Arknights: Endfield is participating and lovely, however held again by its predatory gacha system

I don’t have a lot prior expertise with the Arknights franchise. I briefly tried the unique recreation, however I dropped it pretty rapidly as tower protection video games aren’t actually my factor. A nasty early roll didn’t give me a lot motivation to stay round. Gacha video games usually are usually a long-term dedication, and I normally won’t put money into them except they do one thing that hooks me, whether or not that’s the gameplay loop, character aesthetics, or possibly a beneficiant monetization mannequin.

With that in thoughts, I made a decision to present Arknights: Endfield a shot. As a spin-off, it takes a really totally different method, taking part in extra like an open-field motion recreation as a substitute of its Tower Protection counterpart. What actually units Endfield aside from its rivals is its emphasis on base constructing together with its open subject gameplay. Usually, constructing sims aren’t one thing I gravitate towards, so on paper this seems like a style mismatch. What actually offered me on attempting Endfield was its character designs, and visually it is among the best-looking gacha video games available on the market.

Not solely do the visuals look unbelievable, however the recreation can also be very nicely optimized. I used to be in a position to run the sport on very excessive settings whereas inserting solely a reasonable load on a mid-to-high-end PC (7800 XTX, Ryzen 5 5600X), attaining very steady 60 FPS. The sport does provide a 120 FPS possibility, however the recreation warns me that my PC does not fairly meet the minimal necessities, so I did not actually check that possibility.

Simply to notice, I performed on check servers, so I’m not certain how steady the connection or what the state of the sport can be when it launches. As some gacha video games I’ve performed up to now normally might be advantageous within the beta, however battle as a result of mass inflow of customers for the general public launch.

For the testing course of, I used to be given entry to 2 totally different accounts. One was a recent account that allowed me to expertise the narrative from the very starting, whereas the opposite was a mid-game account the place the opening story arc had already been accomplished and most development-related programs have been unlocked for the primary area. The mid-game account is the one I primarily used for fight testing, and its progress roughly begins on the second chapter of the story. At this level, the Wuling (the second area) is unlocked, though not one of the buildings have been constructed but. 

What units Endfield aside from many video games in the identical style the place you usually management solely a single character at a time. As a substitute, your entire staff fights concurrently. All abilities devour SP, which is represented by a big shared gauge positioned straight above the HP bar. As a result of this SP bar is shared throughout the entire social gathering, efficient fight revolves round discovering sturdy synergies and timing your allies’ talents rigorously to get probably the most worth out of them.

Along with normal assaults and abilities, the sport features a dodge system that consumes stamina. Efficiently performing an ideal dodge solely makes use of half of the stamina price and also will generate SP permitting your social gathering to make use of their abilities extra steadily. 

As I discussed earlier than, the sport locations a heavy emphasis on its base-building system. This is named the AIC (Automated Business Complicated), which lets you assemble constructions all through the area. These buildings are divided into 4 predominant classes. Fight services straight help you throughout fight, both by damaging enemies as they transfer close to them or by offering assist to your allies. You may even set them in standard areas and use them as a location to AFK farm if you happen to want to. Exploration-focused constructions assist with traversal, similar to ziplines for reaching sure areas sooner and in a extra handy method.

There are additionally two kinds of manufacturing services that mechanically collect particular sources over time. Base constructing is sort of complicated, since you possibly can both construct every thing manually or depend on the blueprint system constructed into the sport. Utilizing the Blueprint system can have you employ the prebuilt set from the devs. 

Moreover, there’s a function that permits you to copy base layouts created by different gamers. I didn’t spend a lot time experimenting with this feature, as I wasn’t notably engaged with the base-building mechanics, and the mid-game account I examined already had a completely developed base within the first area.

The mid-game account additionally got here with the primary area absolutely explored and I might begin the second chapter of the primary story. With this account, I used to be in a position to check the gacha system, which comes with 150,000 forex, which interprets to roughly 300 pulls within the present construct.

The gacha system follows a construction that HoYoverse has since popularized, that includes a limited-rate character banner with a pity system tied to a set variety of pulls. Whereas the account had entry to all characters, they have been all of their base varieties, which means pulling duplicates continues to be required to unlock sure passive talents. That mentioned, Endfield solely requires 5 duplicates to completely unlock all characters’ passives, in comparison with the six usually required in HoYoverse and another gacha titles.

A facet of the gacha system I detest is the sheer variety of totally different currencies concerned. It may be tough to maintain observe of what every forex is used for. For instance, there’s a forex particularly meant for pulling restricted rate-up characters, however it’s also possible to earn a model of that very same forex with an expiration date connected. The UI additionally makes it laborious to inform which forex is for what. There are totally different tickets to roll the non-limited character or the weapon banner.

Though this side is taken from standard gacha video games, a couple of parts on high muddy the expertise additional. The gacha system will begin at 120 to get the featured character; getting extra dupes would require a better pull ceiling to get them. Which punishes the low spenders or F2P (Free to Play) Gamers, to make issues worse, the pity does not carry over, so it is both all or nothing. The 300 rolls given can barely get sufficient dupes to completely max the present price up, because the laborious pity appears to go as much as 240 rolls on the second duplicate, which makes the sport appear far much less beneficiant than it makes it out to be. Nonetheless, the excessive pity ceiling appears to be one thing attuned to the unique Arknights, from what I’ve heard from pals.

I like numerous what I’ve seen in Endfield. The fight system appears actually participating and the visuals are a number of the finest I’ve seen for a gacha recreation. Whereas the story does appear fairly promising thus far, I’m not certain if I wish to absolutely decide to the sport with a gacha system this predatory as somebody who enjoys numerous gacha video games. I’ve at all times hated the gacha system that HoYoverse video games have popularized, however with so many video games copying the system and Endfield’s personal spin on it someway feeling even worse, it’s laborious for me to wish to get inviested right here.