|
Somehow, no one has bothered in making a thread about this game, despite being something that I think lots of goons will love, as we usually appreciate a game with emergent gameplay and lots of player freedom. So this is coming late, as the game was released one year ago (and I think it had 2 years of EA period?), but better late than never. I started playing a few days ago, so you can accompany me in the journey that this game supposes :P. https://store.steampowered.com/app/512900/Streets_of_Rogue/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whqzf1d-E2w Wiki https://streetsofrogue.gamepedia.com/Streets_of_Rogue_Wiki Features -24 classes -Procedural generation for world -4 player local and online coop -Mod workshop -Lots of adjustable settings and game customization (>50 game mutators, customizable lists of in game rewards and traits) -Custom class system too As you may know, Streets of Rogue is a indie 2d roguelite game with simplistic graphics, where you play a member of the resistance who has to defeat the corrupt mayor of the city, doing a series of objectives through procedurally generated city districts. The combat is in real time but it's pretty 'ehh', spammy and simple, it's these city districts, and more exactly what happen in them and the things you can do are the real star of the show. Npcs move around, cops watches for crimes, thieves steal poo poo, several factions may fight between them, and you have ample freedom to use force, stealth, hacking, bribery, special items and more to get poo poo done. It's this freedom of choice and the systemic 'everything' that make people say it's a '2d Deus Ex'. The class variety is one of the most important features, it feels so wide that, more than anything, it reminds me of the strategy game Dominions where you can choose dozens of very different nations. From the wiki, you can be: -Assassin -Bartender -Cannibal -Comedian -Cop -Doctor -Firefighter -Gangster -Gorilla -Hacker -Investment banker -Jock -Scientist -Shapeshifter -Shopkeeper -Slavemaster -Slum Dweller -Soldier -Supercop -Thief -Upper-Cruster -Vampire -Werewolf -Wrestler -Zombie -Mobster -Robot -Alien (dlc) -Goon (dlc) -Demolitionist (dlc) -Courier (dlc) Each one has a unique combination of stats (endurance, speed, melee, firearms), special ability, traits and starting items. At the start, you only have available 6 of them and the rest has to be unlocked, but it's pretty easy to do, in 5-6 runs you will unlock a dozen of them. Oh, an advice, the default class, the one that is selected at first and the game uses in the tutorial in the Slum Dweller. If anything, this could be considered an 'advanced class' whose gimmick is sucking at the early game, but it grows more in power as you level up. You may try another class as you first one, don't be discouraged if you are killed super fast with it. But the game to really sell this game, it's to show what you can do. So; Cool things you can do in the game, in general: -You can destroy doors and walls with explosives -You can tap on windows or knock on doors to attract people -Fire can spread on wooden material -You can use, or hack, alarm buttons -You can poison ventilation systems in buildings, with any drug or consumable item you have -You can store items for next runs using ATMs -You can throw money to wells for luck -You can hide in bushes -You can upgrade or swap character traits in aug booths -You can cook in barbecues -You can use clone machines to generate a new npc of your class type who will have a friendly status to you -You can use computers -You can destroy power generators, or use a wrench to do the same in a silent manner -You can distract people using a jukebox or other similar items -You can play in slot machines -You can poison ponds -You can douse fires with a fire hydrant, and the water will knock out people -You can ignite oil -You can spawn ghost by destroying gravestones. -You can tase people, shrink them with a shrink ray, knock them out with a tranq gun, throw drugs with a water pistol, freeze them with a freeze ray, burn them with a flamethrower, made them trip with a banana peel... -You can bribe the police to ignore your crimes -You can threaten npc targets, or bribe them, so they leave the city or give you the item mission you need -You can hire slum dwellers and gangsters to do your bidding -Some npcs have special actions when hired, like the thief can open a door or window for you, the hacker can hack something, or the hobo can make a ruckus -You can purchase slaves Speaking of being '2d Deus Ex', there are some cool things hackers can do: -As a hacker, you can change prices of different paid booths, like ammo dispenser, goodie dispenser, sell-o-matic, etc -You can use more 'distracting' items, like hacking an arcade game, or a tv. -You can hack safes, disarm or trigger door detonators, make tv explode or refrigerators to crash into walls -You can tamper aim of robots or make cop bots go haywire -You can change behavior of systems like security cameras and turrets -You can trigger traps and gas vents  About meta-progression and unlockables: There is no real ‘meta-progression’ in the sense of gaining power, like extra health or damage, for posterior runs. By doing quests, you gain a currency that can be used to unlock two things: traits and reward items. Traits are perks gained every level, and rewards items are the reward you get upon completing a quest. So you are increasing the random pool of both with these unlocks. Which may actually bother some people as it will ‘dilute’ the pool with things you don’t want, but the game already have a way to deal with that, you can turn on/off some of them, with the requisite of having at least x activated. Well, now that I think about it, there is a way to gain ‘extra power’, but it isn’t permanent, just for the next run. You can use the already mentioned meta-currency to buy extra starting items. It seems a way to spend the currency once you unlock everything. There are really three things to unlock in your progress: -Traits and rewards, as explained -Character classes, there are… 18 to unlock. The requirements for each are unique but as I said before, they are fairly easy. It’s like doing an achievement: get to have $500 in a run, or destroy 20 gravestones, or buy 10 drinks in a run, or kill 20 people in a floor, or kill a ghost. -Big quest for every character class. They are unique quest for every