#sw hunters Slingshot

[aweirddreadfulterror]

here, have a poll choosing what dumb thing I will draw the Hunters doing :3

[yukipri]

So I've been trying out the new Star Wars Hunters game that came out on Mobile & Switch recently!

I haven't played many brawling type games like this so I wasn't expecting much, but I've actually been really enjoying it so far! I've probably put too many hours into playing (especially since I was super sick around launch and didn't have much else I could do), and I hit max level 50 and Kyber in ranked a while ago... (yeah, playing too much, I know...)

Thought I'd share my initial thoughts though, since I've put in the time!

Note: Some folks have apparently been playing the beta version for a while, but I've only started playing since the public release.

Stuff I like about it so far:

-The really creative and fun SW universe characters is the best part. A blind Miraluka sniper? (Diago) An Ugnaught driving a Droideka? (Slingshot) Literally two Jawas in a trench coat??? (Utooni) They're fun and have great personality, you can read their blurbs here. I like how they're all voiced and also all have their own theme songs (which are honestly heckin catchy)!

-Controls are very intuitive. Again, I am not much of a gamer and have very little experience with these kinds of games, but I picked it up quick. I play on my iPhone and it's great.

-The graphics are GORGEOUS. It looks beautiful, everything moves stunningly smoothly. Honestly it's hard to believe this is a ftp game.

-So far it's very much ftp friendly! Most of the money locked stuff are just cosmetics, and even then there are tons of free ones. One of the characters, Aran Tal, is currently behind a not-too-expensive paywall, but he'll apparently be available for free soon as well.

-The skins for the characters are fun and creative! Imara Vex has one that looks like Durge, and Zaina has one that kinda gives me adult Omega vibes. The store has an active rotation of skins that you can buy with either irl money or in game currency, and apparently old event skins eventually end up in the circulation too. Here are just a couple of my favorites:

-I love the locations! Each one is very Star Wars vibes and has lots of cool lil in-universe elements, like pod racers going through Mos Espa (they can run you over). The time period is New Republic era, so everything is relatively plausible for that time period in universe.

-There's a bunch of different game types, so you don't get bored, and they each have different challenges, and different characters who shine in them. It's unfortunately a bit addicting.

-The events aren't too grindy or tedious (so far).

-I really appreciate the different modes you can play on! The main two modes are casual and ranked, so it's possible to play low stakes and just level up your characters in casual, or try to challenge yourself more in ranked. I appreciate how the limited time events that sometimes throw you into random characters you might not be experienced with are never ranked, so it's okay to suck. Character leveling is the same in both casual and ranked. And I appreciate the Training mode too, where you can try out all of the characters so you're never in a "wtf does this do" in a PVP environment. I get so anxious during PVP if I don't know what I'm doing.

Stuff I hope they improve on:

-Playing with people + party invites are kind of a pain. The invites disappear really quickly, so it's really hard to time it so you can actually play with your friends. It's also hard to know whether the party is going to be playing ranked or casual, and if ranked you can't see the ranks of the folks in your party before agreeing to join, which is a little nerve wracking.

-This is less a complaint, and more just general frustration, but ranking up is pretty tedious near the top, which is to be expected I suppose. Through Aurodium, it was generous because you earn so many more points when you win than when you lose, but in Kyber, you win/lose the same amount. You are judged by your team score, so losses bring down everyone's rank, and it feels like you have to take three steps back for every one. Kyber players are comparatively more competent, but I've been in some...unfortunate matchups before. (As of writing this, I'm in Kyber III, but I've been bouncing between Beskar II~Kyber II for the past two weeks...will I ever make it to Kyber I cries)

-I think they started with a decent batch of characters, and I know this game just came out of beta and the team said they'll be expanding on them! So this isn't really a complaint either. But in the future, I hope they add more female characters (currently only 4 female characters out of 13 total, which feels a little skewed), as well as more support characters, who always feel lacking.

I'd love a few more "popular" iconic Star Wars species to have characters in support. Maybe a Togruta apothecary? A Nautolan water medic? A Pantoran doctor? And personally, I'd love a super buff Twi'lek lady as a tank! Either way, lots of possibilities to look forward to, especially given how much I love the characters so far!

So far, I've been playing on my iPhone and it works pretty smoothly, though I've heard of some Switch users having trouble with lagging/connecting. I think I've only been booted out once, and even when I'm forced to pop out of the app for a moment (last night, I got an Amber alert that paused my screen), I was able to continue playing with barely any pause, which is honesty impressive. I've heard controls are easier on Switch, but I think I've been doing okay on mobile.

Have you tried this game out??

Here's the launch trailer if you're interested, it's Pretty:

And a self plug!

Feel free to add me, I'm Akaz!

I main Skora (Rodian support) and prefer to play her in ranked, but also have Aran Tal (Mando, he's my baby boi), Sentinel (Stormtrooper tank), and Diago (Miraluka sniper) also at max level. Working on leveling up the others in casual mode!

I'm very happy to play casual mode with anyone! (and I play casual mode a lot to level up my less-used characters, and recommend spending some time there for new folks before diving into ranked)

I'm also happy to play ranked!

(but be warned, you'll kinda want to know what you're doing, or they will slaughter you in Kyber)

I might type up a follow up review giving my thoughts on each individual character and maybe some general tips idk

[theravennest]

Final Predictions before the End

To start, I think SHIELD as an organization (like the TV show) is done after this. The team will likely come back after the Snap and/or after the Blip and have to move forward in that timeline without any chances to go back. SWORD is for sure taking over as the new SHIELD and will feature heavily in the Marvel Disney+ shows so no need to try to keep reviving SHIELD anymore.

