Now this is a good game. I did go through it, gameplay is nice, story is epic and mostly interesting, here is the main takout: - Parts of the story feel like they are aimed uniquely at teens. That is a real bummer. - Some NPCs interaction are forced and do not feel natural (e.g. Jennifer) - The link between level and gear per level and whole leveling thing is really poorly done. The impact of leveling is just too extreme to be even remotely believable and kind of kills the immersion. - Cities are great, countryside is great, immersive and whatnot... there is something missing though which KCD did get right and the Witcher didn't. - Side quests feel like added game quests instead of in-world interactive quests.
This is the Van Buren dreamt of. Many games are actually going into the post-apocalyptic craze right now, but this is the only one to have got it right since Fallout 2. the feeling is there, the music is there, the in-game references and humor is there but is not overwhelming, the maps are realistic (you do understand how each city feeds and is organized, there are no unkillable monsters lurking a stone's throw away that have mysteriously not yet attacked until you came around) the difficulty is spot-on. Combats are nice, speedy and tactic, just the right difficulty according to your set preference. Levelling also works fine, giving you better chances but not creating too much of an inhuman gap between your PC and civilian NPCs at higher level. Dialogues are short but very well done. They get the post-USSR oligarch feel, the despair, the bore, the mafia.and you can speak to everyone, each has a story, even if only with very standardized questions you can interact with everyone. Worth every cent.
Basically simplistic quests, hacking and crafting, and slashing and crafting and killing and.... you get the point. Graphics are great, voices (Polish) are great, texts are very well written. You always see the PC in front of the screen I didn't like it when Lara Croft did it, I didn't like it when Mario copied, I still don't like it. Very good hack and slash (for the Diablo players), rather poor RPG.
Thought I might give it a go, as Chris Avellone has (had) a good track record in my book.... after a few hours of playing this game is just going to be uninstalled: - Bugridden game. Starts in the first village when one of your team gets stuck between NPCs and a fence. Continues with your followers running towards the enemies when you are telling them to back off. keeps getting worse... - inventory system like it is 1992 all over again.. not a 2000s game - difficulty level is plain too hard, unless you learn D&D rules and optimize your stats. Normally combat setting on easy should get rid of this optimization requirement, but here, even in easy the player runs towards a sure death at every encounter - loading / saving is slow for such an old game on a modern machine. (not really a bug, but just tops the experience) - windowed menu is way to cluttered - companions are not even believable. Oh hello obvious thief... now oh I do have to help you because I need a thief in my team and the class system imposes it even though you are unbelievably stupid and would deserve to die if we were even slightly role-playing. - interface can't keep north up. Mouse can't be set properly, whatever you try. navigating the team is just pain upon pain. - scenario .. weems very classic at the beginning but I just won't play further to check if it turns out good or as bad as the interface is. - Oh and finally... D&D rules... I knew it before buying and bought it anyways. OK I did get over them in PS:T, but the game system is really outdated, relies too heavily on leveling and is just to a usual RPG system what neanderthal is to sapiens. Just keep your money and if you are looking for a scenario heavy game in a D&D setting go to Planescape Torment, if you don't care about D&D, try the newer Torment, Fallout 1&2, Shadowrun HK, Might and Magic 4+5, Nehrim... Hell even Bethesda did better than this when making Morrowind and Oblivion.
