Personally I feel like the limited resources like health and ammo really encourage team cooperation and planning before an encounter. There would be times where my team would die late into a level because we lacked the resources, but once we discussed our strategy and switched it up a few times we would find the most efficient and safest way to deal with an encounter, making the final waves of enemies significantly easier than before. That’s what made me love this game, talking with friends about our plan going into a level where everyone is contributing and watching that plan play out successfully is a super rewarding experience. However I can understand that this game won’t be everyone’s cup of tea especially due to the huge time commitment required to learn the game.
As someone who enjoys gtfo but hardly plays it, my reasons for never playing it are mainly due to the fact that almost nobody plays it which everyone knows. I don't want you to misunderstand what I am about to say and view it as condescending in any way as that is not my intent, however the fun from a game like gtfo is understanding the very small and subtle mechanics and when and how to apply them understanding the rundown you are heading into and the right tools to bring into it what enemies you will face. There is also a purpose behind a lot of things in gtfo each melee weapon for instance serves its own individual purpose, the bat is great for its staggering stats, the knife is great for its speed and allows you to literally run through sleepers killing them without stopping and waking the whole room as long as you don't miss a crit. The spear has the highest damage when fully charged with the drawback of you cant sprint while charging but you have very good range on it. The sledgehammer is a jack of all trades. So much knowledge goes into gtfo aside from the average point and click in a lot of fps games, I don't blame most players for not enjoying it as most people just want to relax and be casual but gtfo is far from a game where you can lay back and relax and shut off your brain.
Howdy, this is GTFO Fan number 451, you have correctly predicted that someone would show up at the comments, so here I am! Jk just gonna add some aditional insight Difficulty wise the game is hard at the beginning, but once you learn the basics and even the more advanced stuff, earlier levels are a cakewalk and may as well be your warm up levels too. I do agree that earlier missions, namely R1 and R2 levels, can get a bit boring and stale. R2 gets interesting once you hit C2 and onwards. R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 and R8 are where the levels improve a lot and offer quite a lot of unique things. I would say a detail that people might not like is that the game itself was (probably) designed to be community based, devs stated that "people have a common enemy, which is this game". GTFO doesn't teach you anything from the get go, just basic navigation and combat. I have 2k hours in this and most of the stuff I've learned to become better has been through engagin with the community and playing with other people that are way better than me. This is obviously not something people are comfortable with which is understandable. There is a laid back and casual experience, but it's something you achieve when reaching a certain skill ceiling. GTFO is a game that rewards your perseverence and your time investment. Is this a problem? Well not for me, but it can be for certain people. Matchmaking is currently not a problem the devs can solve. Back when GTFO began its first steps, Discord LFG was the only available way to gather a team to play. Later in R4 the devs added matchmaking but at that point regulars in the game were already used to Discord LFG. To this day barely anyone uses the matchmaking system. This essentially turns into a social issue, you'd have to convince all the Discord LFGers to migrate to matchmaking... Overall, it's a game that's not for everybody and that's totally cool. The game was designed to be like this, devs wanted a niche game for people with niche interests so uh mission accomplished I guess. You're not wrong, it's your own experience and I think it's more than valid, so thank you for sharing your thoughts! P.S: There's a modding community as well, lots of cool stuff being made there.
I got the game at the last end of R6 and did not finish anything, so I found some people that dunked me right in R7C1, and they hard carried my new dumb ass with 1 hour or so of play. So when R1 came out with the rep this game had, I finished all of R7 and did it all again to be ready for R1: finished in about 3 hours or so, it was way too easy. R3 was 2 nights of play too, R2 took a bit longer but everything up to R2D2 was done first day as well. R4/R5 are balls to the wall hard front to back, rest is easier. Matchmaking wise, the game either auto finds someone for you or you find someone on Discord. What would be faster and easier and would encourage matchmaking is to make it liek Discord. Sort of. What I mean is instead of getting that 1 drop finished and hoping for a match there, look at what you would like to play, so see a whole list of lobbies where you can pick to play.