class, that marks an optional objective to do during all the campaign. Medic cannot kill more than 2 people per floor, the assassin has an extra target he has to kill without witnesses, the hacker has to install malware in a computer per floor but this causes enemies to spawn, etc. The unlock part comes in this: once you have done the big quest, the character gain a super ability to use in the final level of the game. And there is a non-default game mutator that allows to use the super ability during the entire run, if you had unlocked it. A summary of a few classes:  The Assassin is a very aggressive stealthter. Which is ironic because he potentially has the most OP stealth tool, the Camouflage ability, 10 seconds of invisibility, 5 seconds of CD between uses, and the unique feature of not breaking invisibility when opening doors, backstabbing someone, or picking or using objects (unlike the stealth cardboard box item). This allows you to try to complete some goals that are inside buildings while invisible. But he also has the ability to deal 10x the damage when backstabbing, that combined with the 'maintain invisibility even when you backstab someone' means you can cap fools in ninja mode, retire to recharge the ability, and do it again. It sounds OP, but of course people goes to investigate and search around if see a body drop to the ground suddenly, and the invisibility breaks when someone 'touches' you. To balance the possibly OPness, his stats are mediocre, which doesn't make sense for a professional assassin but whatever. As good as he is in ambushes, he is weak in normal melee, be aware of that. He has an interesting Big Quest, in each floor there is an extra mission, a target to assassinate. The target usually roams around and has bodyguards, and you have the condition of doing it silently, or killing the witnesses too.  The Doctor is the opposite, a pacifist. In fact her Big Quest is about that, about not having the freedom of killing people, you can only make a pair of 'exceptions' per floor. Even worse, let's say you want to ignore her Big Quest, it doesn't matter, you can't use normal weapons with her! She has to use her fists, or some non-lethal weapons like the tranq gun or the taser. In exchange, she can use a knockout ability, a chloroform hankie with low CD that instantly and silently puts people to sleep (although it can only be used from behind). So you have a great stealth tool to remove guards and other potential witnesses, making some areas trivial, but she is 'hard-countered' by some other situations (ie. multiple guards in a room with back to the wall). It's here where she will have to improvise. One of those improvisations I found is to use hired muscle to do the dirty work. You can't kill, but your followers are free... not only that, there is some synergy in using followers, as you can heal them once per floor.  The Thief still plays differently to the other two. What I like of him is that he truly plays like a thief: you can steal money and items to every npc in the game, and he has a series of cool 'thievery' tools as this disposition, these ones:  to break into buildings and steal poo poo. However, notice that unlike the assassin ambush or the doctor's chloroform, none of his special abilities will help him if a guard discovers him, combat is potentially dangerous for him (although at least, one of his unique traits makes him harder to hit with bullets). The previous list of items is very nice but what do you when you deplete them? Easy, he has exclusive access to a shopper who will sell more items like those, as he just can buy them from other thieves. This is all very cool, but finally he also has an important negative trait, he has a suspicious aura (or maybe it's the classical stripped clothing!) and building owners will kick him out of their premises. That means less access to shoppers, more difficulties to do some missions, and less access to npcs to steal from.  To start with, we have the Vampire. Which, to be honest, is a somewhat disappointing. He can't be seen by cameras and he has the ability to bite people, draining them of health, thanks to that he kinds of play as another type of stealth character, one who needs a few seconds to silently kill enemies but in exchange he can recover hp in the process. The disappointing part comes in that he could be much more. They could have done a 'turn into bat' power, or have a limited 'charm' ability, or not be able to enter into a building without being invited (easy to do, just disallow movement into the building if he isn't in friendly status with the owner). As he stands, he is just another stealth guy with a twist. At least the Big Quest is interesting, he has to find and kill a Werewolf in the map, he can do it thanks to his 'vampire-sense'.  The Zombie plays unlike most characters. He can't talk to humans or use firearms, so he can't use shops or bribe or anything like that, in fact human will attack or run away on sight. So it turns the game on its head, making it an action game where you must provoke a zombie invasion in each floor, with the help of your zombie squad. And you really can make a zombie invasion, as any npc which has been hit once by you or one your zombies will also turn into another zombie. It's fun seeing half of the map populated by zombies and hearing screams and combat sounds preceding you. There is a bit of health management with the zombie, you can throw a phlegm that will infect people turning into loyal zombies (instead of neutral ones) but it costs a bit of HP. Funnily enough, once you have turned a shopper into a zombie, you can buy stuff from him. Zombie economy at work!  The Werewolf is a skinny nerd no one likes (his stats are 1/1/1/1 and he is a sucker so shop prices are higher lol), but he can turn into a werefolf form, a melee beast, no pun intended, and take bloody vengeance. In werewolf form he can't do anything except attack and lunge. He is especially weak after the transformation so you have to take care of not leaving survivors, or turning back into human where people don't have LoS, so they won't know where the big wolf went away... in addition, this OP ability has a high CD to balance it out. In reality, the werewolf feels like a more flexible monster than the zombie. With the zombie, you only can attack everybody at melee, with the werewolf you have your human form to talk to people, use firearms, etc, and then also have the beast form to aggressively melee anything on sight like the zombie; so you can choose what is the most appropriate tool for each situation.  