Tome II - Final Thoughts
After having completed the entire Rift and Tome (100%), I have drawn out my conclusions from it.
Overall, definitely a vast improvement from the first Tome. Glad to see there was not a single "BS difficulty" challenge this time around (EGC unhooks or 4k basement matches). I also appreciate the change of focus. Rather than single hard challenges, we get easier ones that take a bit longer to complete. Some may not agree, but this comes with two benefits. First, it evens the difficulty for everyone (everyone who paid for it wants to finish them, but not everyone can be skilled enough to pull them off). And, second, it softens the grind for tier 70 (if you finish a hard challenge earlier than expected, then you will spend more time "playing normally" and feeling like the Rift is grindier).
There are a couple things that might be nice to consider in the future:
1) Hatch Escape challenges.
Now, Im not saying they should never be used again in future Tomes. My only suggestion is to avoid placing "Escape through the hatch" challenges in the same Level with so many "Escape the trial" challenges, like we had in Level 3 of this Tome. What is the safest way to get the hatch challenges done? Not contributing to the survival of the rest of the team. This wouldnt be as bad if the rest of the team werent also working on challenges to escape.
What am I trying to say here? Level 3 had five "escape the trial" challenges and a two-hatch-escape challenge. While I was doing this Level, whenever I was doing the "escape the trial" ones, I faced several times Survivors that were doing the hatch one who did nothing to aid others on the escape (sometimes completely avoiding the hooked or injured Survivors). If I had been on another challenge, this wouldnt be as much of a problem, because I would at least be making progress in it. Would lead to less frustration, at least for me.
2) Killer-specific challenges could have been more original.
In Doctor's case, all of them were "put Survivors in a certain level of Madness". Would have been nice to at least have one (or any) to be like "hit a Survivor after shocking them" or "hit x amount of Survivors with Static Blast within a single trial".
I get that you cant do it with all Killers, as some have more complex powers than others. But Doctor's challenges were a missed opportunity. Spirit's case is completely different, because her power is way more simple. I cant think of any other possibilities for her, other than maybe a challenge to show her phasing as a mobility tool.
3) Lore entry writing.
"Jane needs a job. She has a job. She she really wants another job. A role. A part. A stick up her bum."
Reading that was awkward. Not awkward as in the emotion. Not shame. Just plainly annoying to read. I understand that whoever wrote it wants it to show the entry as the Observer delving into the memories of the characters and writing what he sees in a rush, like a sketch. But I dislike that text a lot.
Also, please, do remember that quotation marks (") followed by a simple "...said Dwayne." help a lot to show the reader when a character is saying something. Not random "They toast bad movies".
Comments
I ######### hated the EGC challenges and the last Hatch close challenges. They are way too RNG reliant and didn't even count properly. For the EGC challenges, I had so many games where I closed the Hatch at the very end and even though the Hatch Closed score appeared before the sacrifice one did and it still didn't count. They either need to be fixed or just never show up in a future Tome. It is not fun at all to play 20 games where you don't find the Hatch in time or you do but the game ######### you over and then you have to play 20 more to close the Hatch when the game wants you to. Challenges need to be fun, otherwise they just become chores to do.
The key challenge was annoying because it required Survivors to use an item that many Killers consider to be overpowered. It'd be like if there was a Mori challenge for Killers.
I enjoyed the other challenges. They were fun, straight to the point, and didn't require you to pull off some once-in-a-lifetime trick (cough Six Feet Under cough).
The only lore that I've completed at this point is Doctor's, and holy ######### it is amazing. I loved watching the video and learning more about what he did before the Entity found him.
My final thoughts is that again unless you're playing daily 4-6 hours a day you can't complete the rift.
The rift was better diffuculty-wise, but I feel like I got to tier 70 too fast. I got to tier 70 before the 4th level even came out, so there was no point in doing the 4th lvl besides for bp.