TheBitterness: I clicked the big box on the front page (not the green 'Free' box) because I wanted to see what the game was about. Picking up something for free just because it's free...well, that seems pretty damn stupid to me. But clicking the big box for more information saw GOG giving me the game (with 4 DLCs) instead of taking me to the game's page.
After looking at the page I saw that there is an issue of some sort preventing completion of the game and that it's not avoidable. The GOG forums seem to contend the same thing, adding that not only has this been an issue for a long time but there is a patch that, for whatever reason or reasons, was deliberately not given to GOG. Seeing that the issues stretch back into 2013 I'm confused and concerned.
What's the full story? Is the game able to be completed or is the game-breaking bug still present? Was GOG deliberately, for whatever reason or reasons, not given a patch?
TNGpt: Another user on GOG, Griz800, has done a great job surmising what's happening here on another post concerning this matter.
Quoting him:
Put simply, there is a bug in one of the campaign missions which prevents the game triggering part of a quest. This renders that quest impossible to complete, and thus that mission and thus the campaign. As far as I can tell it was broken in the 1.06 patch released late last year and is baked into the GoG version. There isn't a workaround for players who have the game via GoG because, while Kalypos did solve it, they only applied the 1.07 patch to Steam customers. GoG just get "we're going to do a 1.08 for all retailers", which has been the message for the last 6 months.
The actual mission is Georgia Ave, about 7 missions in, though there are also issues with Garden Pier relating to casinos just before that but they can be mostly worked around by constructing your own rather than taking over existing ones.
People haven't been too impressed with the Kalypso guys...and it should be stressed that GoG are basically stuck waiting for Kalypso to sort it out. Nobody seems to know why they couldn't just throw them 1.07 in the meantime...But anyway. It was a fun game up until it broke, so it's a nice freebie offer. If and when the issue is resolved then I think people will get entertainment value out of it.
The only thing that I can say is that the situation is disturbing. Should the game work fine in 'sandbox mode' but the 'story mode' be broken, one can truly say that the game itself is broken and they'd be correct. Partial functionality doesn't mean working and that's all there is to it.
That GOG not only continued to sell this game without a disclaimer on the game's page but offered it as a 'good-faith freebie' is really disappointing. Judging from this (
http://forum.kalypsomedia.com/showthread.php?tid=20687) it's been a full 6 months since the patch to fix the issue was available and for whatever reason not given to GOG. It's my belief that GOG shouldn't sell the game and that, all things considered, offer the option of a refund for it and a removal of the game from their store should take place for those who actually bought the game.
I still have the utmost respect for GOG and CDPR, people make mistakes and this one is holding out for hope that the company that made Omera: City of Gangsters will actually do what they said they would. I don't think they're offering this game, in general, as a cash-grab or giving it out as a freebie as a joke. But I can't help but be disappointed in them and disturbed by the whole situation.
For my part I'm going to see if GOG can remove it from my game library. If a company is going to act like Kalypso I certainly am not going to wait or hope that they do the right thing.
