JWE2 seems to have a huge problem with animations, while is a fact that there are a bunch of new animations and mechanics it still feels very rushed and "lazy".
Lemme explain:
-Locomotion in all over the place, dinos moonwalking, sidestepping without having the body follow the actual legs and feels very dumb, especially for a 70Euros game that had the base code already working and tested for many years. ( but that you already knew).
-Kill animations feel very rushed, while there are some unique ones, even if some like Rex's ones were copied and pasted from the first game, most of the animations have such tiny differences ( Spino and Indominus for example have minimal different details when killing another large theropod). Flyer on flyer kill animation does not even exist, they just kick each other in the air for half a second and one of them falls to the ground dead. Lots of dinos actually just ragdoll once dead after a fight without any cool animation or movements. Pack Hunting ( other than being too unbalanced) is even worse being a such acclaimed mechanic that sees the prey just ragdoll on the ground once its health reaches 0. Pretty disappointing.
-Aquatic animations are cool but have the same "moonwalking" problem even if less noticeable because you know... no legs. Fights are really boring: bite the torso, swim away, return back, bite the head, ragdoll, dead. We were hoping for more dynamic fights, you are in WATER, you can go up, down, left, right, try and jump out of the water... instead is just peck the torso, peck the head and that's it. No way for the attacked to defend itself, no evasion manouver. Not to mention that Lagoons do not interact with ANYTHING in the game. They just stand there and if Flyers hover above the water or dinos come near the Lagoon's fence there are no cool creatures jumping out of the water to snatch the Pteranodons like in the film, orif a lagoon fence gets shut down there is no Mosa jumping out to drown a passing Maiasaura. They could have done so much more.
-Fights still have the tedious "lock on" problem, with one dino being in position standing still for 5 minutes while the other contender casually walks half the map to be killed, but still better that the first game mind you. The real problem is that the fights are too boring, with the dinos just pecking each other for 3 secs and sometimes dancing together. No different attacks than just bites ( shame how even the Indominus basically doesn't even use its arm in combat, just to slay a goat or exit the hatchery basically), no randomness, just stats and number to define the victor.
-Tail animations are all over the place, almost everytime out of sync with the rest of the body. What did you do? They seem half animated half with physic mechanic. The last 1/4 of the tail does not even move, actually it stays always at the same hight as the rest of the body ( and that's definitely what tails DO NOT do). They almost seems broken in fact.
-Flying animations for flying reptiles are nice, that's a fact but they have the membrane always clipping and glitching everytime some complex movement is done. Even when exiting the hatchery, c'mon devs... And while there are Flying on Humans/small herbi interactions it'd be nice to have also swarm of Pteranodons bullying mid tier carnis, or flying around large carnivores or herbies almost annoying them. To make the world feel actually alive.
-Finally the running animations for Small carnivores, that actually inspired me to make this discussion. They are ALL THE SAME. And that's truly a sign of having done things in a hurry... Raptors do run with the hand raised and the mouth open, Herreras run with the hand raised and the mouth open, Proceratos do as well. Recycled animations are something that should be hidden and not that noticeable, instead this time running is basically the first thing that dinos do once released into the park. Animals should feel unique, and having one of the major locomotions copied and pasted is truly a shame.
While I'm on the subject of recycling animations, what about pack hunting? they ALL latch onto the prey, even dinos that have no way to stay latched, like Dilos and Proceratos. Dilos do not even use their blinding spit in fights, what the hell is that? Some nice animations like hyenas biting the bigger prey from all sides untill it gives up 'd have been better.
-( Please, PLEASE, add the quadrupedal run animation for Indoraptor, it was so cool to see it in the film)
I really hope I was as clear as possible, I'm here to try and make the game even better. I also hope to see the my written things taken into consideration and perhaps corrected in-game through future patches. The game is nice but for 70 Euros for what is for the most part the first game copied and pasted I was expecting something more in terms of details and animations, which were a big sore point for the first chapter.
Lemme explain:
-Locomotion in all over the place, dinos moonwalking, sidestepping without having the body follow the actual legs and feels very dumb, especially for a 70Euros game that had the base code already working and tested for many years. ( but that you already knew).
-Kill animations feel very rushed, while there are some unique ones, even if some like Rex's ones were copied and pasted from the first game, most of the animations have such tiny differences ( Spino and Indominus for example have minimal different details when killing another large theropod). Flyer on flyer kill animation does not even exist, they just kick each other in the air for half a second and one of them falls to the ground dead. Lots of dinos actually just ragdoll once dead after a fight without any cool animation or movements. Pack Hunting ( other than being too unbalanced) is even worse being a such acclaimed mechanic that sees the prey just ragdoll on the ground once its health reaches 0. Pretty disappointing.
-Aquatic animations are cool but have the same "moonwalking" problem even if less noticeable because you know... no legs. Fights are really boring: bite the torso, swim away, return back, bite the head, ragdoll, dead. We were hoping for more dynamic fights, you are in WATER, you can go up, down, left, right, try and jump out of the water... instead is just peck the torso, peck the head and that's it. No way for the attacked to defend itself, no evasion manouver. Not to mention that Lagoons do not interact with ANYTHING in the game. They just stand there and if Flyers hover above the water or dinos come near the Lagoon's fence there are no cool creatures jumping out of the water to snatch the Pteranodons like in the film, orif a lagoon fence gets shut down there is no Mosa jumping out to drown a passing Maiasaura. They could have done so much more.
-Fights still have the tedious "lock on" problem, with one dino being in position standing still for 5 minutes while the other contender casually walks half the map to be killed, but still better that the first game mind you. The real problem is that the fights are too boring, with the dinos just pecking each other for 3 secs and sometimes dancing together. No different attacks than just bites ( shame how even the Indominus basically doesn't even use its arm in combat, just to slay a goat or exit the hatchery basically), no randomness, just stats and number to define the victor.
-Tail animations are all over the place, almost everytime out of sync with the rest of the body. What did you do? They seem half animated half with physic mechanic. The last 1/4 of the tail does not even move, actually it stays always at the same hight as the rest of the body ( and that's definitely what tails DO NOT do). They almost seems broken in fact.
-Flying animations for flying reptiles are nice, that's a fact but they have the membrane always clipping and glitching everytime some complex movement is done. Even when exiting the hatchery, c'mon devs... And while there are Flying on Humans/small herbi interactions it'd be nice to have also swarm of Pteranodons bullying mid tier carnis, or flying around large carnivores or herbies almost annoying them. To make the world feel actually alive.
-Finally the running animations for Small carnivores, that actually inspired me to make this discussion. They are ALL THE SAME. And that's truly a sign of having done things in a hurry... Raptors do run with the hand raised and the mouth open, Herreras run with the hand raised and the mouth open, Proceratos do as well. Recycled animations are something that should be hidden and not that noticeable, instead this time running is basically the first thing that dinos do once released into the park. Animals should feel unique, and having one of the major locomotions copied and pasted is truly a shame.
While I'm on the subject of recycling animations, what about pack hunting? they ALL latch onto the prey, even dinos that have no way to stay latched, like Dilos and Proceratos. Dilos do not even use their blinding spit in fights, what the hell is that? Some nice animations like hyenas biting the bigger prey from all sides untill it gives up 'd have been better.
-( Please, PLEASE, add the quadrupedal run animation for Indoraptor, it was so cool to see it in the film)
I really hope I was as clear as possible, I'm here to try and make the game even better. I also hope to see the my written things taken into consideration and perhaps corrected in-game through future patches. The game is nice but for 70 Euros for what is for the most part the first game copied and pasted I was expecting something more in terms of details and animations, which were a big sore point for the first chapter.
