What a.... game. Reviewing V.1.8 after 2 weekends of playing. Tutorial Mission is fine. 1 Pilot lost, 1 with two headshot wounds, 1 with one headshot wound. Headshot wound....headshot wound...headshot wound.... Fun and engaging. AI is broken. If you play a mission where you need the AI do go somewhere, or do something - have a lot of saves! Ironman anyone? Seriously: Escort convoy missions are broken. Really broken. Your 'mechs have to stay close to the convoy - got it. Vehicle rushes forward and complains. 'Mech stands next(!) to the vehicle and you get a complain. WTF! Unfortunately does the AI not move after a complain. Even if you stand/move next to it. No enemies left to destroy the vehicle? Well, that is a 'load save game'. So far in 2 out of 4 escort missions. Why it takes 15s for the AI to move a vehicle straight forward on an empty street? No idea. Sorry, that is bad. Really bad. Luckily only paid 13,- for it. Not going to purchase the DLC's. Nope. Can't complain about loading times, or graphics, as my PC is rather old. But I am complaining about these non-skippable jump ship -scenes. They go on and on and on. Together with the loading scenes, playing some missions takes less time, compared to waiting. Bad. Why the **** would you make those jump ship scenes non-skip? Really! Why? They are still going on and on, and on... You can read this review every time you go from one system to the next. Every time.... It's an in-game cut scene, and according to mod-pages, no chance to skip. You could even write a review every time you travel. Rec.Mods: +Skip Intro for quicker game start; helped a lot on my old machine Hopefully the Jump Ship scenes can be skipped in the future as well. Until then: Relax and wait...
and lets you play by the rules, while he comes up with enemies, that ignore them and just slay everything. Level 4 fighter with 1d8+10 damage. Or Lvl6+ archer with 1d8+14, fighter with 1D10+17. You beat them and get regular, +1 and a +2 weapon from them. Enjoy! (Playing on normal.) I deactivated critical strikes. Enemies with +7 when you are fighting with +1 will just one shot you try after try. Stag Lord? Crits for 52 damage vs. level 5 party. Enjoy! Balance? ZERO. You can not cast/buy so much blur, mirror image, mage armor and barkskin potions/scrolls or cast them on everyone. Fighting feels like lottery. Bad roll? Dead. Reload! Bad roll? Dead. Reload! Just repeat, over and over... I never reloaded more often in a computer game! Never. The game gives you plenty of auto- und quicksave slots. For a reason. Once in combat you can not retreat. This random encounter will kill you. Ok, let's reload... FUN! You are not supposed to be here. Don't explore too much. You are dead. Let's reload. FUN! Aside from some text errors and quest entries that link to a decision I have not done, I have not encountered bugs within act 1 and early act 2. Feels stable, runs on my old hardware - great so far. If you do not whish to manage the barony, you can set it on 'auto'. I wish you could do the same for the exploration and combat. That is unfortunately the boring part of the game. Way too random, to long, to forced. Would like to skip it. And I am only in act 2. Managing the barony feels great so far, even though you are dropped in the cold water. So I give it 3 stars. Mixed bag. Game is ok. If you like diablo-gameplay and slaying the same monster over and over - maybe add one. If you are more interested in a good story, with good/evil, lawful/chaotic choices and don't like the over long and forced hack & slay parts, bad enemy AI (really, really bad AI!) maybe remove one. Up to early act 2 the evil choices are 'meh'. Mostly killing everything.
