Finished the AoA and TBI portion of the release. Some quick thoughts so far:
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The new opening cutscene for AoASeeing the entire battle group in formation in high res was just stunningly beautiful.
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A Blue Planet.... I absolutely loved starting the mission in the hangar and getting a great view of the entire battle group. Had a deeply immersing feel to it, and, as mentioned above, seeing a whole battle group of TEI ships in high res will never get old
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Aurora Flare EffectLooks lovely, even though I was a bit confused when I played
The Dragon Awakens. Took me a moment to figure out that those blue effects came from me and not the Shivans.
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Forced Entry seemed a bit easier than usual. I mean, I naturally failed it once because my Trebs somehow missed the Lilith's main beam, but beyond that it was relatively easy compared to my last playthrough, which was on medium instead of hard this time around. The Abel in particular seemed to die very quickly compared to last time, but maybe that's just my impression.
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Preserving the Balance also felt a bit off compared to last time. The Keeper and escorts seemed to take a while to fire their beams again after blowing up the first destroyer. The first one got pretty much obliterated instantly as before, but there seemed to be an usually long pause between the beam fire after that. Not a big issue, as they still shredded the Shivan within two minutes after blowing up the first destroyer or so, but, if I remember correctly, all destroyers were gone within a minute of each other. Again, maybe it's just my perception.
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Fallen AngelWow. I did not see that one coming. I mean, sure, I heard Bei yell out he feels the Lucifer, but I just took it as Bei being Bei. Then the first images started popping up.
Needless to say, it made the mission much more difficult, but in a good way.
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Demons of the Past You should have seen the huge beam on my face when I found out who was talking in the final stages of the command briefing. Hello, Admiral.
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A Time for HeroesA thousand thanks for allowing the option to skip the opening dialogue.
I am horrible at flying bombers and using Helios warheads. Only took me two tries this time, but last time it took me around five, so the ability to skip the dialogue after my first fail was most welcome.
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Universal TruthFor god's sake, how many bombers were there? I would not be surprised to have nightmares tonight about never ending waves of Shivan bombers. I don't think I've ever felt so overwhelmed during any Freespace mission before. It seemed like at one point, there were 20+ Strike bombers, 10+ Fleet Bombers and another 8+ Heavy Bombers. Literally one of those "God damn it, I can't do everything"-type of missions where you expect to see the ship(s) you're supposed to protect blow up at any second. The Orestes and Temeraire were close calls, but thankfully TEI warships are killing machines in their own right.
- And then there's
Journey's End. Really enjoyed the dialogue changes, because... Hello again, Admiral.
It's more than that though. Mentioning Morpheus and Steele accusing Admiral Bei of being compromised was a nice touch considering future events.
Some other things:
- The Vishnan weaponry confused me a little, I must admit. By the end of Fallen Angel I had a rough idea of what each weapon does, but nothing more than that. Spamming that missile over and over and over again was fun though. Made disarming the destroyers in Keepers of Hell somewhat easy and it helped immensely when I could just spam them endlessly at the Lucifer in Fallen Angel.
- I cannot describe how much I love those dossier entries in the database. Fleshed out the characters even more and showed sides to them we hadn't seen before.
- Again, this may just be my perception, but was the Kayser altered in any way? It seemed to have less of it's usual two-shots-you're-dead feel and it definitely felt like it drained less energy.
- Whoever nerfed the repair abiltiy in TBI is evil. I had no idea it had been nerfed and promptly got obliterated by the two corvettes.
- Admiral Steele sounds awesome. It's a perfect mix of evil, cold and calculating without becoming melodramatic.
Will post more thoughts when I start the WiH portion tomorrow. Needed to restrain myself, otherwise I'd have played through the night.
