Just played through one of the AX Reactivation missions, was pleasantly surprised, at first I was worried they'd be a little bland because they only had the Thargoid skimmers and not the gorilla bugs I was hoping for, but it was very tense, I loved that I had to land a safe distance away, the build-up of suspense as I approached on foot, how numerous and tough the skimmers were, their varied attack pattern and terrifying noises, and how harrowing the escape was with the long range lasers and the patrolling interceptors waiting to blow my recalled ship out of the sky.
My only complaint would be that the Thargoids didn't react to the sound of my grenades. In the regular human stealth missions there are lots of diversionary tactics that work, like tossing grenades and setting off alarms, but you rarely need to use them because of the enemy placement. But here, because there are so many Thargoids all so close together, there's much more reason to try and get their attention away from a spot, but there really isn't a way to other than exposing yourself. I think adding ways to divert their attention would add a lot to the feeling of dynamism in these missions, give the player a feeling of outsmarting the goids, and giving them another tool in their belt. Re-enabling the turrets would be nice too. It also makes me wish there were more difficult human missions, as having to think about where I land and face a real threat at the settlement was very fun.
My only complaint would be that the Thargoids didn't react to the sound of my grenades. In the regular human stealth missions there are lots of diversionary tactics that work, like tossing grenades and setting off alarms, but you rarely need to use them because of the enemy placement. But here, because there are so many Thargoids all so close together, there's much more reason to try and get their attention away from a spot, but there really isn't a way to other than exposing yourself. I think adding ways to divert their attention would add a lot to the feeling of dynamism in these missions, give the player a feeling of outsmarting the goids, and giving them another tool in their belt. Re-enabling the turrets would be nice too. It also makes me wish there were more difficult human missions, as having to think about where I land and face a real threat at the settlement was very fun.
