The Riftbreaker: Into The Dark DLC

I dont get the complaints for this DLC. It felt refreshing to play. Its not just 'the same but more', its something different, it *plays* different.

My least favorite of the DLCs, but over all I still enjoyed it. That last mission after the final boss overstayed its welcome though.

It's a real slog, unfortunately. The idea of the plot is solid but the actual execution is just kind of a pain in the ass. The biome is all tight spaces plus destructible rock that you can melee your way through. That just translates to you running around holding down your melee attack button a lot to carve out space or walk around. The events tend to be more annoying than challenging - once again, the game trots out its EXTREMELY well-worn "things are falling from the sky and you need to kite around until it stops" mechanic. Now, though, the event lasts longer than ever. Multiple minutes of just kiting, waiting for it to stop. So we've got tight spaces, limited power sources, annoying events. Now to polish it off, add in a plot that just keeps going and going, making you run back and forth across the maps, making you build otherwise-useless plot buildings, some of which need water, so now you're building pipes through the spaces you laboriously carved out of the rock interspersed with these kiting events and the usual enemy attacks. And just when you think you've built the last plot building, the next plot point wants four more. Or for you to go to five different areas on the map. Wuff. It's more work than game and it actually plays to the game's weaknesses rather than its strengths - repetitive events, difficult building, and fewer chances to use your towers. I can see how the plot and the idea sounded cool on paper but in practice I just couldn't make it through. I kept coming back and pushing through the next plot point, sure I was close to the end, only for the plot to open up a whole new floor and the need for a new bunch of McGuffins. I bailed. It's the only part of the game I haven't finished.

While i admit this DLC's concept is good on paper, it is not nearly as good in practice. This DLC is full of "Works on paper but not in practice", For starters the DLC is obviously not designed to be played just before finishing the game, I tried that and the entire combat was a cakewalk (Although an admittedly slow one). The very concept of being in a cave just does not translate well into gameplay, For example the digging mechanic feels very unpolished because it hardly has any effect on your gameplay, Additionally the power system is very odd, you can only build wind turbines near these "gas vents" and you can only build solar panels in the places where you can see sun. The story is also not very good as it feels like it didn't have a proper start or end (You'll see what i mean if you play or watch it) Overall it just feels like it was an initial idea that someone had that they didn't fully think through. 4/10