enigmatic.3576 Posted August 23, 2023 Share Posted August 23, 2023 (edited) I've finished the story, successfully completed both map metas several times, and I'm now just doing the gameplay loop completing all of the achievements. The Story I found the story to be interesting and a breath of fresh air as it's now not tied down to being a part of the "dragon cycle". I did find the story to be fairly short though when you remove all of the filler. It's just a little shorter from what you would have gotten from two of the earlier LS season episodes. Some of the instances were just to have a single conversation with someone or the fighting aspect was extremely short compared to how they had done them in the past. Short being like you fight two groups of enemies and then the boss of the instance. The pacing of the story didn't feel that great due to the filler that I alluded to earlier. Multiple times throughout the story we have to stop and do X number of rift events or successfully complete the first map's meta as an option for one of the instances. For someone that enjoys the game's stories, I just found that this detracted from it. It also makes me not want to do the story more than once which is disappointing as I actually did enjoy it. The story boss fights were kind of meh. They didn't seem to introduce any new attacks as the fights progressed and it was a lot of just repeating the same pattern over and over and over. An issue that I did have with a story instance objective is one that involves you having to find six items and bring them back to the location. I'm trying to be as vague as possible to prevent spoilers but anyone who has done the story will know what I'm speaking about. The issue with these items is that they are coded as bundles instead of something that goes into your inventory. So when you go out exploring to find these items, you have to bring them back one at a time which just adds a lot of unnecessary running back and forth. Please make these items that go into your inventory. One other minor issue that I did have with a story instance objective was when I had to kill a group of enemies to span two orbs to throw at the someone, so that they would move, and then repeat that like 5 times. The Maps I found these to be visually appealing. There were concerns with the first map, as it initially felt like they were just reusing existing assets, but everything turned out to be unique enough that it didn't feel like an issue. The land mass of the maps were kind of small compared to other maps in the game but it's going to be subjective as to whether that's good or bad. Overall I had no major issues with the maps and they'll be appealing enough until I at least finish all of the achievements. The Map Meta Events The map meta for both maps to be repetitive. They were not as obnoxious as the second part of Gyala Delve's even though that bar is fairly low. Basically the repetitive comes to doing the exact same type of objective multiple times. The pre-events of the first map meta has you kills things and collect essences which you do three times. The final boss has you defend the main platform, and three others, twice where each instance kind of feels like a grind. The second meta event does something similar. This could just be a personal preference of mine as I don't find this type of thing to be engaging. One large issue that I do see is that the rewards are terrible. The first map meta doesn't have a daily choice box could be a bug. The daily choice box for the second map is nothing but account bound materials. There is a box to select from a weapon set but you get those weapons so often, and assuming that they are available on the TP, will have little value within a few weeks. The chests that you open give blue and possibly green loot bags; nothing special. I just see little value in doing the metas beyond achievements and what will probably be a very very long grind for the new legendary armor. Final Thoughts Overall I have enjoyed SotO . I still have reservations because we're paying nearly the same price as what we did for PoF and EoD but getting half the content with minimal features. However, for the $25 that I spent, I did feel sufficiently entertained so I don't have any regrets over the purchase. Edited August 23, 2023 by enigmatic.3576 4 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gibson.4036 Posted August 23, 2023 Share Posted August 23, 2023 Any particular reason you needed your very own thread? 1 2 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarvis.9540 Posted August 23, 2023 Share Posted August 23, 2023 Good write-up! Thanks for the thoughts. 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cronospere.8143 Posted August 23, 2023 Share Posted August 23, 2023 10 minutes ago, Gibson.4036 said: Any particular reason you needed your very own thread? Some people are special Gibson... 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beast Sos.1457 Posted August 23, 2023 Share Posted August 23, 2023 I couldn't agree more. I feel the same way about both the story and the new maps. I've only done the meta on the first map though so can't speak for the other but it was nothing special. Felt like a regular meta event. After beating the story and doing both strikes I feel like I'm waiting for the next expansion at this point. Story has me hyped to see whats coming next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alsandar.7420 Posted August 23, 2023 Share Posted August 23, 2023 Ignore these mean people, thanks for the write up 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gibson.4036 Posted August 23, 2023 Share Posted August 23, 2023 1 minute ago, Alsandar.7420 said: Ignore these mean people, thanks for the write up Okay, take a minute and imagine if everyone on the forums decided to start a new “my thoughts” thread. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcelo.4210 Posted August 23, 2023 Share Posted August 23, 2023 Won't lie, I also quite liked this expansion! It's good, the new systems are good! The maps are nice, the enemies visuals are really really cool. In total, solid DLC., Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enigmatic.3576 Posted August 23, 2023 Author Share Posted August 23, 2023 38 minutes ago, Gibson.4036 said: Any particular reason you needed your very own thread? I didn't see another review thread when I skimmed the topics otherwise I would have just added it to that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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