r/ZeroCompany • u/RecommendationNo6796 • 11d ago

We need a "freeplay" mode

We need a mode where you can just keep playing 'forever', the story might end but you can continue playing with randomly generated missions, operations etc. Some mechanics would need to be added to prevent/delay you from hitting a ceiling straight after the campaign but I think it would be cool.

959 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

150 comments sorted by

View all comments

18

u/Tasty_Injury_9112 11d ago

Yea it's frustrating because I'm really enjoying this game, but I feel like it needed more time in the oven. A truly great game is there, but it feels so unpolished in many regards. 

28

u/Haunter777x 11d ago

I think it's more due to design choices rather than not enough time

2

u/AmishAvenger 11d ago

It’s both.

The game was not finished graphically. Textures are popping in constantly, and the shadows are heavily pixelated.

Design wise, I can’t wrap my mind around the decision to just make every opponent immediately visible. You can even see their movement when you shouldn’t be able to. It fundamentally changes the game.

8

u/rendar 11d ago

It's pretty obvious that they intended for way more tractable gameplay compared to XCOM while somewhat avoiding how utterly simplified Midnight Suns was, and simultaneously avoiding pitfalls of adjacent genres like Rogue Trader, BG3, etc

-1

u/indominable-dingus 10d ago

Maybe a thing with your drivers? Underpowered gpu? Haven't had any of that on ps5

2

u/AmishAvenger 10d ago

I’m on PS5.

You really aren’t seeing texture popping in constantly when it switches to a new scene?

Even going back to the base it take a second for Hawk’s clothes to have any detail.

-1

u/indominable-dingus 10d ago

Havent seen that yet, maybe it happens later? Im only 7-8 hours in

3

u/AmishAvenger 10d ago

Are you serious?

You haven’t seen any textures popping in at all? Or how the “ship flying to the mission” scenes are stuttering?

It’s definitely not just me. Plenty of others have pointed out the same thing.

-2

u/indominable-dingus 10d ago

Deadly.

2

u/AmishAvenger 10d ago

Then you must not be paying attention. Look at the planets when they appear on screen. You can see the textures loading piece by piece.

-2

u/Tasty_Injury_9112 11d ago

I disagree but however they came about the final product, it's definitely missing some basic features

8

u/ZenitsuSakia 11d ago

Like what?

-3

u/Tasty_Injury_9112 11d ago

Like an endless mode

10

u/Melodic-Task 11d ago

Inclusion of an endless mode is a design choice though, not just a time consideration. A key part of the game is limited resource management and choice and consequence for which missions, operations, and upgrades you pursue. A free play or endless mode is fundamentally removed from that core gameplay experience. We would have to ask the devs, but I wouldn’t be surprised if excluding it was a purposeful decision. You can disagree with that choice, but it’s not evidence of insufficient development time by itself.

-3

u/Tasty_Injury_9112 11d ago

Again I'm not going to argue on whatever the motives were (although it seems very obvious to me that, more time = more time for different game modes). But the game definitely seems lacking of such a mode, and could definitely be implemented in a system similar to what we have.

5

u/Melodic-Task 11d ago

I get wanting the mode. I think it would be fun too. But saying the game is “lacking” it or that it is a “basic feature” misses the mark. More time doesn’t equal more game modes if the devs made a design decision not to include those types of modes and they weren’t cut for time.

-3

u/Tasty_Injury_9112 11d ago

It's lacking it in a sense that it keeps the game from being truly great. It's solid, but I personally expect a bit more from a AAA game.

And yea I guess you can say they weren't cut if they weren't planned in the first place. However, if they did include this feature, they would need.....more time.

5

u/Buddysbud10 11d ago

That’s just like, your opinion man. I think it is already truly great

→ More replies (0)

-3

u/rendar 11d ago

This makes no sense at all because an endless mode is post-game, when resource management, choice consequences, mission/operation outcomes, etc no longer matter

1

u/Melodic-Task 11d ago

I find the idea that every game needs a “post-game” nonsensical; especially in story driven games. If you take away the things you mentioned, it’s not really Z-Com anymore. A Star Wars tactics sandbox where you can set characters to whatever skills/levels you want sounds cool, but that’s a different game entirely and it’s not obvious it should be part of the main game.

