This game looks great. I greatly appreciate it for how far it pushed tech back in the day; throughout its life; and how it influenced the industry to push game developers, generally, to push tech, themselves, rather than pushing mediocre tech onto the masses and deeming doing so as acceptable practise. Including forward-looking/advanced features is always empowering to the user (provided the game is well-optimized, and the game/engine is properly scalable – both of which this game is), but it doesn't excuse poor aspects of a game, nor does it add to it in terms of a rating/its value. It's the difference between quality-of-life (QoL) being something normal – or even *expected* – as opposed to something that genuinely enriches a player's experience; their sense of joy, fun, engagement, inspiration, enrichment (psychologically; as either a personal or "tonal"/world-view role model; imparting knowledge or general wisdom as opposed to something personal (i.e.: "psychological", as mentioned before)), et cetera. However; aside from its tech, this game is *incredibly* mediocre. It is quite convoluted, cumbersome, and unfulfilling in its skill system (EVEN AFTER the MASSIVE overhaul it received as of the 2.0 update... YEARS after the game's release, by the way); its side missions are generally pathetic; being emotionally unengaging, uninteresting, and unfulfilling; its main story offers basically *NO* value to the player in terms of offering any real enrichment, inspiration, joy, et cetera (as mentioned above as KEY POINTS for a video game); and both its world does not inspire one to be in it, and its characters are not inspiring nor enjoyable to be around. Yes: the game is meant to depict a depressing and “difficult” world; but that does NOT mean that the experience within it – nor the experience with its characters – has to be depressing and “difficult”, too. I have a lot more to say, but this is near the character limit. I hope this helps your buying decision. 2/10
{I may add more to this review later, but this is it, for now.} -- I greatly appreciate this game for how far it pushed tech back in the day; throughout its life; and how it's influenced the industry to push game developers, generally, to push tech, themselves, rather than pushing mediocre tech onto the masses and deeming it an acceptable product when it is reasonable to do so. Including forward-looking/advanced features is always empowering to the user (provided the game is well-optimized, and the game/engine is properly scalable - both of which this game is), but it doesn't excuse poor aspects of a game, nor does it add to it in terms of a rating/its value. It's the difference between quality-of-life (QoL) being something normal - or even *expected* - as opposed to something that genuinely enriches a player's experience; their sense of joy, fun, engagement, inspiration, enrichment (psychologically; as a either a person or "tonal"/world-view role model; imparting knowledge or general wisdom as opposed to something personal (i.e.: "psychological", as mentioned before); etc.), et cetera. Aside from its tech, this game is incredibly medicore. It is quite convoluted, cumberson, and unfulfilling in its skill system (even *AFTER* the MASSIVE overhual it received as of the 2.0 update... years after the game's release); its side missions are generally pathetic, unemotionally engaging, and uninteresting; its main story offers basically *NO* value to the player in terms of offering any real enrichment, inspiration, joy, et cetera (as mentioned above as key points for a video game); and its world is one that does not inspire one to be in it, nor to draw things from it (in a meaningful way). Separately to the game, itself, this game has also served as a technological test-bed and as a testing-ground for Nvidia-based software and hardware technologies, which has been optimized and engineered in a way that actively snubs and penalizes users for using hardware - GPUs.
