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Starlink: Battle for Atlas

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    #16
    We just finished the first 2 hours of this, and I must say, we really enjoyed it!

    It was a bit of a rocky start. The game wanted to update the docks, but it kept throwing up an error. We eventually worked out it was fine, but you just can't do them both connected at the same time; once we disconnected one, it was okay.

    I think it feels great; I love the controls and the responsiveness of the movement. The brightly coloured visuals put me in mind of a more kid-friendly, saturday-morning cartoon Mass Effect. It just seems to play really well, and was superb fun in 2-player co-op. We also had a laugh with the two ships; it's surprising what you can get away with - putting the weapons on backwards was our first attempt to break it, but when that worked, we followed it up by connecting the wings of the ships together to create some frankensteinian creations.

    The highlight was unlocking Fox's special ability and using it for the first time. I won't spoil it, but it had me grinning like an idiot.

    Originally posted by noobish hat View Post
    The disappointing sales performance really puts that in doubt though. I would have assumed it was a dead cert otherwise...
    I'd be very surprised if we see any more, for a couple of reasons - 1) the discounting suggesting a flop and 2) the evident expense of it, as a product. The design, animation, voice acting, music, even the polish on the in-game graphics and sound... I think Ubisoft really sank a lot into this. Some of it might come from being a passion project but there's real bank on display here. And it's a pretty good game to boot.

    It's almost a shame they did the whole Toys-to-Life thing and totally missed the boat on it. I can see the target audience is quite young, perhaps 7 and up, and honestly, if I was 9, this would be my favourite thing in the entire world. It's exactly what I would've loved. I have some sympathy for the developers.

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      #17
      Originally posted by Asura View Post


      I'd be very surprised if we see any more, for a couple of reasons - 1) the discounting suggesting a flop and 2) the evident expense of it, as a product. The design, animation, voice acting, music, even the polish on the in-game graphics and sound... I think Ubisoft really sank a lot into this. Some of it might come from being a passion project but there's real bank on display here. And it's a pretty good game to boot.
      Maybe that's a reason they WILL give it one more shot. If they've invested so much money into the engine, assets, promotion, etc., it would make sense to press on with it rather than flush it all away. They are continuing to work on updates like the photo mode and whatever activity it was they added, so it's not like they've totally abandoned it. I'm wondering if the bigger problem might be that Nintendo is unwilling to lend any more IP to something seen as a failure.

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        #18
        Originally posted by noobish hat View Post
        Maybe that's a reason they WILL give it one more shot. If they've invested so much money into the engine, assets, promotion, etc., it would make sense to press on with it rather than flush it all away. They are continuing to work on updates like the photo mode and whatever activity it was they added, so it's not like they've totally abandoned it. I'm wondering if the bigger problem might be that Nintendo is unwilling to lend any more IP to something seen as a failure.
        That's "sunk cost" though, and I think they'll still be wary. Unlike their own recent example, Rainbow Six Siege, the game's not online and doesn't have any in-game purchases (like currencies, lootboxes etc.) which is great as a user, but it limits their options in terms of how they turn it around into something successful.

        Of course, as you suggest, I could be wrong. They might have a director on the board at Ubi who really believes in it.

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          #19
          I really enjoyed the first hour of this. Lots of fun shooting action. Utterly different from the tedious first hour of looking for minerals in NMS.

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            #20
            Originally posted by Digfox View Post
            Agreed that the Switch starter pack would be better without Mason and including a weapon instead. You don't get the physical Shredder Ship either so there is no point to the Mason figure.

            As an aside I do think Ubisoft do deserve credit for putting out digital-only versions of the packs from day-one. There is nothing stopping you buying a starter pack and then picking up the other packs as digital. But I think they implemented it badly not allowing you to mix the two types of physical and digital 'add-ons'.
            You can mix the two in a way if you use all the bits in game it unlocks them digitaly and lets you play with them withouht using the toys, ive moved away form using the ship mount as I'm playing it a lot in handheld and am just swapping weapons out via the menu, its not explained but if you have the switch version you also get a digital version of the main game ship as well as a third weapon the shredder.

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              #21
              Originally posted by Lebowski View Post
              You can mix the two in a way if you use all the bits in game it unlocks them digitaly and lets you play with them withouht using the toys, ive moved away form using the ship mount as I'm playing it a lot in handheld and am just swapping weapons out via the menu, its not explained but if you have the switch version you also get a digital version of the main game ship as well as a third weapon the shredder.
              You get the items in digital and physical form unlocked permanently from the starter pack only. However when using the mount anything you 'plug in' is only unlocked for 7-days. However you cannot access any digital packs you've purchased unless you unplug the mount. So you have to go one way or the other. Startail or the two exclusive ships (not that these particularly matter) aren't currently available digitally either.

              And that was my point, that it would have been nice to purchase a pack like this (Starlink: Battle for Atlas™ - Eli Pilot Pack) and be able to use it with physical items.

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                #22
                Nintendo UK Store is still selling this for £70 ROFLMAO

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                  #23
                  It is a really good game this isn't it. I got it on Switch for the Star Fox content and Xbox. It looks so much better on Xbox X though.
                  I think I paid £15.00 for the starter pack with the toy.

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                    #24
                    It's a great game. Such a pity the silliness with the toys and pricing ruined its chances of being successful commercially.

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                      #25
                      I went back to this today after the price liquidation going on everywhere allowed me to pick up a bunch of extra bits for next-to-nothing.

                      I stand by that it's a fantastic game; like, if this came out when I was 9, it would've been my favourite thing ever. I love the controls, the responsiveness of it; even the toy gimmick, whilst not something I find too appealing as an adult, I would've absolutely loved as a pre-teen. I certainly think it could've been better (the toy thing has a few shortcomings) but then most things could be.

