A mediocre and predictable storyline that never manages to transcend a series of bland western, horror tropes punctuated by annoying game mechanics that prioritize using predetermined/limited strategies over flexible/fun gameplay. If you find Dark Souls genre games, which amount to memorizing an arbitrary series of animation patterns, annoying and reductive then give this one a hard pass. Game shows its true colors with the first boss, the Parisiter, which even on normal is ridiculous. There are points in this fight where the entire scren is so full of enemies and projectile splash zones that there is literally no where to stand without taking damage. I'm sure there are specific strategies intended to succeed which I could find by reloading over and over or googling but the things is that I personally do not find constant reloading or googling to provide very rivetting gameplay. Also the graphics are extremely poor for a 2020 game with gore amounting to indistinct masses of red during kill animations.
Good addition to the game and much better approach than standalones. Expect typical lack of balance and unfair encounter design. Don't be fooled by the fact that you are plowing through everything. This is Owlcat so there's no balance. You can easily get soft locked in some areas which allow no resting. As is typical of Owlcat design, the challenge is in knowing what is coming ahead of time so you can create ideal party composition with correct gear and spells rather than reacting in realtime to challenges. Recommend using AI to suggest party composition without spoilers before embarking the Act 3 part lest you wind up with useless party members and stewing in frustration. Would get a 5 for me if not for unbalanced design. Definitely not worth a 20 dollar pricetag though. Wait for sale.
We all love Owlcat because of their insane character building and story reactivity to your character. They are so good at this that we overlook the gotcha encounters, required reloads, and irritating puzzle design. This is a story where your character's build/ancestry does not change the story or the encounters as much as normal due to low reactivity and stealth gameplay. But of course it keeps the irritating puzzles. So this DLC basically maximizes everything Owlcat is bad at, annoying puzzles and gotcha reloads, and miminizes everything they are good at, character builds and story reactivity to character. If you enjoy memorizing the patrol patterns of rat swarms and pulling levers this is the DLC for you. Otherwise avoid.
1. Astounding character builds and reactivity. 2. Good writing that leans into 110 IQ genius writer purple prose at times. 3. Puzzles with arbitrary solutions which you can waste your time with or google. 4. Amazing to awful VAs 5. Multiple gotcha encounters whose trick is knowing they are there in the first place by dying to them. Worth playing but don't expect Owlcat, or any normal dev for that matter, to learn from past design mistakes and evolve.
Still a good game. Beamdog's additions are passable, but the writing for Neera is top cringe. Rassad is flat as cardboard. Only the blackguard is good but he is REALLY good. Top level voice acting. Could do without the cuckoldry themes inserted by beamdog's reddit tier write staff though.
Do you like reloading to the same encounter over and over? Do you like googling the answer to dumb puzzles that have no clues to their solution? Do you like clicking on enemies and reading their two page long description of abilities? Do you like going on Steam threads to see fans of this developer tell you that random ambushes by a level 25 dragon on your level 10 party is fair and you should just get good. Do you like being told over and over endlessly how powerful your character is in endless text you must read while simultaneously being made to feel like a weak baby? Do you like having to run a game behind your firewall so it doesn't install spyware on your computer? Do you think having to click agree to multiple multipage legal documents to play an offline, singleplayer RPG is reasonable? Do you think necessarily reloading from a gotcha enemy/trap/script is immersive and fun? If so you should probably play dark souls and skip this poorly designed piece of garbage. At least dark souls does not have graphics that look like they were designed by a baby in 2012.
If you know anything about Obsidian's development history, you should not be surprised that it was Obsidian that finally succeeded in making an ISOMETRIC title stutter and lag on modern hardware. This feat should not be underestimated. I have a 3080ti. I can run Cyberpunk at full frames and this isometric game... stutters. Worse still I googled this problem and it is a KNOWN issue, one Obsidian is either unwilling or unable to address. To put into perspective how monumental of a fail this is, it's akin to making an addition problem that would eat up all the memory in a scientific graphing calculator. It is seriously and with zero sarcasm amazing and I literally have no idea how they acheived it but maybe that's why they're Obsidian and I'm just some guy. Also in line with Obsidian all the writing and pretty much everything else in this game is 10/10. It gets a 2/5 because this sin is simply so lazy, so unecessary and so egregious. Seriously, an isometric title that lags... what next, an Oregan Trail game that bricks my computer? Makes me really worried about Avowed. If they could not make an ISOMETRIC title that runs smoothly, just how atrocious will their AAA graphics 3D title run?....
This game is a stunningly beautiful, meditative, moving experience with masterful storytelling and "real" characters with unique personalities and compelling narrative arcs. I wept, feeling a real sense of loss as each was guided off the ship. At the end, I sat for some time, unable to “let go” of the experience. (I suspect a “vintage” gamer like me will likely experience the game differently than a much younger player). Spirit Farer is an "open world" management game but with a semi-linear plotline and a definitive end. Most people will end up encountering game play in roughly the same order and, in fact, deviating from that order can cause some problems especially with pacing near the end. Some game sections may prove challenging for non-platform gamers (like me). I clocked in at 90 game hours (more than most). My advice? Don't rush, and interact with all the NPC "spirits", but mostly relax and be transported, rather than play to finish. Some minor faults: gameplay can be tedious and the pacing awkward depending on the order that you encounter the spirits. The last ¼ of the game dragged on as most of the frenzy of activity took place in the first part of the game. Many of the actions became repetitive.Important note: I almost missed a vital character because I wasn't in the habit of fishing regularly, or buying things from Francis. (Don’t want to say too much more because of spoilers). Also, pacing varies greatly depending on the order you encounter and transport the characters, which can leave long sections of the game where nothing happens. Mainly, however, the most major criticism is that the game dragged in places, especially at the end where I had little to do while waiting for the next progression of the story. Still, these criticisms are minor, and unimportant. If you love cozy management games, beautiful animation and meaningful storylines, You won’t regret your purchase.
Writing is sloppy and rushed with ill-defined characters. Political bias is present in the writing also which allows the astute reader to predict who the good and bad characters will be based on this bias. Werewolf is a game for humans who are trapped on a planet with soulless corporations and powerless to stop them. It gives us catharsis by proposing the fantasy, 'what if you were powerful enough to do something'. It is a game about action and tearing corrupt CEOs in half with your bare claws. Or at least that is the werewolf I love. What we get here is a narcissistic journey of self discovery which is primarily about the main character herself rather than the earth or protecting it. If you hate action and horror but love listening to a spoiled westerner talk and think about their own feelings for hours on end then you will love this game. If you enjoyed Werewolf the Apocalypse you will most likely hate it.
Complex tactics, deep RPG elements, satisfying visual and sound design. Add a few more dungeon levels and this would be my one game to have on a desert island.