The Shopkeeper is a fairly simple class, despite my ?? on top of my head when I first saw it existed at all. He is actually a more or less normal class, good with firearms and with a starting shotgun, with a pair of perks on top of it: he can summon a sell-o-matic whenever he goes (useful as not all levels will have one available), he gets a discount when buying stuff, and he has the perk of beign able to haggle and buy objects to npcs. This means you can buy a pistol from a goon before combat with him starts, or you can buy a key for a jail from a cop, or just buy directly a quest item from the person who have it. This said, the price is a bit higher from what it should be, so it's an action useful to solve some quets, but not something to spam nilly-willy. Perhaps the most interesting tidbit for him is the Big Quest, where in each floor you are asked to sell one specific item. You may have that item from before (for example I was asked a pistol in my current game), or you may have to obtain it in the current level, stealing or buying it. To end, he has some nice starting items, beyond the shotgun, he has the mini fridge (food heals 20% more) and a free item voucher. Oh, one more thing: using the trait loneliness killer or using the clone machine, you can obtain a loyal second shopkeer that follows you. The loyal relationship gives you a discount to his shop inventory, together your haggle skills, you can obtain items very cheap this way. Even better: his default shotgun means he is a good combat companion.  The Bartender is another surprisingly decent-at-combat class, with the twist of being a "status dispenser". He can do cocktails with drugs and other consumables, offer said cocktails to npcs, and if the effect is positive, you earn favor with the npc (which means bouncers letting you pass, cheaper hiring prices, shoppers offering better prices too, if someone attacks you they will participate defending you, etc), and if the status is negative they will turn hostile, but hey, they already drank your poison so surely you will have an edge, so it can be used as a 'opener' for a fight. The other thing to know about him is he is a team player: he can get up to three followers and in fact it's very easy to obtain them, as his 'charismatic' trait means most npcs relationship status start at 'friendly' directly. To make the cocktails, he also has the ability to identify the drug effects, so it's also possible to use them for him, of course.  The Investment Banker is the odd duck here. I don't like it, as he plays in a style opposite to mine. His gimmick is that he is a drug addict so every 60 seconds you have to use a drug or he starts losing health. You can stall that by consuming cigarettes (yes, that's the use of cigs, in case you saw them and asked yourself why were in the game if they hurt you). So his thing is, he is intended to be played by speedrunning. Enter the floor, go for the objectives, maybe get a pair of extra objects, and get out, as that way you minimize your drug spending. To help him in his drug-fueled crazed race, he has some traits of the previous two classes, like identifying drugs and obtaining cheaper prices from shoppers. He also feels the duration of the drugs longer than other classes and can borrow money from more npcs than just bank clerks, but be aware of the assassins that spawn if you abuse that and don't return the money... You know what, at first it wasn't my intention to make summaries of all the classes, I only wanted to do 6 or 7. But I guess at this point I can continue until the end. The brawn: Jock, Wrestler and Gorilla They all are somewhat similar, so I will group them together. -All of them are good at melee. They all suck with firearms. -Gorilla is fastest, Wrestler is slowest. -They all have some handicap to make sure they are combat oriented characters: -Gorilla can't talk (unless until he finds a translator) and people drive him out of establishments. -Both Jock and Wrestler can't use computers and have the 'loud' trait so they can't be stealthy. -They all have one special ability to use in combat: -Gorilla can do a lunge attack. Not only it does more damage, it also can be used to gain extra movement. -Wrestler can pick up big objects and throw them. -Jock can do a charge movement that goes through things. Apart from that, there are a few more small differences: -Jock gain extra xp destroying stuff, and buying items is more expensive for him. -Wrestler and Gorilla suffers of less knockback in combat. -Gorilla gains twice the health with bananas, can't use firearms, and can form a squad of followers.  The Gorillas thing is that he has the eternal enmity with the scientists faction. So he gains twice the xp killing them, and the scientists are always hostile the moment they see you. On the other hand, other gorillas starts being loyal to you directly. So you are supposed to kill all evil gorilla-experimenting scientists and form a small squad of gorillas that go rampaging through the city. One more thing, the lunge has a 2x damage multiplier so with a melee weapon strong enough, it can be used to destroy some walls.  The Wrestler has some nuance with his ability that makes it more tactical than it seems. Some thrown objects provoke status effects upon impact, see:  Although I wonder if that's not all, with lamps it seems there is a high chance of provoking the dizzy status. Also he has an interesting Big Quest where he has to challenge one person per floor to a fair fight.  The Jock is all about mastery of his Charge. Or that's the theory. You can't stop it once it starts, so it may kill the enemies you want, and then go on and on... through a building, through the other side of the street, thorough a police station full of cops that start firing at you.... you get the idea. You only stops at metal structures or the border of the floor. I'm not liking him, even when you plan it half of the time the charge will have unintended (bad) consequences, don't do a lot of damage in combat and when you finally stop it it stuns you for two seconds. His Big Quest give you a random object class (lamp, bed, fridge, etc) and you have to destroy all of them in that floor. Turin Turambar fucked around with this message at 12:05 on Aug 4, 2020 |
#
?