It's not artificial difficulty it's just not what you're used to. This game is HARD and not for everyone. It requires a lot of forward planning and resource management. I play solo and in the difficult levels I have to use mods to tone down the difficulty.
As far as difficulty goes, the game has a massive difficulty wall right at the beginning of the game. There is a skill barrier where understanding how to stealth melee aggressively makes a huge difference in how you interact with the game. If you want a significantly smoother experience, play the yellow campaign missions starting in Rundown 6. While I have a soft spot for the original rundowns 1 and 2, they suffer from pacing issues that are solved in rundowns 3 and beyond due to 1.) The devs just getting more experience in how to make the game, and, 2.) there being more mechanics that the devs can use to add variety to any given mission. Starting with the yellow campaign missions, and then going back to do the original rundowns is really the way to do it. It's confusing, and I don't think it's the intended experience, but you'll have a much better time learning the game in missions that don't drag on while you're still learning how to stealth in a way that doesn't suck your soul out.
I bought the game recently and booted it up. Started the tutorial. Played for 16 minutes. Didn't get through the tutorial because when I got to the ping hacking computer thing to find the grey key, i could not figure out what I was supposed to type to find the stupid key. The game looks fun. But i quit the game and haven't started it back up.
for the record, you just do the example but putting the key you need instead of the actual example key the examples PING KEY_GREEN_123 i believe, so you just do PING KEY_COLOR_NUMBER that you need, should be on the top left
Have the game autocomplete commands (just like a real term) and shorthand them. Ping only works on an item that is _in the same zone as the terminal_ a thing new players are seemingly unaware of for too long. So to query just type qu then hit tab key, it should autocomplete key_ Then if you have green and grey key it may autocomplete key_gre then type y or e and tab again, type underscore type the numbers hit enter. If you are in term and forget the zone or something, just type cls enter, clear screen, then type in hit tab, should autocomplete to info, then enter. It will give term number and zone right there. Saves time especially under pressure.
So your first impressions are entirely valid and reflected mine from last year. Where however you error’d is in your recommendation to the audience to “not purchase” let me explain.. This game to me is more akin to Souls games as opposed to left for dead. Plot - It has an amazing in-depth story you piece together but have to search for in earlier rundowns. Eventually it very much gets thrown in your face. Difficulty - your impression is akin to playing the intro or first part of a souls game and calling it quits. Once you understand the mechanics, resource management, the risk reward of entering or avoiding certain rooms, the strategy for which doors to reinforce and which to ignore. The depth of weapon choices amongst your squad, the amazing variety of enemies that come at you in later rundowns, the optional secondary/overkill missions, using terminals to your advantage etc.. a whole new world opens up. Matchmaking - Slight hit BUT Discord is absolutely leagues better. Everyone is mic’d, matches are easy to find or create. Think about it this way.. you’re about to spend 1-2hrs with these 3 other folks.. akin to MMORPG dungeon or boss fight.. yes you should spend a tiny fraction of that time getting your team together. It takes on avg 5 minutes to get a random but dedicated squad (and often a really good guide who beat the mission before) together. That’s what you’re missing. I would say this to you, replay it.. do just a bit of research, explore some of the recommended weapons, play a yellow Rundown 6 or 7 story mission with a group of 3 discord folks, you’ll change your opinion in regards to it’s depth and viability I’m sure of it. I say the above because I was in your shoes last year, but like with Bloodborne or Dark Souls 3 an amazing and rich world of happiness gaming wise opened up after I revisited it with fresh eyes and a new approach, I’d love that for you and others as well because of all the hard work and detail that went into this game, along with the dev’s commitment to their vision.
