Topic: Push Square Game Club Spooktacular: Resident Evil 4

So I’ve been able to find and visit 2 floating islands, and I’m pretty close to being able to build a base, I think.

I’m not sure how I feel about the game. I don’t really feel the elation and enjoyment that I get from other genres, but then I look down at the clock and see that I just burned 3 hours wandering around and it felt like 15 minutes. It’s a weird seesaw of frustration and satisfaction. Frustration of constantly having to find supplies, getting to base only to discover you’re missing something so you have to go back out and search again... meanwhile balancing a pretty restrictive inventory limit. Yet, satisfaction of finally finding the last piece of a blueprint or discovering a story point. ...It’s just that the progress feels so slow. But I think it’s a survival genre thing, and it’s supposed to just linger on and on with no real narrative weight. So far it’s keeping my interest enough to at least see what happens when I have a base built and can maybe start to see some progress toward high end supplies to get off this effing planet.

@Th3solution Yeah, I quite like it but it’s also not really grabbing me. Plus it makes my laptop absolutely roasting hot, worse than Resi 2 or GTA V. Not sure why.

I'm enjoying it so far, but do worry that the gameplay loop might get a bit stale. The base building will probably make things more interesting once I figure that out.

@Th3solution @nessisonett @crimsontadpoles I think that's how I felt about the game in the end. Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed it and part of that was having to work things out for myself, but making progress took time and the further into the game I got the more time I was having to put into making any. Most of that came down to just gathering the resources required to get into the different biomes, well that and having to eat / breath etc.

@Th3solution you've really nailed how I'm feeling about the game. I'm hoping to play a bit more tonight but actually I've bounced off it really for many of the reasons you've highlighted. It's my first genuine survival game and not sure I'll be rushing back to the genre 😅

@nessisonett @crimsontadpoles @render @R1spam I keep harboring back to my experience with No Man’s Sky when I am playing this game, and I think NMS at least had a few early tangible goals as you fixed your ship and then left the planet and got to see some other planets and ecosystems. Then when goals became more vague is when I fell off of that game (which I need to try it again with all the updates). Subnautica’s biomes and underwater scenery are stunning and interesting, but so far not varied enough to be substantially motivating to work toward, especially when the guidance and tutorials are as dubious as they are. I am curious to see what’s inside the Aurora, but despite having a radiation suit, I don’t think I’m supposed to be ready to go there yet.
I’m glad to see we’re mostly on the same page though. I’d be curious to hear from someone who’s made it far into the latter stages of the game to give some feedback about if it really picks up and if the resource collecting and building becomes more intuitive and less of a chore. I have a feeling things progress better when you’re able to build a base and start to do some things that make survival more self-sustainable and resource management is less burdensome.

I seem to be the only one really enjoying my time with it so far. I think the sound design is great (especially with some headphones on) I'm loving just swimming around exploring, gathering resources and the likes.

Very atmospheric and when you aren't running out breath or being attacked it's pretty relaxing... Just what I needed 😄

• I've cleared through the Aurora and repaired the drive core. Got myself a prawn suit schematic.
• I've seen the Sunbeam crash and burn thanks to the laser
• I'm at infection stage... 3?
• Got the teleporter ring working
• And then I had some Astral projection or something from some alien??? that did honestly shock me as I was in a menu as it was happening.

I'm only 5 hours in maybe? I played most of that this Saturday... Didn't quite feel like gaming til then.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Good to hear your positive thoughts. So going through the Aurora isn’t the end? 😅
I also saw the ship get shot down and explored the first alien building. Not sure what it all means

Well I still have two rooms in the Aurora I haven't got into yet @Th3solution thanks to them being locked by passwords and there might be another half/other entrance I haven't found yet for more exploration of it?

It's not an endgame goal (at least to start with) as you can find the resources to make a laser cutter and a propulsion canon (to get in the Aurora) on that island.

