There's no polite way to say it, so why bother? The medic guns are brilliant from a design perspective (modular platform, caseless ammo, etc.) and I have to give credit where credit is due. Good on ya TWI. But the aesthetics are just all-around awful. These aren't firearms, these are laser-tag toys, squirt guns, and it comes down to two horrible decisions.
First, the glowing LEDs are all kinds of awful. The golden rule of mechanical design is simplify, simplify, and that goes double for firearms where it absolutely, positively, most assuredly must go bang when you pull the trigger. Sticking an electronic glowstick in the thing does not help in anyway whatsoever, and furthermore actively hurts the weapons by increasing the complexity for no tangible benefit. If anything, it hurts! The LEDs act as a glowing beacon, drawing attention to the operator as if to paint a bullseye on them. If that isn't the pinnacle of stupidity I honestly don't know what is. And look at the scalpel! They stuck the LEDs inside of the blade, so not only does it look bad, but it seriously affects the integrity of the blade! Betting your life on a half-tang blade is already something to be avoided at all costs, imagine being stuck with a hollow-tang blade! All of that for something that looks bad.
2nd, the texturing, specifically the color palette. As for the textures, I can't argue function, since the only hindrance is the brighter colors make it more visible, so all I can really say is how artificial it looks. There's space-age polymers and next-generation alloys, then there's Fischer Price toys, and the medic weapons look like Fischer Price toys. Nothing (save perhaps the rubber of the grip) looks in anyway really solid, or tangible. It's all just cheap plastic, which doesn't just look ridiculous, but flat out bad. And let's not mince words here, it looks horrendous. It's completely inconsistent with the rest of the art design, especially in consideration of the prior game & mod; but even were it to exist in a vacuum it would just be plain unappealing. It's busy, crowded, and feels more like one of the pigeon-**** coated rifles in CS:GO than something I would actually bet my life on.
So why does it matter? Nothing I've argued in anyway affects the gameplay itself, so why bother changing it? To that, I would respond that gameplay can make a game good, but not great. Good atmosphere makes a good game great, and can even save an otherwise bad game. And the atmosphere tends to manifest itself in its ability to immerse the player in the secondary world. For a series like Killing Floor, where the setting is the story, we see this in the trifecta of maps, guns, and targets. Since guns are the primary method of interaction with the environment they're one of if not the greatest hingepoint of immersion. When one fails (or in this case, an entire category fails) the whole suspension of disbelief is broken, or more likely never occurs. These are guns we'll be using for a long time, for hundreds, even thousands of hours. The majority of KF players have played it for an order of magnitude more than the average FPS. I can't overstate the importance of good weapon design, in gameplay and aesthetic so I hope we'll see a redesign of them soon.
First, the glowing LEDs are all kinds of awful. The golden rule of mechanical design is simplify, simplify, and that goes double for firearms where it absolutely, positively, most assuredly must go bang when you pull the trigger. Sticking an electronic glowstick in the thing does not help in anyway whatsoever, and furthermore actively hurts the weapons by increasing the complexity for no tangible benefit. If anything, it hurts! The LEDs act as a glowing beacon, drawing attention to the operator as if to paint a bullseye on them. If that isn't the pinnacle of stupidity I honestly don't know what is. And look at the scalpel! They stuck the LEDs inside of the blade, so not only does it look bad, but it seriously affects the integrity of the blade! Betting your life on a half-tang blade is already something to be avoided at all costs, imagine being stuck with a hollow-tang blade! All of that for something that looks bad.
2nd, the texturing, specifically the color palette. As for the textures, I can't argue function, since the only hindrance is the brighter colors make it more visible, so all I can really say is how artificial it looks. There's space-age polymers and next-generation alloys, then there's Fischer Price toys, and the medic weapons look like Fischer Price toys. Nothing (save perhaps the rubber of the grip) looks in anyway really solid, or tangible. It's all just cheap plastic, which doesn't just look ridiculous, but flat out bad. And let's not mince words here, it looks horrendous. It's completely inconsistent with the rest of the art design, especially in consideration of the prior game & mod; but even were it to exist in a vacuum it would just be plain unappealing. It's busy, crowded, and feels more like one of the pigeon-**** coated rifles in CS:GO than something I would actually bet my life on.
So why does it matter? Nothing I've argued in anyway affects the gameplay itself, so why bother changing it? To that, I would respond that gameplay can make a game good, but not great. Good atmosphere makes a good game great, and can even save an otherwise bad game. And the atmosphere tends to manifest itself in its ability to immerse the player in the secondary world. For a series like Killing Floor, where the setting is the story, we see this in the trifecta of maps, guns, and targets. Since guns are the primary method of interaction with the environment they're one of if not the greatest hingepoint of immersion. When one fails (or in this case, an entire category fails) the whole suspension of disbelief is broken, or more likely never occurs. These are guns we'll be using for a long time, for hundreds, even thousands of hours. The majority of KF players have played it for an order of magnitude more than the average FPS. I can't overstate the importance of good weapon design, in gameplay and aesthetic so I hope we'll see a redesign of them soon.
Medic Guns Are ****e
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