Sartagis

Too repetitive. Very unbalanced at 3-star quests (Level 4-5), even with a level 6-7 party with upgraded gear. I have about 20 characters and parties can be 4-6 characters max, depending on guild upgrades. On the plus side, the game got a lot of small patches during the first 7-10 days of release. It may be that one of them made the balance a lot worse, temporarily.

I am not going to put much detail in this other than what I posted on Steam. Gameplay is similar, but worse, than DD1 as I see it. The bad so far: 1. I am warned if I try to run the game over 1080P with an RTX 6650 (8 MB). It says that my VRAM on low settings is yellow, red for higher setting. Even at 1080P, high settings are red. 2. The mini map is a pain as it has too much area on it and I don't know of a way to zoom in and out except in the map menu. This is an issue as some icons seem to have no reason to be there; looking at you ore icons. Also, there are exclamation marks that don't seem to have a reason to be there. 3. Looking at items in the inventory is a pain as all/most have some kind of icon next to them similar to the equipped icon. It makes it harder to do a quick scan of non-equipped items when trying to dump inventory. 4. I had a pawn lead me in circles trying to find ingredients for a quest and had to leave the area to find all the needed materials. The pawn would run a ways and do a 180 in many cases. 5. Pawns talk too much and are repetitive (Didn't these two pawns just have the same conversation 30 seconds ago). It is also annoying to have them bring attention to something and not know where they are at, or where the specific thing they are talking bout is. 6. Jumping is just so frustrating, especially when doing it from wall-to-wall or building-to-building. 7. Spawn locations of enemies seem to be too far apart. Enemies are clustered and then long gaps. 8. re-spawn locations are often very bad. I spawned on the side of a cliff and it took me a great many tries to get up the cliff. I just had a multi-hour run while using camps and lost all of it due to a bug that teleported me to a river and immediately saved it. Even though the camps should act the same as inn saves they do not. I am absolutely livid that this has possibly cost me up to 4 hours of play time, out of 14. There are no manual saves.

I got the EA Play Pro subscription for this and about 6 other games on the service. I started play on the 12th and have 54 hours in. The bad: - I get a lockup every 1-2 hours, typically. Since updating my drivers it is a lot closer to 75 minutes. I had 3 games freeze when I won and the game ended. I have had two freezes buying packs. A great many loading challenges and games. I would say that I am throwing away 5-8% of my game time every day due to these freezes. - The game is very scripted. I will give a couple particularly severe cases. --- 4th game of the 4 game solo option. I take the lead and the first half is good but close. The second half everything broke. I threw 6 interceptions in 7 passes. and fumbled the ball away inside the opposing 5-yard line. My reward went 1K coins / 1 gold pack (5K value) to 1K coins and 3 silver packs (1.5K total value). --- Today I played a snow game and score the opening touchdown. Playing a normal defense I see a pass go over the middle and both safeties are where the corner backs should be. 75-.yard touchdown and a tie game. I manage to take a 14 point lead with 1:56 to go. The computer only threw one pass during its drive's, between my 2nd and 3rd scores and it was incomplete. This time it throws an almost identical pass with the same result as the earlier touchdown. On the onside kick I set down the controller and the player it is kicked at runs away from the ball. Needless to say I was livid that the cheating is so blatant. One pass later and its a tie game. This time it was 56 yards against a prevent defense and no one was close to the receiver. I did win in overtime as I got the ball first, but this should never have been needed. - The animations and results of plays are often completely wrong. I needed 2 yards to hit 75 for a star in a challenge and I got one when it looked like I got at least 3. The next play I get the 200 offense total and the challenge is over. I had to replay it. - The ball and players in contact with other players sometimes are not really down. --- Example, I had a player get tackled and role over two defenders for an extra 3-4 yards which got a first down on a 3rd or 4th down play. --- Where it looks like the player went down is often 2-3 yards off from the actual result. - Just plain stupid stuff happens. I had the computer through a ball into the end zone and it gets knocked down by my defender. You then see about 5 people kicking the ball around and trying to pick it up like it was a fumble. Then one of my defenders kicks the ball a few feet into the air right to an opposing receiver which gets a touchdown. - Opposing players almost never drop a pass if playing at the two higher difficulties. I had a challenge I played dozens of times as my drop rate was 70-80% as the announces kept saying the receiver dropped the pass. - There is a two-pass for touchdown challenge that I threw an interception on the second pass my first 11 attempts. Some of the challenges are so scripted that getting a required sack or getting an interception when the pass is contested is all but guaranteed. The good: - If you play MUT there are tons of challenges. This is the main reason I got the game. I do play regular seasons though. - Lots of play options, although the one's you get presented sometimes are totally wrong for the situation. This causes you to have to find the right type of play by picking the formation or one of the other grouping options for plays. When time is critical it is very noticeable. I want at least one pass play that goes over the middle when inside the 5-yard line and not all outside one's as those are high risk for a pick 6. - The Yard can be really fun because it is on odd way to play the game that adds variety. Edit Dropped rating from a 3 to a 2 after the following happened in a challenge. Keep in mind this is not a high difficulty and my team probably has a 10-15 rating advantage just about all the way around. Also, this was over many attempts to win the challenge. 2 passes that were 10-20 yards that beat a 3 safety prevent, in the same game. Every safety was much closer to the line of scrimmage than when they started. Another pass where the receiver shed half my defense after the catch and got a touchdown. 12 incompletes inside the 5 yard line with almost none anywhere else. This happened in 3 games, 4 passes each, and would have given me 4 stars. 3 catches in the end zone not getting a touchdown. Twice, the receiver (TE) caught and then ran out from 1-2 yards in. The other time, a WR caught the ball a couple yards in and got popped out by the defense and then tackled. Giving up a first down on many 3rd, or 4th, downs with 16+ yards to go. WR not blocking during a play. I threw a screen pass and just needed one more block and the receiver 7-8 yards down field is walking back to the line of scrimmage and just lets the defender hit me.

