https://www.cybersport.ru/games/articles/mertvorozhdyonnoe-ditya-shutera-i-strategii-obzor-disintegration

Plot

Usually I prefer to talk about games in my own words, but this time I want you to get the most out of the setting and the plot of the story. After all, there will be no other way than to read about them in the store.

Disintegration does not bother even with minimal explanations of what is happening, which creates the feeling of a film, the viewing of which began in the middle. Who are the outcasts (to which we, apparently, belong), why we are at war with the Reyons (and are at war with them at all, or are we just running away from them), what happened to the world – even such basic questions remained unanswered, not to mention about goals, motives and experiences.

Guides, along with a press copy, were sent to journalists, in which some obscure moments of the plot are clarified. However, to call such an approach to the presentation of lore successful language does not turn.

The plot left behind a double feeling – it was as if it was written strictly according to the textbook. The main character has a feature that is inaccessible to another – he knows how to control the gravity cycle – and is almost completely devoid of personality to make it easier to associate with him. The rest of the characters are quite memorable, but very stereotypical: a good-natured healthy man, a hyperactive joker, a wise old man, etc. And during the passage we will encounter the heroic death of a comrade, unexpected betrayal and even a romantic line, which are given exactly when they should: all strictly on schedule.

As a result, we get a strong and rich narration, the only complaint to which is the lack of something original and unexpected. For those who haven’t gotten used to scenario scripts yet, the Disintegration storyline may well appeal. He is unlikely to catch the rest with something.

Single player campaign

In terms of passing a single player campaign turned out exactly the same as the plot. She runs the minimum program with a bang, but she can offer nothing beyond this.

In its structure, it is a corridor action movie without any complaints. The goals in it usually come down to getting to some point and doing something: press a button, release the hostage, clear the location, etc. You will not see anything unusual or inventive, but the rest is done soundly.

Enemies delight in diversity. There are ordinary supplies, snipers, several types of flyers, large robots that make you sweat, very large robots that will have to lower the entire arsenal of the squad, and simply huge engines.

There are no bosses in Disintegration, but opponents easily take the number and appearance at different points. This provides a good tension of fights, forcing to use all available tactical abilities, constantly move and hunt for rare first-aid kits.

The main disadvantage of a single player campaign is the arsenal. We cannot choose which weapons and which fighters to take on a mission; game designers do this for us. If it were my will, I would go through the whole game with machine guns and a rocket launcher. However, instead, in the final battles I had to be content with the same pistol that was on the first level.

In addition, questions are raised by some elements, added as if for a tick. Collecting resources that are needed only for multiplayer, pumping, which does not give tangible bonuses, and a hub location, where there is nothing to do. Perhaps these were preparations of something more significant, but never brought to the release, which in any case does not affect their futility.

FPS + RTS

Despite the fact that the developers promised a “unique sci-fi story”, they still called the main trump card gameplay, which, according to them, combined the genres of FPS and RTS. Frankly, it was this particular feature that first of all attracted me, and it most of all disappointed me.

The FPS and RTS hybrid in the presentation of V1 Interactive is an opportunity to give orders to friendly NPCs, and that’s it. There is no talk of any development and construction, and the very possibility of commanding the allies is very limited.

First, you cannot command individual units, only the entire group. Therefore, the orders are approximate, not accurate. If you tell subordinates to hide from the enemy behind the house, they will stand approximately behind this house. Those who are lucky can really take refuge, and the rest will be left without protection.

Secondly, squad management comes down to four primitive teams: “follow me”, “go to the point”, “attack this” and “use special ability”. The first three options are very slightly different from the behavior of normal friendly NPCs. And the fourth is, in fact, a very strangely embodied grenade throw, since all abilities are precisely attacks in the area – slowing, stunning, mortar, etc.

To say that Disintegration succeeded in combining the FPS and RTS genres was like saying that silent films from the beginning of the 20th century combined cinema and musicals. From RTS there is practically nothing. Much more successful tactical elements were introduced in Star Wars: Republic Commando or The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.

Gravicycle

Nevertheless, comparing Disintegration with other shooters in which it was possible to manage a squad is somewhat incorrect. The fact is that in the same Republic Commando the player was on an equal footing with other fighters, but here he is slightly higher. This to some extent really makes the game similar to RTS.

In Disintegration, the user controls a gravity bike – a vehicle that can fly at low altitude. This brings some fresh mechanics to the game. For example, for a tactical advantage, we can change the height and get sheltering opponents, or we can avoid direct combat, leading our fighters from afar.

The main problem of the gravity cycle is its … meaninglessness. How this device has become the pinnacle of military technology is incomprehensible. He does not have armor for the pilot and only two types of weapons, and most importantly – he is very slow. The latter also affects the gameplay: those who are accustomed to ultrafast FPS are unlikely to like leisurely soaring in the air.

Higher TTK enemies slow down the gameplay even more. On medium and high difficulties, it takes a lot of time to kill even ordinary opponents. In some moments, you can just hover for half a minute in one place with the LMB held, lazily transferring the sight from one enemy to another.

Everything is bad

In addition to the storyline campaign, there are network battles in Disintegration, but I have nothing to say about them. Neither on the PC nor on the PlayStation 4 I was able to connect to any session. And it’s unlikely that it will happen at all: at the time of this writing, according to SteamDB, only 25 people are playing a shooter.

Another big issue with Disintegration is crashes. They are always annoying, but here they cause almost physical pain due to a very unsuccessful saving system. The fact is that the game is divided into separate missions lasting more than 30 minutes, and progress persists only upon completion. That is, in the event of an exit or departure, you will have to completely replay the level. Due to four crashes in one mission, I even had to switch from a PC to the PlayStation 4 and go through almost half of the game again.