Ignore the hate some are spewing. Game is pretty fun with minor issues. Some are upset that it's not a direct sequel to BL1. This shows their ignorance of VtM lore. If we continued from that game, we'd be playing a 20 year old vampire. Which, by Kindred standards, would still be a fledgling. So we'd have a game where a fledgling arrives in a city and upsets the balance between the Camarilla and Anarchs. Wait, isn't that already the plot of BL1? This is, first and foremost, a VtM game. TCR did their homework and got the lore, setting and vibe of VtM down. Combat is akin to Dishonored. You can do melee or ranged attacks as is your clan speciality and preferences. Some people are upset you can't equip guns, but if you're an Elder Kindred... why would you want to? The RPG aspects are there, you're just not going to gain a level then put points into a stat. You can customize your look, pick your skills and dialogue choices affect the story. Seems pretty much standard RPG elements. I did take a star off because Paradox required its launcher. BG3 had a launcher too, didn't like it there and don't like it here.
Ignore the hate, this game is doing justice to the VtM lore. I didn't want another "new fledgling vampire comes to change Camarilla politics" story. I already did that in BL1. Voice acting is well done, each character has distinct personalities and your dialogue will change how they react to you. Combat is similar to Dishonored, so if you liked that you know what to expect. There is an option to play without combat to just turn BL2 into a vampire-story walking sim, if you that's more to your liking. Movling like a vampire on the ground will break the Masquerade and end the game, but on rooftops it's a fun and quick way to get around. You can do this right away, no need to get any special skills. I did take a star off for the Paradox launcher. I wish companies would stop doing that.
The revamp came with the expansion, so it's why I'm commenting on both here. Story wise, it is still top notch. If you want to load an old save and go to Dogtown, you can. If you want to start fresh and get boosted up to go to Dogtown, you can do that too. Basically if you enjoyed the story before, you'll enjoy this. There is more of a spy-thriller vibe, but it's still solidly Cyberpunk. Idris Elba was fantastic too. The revamp, however, is... mixed. While before you could spend points in Cool to be a stealthy assassin, that isn't going to happen anymore. Cool just helps buff how your cyberware "reduces detection" and only on some cyberware. Quickhacks almost ALWAYS lead to a trace and detection by every hostile in the area. You're now limited as to how much cyberware you can equip based off your Tech attribute and cyber capacity skill. So if you plan on speccing into a non-Tech build, don't expect to have a lot of cyberware installed. This can be crippling as cyberware is the primary way to boost armor, damage, etc as clothing is mostly cosmetic. I have found a few items giving some stats, but they are few and far between. Oh and the NCPD are out in force. Make sure to drive CAREFULLY cuz if you tap anything and they see it, you get 1 star wanted level and they start shooting. I know before they were scarce, but CDPR kinda went overboard on their presence. If they had left the base gameplay alone, this expansion would of been 4.5 outta 5. However, they broke a lot of potential builds so hence my new rating. Still enjoyed the story though and didn't regret the $30 I spent.
The bane of many a stealth game, is bizzare stealth detection. I stealth kill a guard, but the one on the far side of the room AND facing away sees me and runs right at me. Another time I stealth kill and immediately hide under a desk *buzzer* NOPE guard knows exactly where I am and kills me. Since Styx isn't great at melee, the whole point is to be sneaky. Kinda hard to BE sneaky if guards have super-heearing and x-ray vision. I will say the game did look fairly good, though the opening cut scene was very grainy like a 2000ish game would be. Refunded.
Addressing the reported bugs (as of today). I had only 1 in my 20ish hours of play, it was just a character walking through a parked car. I know how to read recommended settings, so I tweak my PC as needed. Too many people seem to not know how to do this. Dropping to 2k resolution the game ran fine with my 2060 Super. Anyone complaining about "mediocre gunplay" apparently came into this game thinking it was a FPS. It's not & don't expect it to be. The gunplay is serviceable, not bad, not great ... it works. You get pistols, rifles, shotguns, etc the usual. Bladework is better, depending on where you swing your katana (or whatever) parts will fly off. However, DO NOT think this is a FPS game. It's not and CDPR was clear that it was an RPG first & FPS second. I didn't play the pen & paper game, so I went in blind as to the story and setting. The life paths really change how your game starts and affect dialogue choices later in the game. You will spend most of your time in Night City, but later on you can go to the outskirts for more open wide areas. There is A LOT to do. Besides main missions, many side activities pop up all the time. You will not be wanting for things to do. There is no one way to do anything, every situation has many ways to tackle it. Using weapons earns you xp with that weapon, so (for example) the more you use a pistol the better you'll get with it. This is in addition to benefits you'll get from Attributes and Perks. Story choices you make can have consequences later on. Most will not be apparent immediately. A small downside (for me) is the first person perspective. I always find it is less, not more, immersive. Occasionally in a fight with multiple opponents you can lose track of where enemies are since you have the 1P tunnel vision. Sometimes audio will fade a bit until you actually turn to face the person speaking. Not as good as Witcher 3, but still great story. 1P perspective took off 1 star.
This was implied to be a prequel to the excellent XCOM: Enemy Unknown. However, this game has very little to do with either the XCOM reboots or the older titles. The development changed hands multiple times and it shows. There is no crafting, a staple of the series. Once you find a gun, it's available to everyone capable of using it. This means the careful planning of your research and construction of the other games is gone. Your squad's AI is terrible, often they will leave cover and stand in open gunfire while screaming they are under fire. Gone is the chess-like moves of the current XCOM games, it's pretty much your squad is cannon fodder and you'll do all the work. There is no pressure to do missions. In the other games the aliens will slowly build up in strength and numbers so you must continue to progress. That's not the case here. You have no consequences to doing This Mission over That Mission, another staple of strategy gone. You can't run in your base, which is tedious as often you have to go from one side to the next to progress the story. Slowly plodding along just to talk to Person A, then have to slowly walk back to talk to Person B happens Far Too Often. The story is... rough. The protagonist is so cliche and unlikeable. At one point (no spoilers) he did something so brain-dead stupid you wonder why the other characters didn't slap some sense into him. FINAL VERDICT Avoid this game even if it's on sale. If you've never played an XCOM game, you'll find better 3rd person shooters out there. If you have played an XCOM game, this is an XCOM game in name only.
