On Second Thought...

I played a lot of MNC this weekend, and came to a disappointing discovery. I believe before, after just a glancing experience with this new game, I probably noted how most of the classes played in a balanced setting. However, after a weekend of playing, both exciting victories and bitter loses, there is one thing that needs to be brought to light. The Assassin, the only playable female character, is incredibly underpowered. While she definitely has the most appealing art style of the characters, has an interesting and "mysterious" personality type, she has the weakest attacks of all combatants.

1.) Her two weapons, the knife (primary) and shurikens (secondary) deal relatively no damage. Her primary method of attack is used in combination with her cloaking ability, allowing her to back-stab opponents. Unfortunately, her back-stab sequence is interruptible, so getting one on an opponent isn't even a guaranteed kill. Beside that, certain classes are immune to these instant-death back-stabs, such as the Tank. Due to his high amount of health, a fully maxed Tank appears to be able to survive an "instant-death" back-stab from an Assassin.

Her means of assassinating people actually has a cool-time. There is at least a 10 second cool-time implemented between back-stabs. For a class who is built primarily off of this sneaky principle of elimination, why have something to limit her usefulness like this? Can you imagine such a cool-down for the Spy in Team Fortress 2? Sure you can go invisible, cloak and disguise as other team mates and opponents, but besides sheer trickery, such a cool-down in your primary attack causes a bit of a problem.

There was a few perfect opportunities I came across as an Assassin during my weekend of MNC. Finally, the cloak worked long enough and I was able to dash behind someone for the back-stab. A full 5 seconds I waited, while cloaked, running behind another near-by opponent and I was unable to perform a back-stab, or really any useful attack, that would've helped my team. Instead, I bonked into that character like a lost bumblebee, gave away my position, and was grappled to death by the Assault character I was pursuing.

2.) She is a fast character- one of the fastest in the game. However, there are classes that match her speed, dealing this one defining aspect null. In a one-on-one match with the Support (especially) or the Assault class, Assassin is almost always outmatched in this category.

3.) Her cloaking device, at this stage in the game, is incredibly clunky. Often, the game glitches where you can see a cloaked Assassin running by. Sometimes, I'll admit, people (and myself) push the cloaking ability a bit far, perhaps we start moving too soon so we are still mid-cloaking and not yet invisible, and other small clues to give ourselves away. But there are undeniable situations where people should just NOT be able to see you coming.

4.) Some of her special abilities are kind of... well.. not really worth it. I mentioned speed before, one of her abilities is Dash. Thus, she is given the ability to be faster in the game than the other classes, however due to her weak stature, she should be set as the fastest character in the game originally.

The Smoke Bomb "blinds" enemies and offers a jump boost for fast and easy get away. Unfortunately, you can still see the names of your opponents despite being "blind", so while you cannot see characters, you still have a good idea of where your opponents are. I haven't used the jump aspect of this bomb to fully appreciate it, but once it actually worked in my favour. The Smoke Bomb should have some other aliment attached to it, to make it more useful besides just to cover your ass after a failed back-stab attempt. Perhaps, slowing or stunning a character momentarily while they are blinded?

My only other problem with the characters is that Support is just slightly overpowered, and is due to be nerfed in some aspect. Either in his ability to heal everything, from people to turrets, or simply making him a little slower would do me fine. Honestly, I have no problem with what is his actually capable of, he just does it too quickly for his class.

I didn't really review the other characters in intense detail like this, mainly because the point of this blog is to evaluate female characters, gaming environments in online, multiplayer settings and the likes. The Assassin is a playable female character in this game. While, she is a weak and I believe to be currently underpowered, I don't credit this to the fact that she is a woman character, but due to the fact that the assassin class is generally weak and has a certain persona to fill. Honestly, I believe that choosing a woman to fill the gender of this class was incredibly clever, for the fact that assassins are generally the "coolest" character to play, generally involves skill and strategy and, I think, helps to prove that its not the gender that people really care about but more so the class or ability that the class has.

One interesting note while on this line of logic: I'd like to see a female Gunner or Tank. I'd like to see anything from some big girls to ironically tiny women having to deal with a huge machine or assault gun. While putting the Assassin in MNC as a woman is a good step, it would be interesting to see a character like that, or have the option to play as one or the other. This wouldn't change gameplay, just give more option to how people play, and is an anonymous way to play as your preferred gender, without Blizzard's way of forcing you to disclose your name.