Arknights: Endfield is a diamond in the rough that could use a little more polish
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SHOULD I PLAY ARKNIGHTS: ENDFIELD?
Definitely try it, especially if you like Genshin Impact or Wuthering Waves. Arknights: Endfield offers an enchanting dive into an exciting, sci-fi world full of mystery and monsters. While a few important aspects like sound design, storytelling, and animation need improvement, what’s here in this test is a promising start that can hopefully be built up for the full release.
TIME PLAYED
I played Arknights: Endfield for four hours. I’ve completed the prologue and first chapter and I’m currently trying to get through the second act of chapter two. I’ve also acquired five characters and leveled four of them to level twenty and above.
WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT ARKNIGHTS: ENDFIELD?
• No prior knowledge needed. I didn’t need to play Arknights to understand anything in Endfield. That especially impressed me given how dense this game’s world is with strange terms and concepts. I was slowly but confidently introduced to everything important that played a role in understanding the mechanics, environment, and story.
• Building relays and crafting machines. Building unlocks new areas, makes crafting and progression easier, and generally opens the game up over time. Even though I’ve only scratched the surface, I can only imagine the endless possibilities I could achieve with all the game’s building schematics, research pools, and designs. One of the greatest selling points of Arknights: Endfield isn’t combat, narrative, or visuals, but the ability to create a sci-fi world in my vision.
• Diving into a sci-fi world. While Arknights: Endfield isn’t an open-world game, the areas are so vast that it was hard not to get lost in the adventure. I wanted to spend hours exploring every crevice, hiding spot, and field in this game, but I have a feeling that even if I did, I’d probably only discover half the secrets this gigantic world holds.
• Voice acting. The voice acting in Arknights: Endfield is impeccable. The voice actors have imbued each and every character and dialogue with so much personality that it makes meeting and venturing down with characters like Perlica, Chen Qianyu, and Wulfgard so memorable and enchanting.
• Character designs. Arknights: Endfield’s developers have done an incredible job of bringing the world to life through its beautiful visuals and character designs. I love how each character looks unique and cool on their own without seeming too overly dressed or tacky.
WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT IN ARKNIGHTS: ENDFIELD?
• Squishy combat noises. The attacks in Arknights: Endfield just don’t sound great, and that became a serious detriment to the combat feeling as good as it could. It sounded like my characters were hitting enemies with cheap toys instead of giant blades. Since the noise of impact was so underwhelming, it regularly pulled me out of the flow of combat.
• Animation. While the visuals and details may be on point, the animation for when characters moved or talked during cutscenes still needs a lot of improvement. Sometimes characters would move in a way that seemed unnatural or weird. And during dialogue, lip movements were not properly synced to what was being spoken.
• A weak plot. After experiencing great, engaging narratives in Genshin Impact, Wuthering Waves, and Honkai: Star Rail, the story in Arknights: Endfield didn’t manage to pull me in so far. The plot follows an incredibly powerful main character with amnesia who’s trying to remember their past life. It’s a tried-and-true setup that I’ve seen done a dozen times before, which means it needs to do a lot more work to stand out. While I found the wide cast of unique characters and their branching stories to be a little more appealing, the main thrust of the narrative here just felt like it was missing that spark of something special.
• Localization issues. While the voice acting made me like many of the characters, the writing got in the way more often than not. Common to many games localized to English, I ran into numerous occasions where the dialogue read awkwardly, as well as times when the game was trying way too hard to sound cool. It all fell a little flat, so hopefully it will get another strong localization pass before the full release.
PLATFORM TESTED
PC.
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