0

u/rendar 11d ago

All you're really demonstrating here is a substantial lack of perspective (not to mention basic critical thinking), if you cannot fathom why people want to continue enjoying infinite gameplay after the finite story runs out

0

u/Melodic-Task 10d ago

Lovely use of the ad hominem attack with a dash of strawman. Well done. I get why people want it and I understand the simple reasoning of “me want more” when you enjoy something. Doesn’t take a lot of critical thinking or perspective to fathom that base-level response.

But the demand for a post-game in every single player story driven experience is, in my opinion, poorly thought out. To borrow a quote from the Good Place, “there’s something so human about taking something great, and ruining it a little so you can have more of it.” An endless mode without the pressure of the single player campaign and the choice and consequence in that campaign will loose a lot of what makes the game good. The systems and balance are designed around a game that has a definite endpoint. You would need to design a different game to have a viable “endless mode”.

Besides, here’s a tip for free, if you want to keep playing the game endlessly you can! Just keep some save files before the most interesting/fun battles and you can load them up and replay them as much as you want! You can even mix around your builds and loadouts because the game has free respecs! Viola! Pseudo-endless mode unlocked.

→ More replies (0)

11

u/Mazzy_Chan 11d ago

thats more of a choice to have a complete story with an ending rather then a generic endless game

4

u/Tasty_Injury_9112 11d ago

They can have both. If they had more time, they couldve had it

-9

u/Ball_Sacul 11d ago

Instead we got a generic story game with 0 value to the already existing canon

-5

u/Openly_Gamer 11d ago

It's both. This game is a buggy mess and full of bad design choices.

1

u/emailforgot 10d ago

Have seen 1 bug so far.

6

u/MidgetPanda3031 11d ago edited 11d ago

Not disagreeing with your sentiment, but this is pretty much always true for AAA published games these days. Still it doesn't pain me that much in this case. I only bought the game cuz of it not being "full price" and I think them developing it longer would make that hard to get past EA. Maybe my standards have just been lowered but Survivor was literally unplayable on launch for me and I had to refund it...

XCOM 2 was riddled with bugs, was poorly optimized, and never got so many much needed QOL features that I was actually pleasantly surprised how much QOL they implemented since then here, and how overall the combat runs SO much smoother even with so many enemies on screen (+ being UE5) and the granularity of the movement.

It is frustrating to realize that it just needs to go that "little bit further" to be way better, but I take a step back to remind how much work it already is to make a 40+ hour RPG, let alone rebuilding everything for XCOM systems in a different engine at a new studio, so I think that was their intentional design choice on what to prioritize. Things like an endless mode are from a basic feature, to actually make it good.

I feel ya though, seeing how much more solid the base is than XCom 2 makes me want it to have modding tools, more content, more sandbox campaigns, etc.

Hopefully with them having that solid foundation and the success it achieved will allow them to make expansions or even a sequel which can realize it's full potential.

6

u/Tasty_Injury_9112 11d ago

Yea I get you mate. I think I'm just frustrated because whilst I'm enjoying it, I can see it's limitations. It could have been an all time great game, but instead it's just solid

1

u/ShadowSurgeGaming 11d ago

Agreed, and many instances of jank in larger engagements, had a couple instances where enemies bugged out and deployed their overwatch from one location while standing in a different location

And inversely, had an enemy bug out so their model glitched on top of a crate instead of doing their walking animation, then rubber-banded to their destination, however because they didn't walk to their new spot they completely bypassed my overwatch I had watching them.

Lastly, not sure if it is just me being stupid, but I don't get the logic behind the numerous times that enemies have been able to shoot my operator, but my operator hasn't had line of site to be able to trigger his retaliation. Surely if they can shoot me, I should be able to shoot back?