                      It's a shame that it has been something of a flop, as it's clear some love went into it.

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                        #26
                        Is this worth playing without the toys?

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                          #27
                          Originally posted by briareos_kerensky View Post
                          Is this worth playing without the toys?
                          Some say it's actually better without; it depends on how much you end up paying as the digital version can be expensive.

                          The main thing is that you kinda have to go one way or the other.

                          If you go physical, you can still use a load of stuff digitally without the toys (which is particularly important on the Switch), but you have to reconnect them once every 7 days in order to keep using them (one of the ships is exempt from this so you can always play it with at least one ship).

                          If you go digital, you have to unlock stuff via earning them gameplay (or maybe micropayments? I'm not sure about that) and there are no limits.

                          This means that owning the physical version doesn't mean you own the digital one, so it makes sense to pick one approach and go with it.

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                            #28
                            The digital version on the eShop is around €50, I've found the Arwing Starter Pack for around €30...they are the same thing, only that you get the Arwing toy at a lower price right? All those DLCs and Collection Packs make hard to really understand what you need to get just the base game.

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                              #29
                              Originally posted by briareos_kerensky View Post
                              The digital version on the eShop is around €50, I've found the Arwing Starter Pack for around €30...they are the same thing, only that you get the Arwing toy at a lower price right? All those DLCs and Collection Packs make hard to really understand what you need to get just the base game.
                              To play, effectively, the entire game, you just need the base game. No toys, no extras. So if you were to just put the disc/cart in your machine and not use any of the rest of the stuff, you'll have one pilot character, one ship, and the default weapons for that ship - and those will all be digital, i.e. you select them from the in-game menus.

                              You can play pretty much the entire game that way; in terms of story, the only stuff you'll miss is that depending on which character you play as, the dialogue is different and I think some of the missions vary a bit.

                              In terms of gameplay, the main difference is that you'll have a smaller selection of weapons and wings (you can snap the wings off the toys and reconfigure them too). The game is still totally do-able, but when you have a range of stuff to swap in/out, you can switch up on-the-fly to suit the situation, or pick stuff you feel compliment each other (there are combos; e.g. if you freeze an enemy then use an incendiary weapon, you get a "thermal shock" combo - this is cool in co-op because you can each equip stuff to get combos going).

                              The Switch version is a little special in this regard as I think you need to play as Fox/Arwing to do the Starfox missions.

                              The digital "collector's pack" etc. is basically just buying all of the digital versions of the stuff, so you have all the ships etc. without needing the toys.

                              Honestly I think buying the Arwing toy back is the best way to go, because it's really cheap and if you really like it, you can buy more stuff as-you-go, and it's going for peanuts on eBay right now.

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                                #30
                                I've recently bought the Switch starter pack with base, Arwing, two pilots (one's Fox McCloud), and two weapons.
                                First, I was actually surprised at the quality of these things. Fox's has one ugly eye (there's covered by an eyepiece), but the Arwing is quite detailed and well painted, plus it has moveable fins. Rather impressed.

                                Popping in the cart requires a 6GB download to play the game, and for some reason it took A LOT of time, about 6 hours on a unindisturbed network. I was quite pleased that the game included in the starter pack doesn't need to "scan" the figures included, so I've begun playing as Fox right away. The human characters...how do I say this...they have an innate "Dreamworks quality" to them: the way they are designed, the way the move, their expressions...they all scream "we want to be Pixar but we couldn't figure out how" and therefore got my immediate hate. Especially the teenager with blonde hair, not exactly a walking stereotype, but a stereotype that took digital form and tries as hard as it could to be even more stereotypical.
                                I mean, the space-faring, mercenary, walking fox with robotic legs is a more believable character than that guy.

                                Anyway, the game throws you right into a space battle were you learn the basics: ZR and ZL to fire, the left analog stick is to move forward/backward and strafe, the right stick for pitching and yawing. There's no manual roll control, and after one character is in trouble Peppy goes "do a barrel roll!" which as a joke was quite funny. The face buttons control boost, shield, and...uhm...jump?
                                So yeah, I approached this game thinking it would be aerial dogfights and instead you spend most of the game going around planets collecting things and clearing quests given by a colourful cast of alien characters who, of course, speak with the most exotic English accents, from rural America to slightly less rural America. After completing the first quest it dawned on me: Starlink is an open-world Ubisfot game in disguise: sure you hop between planets, but those phases are very short, and maybe feature a couple of dogfights here and there.
                                It was probably my mistake not to read this thread or learn a bit more about the game before starting, but...I honestly thought this would be a space combat game, something like Freescape or all those marvellous space combat games that graced PCs between the '90s and early 2000s.

                                One other surprise: the game looks very good. On the Switch the dynamic resolution (especially for textures) and pop-in rate are very visible, but so far I've never encountered a slowdown or huge loss in rendering quality to sustain the framerate (something that happens frequently in Ys VIII, for example). The art direction is quite good, with each planet centered around one environment, and within that environment several colourful locations to keep things from looking all too samey. And the game is in full 5.1! I love when games use the subwoofer, it's so often neglected.

                                I wish Starlink would support gyro for fine-aiming, maybe it does and that is buried in the incredibly comprehensive options menu. Seriously, there are tons of options to costumize controls and the game as you like. It's pretty obvious Ubisoft thought Starlink would be a success and put a lot of effort into this title, although I cannot stress enough how disappointed I was when the game turned out to be an open-world game about clearing quests on planets.
                                But...other than that I can't really complain much, the game plays well and the planets have enough stuff and locations to keep things from getting too boring. The structure is simple to grasp for young children and of course geared towards selling toys, but not in a F2P smartphone game kind of way.

                                I see myself investing some more time into this between other major titles, at least until Fox and crew are around.

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