAXIMALLY vertically onto the ground (otherwise, the mudding option sometimes does appear and sometimes not) and walk as long forwards until you see a STABLE mudding up button. Even after playing some months I am still not able to SEE where mudding up will work reliably.

This is just one of several ridiculously complicated and unintuitive game mechanics, which is not or at least not sufficiently explained anywhere.

I am not very patient with games - as I do want to have fun, not frustration - at least in my spare time. So, I guess, if I hadn’t had said friend, with whom I wanted to play via crossplay, I might have given up the game right after that very first game. As I have done it with quite some other games…

I think that, by not providing a good tutorial for the fire team, Illfonic forgoes a bigger player base voluntarily! I might not be the only one with a low frustration threshold…

Furthermore this also leads to a lot of noobs in public random matches (once I was one too - for a quite looong time!), who are annoying to play with - which leads to more annoying games, than necessary, if you ask me!

  • that’s true, I know what you mean…
  • just partly true, if you ask me
  • nonsense

0 voters

#7

On the other hand, I immediately was intrigued by the depth of the game play. Let’s take mudding up as an example: it is quite nice, that one can mud up to lower the thermal signature.

It is just not nice, that it is nearly impossible to find out how, how good, how long and so on this works - without the help of others (using private matches) - or the help of coincidence (for which you might need hundreds of hours play time).

That’s the very same for most other mechanics. To find out, how much damage a weapon does at a specific range, you have to do “tests” in public matches. And if you do such a test, you will miss the number at the health bar of the predator.

This would not be such an annoyance, if Illfonic would not change said damage every second patch…

By the way, my impression with the bars in the weapons menu is, that the relation between them is true just between the weapons of one kind.

What I mean is, that one bar for e.g.pistols means another damage-to-predator-value, than one bar for e.g. automatic riffles?

Whatever! The game mechanics are either too complicated, not intuitive enough or too badly documented.

Further example: Unknown game mechanics, bug or cheat?

  • absolutely true!
  • might sometimes be true…
  • not true at all

0 voters

#8

So, after all these annoyances, why did I stay anyway? Here comes, why PHG is nevertheless one of the greatest games I ever played…

The world, the (game) designers created, is wonderful. First and foremost, it is nice. Not that dystopic scenario, which is so common nowadays. I love to go into the lively jungle.

Then, it feels very real. It even feels more real than its graphics is. This is due to a degree of detail, I never experienced in another game. When the predator runs along a branch, the branch vibrates, some leaves fall down, birds are scared away…

I could go on and on with these little details, which makes the atmosphere of the game absolutely great!

And there is one thing, we all might underestimate when talking about these details: the sound design. It took me quiiiite a while, until I realized, that I cannot trust my eyes when searching for the predator but I should trust my ears…

Maybe, this is the first game, which would even be playable for blind people too - with some further assists like aim assist. Think about that!

Sound is something which gets to the subconsciousness more rapidly - this serves the “fear factor” quite well! I love it!

If one has played the game some hundred hours, and he already is acquainted with most of the details of the game play and he knows how to handle them, the belonging complexity changes from “annoyance” (beginner) to “fun” (veteran) - the depth of the game then is unbelievable.

So, in terms of (game) design Illfonic has done excellent work - if you ask me!

  • Dito!
  • No, the (game) design is at most medium

0 voters

#9

I asked during the last livestream if there was any thought or plan towards a FT tutorial. My answer was “It’s kinda self explanatory”.

1 Like
#10

:))))) LOL :)))))

After some hundred hours and debating with half the forum - yes, then, at some point, most things become clear…

#11

As for FT tutorial… Could google it. I watched some YouTube videos before buying, which taught me the basics. Then again, I am used to figuring out game mechanics on my own. I belong to the generation that did not get tutorials for everything in gaming.

And FT is alot more powerful on PC compared to PS4, OP even. Keyboard and mouse + using headsets more often than not makes a huge difference. Headset is an absolute must for this game no matter the platform… well I guess you could use a full 3d soundsystem as well.

#12

When I played with my PC friend I always wondered, why he was making some third more predator damage points when doing exactly the same thing (whereby “exactly the same thing” admittedly just was my impression).

I think, last but not least, I might have found that out… Read on:) :

  1. until some days ago, I had the ethernet cable of my PS4 plugged in a powerline jack (which served to connect my main ethernet jack in the wall with other rooms via the power line); when I recently plugged the ethernet cable of my PS4 directly into the main ethernet plug in the wall instead, atthis very moment, the movements of my Dante sped up massively - I even had to change my controller settings to be able to hit targets again (ADS movement was a lot too fast after re-plugging)

  2. yesterday I played a match and I became the “last soldier standing” - by the sudden death of all my team mates… (sorry mates - but at least the following show obviously was entertaining enough for you to stay until the end:) When that happened said speeding up of all of the movements of my Dante happened again. It was massive! It was fun too - I was able to successful finish the mission/exfil by just running cleverly over the map… Made some 8000 EP points in the end :)

  3. when I get into the middle of a hurry-scurry (predator, a lot of AI, some team mates in my vicinity - firing in my direction), the movements of my Dante most often slow down so much, that they feel alike slow-motion – unfortunately that then seems not be true for the predator and I am then normally and unfortunately slashed down easily then

  4. my impression furthermore is, that the damage I make, depends heavily on said “basic speed of movements” - e.g. in one match the predator directly ran straight in my direction, I fired all what my Hammerhead had in the magazine, aiming quite well, and I did not see any hint that I had hit the predator during that (the predator filled most of my screen in the end, so not hitting him at least once seemed to be nearly impossible) - after the game, I saw, I had 0 (in words: zero) predator damage points

All I wrote above might lead to more damage on PCs then on PS4 (as what I described might either be due to internet connection speed, or to a ‘CPU/GPU overload’ or to both or alike and said things obviously can be different using a different hardware) – which seems to be the case, taking all the discussions in this forum regarding “FT overpowered or not” into account.

Guys, can some premade people please try out running a given route (with a given distance) - one time alone and another time followed by all three team mates in the immediate vicinity and compare the time needed for that? And second: can we compare that on PS4, PS4 Pro and PC too, please? I am not able to do so, I have no team…

  • that exactly is my impression too
  • never experienced this one

0 voters

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