I finished Act 3 last night. I'm not sure how many hours I've put in, probably 30ish. The ending of Act 2 didn't sit well with me, and the ending of Act 3 (true ending) didn't help much, but I enjoy the gameplay so much that I'm going for the last couple trophies I need for the platinum.
Don't get me wrong, the story is fine and really works for the game. My disappointment is rooted in my expectations of this being a potentially expansive universe/IP and more installments. Given the endings of Acts 2 and 3, I don't foresee that happening, at least not in the form of a "Returnal 2".
I'm not saying this to flex, but Act 1 was pretty easy for me after the first few deaths and figuring out the game's systems and enemies. I actually only saw biomes 2 and 3 once before moving on to Act 2/Biome 4. I saw biome 4... a lot more lol. The difficulty really ramps up, especially since you still start out with a pistol but the first room can be full of a dozen trash mobs and a few bigger enemies. Stack Protection through augmentations, parasites, and artifacts. It almost trivializes the boss fights.
Similar to my experience finishing Act 1, I only saw biome 5 a couple times and biome 6 once before beating Act 2. The only boss I didn't defeat the first time was the boss of biome 4. It took me 3 times and I think it was due to having the wrong kind of weapon (for my playstyle/preference).
For me, EASILY the best weapon was the carbine with High Caliber trait. Any other traits are just gravy. High Caliber chunks hp HARD. Some notable mentions -
- Dreadbound is awesome if you're good at twitchy dodge as you need to be up close (of course, the majority of bosses actively discourage you or make it impossible to be close).
- Spitmaw (shotgun) with Narrow Maw trait
- Hollowseeker (gatling gun) with Portal/Waves traits
- Pyroshell (grenade launcher) with Seeking Flares trait for flying enemies
I wanted to give every weapon a fair shot (pun unintended) but:
- Sidearm almost always had this annoying Charged Shot trait that adds a significant delay between trigger squeeze and the round ejecting.
- Rotgland Lobber was -ok- but again, delay between trigger and release means an additional layer of thinking that means I'm gonna catch some of those bullethell christmas fireworks.
- Electropylon Driver is cool for strategic play in the smaller levels but it really suffers in open arenas where you can't make death funnels.
- Coilspine Shredder is one I never really gave a chance. I picked it up a half dozen times or so to level up traits to see if it improved, but I don't foresee picking it up any more unless someone tells me otherwise.
Overall, great game that I enjoyed more and more as I continued playing and mastering it. There's definitely a shelf life and it sours around the time you're looking for the last item you need in biome 6 to complete Act 3, but right up until that point, I heartily recommend this game to anyone that enjoys action games.