This interactive movie is set in an interesting retrofuturistic dystopian world which is absolutely stunning visually. Unfortunately that is about all that's exceptional about it. The story and dialogue are extremely clichè. The choices you get to make that influence the ending are also completely nonsensical (they are not linked to the ending in any way narratively, this is one of those cases where having one choice at the end would have made more sense). There is no gameplay, and the detective part of the game is very minor. Buy it on sale for the visuals, that would be my recommendation.
The setting carries this game a lot. Its a very interesting one with in-depth history and expansive lore. Characters and dialogue are cheap and occasionally it seems the animations do not correspond to the dialogue, or the VAs have no idea about the context of their lines. But those moments are not happening often enough to completely ruin the narrative. The combat is, on the other hand, so crappy that I recommend just using a trainer and skipping it entirely. It's somewhere in-between piranhia byte-style rythmic combat system, but without the rythm. Actions seem like they should flow smoothly between each other, but they don't, and in fact each combat encounter is roughly the same - 10 dodges, one strike, rinse and repeat for 5+ minutes. If you skip the combat and focus on the lore and narrative, this game is worth it, IMHO. It's interesting to see how much this studio has improved in Greedfall compared to this game, though I have to admit - the setting of The Technomancer is a lot more interesting than Greedfall's.
Very good, nuanced writing, powerful juxtaposition of irony and humour with drama, action and some philosophical themes. Gameplay primarily serves the narrative and doesn't otherwise get in the way. Highly recommend!
What started as a catastrophie, turned into one of the best cyberpunk RPGs out there. The new combat system and progression are amazing, all the glitches were ironed out and a ton more content was added in the DLC. The only problems I still have with the game is it's writing lacking nuance and the disparity between the detail level of Nigh City and it's interactivity. Something so detailed just asks to be filled to the brim with interactive elements, details, quests. But as it stands, there's not even an animation for ordering drinks or food from the street food vendor. And yeah, the writing is not something that can be patched. There is no subtelty or nuance there, which we come to expect from the genrge because of games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution. But even in spite of that, it's a phenomenal game. CDPR worked hard to regain the trust of players and I'd say they've regained mine. This game deseves to stand besides Witcher 3 and have it's own spotlight.
When it comes to story, this game does all the coolest stuff. Exposition, pacing, dialogues, VA - all absolutely stellar. Every line packed with multiple layers of meaning, every detail exploring some new facet of the game's many elegantly intertwined themes. It does the gameplay-driven storytelling too, where it uses the few game mechanics to deliver further depth and impact to the storytellng. To that end, the gameplay mechanics in the game only exist to support the story. There is walking, time shifting, dialog choices, light navigation puzzles. All exist to create and subvert player's expectations for a more impactful and emotional story delivery that only videogames are capable of. Since the game has so much dialogue, they did not go so deep with the mechanics as e.g. Brothers: A Tale of two sons did. But hey! Different ways, same result. It's fine. Play it. Pause and think often. You will not regret it.
This is like Subntautica in space and it's clearly inspired by that game and takes most of it's key mechanics directly from it. Subntautica is a great game, and this does a decent job at imitating it's core gameplay. However, unlike Subnautica, Breathedge's pacing is really broken and it is very badly balanced and doesn't respect the player's time. In fact I would recommend to play it with a cheat table that lets you disable crafting requirements and when the constant monotonous back and forth really gets on your nerves, just toggle the cheat. Makes the filler a lot more tolerable. On the positive side, it's really funny if you are into trashy reddit memes kind of humour, and the devs really excell at environmental storytelling. The constant commentary of your AI companion makes it even more fun to inspect different locations. This is something Subnautica didn't have, which I quite appreciate. The plot is just a setting for jokes and social commentary, but with the great environmental storytelling, it actually does become interesting at times. Additionally, this game is very well optimized, doesn't crash and I saw very few bugs. At least at this time (it's been a while since release). Overall Breathedge is a good game and given that this is the studio's very first game and it's already this good, I am excited to see what they do next.
Pretty good game. Worth its pricetag IMO. Biggest issue is rushed dialogue - presumably as a cost-saving measure characters plough through storyline like 1000 degree knife through butter, which often means saying obvious things, changing completely changing opinions within 5 seconds Bioware-style and clearly confusing actual voice actors. Nevertheless voice actors are really good and smooth out these rough edges in the dialogue. Actual gameplay is kinda like if you could quicksave and load after every turn in Divinity: Original Sin 2. Very cool and very well polished. Fights can be completed in a myriad of different ways, using environment, equipment and spells and setting up combos in this game is often even more satisfying than in Original Sin 2, which is high praise indeed. The story itself isn't anything special, and frankly most of the Finnish folklore this is supposedly based upon is quite vague to begin with, so that connection is superficial. I wish they would have focused more on world-building instead, as the steampunk universe they've made actually is quite interesting. One major (potential) issue is that this game is obviously meant as an "introduction" into the next game, which is foreshadowed starting from about middle of the story, however I fear that because this game basically received no marketing whatsoever, it's sales aren't going to be enough to fund this sequel, which makes the game's ending unsatisfying rather than intriguing.
