[2020] New player thoughts at 1st promotion:

I consider new player feedback to be important in the sense that it's, well... new. It may not be correct, but it's also what the player feels about the game at that point, when they're a possible adopter.

I didn't like the game when I began playing it a couple of weeks ago, and actually returned it. Mainly because my initial experience was terrible. Other players would ignore that I was downed and mine resources right on top of my corpse, I got lost easily, it wasn't clear on what my objectives were, and felt like I was making no progress, etc. I eventually re-bought it after being berated. Eventually I got the hang of things and discovered most of the bad experiences were front-loaded. So...

Class feedback:

Gunner: Simple, engaging. Best looking of the bunch, probably due to the green being broken up with a pattern and nice models. Zipline gun makes me wish it had more charges, or it removed the first one you placed, or you could take them down, or something. I would often forget I even had them due to the resource being so scarce. Misfiring even one is a recipe for anxiety. Getting around as Gunner is very stressful as a result.

Scout: Died a lot upon discovery. Very blue; ugly outfits. Flare gun is totally essential in some areas, as is the ability to zoom to spots that would take minutes to mine to. AR doesn't feel too impressive or distinct, but still useful. Shotgun feels good, despite not feeling too useful for swarms. Pretty fun class. Probably favorite overall due to utility. Hover Boots is mandatory. Grenades are great.

Driller: Not much going on, but the one thing he does, he does well, in very specific situations. Otherwise not essential and sometimes not even helpful. Satchels are more danger than they're worth, and have a habit of firing on panic clicks. They don't clear dirt too well and don't fill a weapon niche for dealing with enemies, exactly. Kind of wish they exploded in a cone towards a designated area, or could be stuck to enemies, or something; I find myself never using them. Axes are the most fun grenade type for me, competing with Scout's Cryos. Flamethrower blinds me, and so I use the giant Cyro... bucket. Yellow is a ugly color, especially when it's the only color, so it's hard to make Driller look nice.

Engineer: Least fashionable, as all his clothing looks like pajamas with a bunch of junk attached to him. Hate his weapons due to how uncomfortable his range options feel. Turrets are a bit of a novelty, and have a couple of issues: final upgrade complicates their use and the x2 variant feels pretty useless in between ammo problems and having to baby their deployment. Honestly Eng just feels like a walking platform gun - something that needs to exist for Scouts to do their job. Least favored class, despite being useful. Also most ugly.

More general thoughts:

• Dwarves without beards are terrifying and must be purged.
• Still have no idea if finishing a mission while dead has a penalty or not. No one seems to know for sure.
• Useless but fun to destroy, indeed! Just destroying the environment is fun. Wish I had more chances to go full apocalypse.
• Fall damage is really aggressive for the amount of times you fall, and the short distance before damage kicks in.
• Shields are very weird on first impression. Fast to drop, very very slow to recharge. Fights usually involve not being targeted at all or being swarmed with enemies, so fully recharging shields isn't too plausible unless you don't even need them.
• I got three barrels into the launch bay once. Karl was displeased.
• "Swarm approaching!" (50 enemies magically appear in your pants half a second later) "The swarm is thinning out!" (50 more enemies keep spawning anyway, over the next 5 minutes)
• Perks are pretty mundane. Most apply to situations that may never occur even once during a mission, or are just boring. One or two seem like clear standouts, just because they're actually useful. (Deep Pockets, Thorns, Beast Master) None define play style to a meaningful degree.
• Most alternate weapons are clearly worse than their counterparts, or seem to have bad matchups with pairing weapon options. I feel like there should either be far more weapon options, or they should be cross class or at least be interchangeable between slots. Anything other than only AA, AB, BA or BB as possible loadouts.
• I get roped into "events" during missions where people apparently get neat stuff from doing them. I help do them. I get nothing. Not too happy about that. It didn't make me crave a promotion so much as make me resentful about being used for other peoples' fun, XP or not. I always see other players rush to obtain the reward; some, like me, seem confused and jitter around the box wondering why nothing happened for them.
• The best part of the game is how drunk, stupid and barely competent the dwarves all are. Still not sure how I get more than three drinks to make myself more/less functional.

Progression: I can see the experience thinning rapidly. Progress is tied mainly to unlocking cosmetics - the same cosmetics, repeatedly, across four characters. Most are very expensive for the piddly income you get from missions, presumably to time gate the only progress system the game has. I haven't done Deep Dives or used the Forge yet.

More importantly, there are too few ways to play the game. Perks, new weapons and loadouts should dramatically alter how each character approaches the content, and they really don't. I love making builds, but the possibilities are very stringent. That's something you usually see with PvP games worried about player balance, not PvE games with drunk dwarves beating the crap out of bugs. I'd like customization options for the pickaxe, flare, and so on. More options that aren't clearly made for Build A vs Build B. Just give me tool options and let me make crazy stuff with them. Whoever is controlling the design of the game is treating it too seriously.

Maps and game modes also overlap quite a lot. There isn't that much distinction between an egg hunt or an elimination. They're mild variations on the same basic job. Even most of the gear modifications seem more like novelties than real changes. No experience with Overclocks yet though. Basically, starting out, options are very, very thin, and it feels like I'm being strung across a shallow pool by a very thin rope.

tl;dr / Close: It's a fun game. The most fun I have is in setting something up for another player and watching them use it, or appreciate that it's there. I can tell it has some longevity issues though, and a lot of that isn't coming from a lack of content so much as overly controlled content without much allowed identity. I sense veteran players probably won't agree with that, but again - initial game adoption impressions. Thanks!

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