Jul 31, 2020 16:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 5, 2024 17:06 |
|
|
The two sides of the Law: Cop and Hacker And the cannibal too, I guess.  The Cop seems underwhelming at first. Only one single trait and one ability? But that doesn't tell the whole story. The way the trait, the ability and the big Quest interact makes it for a class totally on its own. His trait is called 'the Law', and means you lose XP (a unique mechanic not seen in any other class) when you commit crimes against innocents (robbery, murder, arrest, etc). This is interesting as in this game killing and stealing for your own benefit is the most common thing ever, so you are more limited in that sense. It's good how in this game classes are defined by not only what new toys they bring, but also by why they can't do. Still, it's optional and sometimes it will be totally worth it to arrest the innocent owner of a shop if that means it gives you access to his safe and his fridge. Calculating the cost vs benefit is a constant for the cop, although he has a trait of 'crooked' that sometimes appears when he levels up that decreases the amount of xp penalty. As a cop, the other cops are 'aligned' as you. You cannot give them orders, but in any fight that occurs they will help you. Apart from not having to evade or run away from the cops as it's usual with other classes. But who is innocent and who is guilty? The game indicates in the UI, with the people in 'mission buildings' always being guilty. Normal drug dealers has the guilty tag too, and sometimes hackers, thieves and others may have it. This means sometimes you would like to assault a lab to get the safe... but all the people inside are not guilty, so the dilemma is there. His ability is handcuffs. It allows to arrest people, that basically is a somewhat silent npc removal (but visually it will alert the victim partners/faction) that needs a pair of seconds to be finished, so take care with the interruptions. If the victim has a normal status it can be done easily, if it's hostile it has to be done from the back (although there are tricks like using a freeze gun or a taser). Arresting baddies gives more xp than killing them so you will want to do that, on the other hand arresting innocents makes you lose more xp than killing them. Which doesn't make a lot of sense realistically but hey, it's balanced, as with handcuffs you don't have to fight them. Of course, his Big Quest is about arresting/killing enough guilty people, arresting them gives you 2 marks, kiling them 1 mark, and you need a total of 150 marks at the end of the game. This makes funny situations like you being a corrupt cop that tries to provoke gang wars so the game marks them as guilty when they hurt someone.  The Hacker needs a player who has done a few hours already in the game, to know how items, npcs and more works. But once you are in that point... oh boy, the hacker is pure easy mode. Let's see where I start: He has infinite money, in between hacking ATMs, the sell machine and the slot machines. Ammo dispenser and loadout dispenser can be hacker to be cheaper. He has a free follower per floor, by hacking the cloning machine. The 'enemy' strongholds, those buildings with several enemies and traps? Between hacking turrets to turn against their masters and triggering the gas (a unique effect he can do) and other trap, he softens them enough for his follower to mop up the place. All the hacking he does is remote thanks to his laptop, so he can do some setup for the missions (turning off security systems, opening doors and safes) without even entering in the building. He has several more distraction action points, like jukebox, tvs and arcade games. He can hack fridge so it will start jumping forward like crazy, destroying everything on its path. It's a fun action that serves to open up new entrances to buildings. He can hack cop bots. And all that doesn't cost anything nor there is a cooldown, and he even can move while hacking. The only thing he has to be aware of, it's of cops seeing him while he is hacking and people going to investigate if they are looking at the object you are hacking. I think the hacker is OP, I would have made him have to upgrade his laptop to unlock some capabilities, for example. His Big Quest is unique, too, he has to install malware in at least one computer, and said action will make cop bots appear form the exit point, searching for him. However it's trivial to slip between them and reach the exit.  These two are some of the most unique classes, in the game, however not all reach this level, for example I see the Cannibal and I can only say 'meh'. He is like... a worse vampire. He cannot get companions, or enter in shops, and in exchange of that, he can replenish his health with npcs corpses, taking care of not being seen if possible, like the vampire (except in a less useful way than vampire's bite, which serves to paralyze and hurt enemies).  The Comedian is a joke. Pun intended, heh heh. First, his ability is just telling jokes. And second, as a class concept he is indeed a joke, because he is totally pray RNGJesus. Tell a joke, and people around you randomly will like you or be annoyed with you. Have luck and they will even follow you for free, have bad luck and they will turn hostile. That's it. While this may sound horrible, in reality the odds are tilted towards the positive side, so it's totally possible to play with him. Turning a npc rep into 'loyal' to you has many advantage, from home owners allowing you enter, to shoppers with safes given you the key, to random npcs helping in fights. Add to that the random goon or gang member that offers himself to follow you and sometimes you can pass to the next floor with zero effort. What the player has to do really is to always formulate a backup plan in case the next joke provokes a negative reaction, and you suddenly have to run away or fight. That's the crux of the class, if that happens in the worst moment it can happen, if may screw you royally.  