After The Fall’s next update Reclamation is coming in a few days, and I have been lucky enough to take an early look at the harvest run, thanks to the team at Vertigo Games. So, what are my initial thoughts on what I have played?
Firstly lets take a look at what the Reclamation update is going to add as a full update, before looking at the modes I got the chance to play. In the update you will get;
- Downtown – a new harvest mode map
- The Mall – the largest Horde Mode to map to date
- Two new enemies and a unique final encounter
- The Auto-Shotgun and a new combat device Sawblade
- Chipset floppies
The update takes you back to the Snowbreed-infested downtown LA, again this can be played in up to four-player co-op and crossplay – but, I was playing with just AI in this early look. At first it was all a bit strange, as I did not have access to my trusted loadout – but, this made me have to try the new Auto-Shotgun and they pair this the LMG and the trusty old service pistol. However, the pistol is using one of the Chipsets to make it automatic – giving you an early taste of what is to come.
I really enjoyed the first run of Downtown, this introduced me to one of the new enemies in the Charger. This enemy will charge you and grab you like the Juggernaut and also causes explosive amounts of damage in a large radius. But, what I was really happy to see is the new final encounter that sees you taking on large amounts of Snow-breed while taking out sprawl – which you find out is actually a giant worm like enemy. It also introduced me to my new favourite weapon the Auto-Shotgun, I really cannot wait to see how this is improved with the unlockables and other Chipset modifiers outside the execution chipset in the preview. It also gave me chance to check out the Sawblade, which you get in-place of the rocket launchers on your hand – and this is certainly a nice and fun addition, I just need to get used to how to use it to best effect and not miss most of the Snow-breed.
The update also brings two types of harvest runs, these are Ending, which starts the harvest map from the first room and you will play through to the final encounter. I also got the chance to play Mutator mode, this starts you from the beginning of Downtown to the second Safe Room, but this brings in modifiers – in the early look it just adds ice-armor on all Snow-breed. However, the full release will bring more modifiers and also be available on all harvest runs. This also introduced me to the Gunner enemy, which is huge enemy with a LMG grafted on its arm permanently.
This is the mode where the new Chipset floppies come into play, these are an additional way to get your loadout perfect for you. These chipsets are like a perk system for After The Fall, and after using the two in the preview, I am very interested to what else is available to change your weapons behavior and playstyle to you liking.
summary
With even just playing the harvest run on both Ending and Mutator mode, I am really excited to see the Chipsets perks and running all the harvest maps on Mutator mode. Never mind the option to play this with a group a friends and checking out the new horde mode – luckily its only just around the corner with it releasing on 15 September.
