The Entrati Labs Are A Better Zariman
The more I think about it, the more I can’t help but shake this feeling. The Zariman is an alright place to be, but the Entrati Labs are so much cooler. It’s as if they took what made the Zariman interesting and upped it repeatedly. While the Zariman does look cool, it is mostly just ruined and destroyed. On the flip side, the Entrati Labs are basically two locations in one, a weird Orokin Frankenstein laboratory where massive body parts are being made, combined with the creepy, open air areas of Indifference. On top of that, the Entrati Labs are more destructible. While the Zariman is in ruins, most of it is rather static. On the flip side, you can run around destroying things in the Entrati Labs. The secrets are also a bit easier to get to as well.
The biggest change is that you get actual standing from doing missions, and there are less random things to collect. Ranking up on the Zariman can ONLY be done by trading in Voidplumes with the Archimedean. However, with the Cavia, just doing bounties will also earn you standing. You still need various mcguffins in order to level up with both factions, but the Entrati Labs require far less. There are only three mcguffins to collect for the labs, compared to five for the Zariman, but they’re also easier to find among the rubble, since they make loud shrieking noises.
On top of that, Entrati bounties are generally easier, even if they reward less standing. Things like “shoot 15 weak points” or “kill 50 Murmur” are way easier than “do this mission without abilities” or “find a stupid tiny medallion and feed it to a machine”. They’re things you should be doing anyway. I honestly do like the “destroy 60 pieces of furniture” task though simply because that one is fun. I also think the choice in missions is better. Both the Zariman and the Entrati Labs have an Exterminate mission, but Survival and Mirror Defense are more interesting than Mobile Defense, even if the Zariman’s Mobile Defense one is probably the best, because it feels the shortest.
Everyone is more likeable as well. Maybe it’s because 3/4 of the Cavia are animals, but they all just seem nicer and more friendly, but even more distinct. The Holdfasts are kinda interesting, but they are also just generic humans, people who happened to be on the Zariman when everything went to shit. I think it helps more that the Whispers in the Walls quest does more to explore the Cavia than the Zariman quest, which only really introduces you to the new mission types and focuses on a character who turns into a Void Angel and dies, rather than the mystery of Albrecht Entrati. But the Cavia also have better quirks. It’s not just that they’re animals, but they have more interesting personalities too.
I suppose it also helps that the Entrati Labs have better enemies. The Zariman is just filled with Corpus and Grineer. There are a couple of new enemies, but they kinda get covered up by the existing Grineer units. On the other hand, the Entrati Labs are filled with both rogue Necramechs AND the awesome new Murmur.
What really makes it though is that I don’t feel like the Cavia are literally leeching off me. As you rise through the Holdfast levels, they become less Void Angel-y, but they are only able to do so because they are leeching off the Tenno’s latent energies. The Cavia on the other hand are just accepting help the old fashioned way.
Either way, it does seem that DE saw the problems with the Zariman and rectified them. Which is nice.