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NW Glassmaker general feedback


(PSN)Maunstre

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As much as I enjoy Nightwave as a mini source of lore, I feel Glassmaker stumbled as a quasi-interactable series. Of the three Nightwave Seasons so far, Glassmaker is the weakest of the trio in narrative and enjoyability. Some general feedback points on why:

A: Narrative wise Glassmaker spilled its load way too early and robbed the mystery right out from under us. In particular (from the update thread here):

9 hours ago, [DE]Danielle said:

The time has come, Tenno. After meticulously investigating crime scenes, poring over clues and shattering glass across the Origin System, you’ve tracked the Glassmaker to a pivotal location. A place where the Glassmaker killed thousands, if not millions in an age long past. 

We didn't investigate anything or put together any clues, Nora did that for us not even halfway through, effectively stripping away the "mystery" from the mystery well ahead of time. Whatever theorising or excitement the community had over the original mystery was put out very quickly by this. Prior to Nihil's name-drop I regularly saw people theorising excitedly on Reddit on the potential of the perpetrator. The second Nora spilled the beans, the theorising and excitement evaporated, and all posts on Glassmaker were limited to complaints over not being able to find clues or people being tired of "DETECTING GLASS RESONANCE". The remaining episodes felt superfluous once Nihil's identity and character were simply told to us by Nora rather than letting us actually piece anything together ourselves. Unlike previous Nightwaves, there was little buildup, and what buildup there was was extinguished quickly due to the early reveal (and then having to sit on our hands until EP 5). I feel one of two options would have better served the narrative:

1. Once Nihil's identity was revealed, the scenes should have pivoted from modern-day victims to searching historical archives - historical crimes or some kind of library in the Weave to drive us close to Nihil naturally and reveal more about him through our own efforts rather than Nora just telling us as we pick through unrelated clues in a modern day setting.

2. Instead of revealing Nihil early, keep him a secret and have Nora reference or mention old, ancient crimes from before the fall of the Empire in a "creepy how it's happening again!" way. Maybe suggest even a copycat, and maybe that copycat should have been victim no. 5 that took us to Nihil - a shocker that the presumed copycat, maybe an admirer of Nihil, crossed their idol and became judged. Maybe they had found his Oubliette / Glassed statue, and had cracked it open or activated it, setting this crazed judge free. If Nora has to spill the beans for us since Warframe's actual in-game lore is so extremely limited, let it come at the end when Nora, along side us, puts the info together rather than just doing it for us.

(Plus, in episodes 1 - 4, the crime scenes were preserved in the Weave as recent, modern-day crimes. The fifth scene is clearly not a preserved scene - it is a derelict in space, but it is presented like a preserved scene - tinkling Weave wave and all. The Infestation inside reacts to Nihil's statue (with no foley, which seems like a bug), even though technically by established rules the scenes can't be changed because they aren't real. Episode 5 breaks its own pre-established rules.)

B: As a form of gameplay the crime scenes themselves were a good idea executed poorly. The size of the scenes, paired with the tiny size of the clues, the clues overlapping with geometry, and the excruciating walking speed, made them a chore rather than anything exciting to engage with. Additionally, the crime scenes didn't... really feel like crime scenes. Outside of a frightened victim frozen in place, there were no signs of struggle, surprise, or invasion (no, say, toppled trashcans, goods dropped or scattered in surprise, or - since this is a frozen snapshot - other NPCs frozen in time affected by what they see, maybe running away or pointing in shock and fear). As a result scenes felt bland and lifeless, like no one actually lived in or used the space or was otherwise affected by the sudden "execution" of the victim***. In regards to movement speed and clues - users regularly complaining that they cannot find clues or that walking speed is heavily affecting their enjoyment should send up red flags that the game design behind them is not working and changes should have been considered. As a suggestion: with the crime scene being a "copy" preserved in the Weave, and with the constant presence of the ringing wave, there's no reason to not have that wave highlight clues after x-time has passed as a mercy for those having problems with locating the needed clues to advance the scene (and Nightwave in general). Anecdotal: I have a friend who plays Warframe who sometimes experiences migraines from the game's excessive bloom. In crime scene 3 especially they were given a lot of trouble due to all of the orange lights of the underwater tileset. Within my friend group it was regular for the process to find all 5 clues to take 20 minutes or more.

C: For the encounter for Nihil himself... the throw arc on those glass bombs is awful, and so is their speed. Hitting anything was frustrating unless you were right up in it. The time I spent trying to lob glass shards at bigger shards was proportionate to the number of platforms that disappeared. Platforms should reappear after a set time or after x-number are destroyed to give players a place to go in the event that they have trouble with the arena and its mechanics. Nihil's sword can destroy 2 (?) platform pieces at once in one shot and an abandoned glass shard will melt one upon detonation. The speed in which these pieces can disappear is quite rapid under the right circumstances.

Personally I found the finale of Glassmaker to be unfulfilling. The secret had already been spoiled by the time the penultimate encounter happened, and I'm sure the excitement I should have felt had been blunted by Glassmaker's long run time and the endless mission interruptions of "DETECTING GLASS RESONANCE". I'm very fond of Nora as a character, I think she is a great addition, but goodness gracious I was pining for a way to turn her off that didn't involve just not playing the game.

Overall Glassmaker had nuggets of good ideas that I believe were just not executed well. I personally hope that when Glassmaker gets rerun in the future that its gameplay components are refurbished and made better / smoother.

*** The biggest culprit here is flat tile reuse. Isolated, individual tiles bereft of NPCs and left as-is appear / feel clinically sterile. Even though victims were caught "alone", someone had to have found them and had a reaction - how else would the scene has been preserved into the Weave as a crime? Cetus is a busy place - surely someone saw the flash, maybe knocked over a stand or two in their shock at seeing one of their own get turned into a Swarovski sculpture. As a follow up, who on earth found the defector Grineer, living alone in isolation? Or the Solaris traitor, similarly isolated from their fellows in a dead-end cave? In regards to clues, why would they be thrown around so haphazardly? With the Ostron as an example, wouldn't it have been more appropriate to have found both his body and his clues inside of his hut rather than scattered about the market place? Save for the Grineer who lived legitimately alone, the clumsiness of the victims in keeping their secrets really put forth a wonder of how they weren't caught earlier.

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