mbcu

Got this game in a discount sale, and couldn't have felt more guiltier. This game pulls out many western triple-A games couldn't: fun gameplay, great plot, voice acting and music. You can tell the developers were really having fun making this game. The only thing that I find unsatisfying is the UI. There are times when I want to quickly repeat a combat but find myself clicking some texts that don't go away as quickly as I like. Overall the UI feels too to console-ish for a PC game. Also there's an unresolved bug with the save which although is not game breaking can get pretty annoying.

I'm a negative guy so I'll start with the cons first. Background is still bland at some spots. Some bosses can use visual cues. I can't tell if a moving appendage is part of scenery or an attack. There are also some translation errors. In short the polishing needs more polishing. Now the pros. The core is solid. The RPG elements are meticulously done and offer a wide range of play style, all exciting. Want to slash, grab a sword. Want to shoot grab a gun. Each weapon has its own traits and special attack. Character models are well drawn and animated. Watching a monster disintegrate always gives me a satisfaction of a job well done. The control is responsive and there's no problem executing what you want when you want it. Also if you're wondering whether to pick this or Hollow Knight, pick this. HK is a frustrating game with Dark Souls like element that punishes you with each death. Here everything is simpler. If you die, you reload. You don't need to do a thing to recover your stuff. You also have wide array of weapons, potions, spells, familiars, wheres in HK you fight with a single weapon. In short in HK you keep playing to not lose your progress, here you play to have fun.

First of all ignore all those big scores from "critics". If you think that a publication naming itself "Eurogamer" would be biased toward European games then you're right. This game is first and foremost is incoherent. Is it an action game ? No, combat ****. Is it a trading game ? No, trading is so pointless there's even a loading message advising you against it. So given a ship and crew when you start the game, what should you do ? I can't tell because I don't know. All you can do is set sail, reach an island which hopefully gives you a little resource to allow you to repeat the process next time. In this game money is so scarce you'd even have to sell the introduction manual. A few ways there are to make money are available only in online forums. Even so these all require unreasonable amount of time for grinding and save skumming. It really doesn't help either that the ship moves very very very slowly. You will spend most of the time watching your little ship struggling painfully to get to the edge of monitor. Playing this game is like coming to a party when everyone is about to leave. Try as you want, you just can't get into the crowd. This game is derived from Internet game called Fallen London with rules and lore no one but fans know. Indeed it has interesting premise, about exploration and Cthulhu-like atmosphere. But with poor presentation and incoherent gameplay, I am not going to spend another hour finding out. Neither should you.

A great game by backers flawed by backers First of all as veteran player of Baldur's Gate and Planespace Torment, I welcome the new class and combat system. If you haven't played them then suffice to say that I share the developers' opinion that D&D rules are too rigid. Want to open chests ? Go back to town and get that thief. Why can't my fighter lockpick a chest ? Likewise mages can only cast spell, monks can only fight unarmed. In PoE class system still exists but not to limit but to provide a template. You are free to develop your own class which capitalizes on any attribute. So yes, intelligent barbarians exist and they wreak havoc. They can lockpick chests too. As for combat if rush and click is what you are used to then you will be wasted in no time. When I started, I suffered many deaths because that's what I did. But I find afterwards that a fight that killed me many times could be won easily by employing my companions and observing my enemies. Take my wizard for example. He used to be standing behind my tank shooting puny pathetic bolts. But I learned that if I bothered to prepare him with the right spells before a fight, I could get him to paralyze the big bad monster leaving a short work for my fighter. This game is pretty challenging and there's little room for error. Fights are sometimes win big or die so preparation is the key. I like the graphics although I feel the engine is not running at full speed. The good news is this game is light in term of computing power. Voice acting however is a mixed bag. I think they all speak monotonously. There is no more Jon Irenicus for sure, only subpar actors. Writing is uneven. Although the idea is nothing new, it is wrapped in mysteries and shrouds that keep me going for more. My companions however are generic. These guys hardly feel like the work of the creative team that did Baldur's Gate or Torment. In term of their characterization, I think this game is more comparable to Icewind Dale. Also I dislike the use of expletives in this game. For me using curse words like **** or fck to paint emotion particularly in a Tolkienesque fantasy setting is lazy writing. I believe I have never heard such words in previous Black Isle games. Still this is probably a biased opinion. What really annoys me is the "backers' shrines": plaques, monuments showing the names of Kickstarter VIP backers and their weird quotes. It really ruins the atmosphere to find a plaque saying "greetings from Hong Kong" while crawling in a dungeon. Of course you can just ignore them.