I have been mainly focused on Dirty Bomb for the past month, only because I have built a new rig a few months back and decided to give this game a try yet again, seeing as my older machine couldn’t withstand the game’s requirements.
Now, as with all suggestions that I am going to talk about they are nothing more than just feedback. I’m not demanding nor implying that they’re anywhere near terrible, I’m simply trying to discuss a feature or an idea that I think could be further improved on from my own perspective.
- CONTENT
Let’s face it: This game is roughly two and a half years old now. With that said, one would expect a lot more playable content. When I started playing once again I was somewhat baffled with how little it had changed, though I can shrug it off. I’m here for the enjoyment, not to critique the development progression, but I do have to make a statement.
There seems to be a lot of events and balancing changes, that I’m extremely glad for, but it’s not enough to justify the dim playability, especially when most events have players spend money in order to get more out of them, when the game is already filled to the brim with microtransactions, albeit alongside the possibility of using in-game credits, which is a plus in my book.
I understand the need to monetize, but, in all honesty, it feels like they’re being pushed by Nexon. When I first saw Dirty Bomb being announced with Nexon’s name on the corner I was fearful for its future. Nexon has an infamous reputation of heavily monetizing their titles. I’m not against it, they have to feed people, but there are other approaches to said means. It seems development is stagnant thanks to the publisher itself. It’s a common malpractice with many of Nexon’s published titles.
But like I said, not all is bad. The game still has its big crowd and a lot of veterans are satisfied. Many players don’t mind, they always find a reason to continue, but the numbers have plummeted through the course of nearly a year alone.
- ACCOUNT RANKS
Levelling up is always fun. It pushes players to be above the ranks, to show how much they have progressed and how far they have gotten, but with the current levelling system all one is rewarded with is loadout cases at one point.
Levelling up is already extremely tedious as it is. I see those numbers on the screen, as I’m usually on the top, and it fills me with glee, but then the progress bar shows how much it actually changed and it’s simply disappointing. When I finally level up it feels great, no doubt about it, it always does, but there’s nothing to it. There are no significant rewards of any kind.
- TUTORIAL
The tutorial of this game is extremely bare-bones. It introduces you to two mercenaries which in my opinion is not enough, but they are not going to develop a new tutorial level just to introduce players to a new mercenary every time.
I propose that the tutorial be generalized in a way that teaches the players the mechanics of the game in general, not what two simple mercs can do. This should alleviate the stressing teammates who cannot use their abilities properly in combat and leave others in dangerous situations which usually ends badly.
- HEADS-UP DISPLAY
It’s always nice to see a shooter that allows for greater customization over its elements compared to many other shooter games, most which have you pay for such in some not-so-rare cases. However, as unfortunate as it may be, customization is not available in the game’s configuration menus. It can only be achieved by editing files, which I personally do not enjoy.
Another issue that seems to come from out of this is the fact that these edits aren’t optimized for the general population, so it doesn’t always work properly in a visual way. I want to be able to make information a lot more visible than it is right now. It is tucked away so far into the corners that it distracts me when in extreme combat situations.
This could be coupled with some other options, such as percentages. I prefer those over progress bars any day. Not only are they accurate, they show information that could be potentially life-saving. - Sometimes it’s the little things.
- MATCHMAKING
I have no complaints about the matchmaking, but it definitely could use more filters than just the maximum game mode and maps. Why am I not able to choose all game-modes instead of just one? Sometimes I enjoy playing whatever comes across my way. Other filters such as which regions I want to play on, which is extremely useful, given how poor connection in a fast-paced game is beyond excruciating.
Other than that, there’s a feature that’s truly needed: Automatic team balancing. I cannot stress it enough how often teams become unbalanced or start out that way. Whether it be players of higher skill or simply an uneven number. Whatever it may be, it’s definitely necessary.
- CARDS
At a certain point, there’s really no point in getting higher rarity cards, namely past the Bronze rarity. It’s mainly visual changes from then on. I was confused when I actually found out about it. I thought it would only get better, thus the difficulty of obtaining them, but, at least for me, I don’t see why. I don’t care about aesthetic, especially randomized at that. I do like looking unique but I’m more concerned with the effectiveness of my loadout rather than how cool my gun looks with a gold plating or a cobalt theme.
Although I can see as to why there’s no real difference, due to balancing issues with characters, and I honestly can’t think of anything interesting to add upon these higher rarities, but it would certainly be nice to see some change in order to promote higher rarities.
