this thing is a lifesaver if your team is really really bad.
But shouldn't the outcome of an inadequately-performing team (in a team-based game) be that the team loses instead of being able to fall back on a solution that guarantees them a win no matter how poorly they perform, regardless of the difficulty?
Back in my day we called those "cheat codes."
*chef's kiss*
We had a pretty lengthy discussion about it not too long ago : should we play the fun police for the sake of winning, or let people enjoy the game how they want?
So this is going back to that "player's choice" vs "meta" thing again. Ugh.
From the perspective of someone who plays games for the challenge: if you're going to make multiple difficulties, then that should carry an expectation that you're supposed to master the game's primary skillsets by the time you hit the hardest difficulty.
In KF1, that was headshots. Headshots = things die faster, ideally before they hit you. Firebug's usefulness falls off towards HoE (it can still be useful but you have to consider the rest of your team) and Demo can still be very useful with proper communication and taking care not to rage large Zeds or obscuring your team's sightlines. With occasional exceptions like the Flare Revolvers (which most players agreed was major power creep) that remained true throughout the game's lifetime.
In KF2, that
was headshots. Headshots = things die faster, ideally before they hit you, and that technically still applies to this day. There was an expectation that players learn to not pick Firebug or Demo when teams are kitted for precision takedowns, and since that was the best way to play the game, well...
But somewhere along the line, the devs decided--and realize I only have conjecture in some cases to work with, because they are notoriously bad about communicating their vision of the game and corresponding player expectations--that apparently that wasn't very good in some form or fashion?
The skillgap/crutch perks like Firebug and Demo come with an additional problem that by doing their job they can actively screw over the team in many ways, so players are encouraged to learn how to play the precision perks to get the most out of the game.
If they would rather not do that, well, they can always go back to lower difficulties (that's what they're for, after all) OR learn to work as a team so that those players can cover each other with perk skillsets (Firebug gets trash, Demos get large Zeds). Y'know, team-based game design?
Survivalist, a perk that was added at the last second on the game's official release, was mediocre at everything. This would point to a perk that was designed for lower difficulty levels and thus one of the many ephemeral "player choice" elements: you can pretend you're a jack-of-all-trades at lower difficulty levels, but if you want to actually be a team player and contribute at higher difficulties, you have to stop playing the perk that doesn't do anything well at all and master one of the harder perks.
My primary point of reference is the baseline mechanic where Zeds have independent health bars for body and head. The head health--AT FIRST--for Zeds is smaller compared to the body health. This encourages learning headshots, which means players are enticed to engage with the game's shooting mechanics to become efficient with headshot kills in order to master the game and beat the highest difficulties more effectively.
See, that's the interplay between requiring the devs' originally intended skillsets at work vs. player choice.
Lower difficulties = your choice, but
if you want to consider yourself a master of the game's mechanics, then some of that choice must be forfeited.
So, going back to KF2:
The headshot skillset originally intended by the game's design has not only been dissuaded, it's been actively walked back in many ways.
The skillgap perks have not only gotten stronger at basekit to avoid the TTK and raged Zeds issue, they've gotten so strong they can singlehandedly carry the game on their own in many ways.
Survivalist has received nothing but buffs and "QoL updates" that are just buffs by a nicer name over the past few years.
The game has seen the introduction of numerous enemies that actively violate the "headshots = META" design:
- EDARs were explicitly advertized as being unkillable through headshots (remember when they didn't have any actual weakpoints and the only solution to them was to pump 20 rounds into their feet? I remember.).
- Quarter Pounds, a FP subspecies which was originally just introduced for a weekly, were forced into the main game (making them an unavoidable element) and do not have the usual head/body health ratio that other tanky Zeds have, meaning they are supposed to be killed through body spam. Don't believe me? Their official stat sheet states that they are supposed to be handed by the chaos perks.
- Elite Alpha clots were reworked and brought back as Rioters, which had body armor and a helmet. This is funny in that Rioters--which carry over Alpha Clot weaknesses as a fancy trash Zed--become a nuisance for the trash-killer precision perks (Commando and SWAT), as Sharpshooters can blow through their helmet with the starter weapon, and Gunslingers can do the same with a Winchester. Firebugs don't have to care because lol Ground Fire.
And the worst part of it is that the game's weapons post-2018 are reflective of that shift in priorities. Even the precision perks have received an excessive amount of spam weaponry (don't @ me saying stuff like the Glock for Gunslinger and the HRG Beluga Beat for Sharpshooter isn't spam-friendly).
The Locust is arguably the worst of it that made it through a beta unscathed because it's a weapon that, while it technically doesn't do
everything, is damn near close.
So my point is:
the focus on "player choice" has ruined the nuance and challenge of this game both at a micro- and macro-level mechanical perspective. There should not be an expectation that players who want a challenge as originally intended have to seek out customized difficulty servers that restrict weapon and perk usage. That's ridiculous.
The game's hardest of four (five if you count AAH, which I don't; it's only available once every 20 weeks or so) difficulties should not be beatable by using the same "spam AoE and Medic holds down Mouse1 with the Healthrower" strategies that even a hamster could learn on Normal or Hard.
EDIT: To head off stuff saying things like "it's not supposed to be that hard":
Just because the game doesn't require six players on voice comms landing perfect 100% headshot-accuracy takedowns doesn't mean the game is better for completely disregarding its original setup.
If Doom Eternal kept getting patches over the years that meant you no longer had to worry about anything but spamming the Rocket Launcher and the Super Shotgun, players would cry foul because it would go against the game's original intended design.