Fortunantly, I have a consistent group that plays through levels every few weeks, so I have never had to deal with the social aspect of finding a group to play with. I will say though, the monotony of the missions should be given some more thought. I know that they play into the sort of plot that is going on behind the scenes, (you are a prisoner, who has been assigned to do these dangerous tasks for a chance of being set free) but do agree that sometimes they feel a little bland. It feels like a chore for some missions where as others are right up my alley with tactics and preperation before an encounter. I think playing with a group that plays a ton of mil-sim games like Ready or Not, Ghost Recon, and what not, gives it a bit more flare since we are all trying to think tactically and plan encounters and routes accordingly. I personally find the game enjoyable, a few hours at a time here and there, but I cannot see it as something that I could play for a week straight. If there was some QoL updates and a scaling system or difficulty system pre-drop, that would allow for the game to really shine. Even some variation in how the levels are spawned in etc. Hit registry can be wonky at times as well but, that can be fixed relatively easy. I think the game has alot to offer, but still needs about a year or two worth of work before it becomes what it truly set out to be. Thanks for the video mate. Cheers!
Thanks for watching! I definitely see where you're coming from with some of the later missions being more enjoyable. I've seen some gameplay of later game stuff and it seems much more tactical and interesting. To expand upon what I said in my video, I think the problem is that: 1: The new player experience is trash. Not only do you need a coordinated team to succeed, but they also made all the starter levels quite boring and annoying to play. 2: Like you said, no difficulty options. There is no way to "drop in" and just play a fun quick round, or really to experience the game as a single player. Having really tough missions is great, but why not make them an extra challenge for experienced players, rather than the default?
Hi gtfo fan here and YOU ARE WRONG LIKE SO WRONG... im just kidding im not that type of commenter but i do enjoy the game So i will be the first person to admit the game is hard like yeah i mean look at the name haha, but it is hard in a way where learning to sculpt or paint or do any sort of task that has a high skill based requirement and unfortunatly thats not for anybody. GTFO is a game for people who find satisfaction in honing thier skills like polishing a diamond and carving it and cutting it to precicly the right shape, but when you refine techniques and such to a high level the game can be highly satisfying and has a deep lore pool to dive into. On the stealth i think that the simple stealth is required for the game anyhing more complex would make this game way too easy for the vibe its going for and would not work taking out targets in stealth from a distance would trivialise the scouts you sit back shoot 3 times or however many times it takes to kill a scout and suffer 0% chance of triggering the room and if it is a limited use item then you cant kill the regular sleepers because it would be soo scarce that having it even be a thing would basically be redundant when you can spend a 10th of the time just bopping the enemies. any sort of distraction mechanich would make the game too easy too having say a "lure" that you drop on a mine killing an entire room in one go would make the game super easy any normal stealth mechanichs doesnt work with the game. it has found its niche and it doesnt need to branch out becuase that would only dilute or even spoil the experience. and finally unfortuntly the game thrives in a multiplayer enviroment where you can gather a group of friends to play the game and becuase of the randomness of matchmaking you cant rely on them and this is true for every game ever i do admit it can be super hard to get the right experience but i promise if you put a bit of effort in to learning the systems get a bit more confidence to melee more and get a group of friends you can rely on the game is 100x better closing thoughts; GTFO is a game designed for a small group of friends to get together and hone your skills whilst chatting, and that isnt everyone but that is fine
im going to be absolutely real here, you can shoot through most levels if you aim well and dont overspend ammo on enemies, especially from a-b levels; considering your statement on "two full heals" its either a) a really short level, or b) you arent finding resources well enough. you can use terminals to query, list, and ping resource packs its also pretty easy to dodge the shooters by moving sideways or running sideways at a specific time and for strikers you can just walk behind them also on matchmaking, yea having to use discord is kinda shitty :P though to be fair im just not quite sure how they would make matchmaking in a game like this work well without taking seven thousand years to find a match. the shitty players youre getting from mm are likely new players from free weekend because i dont know a single person who uses matchmaking
Personally I feel like the limited resources like health and ammo really encourage team cooperation and planning before an encounter. There would be times where my team would die late into a level because we lacked the resources, but once we discussed our strategy and switched it up a few times we would find the most efficient and safest way to deal with an encounter, making the final waves of enemies significantly easier than before. That’s what made me love this game, talking with friends about our plan going into a level where everyone is contributing and watching that plan play out successfully is a super rewarding experience. However I can understand that this game won’t be everyone’s cup of tea especially due to the huge time commitment required to learn the game.
