izigame.me

My expectations were low but holy fuck. It's not good.
Final Transmission does barely anything to address the core issues of the base game, feeling like an obligation of a DLC more than anything else. The new melee weapon initially is greatly empowering but it's again compounded by how awful the melee combat in this game is. It starts well enough but as you continue it gets more and more grating and the ending makes you feel like you wasted your time. If you didn't like the fact that TCP was meandering or barely had a sense of world structure to it, then you aren't finding any improvements in that department. I'd argue that most weapon upgrades are completely invalidated at a certain point, just buy meds and ammo. It doesn't do anything interesting or tries to innovate from TCP, it's the definition of a minimum viable product. Just recycle prefabs from other levels in the base game, reskin an enemy and give it a different moveset. The only decent addition is the hammer and it fucking stings that this isn't offered as an alt option to the baton in the main game at the end of the dlc. It has the capacity to deal with many enemies at once, unfortunately the game's very liberal spawning of enemies and sometimes spawning them directly behind you or to your sides with very little telegraphing means pulling off the special slam attack is difficult at times. It's nice that it's used as a way to break boxes and generally open up spaces for secrets or to traverse ahead. It shows a hint of self-awareness and improvement even but it's so so so so bittersweet. You won't pick it up until you're right near the end of the DLC. Why. Why. Why. Wouldn't you give this weapon at the start of the DLC? You're stuck with the baton most of the way for zero reason.
The world is just as meandering as the base game and arguably worse, prefabs are repeatedly used over and over again from the original game. It just feels like a sci-fi industrial mess. I can see people arguing that it's the point but it's so poorly executed in places. It's also the same linear boring design over and over again, spoonfed medical kits and callisto bucks for ammo instead of having to take risks and explore the world for yourself.
I can see what they were trying to do with the story and it has some fun tricks at the beginning but it really really telegraphs too hard was going on. I guessed the twist halfway through the DLC and was left bored as the game repeatedly telegraphed over and over again obvious clues for at least another hour and a half. The ending makes sense and doesn't. It feels pointless even. I'm going to omit spoilers incase you already have the season pass or are considering picking it up for the other offerings as apart of a cheaper package later down the line.
The graphics are just as impressive as the base game and the presentation at points is easily appreciated even with it's minor performance issues at this point. Forget raytracing unless you have a high end card unless you want to cap your framerate at 30. Sound is still solid. It adds to that bittersweet feeling i talked earlier, TCP feels on the cusp of being almost a fun playable game thanks to how good the graphics are but it faceplants into the sidewalk. I will mention however that the game is definitely bland, it's the same dark industrial corridors copy and pasted a million times.
Ultimately TCP : Final Transmission encapsulates perfectly what i didn't like about the base game and rarely it dares to improve from the original formula only to flounder completely which is sad. I'm not sure if we'll see a TCP sequel but if they do please please sweet mother of mary god above make melee combat not infuriating. Paint the world so people can actually get invested in what is going on. Consider non-linear level design or at least changing approach to their world design. The talent IS there. But for now, don't get this unless heavily discounted and that probably extends to the base game as well.