The Scientist has been somewhat disappointing. It's interesting how he doesn't have any special ability, just an unique starting loadout and Big Quest, and from there you are free to pursue your way of playing. The issue is in the balance. He reminds me of a Hacker, but being underpowered instead of OP. Like the hacker he is knocked away in combat a lot and like him he has poor combat stats and can use the computer hidden commands. But the scientist doesn't have the rest of awesome hacking powers nor is able to do it remotely. Even worse, he has worse speed stat than the Hacker, and suffers because of it. What does he have, then? Well, apart from double xp/enmity from Gorillas, he can identify all drugs. But as I said before, his real ace in the hole is his starting loadout, he starts with a collection of rare tech weapons:  See that water pistol? It's a unique weapon, he can load it up with any drug, and he will have five shots with that effect. So you can apply slow, confuse or poison to anyone. Not only that, that has to be used for his Big Quest, where he receives a random drug in a crate (usually near the exit point), and has to use it against a specific npc type, to then study the specimen with the the research gun. Which can be super annoying because sometimes npcs will turn hostile when you shot them, even with some positive effect. The Ghost Gibber is nice to against ghosts, when you see a graveyard you can destroy the tombs, it will spawn ghosts that drop ~$20 each. The leafblower can be used to push people into poisoned lakes, fire traps, mines, etc. The idea is having to use a combination of quirky weapons with effects and drugs to combat, but it's easier said than done. I guess if you are veteran you may able to perfectly use his strengths, me? In four runs I never reached Downtown. He has some tools to use, but I found the combination of slow, small hp pool and said tools being not related to acting remotely or stealthily to be too much for me.  Er... I guess this isn't going to be very PC, but I have to say, Being a SlaveMaster shouldn't be this fun! The concept is easy to understand, you have a taser (infinite ammo, but have a 10s CD), you can tase someone and then capture him putting a slave collar with your special ability; You can have up to three slaves. Now, the fun part: -Slaves are free followers. You can capture a few, and send them to attack someone, even if they die just capture more. -Want to loot a safe? capture the owner and ask for the keys. Need to kill a target? Capture him and send him into a suicide mission. -However slaves lack *motivation*, and lots of times won't defend you if someone attack you, unless you give them direct attack orders. Lazy bums! -Want to blow up a hole in a wall or kill a group or something? Just send a slave into position and hit the killswitch! All current slaves will blow up. Only can be used up to three times per floor. -However the slavemaster suffers of the incomprehension of the people of the land. Capturing someone has a chance to provoke 'annoyed' into any npc that sees you. -Even worse, a few people seems to hate slavers and will turn hostile upon seeing you. A bit like with the Comedian, a random npc starting combat in the worst moment can be a potential game over. -Finally, there is a small chance that some slaves try to free himself and attack you (in this moment the killswitch is useful! just put some distance). In one run I had captured a soldier who a grenade on hand, thinking it would be good in combat, but two minutes later he liberated himself and blew me up with the grenade... His Big Quest is enslaving a specific npc class in each floor and delivering to the exit or entrance. Overall I had a *blast*, sending my little suicide squads, or having to free someone from the police jail only to enslave him and send him away (lol), or tasing someone who was walking on the train line, paralyzing him until it gibbed him. Thanks god the cartoony, almost comedy-zany style of the game makes it to be very distant from the real world setting.  The Firefighter, or the Duality of Man : Do you hate or love the fire? Yes. He is an interesting class as a concept, but in reality I think it's still missing something, apart that he needs a bit of a buff, He is on the weak side. His main ability is a water cannon he can use to douse fires, he will need it mainly for his Big Quest, where arsonists appear randomly and try to burn down stuff, you have to extinguish the fires and kill them quickly. I found this Big Quest to be a pain in the rear end, sometimes they act when you are in a dangerous situation and the fire can spread faster than you think, apart that you don't know what to give priority, if to try to kill him first or douse the fire. But, how this help you to actually do quests or in combat? Barely at all. The water cannon can push people so the theory is, you can use it to push people to traps, but it isn't as strong as the leafblower in that regard, it's hard to do anything useful with it. He can recruit extra followers but you don't have any special way to obtain them (not even fellow firefighters) so it's pretty meh. His main perk is that owners of buildings that have a fire will allow you to pass, so you are supposed to really be another arsonists, starting fires, stealing poo poo, then extinguishing them. This ability is nice to have, but not that great, the tools to start a fire occupy inventory space and need to pay for new recharges. And that's it, he actually plays kinda like a vainilla character, with an annoying big quest, and his ability is limited to solve that quest.  