As someone who enjoys gtfo but hardly plays it, my reasons for never playing it are mainly due to the fact that almost nobody plays it which everyone knows. I don't want you to misunderstand what I am about to say and view it as condescending in any way as that is not my intent, however the fun from a game like gtfo is understanding the very small and subtle mechanics and when and how to apply them understanding the rundown you are heading into and the right tools to bring into it what enemies you will face.
There is also a purpose behind a lot of things in gtfo each melee weapon for instance serves its own individual purpose, the bat is great for its staggering stats, the knife is great for its speed and allows you to literally run through sleepers killing them without stopping and waking the whole room as long as you don't miss a crit. The spear has the highest damage when fully charged with the drawback of you cant sprint while charging but you have very good range on it. The sledgehammer is a jack of all trades.
So much knowledge goes into gtfo aside from the average point and click in a lot of fps games, I don't blame most players for not enjoying it as most people just want to relax and be casual but gtfo is far from a game where you can lay back and relax and shut off your brain.
I'll play with you. Soloing gets old
Howdy, this is GTFO Fan number 451, you have correctly predicted that someone would show up at the comments, so here I am! Jk just gonna add some aditional insight
Difficulty wise the game is hard at the beginning, but once you learn the basics and even the more advanced stuff, earlier levels are a cakewalk and may as well be your warm up levels too.
I do agree that earlier missions, namely R1 and R2 levels, can get a bit boring and stale. R2 gets interesting once you hit C2 and onwards. R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 and R8 are where the levels improve a lot and offer quite a lot of unique things.
I would say a detail that people might not like is that the game itself was (probably) designed to be community based, devs stated that "people have a common enemy, which is this game". GTFO doesn't teach you anything from the get go, just basic navigation and combat. I have 2k hours in this and most of the stuff I've learned to become better has been through engagin with the community and playing with other people that are way better than me. This is obviously not something people are comfortable with which is understandable.
There is a laid back and casual experience, but it's something you achieve when reaching a certain skill ceiling. GTFO is a game that rewards your perseverence and your time investment. Is this a problem? Well not for me, but it can be for certain people.
Matchmaking is currently not a problem the devs can solve. Back when GTFO began its first steps, Discord LFG was the only available way to gather a team to play. Later in R4 the devs added matchmaking but at that point regulars in the game were already used to Discord LFG. To this day barely anyone uses the matchmaking system. This essentially turns into a social issue, you'd have to convince all the Discord LFGers to migrate to matchmaking...
Overall, it's a game that's not for everybody and that's totally cool. The game was designed to be like this, devs wanted a niche game for people with niche interests so uh mission accomplished I guess. You're not wrong, it's your own experience and I think it's more than valid, so thank you for sharing your thoughts!
P.S: There's a modding community as well, lots of cool stuff being made there.
Thanks for the insight! Yeah I can definitely see how the matchmaking would be hard to solve after the culture already formed around discord :/
I got the game at the last end of R6 and did not finish anything, so I found some people that dunked me right in R7C1, and they hard carried my new dumb ass with 1 hour or so of play.
So when R1 came out with the rep this game had, I finished all of R7 and did it all again to be ready for R1: finished in about 3 hours or so, it was way too easy. R3 was 2 nights of play too, R2 took a bit longer but everything up to R2D2 was done first day as well.
R4/R5 are balls to the wall hard front to back, rest is easier.
Matchmaking wise, the game either auto finds someone for you or you find someone on Discord. What would be faster and easier and would encourage matchmaking is to make it liek Discord. Sort of. What I mean is instead of getting that 1 drop finished and hoping for a match there, look at what you would like to play, so see a whole list of lobbies where you can pick to play.