I have played many versions of Madden NFL over the years. However, the version 4 years prior was the only one of the last decade other than 19. Game is very scripted. I have played 5-6 seasons and had one where I lost 8 games in the final defense of a drive. I have a running back that has got worse each season as he almost never breaks tackles. First and second year he had about the same number and the third year was half the number, per run. He was rated about 80 average the first year, upper 80s the second, and about 94 the third. MUT (Ultimate Team) The solo battles which is equivalent to FIFA's squad battles requires an online subscription, while FIFA does not. Also, you have to wait days to get a new set of games. The rewards are also quite poor compared to other game modes. The solo challenges can be fun but can also be very frustrating as they seem to be far more scripted. I just played 7 of the training challenges and NEVER stopped a team on 3rd down in 9 (Played last one 3 times) challenges, except once. In that game I had a 3-point lead and the computer threw into double coverage. The deep man kept running deeper while the pass was angled to the sideline so he was too far from the receiver. The Front defender just dropped to a walking speed allowing the receiver to catch the ball for a first down and this was on 4th and long. They get a touch down later so I had to get one to win. I march down field and score a TD with 12 seconds left. No return on the kickoff so they start at their 25. I run a 3 man line with deep zone defense and they pass. Single defender can't make the tackle and the deep defenders let him get 30 yards more before he is taken down for a 58 yard gain with 2 seconds to go. They kick a field goal to tie the game. I win the toss and get to where I can kick a 44-yard field goal. I have not missed under 50, even in high wind with my kicker. I kick the field goal and it hits the bottom bar and bounces out. I eventually intercept the ball and stop a team for the first time in about 20 drives. Note, my defense is rated about 86 with the teams I played being 76-81 overall. I drive down field and kick a 26 yard field goal I thought I was going to miss because it barely cleared the bar. Some noteworthy issues with the game. 1. Forward progress marking is terrible. I had a receiver catch a ball and get hit at the 1 and knocked back and a second defender drops him at the 4. He never moved forward after the first hit so it should have been at the 1. Next play, I run the ball and get hit at the 1 and they pile on pushing me back to the 11 where I finally hit the ground. Should have been marked at the 1 and it was marked at the 11. I have seen many dozens of bad marking like this and likely have not noticed most of those that happened to shave a yard or two off. 2.Scripting. The other team seems to be pre-determined to play very well or very poorly. It seems very weighted to the former. 3. Too many big plays. Plays of 15+ yards are the norm. 4. Too pass dependent. Running is often much harder than passing. In hundreds of tackles when running between the ends of the offensive line I have never broken one made behind the line, even when not using the acceleration burst. 5. MUT is too online focused. No solo option that I can see to fine tune your team like the leagues in FIFA.