The Mobsteris a bit more interesting, you again can have a squad of followers, but this time it makes more sense, as it will enhance other abilities. Because he main thing is to able to extort money to any civilian npc and shoppers, using both a 'shake down' and a 'extort' dialogue. Most npcs give a pittance, but some like upper-crusters give a nice amount. Two things can happen when you use the shake down action in the dialogue, they accept it and become 'submissive' or they rebel and attack you. If they become submissive, it's good because it's like they were loyal, you can ask them several things and they will comply with a 100% success rate, not only that, with doing it in one building owner, all the rest become submissive. If they attack you, if they are normal npcs it's just normal combat, if they were shoppers, they will stop and become submissive after receiving an amount of damage, so they care of not killing them! And the squad of followers? The more members you have, and the bigger their weapons (yours too) the success rate for the shake down action will be higher. And you can win a lot of money, not only they give it in that moment, you have a 'revenue' value that is paid to you when you switch floors. In exchange, you have to pay up the cops, and the amount needed goes climbing up slowly. Still, I found that what you gain is enough to offset that payment so it's not a big flaw. If you don't pay super cops will spawn on the next floor.  Finally, the Shapeshifter is the last non-DLC class. In this game, a shapeshifter is some kind of small (and quick!) alien homunculus with the ability of possess anyone. So he is really the class for expert players, pretty fun to play, but you need to really know all the previous classes, and to know what do you obtain with each one. For example, if you posses a thief you gain his ability of stealing money, but he won't have his tools of the trade as that's normal inventory, instead he will still have the normal relationship with the factions, so he won't be able to enter in establishment. Possessing a doctor will gain the hankie but again the other traits that don't allow him to use weapons. So any and all classes are tools in your toolbox, and it's very fun to play around with the relationships: you can possess the door goon to enter in a protected building, or possess someone to have a group of 'loyal' members to defend you in a fight. Again, you also have the potential bad parts, like if you are a Crepe, the Blahs will attack you. In addition, this sheer flexibility is balanced with being persecuted by security forces on sight, in your original form, and additionally you have a very low hp (possessed npcs have half the normal hp!). His Big Quest is about that of course, and it's pretty fun, you have to kill a class with another class, like 'kill cop while being a goon', or 'kill bouncer while being a gorilla'. Turin Turambar fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Aug 4, 2020 |
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2020 16:08
|
|
|
Hey great post. Have been on the fence about this one for a while. Anyone tried it in co op mode?
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2020 16:42
|
|
|
Spiking posted:Hey great post. Have been on the fence about this one for a while. Anyone tried it in co op mode? I've done it coop with a friend locally, I thought it was pretty fun. It's definitely easier, since in addition to ganging up on enemies you can revive each other when you die (either by giving them half your current health, or paying money to revive them at full health). It also seems like the perk that removes friendly fire always shows up early, which is nice. It gets pretty chaotic but that's par for the course in this game.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2020 16:57
|
|
|
I've only ever played it co-op. It's always hilarious and ends up with us dying in some extremely chaotic way. If you and your friends are the types who can laugh at their own stupid deaths, I highly recommend this game. I have no idea what it's like to play with strangers, because I don't want to get yelled at when I accidentally throw a rock through a trip wire and blow up my buddy and a cop and anger a gorilla and make the whole level hostile.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2020 17:00
|
|
|
game is loving gonzo and if you like watching emergent chaos then it's for you
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2020 17:16
|
|
|
Great detailed OP, I've also only played it coop primarily, where it's a chaotic blast and a half. One mutator I like is the one which changes your class every level. I usually start as a thief to get some good items, then just run with what the RNG provides me. I also find the investment banker stressful, but only having to deal with it for one map isn't too bad. Of course, if it coincides with one of the special disaster events ones, it can be incredibly hectic.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2020 19:39
|
|
|
Last I played this, I never made it past the first half of Industrial on any character; just tended to stall out of resources by then. What the hell, might as well try it again!