I stumbled across your channel today and I really like your game reviews and Warthunder vids
I play this game with my friend group of 4 people, very enjoyable experience, but very hard and exhausting
It's not artificial difficulty it's just not what you're used to. This game is HARD and not for everyone. It requires a lot of forward planning and resource management. I play solo and in the difficult levels I have to use mods to tone down the difficulty.
Great video
As far as difficulty goes, the game has a massive difficulty wall right at the beginning of the game. There is a skill barrier where understanding how to stealth melee aggressively makes a huge difference in how you interact with the game.
If you want a significantly smoother experience, play the yellow campaign missions starting in Rundown 6. While I have a soft spot for the original rundowns 1 and 2, they suffer from pacing issues that are solved in rundowns 3 and beyond due to 1.) The devs just getting more experience in how to make the game, and, 2.) there being more mechanics that the devs can use to add variety to any given mission.
Starting with the yellow campaign missions, and then going back to do the original rundowns is really the way to do it. It's confusing, and I don't think it's the intended experience, but you'll have a much better time learning the game in missions that don't drag on while you're still learning how to stealth in a way that doesn't suck your soul out.
I bought the game recently and booted it up. Started the tutorial. Played for 16 minutes. Didn't get through the tutorial because when I got to the ping hacking computer thing to find the grey key, i could not figure out what I was supposed to type to find the stupid key. The game looks fun. But i quit the game and haven't started it back up.
for the record, you just do the example but putting the key you need instead of the actual example key
the examples PING KEY_GREEN_123 i believe, so you just do PING KEY_COLOR_NUMBER that you need, should be on the top left
Have the game autocomplete commands (just like a real term) and shorthand them.
Ping only works on an item that is _in the same zone as the terminal_ a thing new players are seemingly unaware of for too long.
So to query just type qu then hit tab key, it should autocomplete key_
Then if you have green and grey key it may autocomplete key_gre then type y or e and tab again, type underscore type the numbers hit enter.
If you are in term and forget the zone or something, just type cls enter, clear screen, then type in hit tab, should autocomplete to info, then enter. It will give term number and zone right there. Saves time especially under pressure.
So your first impressions are entirely valid and reflected mine from last year. Where however you error’d is in your recommendation to the audience to “not purchase” let me explain..
This game to me is more akin to Souls games as opposed to left for dead.
Plot - It has an amazing in-depth story you piece together but have to search for in earlier rundowns. Eventually it very much gets thrown in your face.
Difficulty - your impression is akin to playing the intro or first part of a souls game and calling it quits. Once you understand the mechanics, resource management, the risk reward of entering or avoiding certain rooms, the strategy for which doors to reinforce and which to ignore. The depth of weapon choices amongst your squad, the amazing variety of enemies that come at you in later rundowns, the optional secondary/overkill missions, using terminals to your advantage etc.. a whole new world opens up.
Matchmaking - Slight hit BUT Discord is absolutely leagues better. Everyone is mic’d, matches are easy to find or create. Think about it this way.. you’re about to spend 1-2hrs with these 3 other folks.. akin to MMORPG dungeon or boss fight.. yes you should spend a tiny fraction of that time getting your team together. It takes on avg 5 minutes to get a random but dedicated squad (and often a really good guide who beat the mission before) together. That’s what you’re missing.
I would say this to you, replay it.. do just a bit of research, explore some of the recommended weapons, play a yellow Rundown 6 or 7 story mission with a group of 3 discord folks, you’ll change your opinion in regards to it’s depth and viability I’m sure of it.
I say the above because I was in your shoes last year, but like with Bloodborne or Dark Souls 3 an amazing and rich world of happiness gaming wise opened up after I revisited it with fresh eyes and a new approach, I’d love that for you and others as well because of all the hard work and detail that went into this game, along with the dev’s commitment to their vision.
