Posted on: December 2, 2021

two-bit-parity

Games: 51 Reviews: 2

An uncut diamond

I bought the game going in blind. The deciding factor for me buying it was that Obsidian has made games I liked in the past. And boy! This game was just up my alley. TL;DR: A heavily Firefly inspired world, characters and writing, with a Borderlands style, linear, story progression, and a Fallout New Vegas style quest and dialogue design. FPS/Inventory elements are decent, but nothing special. It is an open-world game with a linear story progression. The inspiration from the TV series Firefly is very evident throughout and was a welcome surprise for me. Obsidians quality writing and world crafting is excellent as always, and bears a somewhat similar feel as Fallout New Vegas. Though That is where the similarities with FNV ends. The scope of the world is far smaller, though that means that the characters are written more carefully. Maybe it was the Firefly vibe that did it for me though. That is actually one of my favorite aspects of the game. People feel like they react in a way that real people would do. I can't think of any moment where I felt the characters acted unnatural, or forced, in any way, given the world they live in. This kept my immersion very high throughout the game. The FPS elements are decent. Nothing special. To put it simple: The FPS and armor/weapon system does nothing wrong as such, has a few novel aspects, but it is not the strong point of the game by any stretch. I do agree with most of the other reviews that the second half was quite a bit weaker than the first half. A shame, since after the first half I just wanted MORE. But I had exhausted all my companion quests and most of the side quests, and I felt sad that I lost a little of the "I'm a real space captain with my crew" feeling. I am overall very happy with my purchase. I am considering a new playthough with DLC to see if the lackluster feeling of the latter half of the game is because of pre-planned DLC. But without DLC it has to be a 4/5. A personal 5/5 favorite though.

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Posted on: January 3, 2023

zoliking

Verified owner

Games: 56 Reviews: 9

Very disappointing

This game felt like somebody had a good concept, gathered 20% of money and manpower necessary and then used that to execute a fraction of the original idea in the most shallow way possible. Game mechanics (1/5): You have 3 moves in combat: move, shoot or heal. This is further exacerbated by how there are only two types of enemies: the one that shoots damage from afar and the one that runs up and hits you up close. The social system is, honestly, the strong point in terms of game mechanics, because a simple barebones system can work better for this than something gimmicky. The stealth gamestyle offers the most boring, waiting based game play you can imagine. No lockpicking or computer hacking minigame. Items are small icons with identical stat blocks save for the values. By the time I got to the Groundbreaker I was not looking at what I was collecting at all. The games does not reward exploration at all. The most you usually get out of it is a box with generic who gives a rat's ass level loot. Art (4/5): The game is pretty, sounds good and the voice acting is decent. Writing (3/5): There are a number of good ideas and effective deliveries in there, but overall it feels disjointed and unplanned. Content (2/5): What we have up to Byzantium is good. That's where I expected to get to the deep end so to speak. The first two areas felt like a good intro, Monarch was a good chapter 1 and then I moved on to Byzantium expecting a sprawling central city chock full of questlines, factions, secrets to discover etc. Instead that's when the game ends the open world concept and just forces you down the remaining few main questline missions. Companions: (2/5): They each have a mostly well written personality, a boring, short companion questline and an identical combat impact. They speak, but don't really impact the game in any other way. I just didn't feel particularly connected with any of them and didn't feel like they were much of a benefit to have around either.

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Posted on: November 1, 2020

svjson

Verified owner

Games: 84 Reviews: 8

Not impressed after the first few hours

I admit it's a bit early to leave a final verdict on this game, but after a few hours this is my impression: - Not really an RPG. More like a first person shooter with simplified RPG elements - No real depth. Nothing has occurred in the game so far that really makes me want to keep playing. - The story so far has just been shallow excuses to point me to the next checkpoint. - FPS combat is really detrimental to a game like this. Seems to be no tactic to it. Just trade bullets/blows. I usually don't go for first person perspective RPGS and the likes, as I much prefer tactical turn-based RPGs with focus on story. That's not what the game aims to be, so it wouldn't be fair to criticize for that. But being what it is, it doesn't seem to bring anything new to the table.

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Posted on: February 12, 2022

MissMisinformation

Verified owner

Games: 80 Reviews: 3

First-person? No Problem.

In other words, "holy @$%, a first-person perspective game I can play without literal nausea." This game had been on my list for a while, but I didn't pick it up until it was on sale because I fall into that category of people for whom first person games cause actual headaches and nausea. Understandably, I hesitated to drop $60 on it therefore. I didn't know about the settings toggle to turn the camera bounce off. Or the ability to increase your own peripheral vision. (Are these things standard in the sort of first-person games OW is frequently compared to in the comments? I haven't seen mention of them in frustrated Google searches before.) In any case, instead of having to close down after about 45 minutes due to feeling unwell, I can now enjoy the game for hours, just as I would my usual isometrics or third-person perspective titles. I only have about 20 hours in the game, having reached Monarch for the first time, and so far I'm enjoying it. A lot of NPCs seem written to stereotype, but I'm having fun with it nonetheless--there are so many punchable people in this game. I'm mostly running with a high-dialogue skill and high-stealth build, and playing (fumbling) sniper, and I appreciate the number of "talk your way out of it" options implemented in the dialogues. In terms of gripes, I do find the consumables overly granular in mechanics, for all they're a bit fun in a worldbuilding and environmental storytelling sort of way. Based on other reviews, I haven't yet gotten to the part where it "gets bad", but it gets a full 5 stars from me for having the sort of accessibility options that let me play it at all. If I'd known about that beforehand, I would have paid full price.

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Posted on: November 25, 2023

climenttp

Verified owner

Games: 136 Reviews: 6

Not bad, could have been better

I've put around 70 hours into the game and I can say that I covered most of the content (quests, zones etc.) Let me give you the good and the bad and then a bottom line: Good: - Mechanics work - No bugs or technical issues - Sufficient amount of quests and activities to cover the zones - Interesting story that steadily evolves - The two DLCs - Murder on Eridanos and Peril on Gorgon are very, very good DLCs and complete the game and the universe as a whole - Multiple ways to achieve the goals - stealth, diplomacy, fighting - Almost all skills are useful - Interesting world that isn't based on a duplication of Earth's biome and locations, Halcyon realy feels like an alien, strange place Bad: - Game is not very difficult, I've played on Hard and didn't find difficult encounters - Itemization could be better and more randomized, at certain point you find the same number and types of weapons. The DLCs add more weapons though. - The mockery of a corporate world failure that is the Board and the sheer incompetency of every corporation is intended for caricaturistic purposes, but it feels way too unrealistic and a bit over the top. It should've been done with moderation and introduce a bit more nuance - As other reviewers pointed out, the second half of the game feels kind of empty and rushed Overall - a good game, give it a try and get it on a discount, but make sure you get the DLCs otherwise you are missing on the better content, in my honest opinon. For the standalone game - I would say it is 3/5, but with the DLCs, simply because they are pretty well done and show the effort of the team to finish what they've started, I will put it at 4/5.

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