descentchampions.org

Overload scratches my itch to fly -- but it doesn't scratch the itch for competitive 1v1. Anarchy is fine.

Single player is awesome, both campaign and challenge modes. If you liked the campaigns from ANY 6DoF game, get this game, it's worth every penny for that alone. Personally I think the story gets weak late game, but apparently there are multiple endings, and I experienced the "bad" one, probably because I was speedrunning it and let all the cryo'd people die. (Sorry Lothar & Drak!)

Last night the Oregon servers were down when I started playing, so I had to deal with 100ms to Virginia for the entirety of what ended up being a 3 1/2 hour stream. I started out feeling very disadvantaged and not knowing how to deal with it. Over time I adjusted. I ended up playing several DCLers, including Souljah, Morfod (flying as Hank), Blarget, and Seawyrm. I got stomped a few games and stomped others in a few games. Overall I had *fun*, although it didn't feel like I was going to for a while.

Weapon-wise, it feels like it's a Driller meta again. I remember early in the stream I was frustrated with people using Driller all the time, and later in the stream after I adjusted *I* was the one getting called out for using Driller constantly. Personally, I main the Impulse and like to get up in my opponent's face and outmaneuver them. If they respond with Flak I'll switch to Driller and back off. In dogfights, I REALLY like changing up weapons if I feel like I'm not aiming well. Flak is a good standby when you're up close, Thunderbolt is useful to catch people off guard much like fusion, Crusher can finish people off who are running away, and Reflex can tag people who are running away around a curve. I really don't like using Cyclone at all, and the weapon opposite the Thunderbolt whose name I can't remember seems all but useless after the nerf.

Super powerups are still a thing, and they really can swing the balance. The worst game I played was one I won 15-1 in Blizzard. It started out competitive enough, with me taking a 2-1 lead, but then the super powerup spawned. I killed my opponent who was going for it and picked up 80 missile pods. I then rattled off 4 kills before I ran out of pods. Now it's 7-1, and another super powerup spawns and it gives me novas. I get 2 kills with the 3 novas, and now it's 9-1 and my opponent straight up gives up with like 3 minutes on the clock. Controlling the super powerups is also part of why I beat Jediluke during beta. There are STILL invulnerabilities and cloaks in anarchy games. And TBH, the devastator is much easier to get kills with than megas, I don't think I've ever messed one up.

Overall, my thought is this. It's not going to make a good competitive 1v1 game. It could make a very good team game. It's made me consider doing an OTL (Overload Teams League), perhaps when they get a team mode other than Team Anarchy going. It makes me want to do an Observatory if they had observer mode in. It doesn't make me want to compete on an OCL (Overload Champions Ladder), or take 1v1 with any kind of seriousness.

I'm pretty much 100% in agreement with roncli. SP is excellent (though I'm only partway through) -- the level designs are good, the story is at least attention-grabbing and there's sort of a creepy I-don't-know-who-to-believe vibe that builds as the game goes on, the secret levels are enjoyable, and the upgrade system is even kind of useful. Challenge Mode is its own fun, competitive thing for people who don't specifically want to play ladder-type matches but do want to work on improving in an arena setting. MP is definitely dependent on powerups, particularly for pilots of similar skill levels -- once you gain control, it tends to cascade. Competitive 1v1 isn't good and probably won't be good without significant mod work, but anarchy is reasonably fun and team modes could end up being really interesting if they add something akin to CTF or a better-thought-out Entropy mode.

For what it's worth, I love the game. I'm probably the worst pilot in there (no...I'm serious), but dang it's fun. KidThunder and I have been doing some 1:1s and it's been a blast. Of course, neither one of us live in the "competitive" descent world anymore, and to be honest with you I don't know really what it means to be good for it or not. Heck, I enjoyed D3 1:1 games (in the right level).

Anywho, hope to see all that love D in there!

P.S. I fly as just 96 these days.

awesome!

I'm down for an Overload 1 v 1 anytime!

I fly as.....Jediluke

It'll be interesting to see how it plays on LAN. I'm not sure I'll be able to bring a computer that can handle it though.