Beebom Score
Arknights Endfield is the sequel to the mobile gaming masterpiece from Hypergryph and takes place in the same universe, with a different cast of characters. The game is fairly unique compared to other gacha games and introduces some quite interesting mechanics that will either make you love it or hate it, with no in-betweens. I have already spent over 40 hours navigating the various nooks of Talos II, slowly building my network of ziplines and making the most efficient AIC Factory layouts. So, am I liking the game thus far? Let’s find out in this Arknights Endfield review.
Freedom to Build, But Limited By Complexities
The most unique aspect of Arknights Endfield is the mechanic of building openly in the world. From minute placements to creating supply lines, building your AIC factory is the main gameplay loop of Arknights Endfield. Players get to experience this mechanic from the very beginning, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Even though I had hoped for it to be my escape plan from typical gacha burnout, the illusion shattered pretty quickly. Don’t get me wrong, even though I love the concept of being able to build anything anywhere, the entire process seemed overly complicated. It took me a couple of hours to figure out the very basics.
Within an hour of jumping into the game, it forces you through a tutorial on building and processing materials to give you an idea of its AIC mechanic. This is definitely necessary to understand the system, but the long and arduous process is a major turn-off when you are playing a new game. Normally, you would want to explore the world and partake in combat from the very beginning, slowly getting into the building mechanic by mid to end game. But the game does the opposite.
Even though I have been enjoying hyper-analyzing my AIC Factory, it is not something that everyone will take in good spirit. The process can seem highly complex, and the learning curve is long and arduous. It took me more than a couple of hours to even understand the basics after unlocking the system.
The actual tutorial for the AIC Factory can go on for hours, and that can be very mind-numbing for casual players. I have already spent a large chunk of my time optimizing my factory to make it quite efficient. Most gacha gamers look for combat and exploration over building mechanics, so this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
Now, there are ways to decrease the complexity in Arknights Endfield. Players can use Arknights Endfield blueprints to share their AIC factory layout with others. This saves a ton of time for those who dislike building but also want their AIC factory to work efficiently.
But it’s not all bad, as the AIC Factory feature allows you to build anything you want, anywhere on the map. This sense of freedom and customization is fairly new for any gacha player. One of the biggest benefits of this is being able to create your own fast travel routes using ziplines, which makes up for the lack of other exploration mechanics like gliding or climbing.
Being able to morph the world into the way you want is definitely an interesting mechanic for any game. The possibilities of this mechanic are endless, and with more tools and buildings being released, we can actually have something special to look forward to going forward.
The Strongest Launch for a Gacha Game Yet
Arknights Endfield is arguably the best 1.0 version experience I have had out of every gacha game I’ve played thus far. From the moment I entered Talos II for the first time, I couldn’t believe how spectacular the world looked. It wasn’t just easy on the eyes like Genshin Impact or ominous like Wuthering Waves; it blended the best of both worlds. The game also ran incredibly smoothly at launch, something Wuthering Waves completely failed to do.
But it’s not just Talos II’s beauty or the game’s performance that drew my attention. What truly made me engrossed in the game was the high-quality character models, including NPCs, and their voice-overs. Every Arknights Endfield character has exquisite English voice acting, which is on point and doesn’t miss a beat. The storytelling is heightened and hooks you from the get-go. The writing, too, has very little filler content that often tends to get quite boring in other gacha games.
The NPCs also take an active part in cutscenes and have proper voiceovers. They have varying expressions for different emotions. After being stuck with games that only rotate between 3-4 expressions and animations for NPCs, this was a change we highly needed in the genre.
However, one thing that did tire me constantly was the hero syndrome that every gacha game seems to suffer from. This is more evident in Arknights Endfield, as you are already seen as the saviour of the world, and others treat you like their king or leader from the get-go. I have always found this annoying, but Endfield takes it to another level.
Compared to games like Genshin Impact or Wuthering Waves, where you and the people around you slowly get to figure out your importance, Arknights Endfield simply establishes you as the Endministrator at the very start. This makes every NPC glaze you from the get-go. I would have much preferred a harsher or more divided look at the Endministrator’s standing from the NPCs, as Talos II is not at its best in its place when you drop into it.
So, I assume many should have qualms about the Endministrator’s leadership. I would have loved some critisims to our failures, eventually changing the perspective as the story continued.
A Unique Take on Combat that Suffers from Button-Mashing
Arknights Endfield has a very unique combat system. Every party allows four characters, and all four of them join the fight at the same time. While the players can only control one character in the party at a time, the other characters don’t sit on the sidelines. Instead, they also participate in the and are controlled by AI.
This creates a unique experience where you get to fight enemies alongside your companions and combo your skills with their attacks. Although the combat does feel good, the overall experience can be reduced to a button-mashing simulator. To combo your skills, you will have to constantly press buttons when they appear on the screen. Yes, there are strategies to properly trigger your and your allies’ passives during a fight, but it eventually boils down to how fast you can button mash.
I personally didn’t mind it that much, but I am sure anyone who comes from Genshin Impact or Wuthering Waves would find the combat in Arknights Endfield stale in comparison.
Verdict: A Game That Dreams Big But Falls Short of a Gacha Revolution
Whether you like or dislike the AIC Factory mechanic, it is evident that Arknights Endfield is here to stay as one of the best gacha games. However, it is still far away from competing with the big four in the genre. The initial story and voice acting are genuinely beautiful so far, and I see a ton of potential in it going forward. But the stale combat system that gets boring after a while due to the same button-mashing routine, and a complexity in many of the game’s base mechanics, prevents it from standing out as the new best in the gacha crowd.
The game offers something incredibly unique in the gacha space and does it while clothed in spectacular graphics, character models, and voice-over. But being unique is not enough to compete with the likes of Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves, whose success is rooted in core combat gameplay mechanics and constant improvement over a long time.
Overall, I continue to enjoy my time in Talos-II, even though most of it is used in creating my AIC Factory into a material-generating monster. I am looking forward to Arknights Endfield’s future updates and hoping that they decrease the complexity of the AIC system a bit to make it more accessible for all gamers.
What’s your take so far? Do you agree with our Arknights Endfield review? Let us know in the comments below.
Aryan Singh
