Posted on: December 8, 2022
foo_
Verified ownerGames: 466 Reviews: 12
still unfinished
The good: The story and quest writing is good. No "bring 10 rat tails to the merchant" quests; the quests tell not only stories, but they add to a whole, bringing the world to life, a bit at least. I really want to underline this: the quests are good. Not stunningly good, but unusually good. The bad: Movement is somewhat clunky, and that makes combat harder without adding anything in return. But what's really bad: the world is left in unfinished-design-mode. If there is an item that can be moved or frobbed at all, it is for you, the player. Even the debris is glued in place, no explosion can move the leaves; if there is a path, it is because it was explicitly put there. If the way is wide enough, the threshold just a thumb high, but the designers didn't plan you to go there: you can't. There is no exploring outside the prescribed path, no useless cruft in people's drawers; there's the same crowd in the streets in back streets at night which walks the good places in sunshine... this is all just a scene set for the character, not a "world". And that clashes with the writing, which does a good job to paint the picture of a complex social, political, even economical situation with many parties involved. Honestly, most shooters from the 1990s have a "world" equal or better to this - let alone anything that was published this millennium. Will they ever get around to fix this? I doubt it. The ugly: Animations with the start-of-movement-jerk, overmuch reuse of assets (especially the houses), and THOSE TEETH. Yikes. Everybody, from the highest noble to the street-gutter misers, has shiny perfect teeth which are unnaturally far to the front, almost sticking out. Remember the "Alien" movies, the two sets of teeth? When they start to talk, it's as if the teeth are about to snap forward any moment. Seems intentional, since it won't be hard to fix. Summary: a good read, but tedious gameplay.
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