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2020 20:25
|
|
|
Spiking posted:Hey great post. Have been on the fence about this one for a while. Anyone tried it in co op mode? co-op is great but some of the classes where you accrue npc buddies like gorilla don't play well with it unless you studiously avoid each other
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2020 20:39
|
|
|
Ciaphas posted:Last I played this, I never made it past the first half of Industrial on any character; just tended to stall out of resources by then. What the hell, might as well try it again! I have the opposite problem. I have a game over that almost always happens the same. If I have a good run, after the early game I’m coasting, I have a full inventory with weapons, health items, diverse tools, etc. Small groups of enemies aren’t a problem, not even in bigger number if I’m the one who directs the fight, funneling them to where I want. I always die in the same way: I make a mistake and suddenly 4-5 guys around me turn hostile and start hitting me like crazy. I panic, they hit me twice before I can act, then I try to run away but I bounce like a pinball between them and before I change tactics, I’m dead.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2020 20:39
|
|
|
This game owns.
|
|
#
?
Jul 31, 2020 22:28
|
|
|
Bump because I added 9 new summaries above. *effort* I think I only need 3 more!
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2020 12:10
|
|
|
This game is fookin' amazeballs. So much chaotic power wrapped up in an early 2000's freeware aesthetic that just hits so good.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2020 13:20
|
|
|
I actually think one of the game's few issues (beyond the too strong knockback in combat...) is the default experience settings. I think the game plays better with the 'Slower Gameplay' mutator. It's too chaotic in the default setting. It's 20% slower, so it's not that drastic of a difference, but it feels more controllable that way, and you always can use fast travel to avoid long treks. Another setting I like is to remove some of the Disasters. I find them to be too overpowering, they should be a random extra twist to a normal floor, to increase variety, instead they are full-on uneding wars or the ooze invading everything, or whatever. They don't enhance the emergent systemic gameplay, they almost replace it for that level. So it's good the game is customizable and players can tailor their experience with the mutators and other settings, but still, it's important that the default behavior is optimal. I know other people (old gamers) who didn't like the game because their first impression wasn't very good, because the aforementioned speed and chaos. Sometimes when you happen to be in the middle of a big fight you start bouncing like a freaking pinball!
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2020 14:21
|
|
|
Have they allowed user created mods and mutators? I mostly agree with the disasters, they change things a lot. Not sure I'd want to play without them on, though.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2020 18:44
|
|
|
A Strange Aeon posted:Have they allowed user created mods and mutators? I mostly agree with the disasters, they change things a lot. Not sure I'd want to play without them on, though. Yes (although limited) and yes. The mutator list is pretty big: https://streetsofrogue.gamepedia.com/Mutators And only one of them (explicitly designed to cheat) will block the unlock progression, the rest are fair game. You decide how to play. About mods, there are custom campaigns which I still haven't tried, custom 'floor chunks' that are new pieces for the procedural floor generation to be more varied (that's pretty nice) and custom characters, that I think are just custom characters done ingame uploaded to Steam. I think some of them are more advanced and require extra mod support.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2020 19:40
|
|
|
The most amusing dream to this would be an ironic, perhaps more fleshed out than even the other attempts with SR where it was more explicitly expected, recreation of the Genesis Shadowrun game using this as the framework for such---the punching is already so very close~ Whatever future updates that land for this are primed to be golden with such a good foundation, and with the scurrying on a sequel of sorts in the works whose general gains can be inherited back---Bodes Well.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2020 22:09
|
|
|
I've seen this on Game Pass. I'll give it a whirl.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2020 22:15
|
|
|
ExiledTinkerer posted:The most amusing dream to this would be an ironic, perhaps more fleshed out than even the other attempts with SR where it was more explicitly expected, recreation of the Genesis Shadowrun game using this as the framework for such---the punching is already so very close~ That would be pretty fantastic--Genesis Shadowrun holds a lot of golden memories but it would be a huge effort. A good dream, ET, a good dream.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2020 23:14
|
|
|
This is a great game, but the real thing I want to say is it has an amazing soundtrack. The slums, the industrial zone, the park, and the first level of downtown are some of the catchiest songs I’ve ever heard in a game and the way the music pumps up for the last stage of each world gets me hyped up every time.
|
|
#
?
Aug 4, 2020 23:54
|
|
|
I've played this a bit with kids in co-op. They tend to like it initially -- you can do whatever you want! -- but it just gets too hard/complicated for them. I wish there was an easy mode. Is there an easy mode?