This sums up how garbage this game is for me. Over the last 3 days, I play about two dozen games, 8 hours, to get enough to by a 15K gold pack and this is what I got - 6 players 2 rare 75, 2 common 75, a 79 GK common, and a duplicate 76 ST. Of the remaining there were 7 contracts (3 rare), CDM>CM, a manager card> MLS, and useless garbage. So, I played 8 hours and spent enough to buy an entire gold team that was better than all the players in the pack. Because of this I dropped my score from a 2 to a 1. I have played FIFA 14, 15, 16, 17, and now 19. I had about 45 hours in 14, 80-90 in each of 15,16,17, and 57 hours in 19. That is about 700 games total over 370 hours between all versions.. I never got 18 because the scripting was so severe that I never could beat a professional level game with a bronze team in FUT or Manager mode. In fact, in 14 and 15 I lost several games in the final few seconds of the match and had several tied as well. I absolutely hate that scripted final second goal. I just played my first game of the night on World class and was up 1-0. It said +2:00 and it was 92:30 when the ball reach mid field from my keeper's kick. 4 passes and a shot later it is 1-1 at 92:50 and the game ends. The next game I get scored on instantly and the computer scores regularly during the game with 4-5 goals just in the last 1/4 of the game.After taking a long break I go back and score my first goal to go down 2-1 at 88'. At 90' I lose the ball and the computer loops it over 4 defenders to a guy falling backwards that kicks a high looping shot that the goal keeper misses. seconds later my guy gets tackled on the kickoff and they shoot. I lose 4-1. Next game I lose 3-1 and never had a chance. The next game I had 0 shots on goal and at 92' at the dot in the opponents box I shoot and get stopped by a slide tackle. They yellow card the player and spot the ball outside the big box on the corner. Needless to say the game ended the moment I shot which had no chance of getting in. This is only the second game I ever had 0 shots in the first 90 minutes. You could see the computer players move at 2-3 times normal animation speed every time they went to tackle so I could not even pass before they took it away. Another example from earlier in the week. Both teams rated around 64-65 and the result is a 6-0 loss.Both teams had 13 shots and 6 on target. I was 0 of 6 and the other team was 6 of 6 scoring goals. It is absolute bs that my goalkeeper makes only 50-75% of his saves and I have gone over 30 shots on target in a row that got taken down by the keeper. It is very common at pro level to see 90% of accurate shots saved. Each of the last two days I have seen my keeper get hit in the chest with a softly hit ball. fall backwards and the ball bounce away from the goal and then into as the keeper falls well into the goal. The good Licenses, great diversity in players and teams, and nice looking stadiums. The bad Player ratings are often wildly inaccurate. I have a 59 and 60 player that can outplay all but one of the other bronze players that are strikers in the English league that are English. I just went through the Silver English league CM list and the ones around 68-71 tend to be the best when looking at total stats, stat distribution, and weak foot. Scripting Some games you just cannot win. I have had multiple games where I never had a chance to get a shot in within 25 yards. Other games the defense was so pathetic I could score 3 times in a minute or two. I had one game that my loaner 94 striker got completely outmatched by a team that was a 65-66 rating. I tied a game in World Class with a 56 rated team versus a silver one and my players had negatives to their stats due to the chemistry being so bad. 4 times in squad battles I gave up a goal to a team in Amateur mode, 3 times because I got called for a foul in my box for trying to kick the ball out. The really bad FUT gambling casino. I have bought numerous gold premium packs and have never gotten one without a least 1 rare squad fitness except the infamous one I listed at the start of my post. Gold squad fitness are worthless as I see it. Over all the packs I have opened they have constituted close to 50% of my rares. I did get a 90 card in one of the 12.5K players packs. Since then, an 86. Yet, I opened 3 gold premium and 2 jumbo gold premium packs and not gotten over a 78 rare or 79 common during the day I got my 2 weekly packs this week. This is particularly painful given how little you get in coins per match. Coin reward scaling - Unless you are really good and/or have a top tier team you are going to often get a lower coin reward for more difficult games. The multiplier far more with difficulty level of the match. I have walked away from many matches with less than 365 coins awarded since starting World Class play. Granted, I am using a bronze team but the reward would not be much over 600 in a stellar performance and a gold team

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

When I pre-ordered I thought the game only required an authentication through the Internet to play. Nope, it appears you must use their servers and the game is not available to play if the servers are unavailable or have issues. Such is the case currently. This is primarily a single player game and forcing people to rely on server resources this way is absurd. Positives Nice graphics compared to prior editions Many customizable buildings New multi-player elements Curved roads Negative Small cities Even the highest density roads seem to be far too limited for anything above medium density Ground water is required and does not renew in any meaningful way. (City dries up and dies) Fires all the dang time World trade market does not appear to function properly. I was selling metals and alloy constantly for hours and then it would hit in very brief spurts and then nothing at all. My city should have been renamed to Detroit. I was losing money and people were leaving by the busload when the market dried up to practically nothing selling. Some buildings take up far too much space for the effect they have Being forced to have Internet access to play Not being able to play the game offline even after authenticating