Like "Whispers of a Machine" this game has a solid story, interesting characters, and (mostly) logical puzzles. But (also like "Whispers of a Machine", even though to a lesser extent) it doesn't *show* enough of the main character's backstory to get me emotionally invested, which makes the finale less impactful than it should be.
I'm not a big fan of the art style, but it's passable. A little more variety in the puzzles/mechanics wouldn't have hurt, since walking back and forth talking to everyone about everything gets a bit repetitive after a while. Where the game truly shines are the characters and the story with its plot twists and moral dilemmas. The game also has a certain amount of replayability (unusual for this genre) due to the fact that you tackle every mission with just 2 companions, all of which have unique abilities, leading to different angles for dealing with an issue. Also, props to the developers for not creating dead ends here (something that annoys me to no end in the classic Sierra adventures). Definitely give this one a try.
Short but pretty decent murder mystery. The mechanics work well for what the game is trying to do, and the conclusions are logical. You may want to play it with a controller, though, because putting movement on the cursor keys instead of WASD (without an option to remap) makes playing with keyboard and mouse a little awkward. As a side note, comparing the game to Witcher 3 is a little unfair, since it's a different genre. By that comparison no adventure game ever made (including Monkey Island, DOTT, Legend of Kyrandia and Simon the Sorcerer) could rank more than 3 stars at best. Which is kinda silly.
The world is nice to look at, but practically everything else is a mess. The story and characters are boring. Granted, I stopped playing a couple hours in, but I just don't see story or characters get any better. Platforming is clunky. Combat isn't responsive enough. The faction affinity mechanic is annoying, and the donation system is broken (several times I donated stuff to a faction only to have them hate me more in return). Crafting is okay-ish, but the limited inventory makes handling of crafting resources a pain. And resources spawn only in specific places that aren't marked on the map, so you have to keep track of the locations yourself.
This game is pretty good on the technical level. All of the mechanics are well thought out and useful, and the puzzles are logical. Even puzzles I failed to get and had to look up were logical in retrospect. However, the game falters a little in character design and storytelling. It's not terrible, but kind of bland. I wasn't invested in the main character at all, hence the decisions at the end completely lacked emotional impact for me. Still, a decent point & click adventure. I recommend giving it a try if you like the genre.
For a movie tie-in game it's actually pretty decent. Driving around the wasteland feels really good, and hand-to-hand combat is quite satisfying, albeit being a bit buttonmash-y. Location design was pretty good, too. There certainly were similarities, but none of the locations gave me the feeling that assets had been re-used. Other aspects aren't quite as good, though. Scrap is basically the only kind of loot you get. Collectibles are plentiful, but feel shallow, since there's no overarching story to explore there. Quests and writing are average at best. Writing in particular is fanfiction level at times. Enemy types could also have been a lot more varied. It's not just that the grunts from all factions feel the same in fights, but the top dog minibosses are actually all the same (only slightly re-skinned). And the wasteland encounters are mostly garbage. Another issue is that you can't advance time. There simply is no "wait" mechanic. Which is pretty annoying when you,re forced to AFK, just because it's the middle of the day and a mission requires you to go to a location in the evening. Or when you have to wait out a storm. Which brings me to another point. Since you can't fast-travel when a storm approaches, and you also cannot outrun the storm, it would've been quite helpful if locations that can serve as shelter during a storm had been marked on the map. Because driving through a storm to the next stronghold is a pain in the rear. Still, despite these criticisms I enjoyed my time in the game for the most part, although a greater variety in quests and loot would've gone a long way. At a discount definitely give this one a try, if only for a ride through the wasteland.
As other reviewers have pointed out, beneath its coat of painting this game is utter garbage. If somebody tried to compile everything that could be done wrong in a point & click adventure into a single game, they probably couldn't have done a more perfect job. Pixel hunting. Pointless drivel in dialogues. Clutter in the inventory. Nonsensical puzzles that force you to try combining everything with everything else). Puzzle chains that make Looney Tunes ACME machines look straightforward. Tons of backtracking. No fast travel or shortcuts. On top of that characters and dialog are bad. And the plot is probably the worst. What is the message we're supposed to take from it? Give up free will and submit to a supposedly benevolent AI? Are you kidding me? There is a metric ton of better point & click adventures out there. Do not waste your time on this one. It only gets 2 stars because I reserve 1-star ratings for games that are technically broken.
There are some aspects of this game that I really like and would love to see in more open world RPGs. First and foremost, of course, how you can scale large enemies to attack weak points. Another cool thing is that you can walk across the roofs of the cities. Or that you can have up to three pawns (as opposed to at most 2 companions in Bethesda games). That you can easily switch classes (or vocations as they're called here) is also nice. Other aspects of this game, however, are mediocre at best and downright terrible at worst. The open world itself is passable, but with no mounts, limited fast travel, limited stamina, and frequently respawning mobs, traversal of the world is a chore more than anything else. Even more so since there is a lot of backtracking. Story and side quests and the writing in general are mostly meh, except for the terrible, cringe-inducing Aelinore questline (that you're better off ignoring completely). The very first quest in that questline [i]should[/i] make the arisen an outlaw in Gran Soren for the rest of the game, but apparently the duke magically forgets all about it once the quest is finished. Board quests are the worst kind of fetch quests and escort missions. Yet you're kind of forced to do at least some of the escort missions, because those build your relationship with NPCs. The quest design in general is bad. There are some side quests that provide relevant lore, but become unavailable if the player finishes [i]Lure of the Abyss[/i] before finishing certain other quests. Crafting is passable, but the amount of curatives and crafting materials is insane. Loot is plentiful, but lackluster. There's also the problem that you have only a single save. Bottom line: the game is absolutely worth a try if you like open world RPGs. But I definitely recommend waiting for a discount, and playing with mods that fix the stamina and savegame issues.