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2020 00:12
|
|
|
Cicero posted:I've played this a bit with kids in co-op. They tend to like it initially -- you can do whatever you want! -- but it just gets too hard/complicated for them. I wish there was an easy mode. Is there an easy mode? Depends on what you mean by easy mode. There's plenty of mutators that make things easier (the one that gives guns infinite ammo helps a ton, for example) but I don't think there's any that make quests simpler.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2020 00:25
|
|
|
It's probably crucial to note: when the mutator guy says "heck, take two!" he doesn't mean you can only take two mutators, you can take as many as you feel like.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2020 00:29
|
|
|
Cicero posted:I've played this a bit with kids in co-op. They tend to like it initially -- you can do whatever you want! -- but it just gets too hard/complicated for them. I wish there was an easy mode. Is there an easy mode? Whatever they play as, you play as the doctor. You can heal them up when they get hurt and make the stealth segments easier by chloroforming everybody ahead of time
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2020 01:36
|
|
|
Whatever you do, don’t let them play the investment banker. Or better yet... let them learn a valuable lesson on why drugs are bad and yes, that really is just sugar.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2020 05:48
|
|
|
This game is hilariously fun. I managed to beat it once by using mutators to basically cheat to the end, and then I found out that there is an actual deeper aspect to the gameplay. Has anyone actually won the election against the mayor?
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2020 00:26
|
|
|
I obtained the hat by bribing him, killing him and pumping my likeability enough that he gave it to me voluntarily. But no, I still haven't tried the election.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2020 07:55
|
|
|
I tend to not like roguelites or likes and I loving love this game. In addition to all those classes, you can design a custom class. You choose what it looks like, pick traits and stats with a pool of points, and go to town.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2020 08:46
|
|
|
Hibbloes posted:This is a great game, but the real thing I want to say is it has an amazing soundtrack. The slums, the industrial zone, the park, and the first level of downtown are some of the catchiest songs I’ve ever heard in a game and the way the music pumps up for the last stage of each world gets me hyped up every time.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2020 08:54
|
|
|
Turin Turambar posted:I obtained the hat by bribing him, killing him and pumping my likeability enough that he gave it to me voluntarily. But no, I still haven't tried the election. My favourite way though is to steal the Record of Evidence from the Mayor's Office, then take it to a turntable to play. A good chunk of the NPCs on the map will turn on him, either severely weakening his security or (in my playthroughs) leaving you to cheerfully scoop his hat up from a pile of corpses.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2020 09:19
|
|
|
I found the hard part of the game is to survive Uptown. Once you do that, the last level isn't particularly hard. At that point you should arrive the mayor's manor with big arsenal or tools to trivialize the map. Hipnotic gadgets, any good drugs like invulnerability invisibility drug or rage, rocket launcher or flamethrower, etc.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2020 11:34
|
|
|
This game is very cool and I'm glad it's got a thread. Still learning our way through, but we've had some good luck with the Firefighter and Cannibal as a combo, cooking all the corpses for extra health with the flame thrower. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2020 10:33
|
|
|
By the way, have you guys watched some of the Watch Dog 3 videos or read the previews? It kinds of seems to be a AAA version of Streets of Rogue, or a least a light version? It has also a plethora of characters to choose from, each one with their own tools/powers and stats, or even an uniform that allows them to access some restricted areas. Hell the overall objective of 'reclaim the city' also is similar to Streets of Rogue. That said, I doubt it goes very deep in the emergent gameplay, in that SoR still will win.
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2020 12:26
|
|
|
I really wanted to like this game but it kicked my rear end too hard.
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2020 12:36
|
|
|
ChrisBTY posted:I really wanted to like this game but it kicked my rear end too hard. Try the slower gameplay mutator.
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2020 13:34
|
|
|
Play the ninja or the doctor first, take your time
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2020 15:14
|
|
|
Play the gorilla- even when you die, you’ll go down punching. A lot more satisfying than a scrawny slum dweller.
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2020 19:15
|
|
|
blackguy32 posted:This game is hilariously fun. I managed to beat it once by using mutators to basically cheat to the end, and then I found out that there is an actual deeper aspect to the gameplay. My first win was with the doctor by election. It’s actually not that hard for most characters—and if you make a mistake by pissing someone off you can easily rectify it by killing/disabling them. The only character I think it’s outright impossible to do (at least without mutators) with is the Zombie since the mayor’s clerk won’t talk to you and run.
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2020 22:12
|
|
|
For some reason I really like the Vampire. Getting the right upgrades with his bloodsuck lets you quickly kill the werewolf without him going apeshit on you. Still haven't gotten past uptown as the difficulty really ramps into high gear. Combat with anyone just turns into chaos immediately. I probably need to readjust how I play once I get to that point as I'm fairly aggressive. Also gently caress the terminator event. That robot is such a piece of poo poo and is really hard to deal with especially if he pops up early on.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2020 08:05
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 5, 2024 17:06 |
|
|
Buckwheat Sings posted:For some reason I really like the Vampire. Getting the right upgrades with his bloodsuck lets you quickly kill the werewolf without him going apeshit on you.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2020 08:28
|
|