Now for the character futures, we’ll begin with the ones I 100% believe will not die:

Daisy

Daisy will be fine. I don’t really have any fear of her dying. I have the idea that Daisy will run a type of community like Afterlife but not necessarily at Afterlife (tho that could happen). Daisy has been dedicated to finding a safe place for Inhumans since S3 so it would be 100% fitting for her to pursue that route. She could also start up her vigilante work again or be a more upfront superhero but that seems a bit unlikely. She’s always preferred the shadows. She could start up the Secret Warriors again as well. She has a lot of choices for her future.

There’s also the rumors about SWORD but those feel like wishful thinking rather than anything concrete and if it did happen I can see Marvel wanting to have fresh new characters instead of holdovers from a 7 season show. However, if it is true about a SWORD show, Daisy is kinda the only one I could legit see moving to it with any hope of success. 

Sousa

Wherever Daisy goes, Sousa will follow. We all know this. But if SWORD does happen and Daisy is pulled into that, it’s 50/50 whether the powers that be keep him as her love interest or drop him. Either way, he’s never going back to his own time so I can see him ending the season trying to discover the future and find his place in it. 

He has an equally strong drive as Daisy to do good. So if she becomes a vigilante, I can see him helping with that. I can see him helping her with an inhuman sanctuary as well or potentially joining a different agency. 

That last is a bit far fetched as he literally has no credible background that would pass a screening. Then again, in a post-Snap/Blip world, maybe things would be easier. He could potentially just...tell the truth or most of it. The world at large knows about time travel stuff after the Avengers brought people back 5 years into the future. And with Steve’s story being such public knowledge, the world could very easily buy a version of his story of being the actual Daniel Sousa time traveled to the future.

Fitz/Simmons 

They will be fine. The blood test is about a pregnancy, nothing bad. The only thing that doesn’t...quite jive for me is Simmons’ reaction in the time loops. It seemed more tragic than “I left my kid with my husband in a relatively safe place while I finished a mission” but I can see them playing it up for a red herring. Maybe it’s cuz I don’t have kids so I don’t emotionally connect the dots there.

May 

She will be fine as well. She’s not dying. They already went to that well in S6 and came back from it. I can see May retiring after this tho. They’ve been planting the seeds since S5 that May was slowing down as an agent and in S6 they transitioned her a lot into training the next generation of agents such as Elena and Davis, etc. I can see her continuing that as well. Or assisting Daisy with whatever Inhuman sanctuary she could potentially build. S7 has been leaning into May mentoring other gifted people using her newfound empathy so the set up is there.

Depending on if Coulson deactivates or not, he may retire with her and they may try to start a new relationship. Even tho it’d be kinda weird like dating your husband’s clone. D:

Elena

Elena will be fine. There is no reason at all to kill her character off especially so soon after her power upgrade. Her future however is pretty intrinsically tied to a couple of outcomes: Mack’s fate, SHIELD’s fate, and maybe Daisy’s fate. If Mack lives, I can see them moving forward with getting married and having kids. She has expressed her desire for that in S5. I can also see Mack retiring after this and leaving spy work but Elena still has a lot of drive to fight so I actually can’t see her retiring any time soon. Maybe Mack can be her house husband while Elena takes up vigilante work under the pseudonym “Slingshot.” Elena could also move to another spy agency or work as a private contractor. Vigilante is my best guess for her, tho.

I can potentially see Elena joining the Secret Warriors if Daisy starts them up again but this option seems less likely to me. I think Elena has moved beyond where she was in S3 and honestly I think there’s still some mixed feelings between the two about the last time the SW were formed and the events of S5.

If Mack dies, she for sure is going to be a vigilante.

---

Now for the characters that are a toss up for me.

LMD Coulson

I’m about 60% sure he’s gonna deactivate. They’ve laid the groundwork. Even before he was a robot, he was tired. Him dying for a final time would be fitting. Maybe it’s time for him to just rest.

On the other hand, they’ve gone to that well before in S5 so I can see them pulling back from doing that again. Additionally, even though LMD Coulson was made from Coulson’s memories, he’s not actually Coulson. They could have him reconcile with that fact and the fact that he’s ageless now to have him find a new lease on life. Maybe have him wait until May dies to finally deactivate so that he can give her the life his human self couldn’t give.

If he does decide to live on, he is for sure retiring and staying with May. I think he’s pretty done with the spy life either way.

Mack

Man...I have a feeling they are gonna kill Mack. It would be a totally unnecessary death but the fear is there. I prefer to have him finally quit for good and go back to being a civilian mechanic. Maybe move back in with his brother while Elena does her thing as a vigilante.

If they do kill him, I will not only be inconsolable, I’ll be spitting mad. That would mark 4/5 major Black characters killed in this show. Just let this man retire, for gods sake.

They set up a whole story line where he and Elena basically gave birth to Flint and adopted him. I’mma need them to follow through on that.

Deke

I’m about 80% sure he’s going to die. A small part of me can see him surviving but I just can’t help but think of the weirdness of him watching his mom grow up and potentially see himself when he’s born.

My guess is if the Fitz/Simmons’ kid turns out to be his actual mom, he dies. If she’s biologically his aunt after all the time travel changes, he lives.

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General Predictions/Hopes

Fingers crossed that we somehow see Hunter and Bobbie one more time.

We’ll prolly get a Ward cameo but I don’t care one way or the other if we do.

We won’t see Trip again but we might get a shout out.

We’ll get a Mike Peterson shout out. I hope we get another cameo since he was so pivotal in the first season. Maybe after the timeline is reset we discover that all the horrible stuff that happened to him in S1 didn’t and he’s safe with his son, Ace.

I need, absolutely need, a Robbie appearance. Like, please god give me this.

Last shot of the episode will be Daisy flying off in Lola with Sousa in the seat next to her.

That’s all I can think of for now. I will see y’all on the flip side.