Tripwire Interactive Forums
I just beat maneater and while I had a good time with the game I couldn't help but feel disappointing with the combat. The system is fine but the actual fights are so easy it ruined any potential enjoyment of it. At fresh adult I was able to effortlessly kill orcas, as fresh elder the same with sperm whales. I beat the apex alligator, hammerhead, great white, orca and sperm whale without dodging, tail whipping, or doing anything other than sitting in place mashing bite. I've seen a lot of people suggesting a harder game mode with much higher enemy health/damage and while I partially agree you could give those bosses 100x damage and it wouldn't mean anything because the boss never hits you in the first place.
I find two major issues with the animal combat; wind up and dodging. All animals in the game have a wind-up before an attack where they either flash a certain color or sort of 'hesitate' for a few moments before rushing forwards or spinning to attack you. This lets you know when to use your dodge ability to get away, or use your attack while they are vulnerable. On paper this is a good system but the problem is that almost all of the ai have really long 'wind ups' or 'tells' in which the game gives you such an long time window of when to dodge that the enemies can simply never hit you once you get past pup stage. In addition, you have unlimited dodges so even if you are a bit slow or misjudge an attack you still won't get hit because you can just keep dodging until you are in position. You can rush in and bite a target multiple times, often stunning it, but it takes the enemy like 10 seconds just to line up and flash for an attack, then immediately enter a vulnerable state after it is easily dodged. It's for this reason that I found the hunted alligator to be stronger than any other enemy in the game; it uniquely has a quick bite attack with almost no tell that the other alligators don't seem to have. If they do have them, they never used them on my play through.
As such, if a harder game-mode is ever considered rather than simply suping-up the damage and health of enemy animals, the animals should instead have their wind up and vulnerable periods largely shortened; they should behave much more aggressively and continue to attack for longer. I also feel that limiting the amount of dodges a player can make on harder difficulty would be a good way to handle this; if you have to use dodges carefully instead of spamming them until you are in right position. Maybe have 2-4 dodge 'pips' that regen over time? Perhaps instant out of combat and for a few seconds in combat, and perhaps make them refill slower when sprinting. Just changing the timing of enemy attacks would, I think, make them much more threatening.
I find two major issues with the animal combat; wind up and dodging. All animals in the game have a wind-up before an attack where they either flash a certain color or sort of 'hesitate' for a few moments before rushing forwards or spinning to attack you. This lets you know when to use your dodge ability to get away, or use your attack while they are vulnerable. On paper this is a good system but the problem is that almost all of the ai have really long 'wind ups' or 'tells' in which the game gives you such an long time window of when to dodge that the enemies can simply never hit you once you get past pup stage. In addition, you have unlimited dodges so even if you are a bit slow or misjudge an attack you still won't get hit because you can just keep dodging until you are in position. You can rush in and bite a target multiple times, often stunning it, but it takes the enemy like 10 seconds just to line up and flash for an attack, then immediately enter a vulnerable state after it is easily dodged. It's for this reason that I found the hunted alligator to be stronger than any other enemy in the game; it uniquely has a quick bite attack with almost no tell that the other alligators don't seem to have. If they do have them, they never used them on my play through.
As such, if a harder game-mode is ever considered rather than simply suping-up the damage and health of enemy animals, the animals should instead have their wind up and vulnerable periods largely shortened; they should behave much more aggressively and continue to attack for longer. I also feel that limiting the amount of dodges a player can make on harder difficulty would be a good way to handle this; if you have to use dodges carefully instead of spamming them until you are in right position. Maybe have 2-4 dodge 'pips' that regen over time? Perhaps instant out of combat and for a few seconds in combat, and perhaps make them refill slower when sprinting. Just changing the timing of enemy attacks would, I think, make them much more threatening.