Of all the console launch games coming in a couple weeks, this is the one that intrigues me the most. At least, at the conceptual level. It gives a vibe between Warframe’s flexibility, and a 3rd person hack and slash like Monster Hunter. It’s a weird mix.

Destiny launched in 2014, which ostensibly put the looter/shooter into the limelight. Destiny 2 and The Division(s) iterated on that. Warframe had launched a year earlier but took a couple years to find it’s footing. The game today is much different than back then. That to say that in general, the model has evolved over time. Where it hasn’t is with Anthem (the 2.0 blog update is 2 months late), and from all I’ve read, Avengers.

The good news with Godfall is that the lead designer has a fair chunk of experience in this field. Devs have worked on Diablo2 and Destiny 2. IGN has an interesting article on their mindset for loot management, which articulates how much importance they are putting on that item. Since “tinkering” is the long term carrot for most of these games, I’m somewhat optimistic that they can get this to work.

There are some eyebrow items in here, such as how leveling one class levels all the others – you swap plates to change classes. That’s a very odd choice as it reduces replayability, and certainly has some mechanical reasons. I think the grid mechanic is neat, where proximity of slots impacts their effects. Two identical classes, with identical gems to slot could have different (marginal?) effects based on the order of the slots.

I’ve been a fan of Warframe’s customization for a long time now, enjoying it much more than hunting light levels or whatever arbitrary term the game uses. I’ve written dozens of posts as to how Anthem screwed the pooch on this aspect. I’ve avoided Avengers, primarily due to the way the power grind is built (I won‘t get into the Mega Hives, or that it’s better to play with AI).

I should point out that this game is built by a rather small team, so there’s no “traditional” end game here. There’s some sort of rogue-like tower activity you can do with others, but that seems to be it for now. The focus appears to be on the campaign, which can have on-line co-op. Which seems a-ok to me, much better to bite off what you can chew. If multi-million dollar companies can’t even get the basics right, then why would a small crew try to do the same?

Colour me interested. Maybe they actually figure out the loot part and can teach the big studios something. Guess we’ll find out in a couple weeks.