And really, there are some traditional games normally thought of as being reflex but can be very thoughtful. You should see me attack a pinball machine, slowly, methodically, and extremely high scores. I'm not the guy that mashes the flippers. I cradle the ball, I go for high traffic, deep area objectives, I will tilt and abuse deep playfields, and I am very very good at it. When it comes time for the reflex shot, I'm going to land it, I know I'm going to land it, and it feels really good when I'm on top of it. Real-life and digital machines.
This is one thing I wanted to focus on here a bit.... the odd idea that simply because something is a "twitch" game, that it's not "thoughtful". I dont think that's true for a minute.
Even something like a pure shmup, one of the ones with 10 gazillion bullets.... something like that is only mindless twitch play at the lowest levels. It changes alot as you go further on.... if you "just shoot everything", chances are you'll A: die, or B: die faster.
Something like this, for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75MXLijhy_8 That's gonna look like total chaos to those unfamiliar with the genre. It is though alot like the pinball games you mention (and I say this as a fan of pinball in general myself, I tend to love complicated games that are played for score) in that you cant just go in and randomly flail and expect to get anywhere. Oh, you can have some simple fun at lower levels by doing that, but if you wanna score big, it's just not that simple. With something like that one, I know every nuance of the scoring system (and scoring systems in these tend to be complex), I know how the level is going to work, I know how to apply those scoring techniques based on the situations that the level creates, I know when to switch modes and when not to, and all sorts of other small things that go together. And there's ALOT to it. And like pinball, you must apply all of these various techniques and tricks and proper actions without screwing up and getting a game-over, as your scoring run stops right there if you do.
And with Last Federation here, it seems to me that this sort of idea is exactly what they're going for.... you've got this twitchy sort of gameplay, but when you get into it you find that it's really not quite that simple. You cant just run around blasting at random. You have to know your weapons and your abilities, you have to know the enemy, you have to be able to read a situation and decide on the proper course of action based on what's going on and what you have available to you. And really, there's alot of emphasis on this.... just the fact that you can slow down the game dramatically or even pause it and look at things proves this. No pure "twitch" game with simple gameplay would allow you to do this, because that sort wants you to just react, rather than really think about it much. This game is a bit different from that though. Particularly with the new combat model.
I did a battle just now, a "destroy pirate base" mission on Misery difficulty. Just flying around shooting randomly at this difficulty will get you killed REALLY fast. Have to be efficient about defeating enemy ships, because the more they spawn, the lower your chances of not exploding. And destroying a ship with a weapon it's strong against takes bloody forever here. Drastically increased enemy range also means that you have to be constantly watching the situation, so you can tell where you should and should not maneuver, and when it's a good time to go after an important target. And there's other funky things too.... the missile turrets, for example. These actually might be outright broken right now... I'll probably make up a mantis thing for them... their range is absurd, they fire missiles that hit like freight trains, they have a high firing rate, and most of the player flagships CANT dodge them, literally. The missiles are faster than the player, and they last forever. A bit of thinking though allowed me to pop the accursed things anyway. Used the garbage eject ability to create a couple of walls I could dive behind/into, and I could pop out and fire from behind those. That only stops some of the missiles though... the rest, I'd maneuver so they gather in a heap, and then delete them with the Mass Driver weapon. When I had a clear shot, switching to the energy weapon allowed me to pop the turrets and get inside the ring. There was even more to the mission than just that, but that particular part is a great example of the concepts used within this context.
Hardly mindless twitch gameplay, I think. And of course the player doesnt need to have crazy reflexes to do this either.... they can always lower the speed if they want, or pause as many times as they want. Me, I keep the speed up because dodging everything is fun, but.... that's just one way to do it. Which is something I'm liking about this game in an overall sense, both with the combat and the solar map, there's ALOT of ways to approach things. There's all sorts of other possible tactics I could have used to break through those turret rings.... that was just one of them, based on my current equipment.
All in all, I think there's alot more to it than merely zooming and firing.
Though, as with previous games like Bionic Dues, I have to wonder how much of this shows up at the default difficulty level. I havent messed with Normal myself, and am probably not the right one to test that bit, really. But that was definitely an issue with BD: The default difficulty of the game didn't require much strategy, so it made the game look too simplistic, hiding the depth that the game as a whole actually had.
The solar map part, at least, doesnt really have this issue. But I think the combat might.
I've forgotten what else I was going to say, due to a lack of sandwiches.