... Also I didn't know you could use L1 or R1 for ascending or decending til I just saw you mentioned it on the previous page

I found some alien drain thing. Couldn’t do anything with it though so not sure what to do.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Yes, I disabled the force field and went into the building by using the tablet, got to the end and had tried to disable the laser, I think, and the machine stabbed me in the arm and said I wasn’t able to do it because of something.... I had an infection or didn’t have an infection.... it wasn’t clear to me. But in other words I hadn’t done some required step yet. I went to that island in the first place because of a prompt from the radio telling me the Sunbeam was coming and to meet at the landing site. Was I not supposed to be there yet?.

Not sure how spoilery it all is, but I tagged it just in case.

Overall, I just wish the game held my hand a little more, or showed me more concrete objectives. I’m not even sure how to build a base but I’m going to just throw it out there and see what happens 😅

@nessisonett Yeah, I saw that. I’m not sure either. I think it’s just supposed to make you curious and realize there is some underground civilization nearby

@Th3solution Sounds like you are getting the gist of it. When I first started playing I built a load of things that I wasn't even sure I needed just because I had the materials to do it, and that was before I actually committed to building a base just in case there was somewhere specific that one should be built. I was working out of a bunch of those floating lockers which was becoming an inventory nightmare.

In the end I thought stuff it, I've got to do something as otherwise I was just going through the motions of staying alive. Once you make that decision then you can at least start gathering enough materials to make something useful.

@render Lol, yeah I have about four floating lockers with a bunch of crap in them that I’ll probably never need.
I see there’s a way to get storage onto the seamoth, which will be nice, but I don’t think I can upgrade to that until I get the blasted base done.

So, I only just realised that there's another exit of the life pod in the floor. That's much quicker than climbing up the ladder.

Also tried making some floatation storage lockers, which help immensely. Now I don't have to constantly worry about storage space.

And now that I've got the seamoth and better breathing equipment, it should make exploration less strainful.

I’ve explored the Aurora now, having repaired the drive and all that jazz. Currently just trying to build a seamoth but I need to get materials, same as the habitat builder thing. I need some gold. I still haven’t found the blueprints for the laser cutter either, which I need to grab the prawn suit blueprint! Lots to do 😂

@nessisonett Notable that we all have done things in different orders and at different paces. I haven’t gone near the Aurora yet, but I made a seamoth a long time ago.
I also found all the laser cutter blueprints a while back — (if you want a little clue) Check the metal boxes at the wreckage sites and scan the contents of the boxes that are open on their sides. A lot of them have a piece of the laser cutter. You’ll have to find 3 or 4, I forget, but some larger wreckage sites have like several all at one site. The seamoth pieces will also be at one of the early wreckage sites that the radio distress signal sends you to. Just try to scan all the metal pieces lying around. Also takes 3 pieces I think
But don’t get too excited. The laser cutter requires diamonds (I think 2) and I haven’t seen those anywhere. I assume they are really deep. So I have to get my seamoth upgraded enough to go down into further depths. ...which I think requires a base with a vehicle modification bay. 😓

Edit: oops, just realized it looks like you have the seamoth blueprint already. You need to also first build a vehicle fabricator or something like that, I forget the name.

@Th3solution Yep, I’ve got my vehicle bay so it’s just the last step to get a seamoth! And yeah, I’ve found loads of blueprints by scanning stuff but just not the laser cutter. I even found things like the lightweight O2 tank blueprint like 300m down. Not sure how to craft modifications though!

@nessisonett Wow, I’m impressed you made it to 300 m without a seamoth.
Have you come across any diamonds? There are several of the high end items that require them.
And as far as gold, I can’t remember where I found mine ... there was an area fairly far away that had several of them. I think it’s also near one of the story waypoints, like maybe the 4th or 5th one from the radio.
I’m assuming you know to tap and break the little brown stones stuck around, especially on the sides of cliffs. Found gold in some of those.

@Th3solution The seaglide is really useful to get deep underwater and I found a few brain coral things to refill my oxygen on the way down! I’ve found quite a bit of silver but just not any gold so I guess I’ll keep looking.