Fortunantly, I have a consistent group that plays through levels every few weeks, so I have never had to deal with the social aspect of finding a group to play with. I will say though, the monotony of the missions should be given some more thought. I know that they play into the sort of plot that is going on behind the scenes, (you are a prisoner, who has been assigned to do these dangerous tasks for a chance of being set free) but do agree that sometimes they feel a little bland. It feels like a chore for some missions where as others are right up my alley with tactics and preperation before an encounter. I think playing with a group that plays a ton of mil-sim games like Ready or Not, Ghost Recon, and what not, gives it a bit more flare since we are all trying to think tactically and plan encounters and routes accordingly.
I personally find the game enjoyable, a few hours at a time here and there, but I cannot see it as something that I could play for a week straight. If there was some QoL updates and a scaling system or difficulty system pre-drop, that would allow for the game to really shine. Even some variation in how the levels are spawned in etc. Hit registry can be wonky at times as well but, that can be fixed relatively easy.
I think the game has alot to offer, but still needs about a year or two worth of work before it becomes what it truly set out to be. Thanks for the video mate. Cheers!
Thanks for watching! I definitely see where you're coming from with some of the later missions being more enjoyable. I've seen some gameplay of later game stuff and it seems much more tactical and interesting.
To expand upon what I said in my video, I think the problem is that:
1: The new player experience is trash. Not only do you need a coordinated team to succeed, but they also made all the starter levels quite boring and annoying to play.
2: Like you said, no difficulty options. There is no way to "drop in" and just play a fun quick round, or really to experience the game as a single player. Having really tough missions is great, but why not make them an extra challenge for experienced players, rather than the default?
Hi gtfo fan here and YOU ARE WRONG LIKE SO WRONG... im just kidding im not that type of commenter but i do enjoy the game
So i will be the first person to admit the game is hard like yeah i mean look at the name haha, but it is hard in a way where learning to sculpt or paint or do any sort of task that has a high skill based requirement and unfortunatly thats not for anybody. GTFO is a game for people who find satisfaction in honing thier skills like polishing a diamond and carving it and cutting it to precicly the right shape, but when you refine techniques and such to a high level the game can be highly satisfying and has a deep lore pool to dive into.
On the stealth i think that the simple stealth is required for the game anyhing more complex would make this game way too easy for the vibe its going for and would not work taking out targets in stealth from a distance would trivialise the scouts you sit back shoot 3 times or however many times it takes to kill a scout and suffer 0% chance of triggering the room and if it is a limited use item then you cant kill the regular sleepers because it would be soo scarce that having it even be a thing would basically be redundant when you can spend a 10th of the time just bopping the enemies. any sort of distraction mechanich would make the game too easy too having say a "lure" that you drop on a mine killing an entire room in one go would make the game super easy any normal stealth mechanichs doesnt work with the game. it has found its niche and it doesnt need to branch out becuase that would only dilute or even spoil the experience.
and finally unfortuntly the game thrives in a multiplayer enviroment where you can gather a group of friends to play the game and becuase of the randomness of matchmaking you cant rely on them and this is true for every game ever i do admit it can be super hard to get the right experience but i promise if you put a bit of effort in to learning the systems get a bit more confidence to melee more and get a group of friends you can rely on the game is 100x better
closing thoughts; GTFO is a game designed for a small group of friends to get together and hone your skills whilst chatting, and that isnt everyone but that is fine
im going to be absolutely real here, you can shoot through most levels if you aim well and dont overspend ammo on enemies, especially from a-b levels; considering your statement on "two full heals" its either a) a really short level, or b) you arent finding resources well enough. you can use terminals to query, list, and ping resource packs
its also pretty easy to dodge the shooters by moving sideways or running sideways at a specific time and for strikers you can just walk behind them
also on matchmaking, yea having to use discord is kinda shitty :P
though to be fair im just not quite sure how they would make matchmaking in a game like this work well without taking seven thousand years to find a match. the shitty players youre getting from mm are likely new players from free weekend because i dont know a single person who uses matchmaking
Never free stop lying
There was a free weekend when this was posted