Pre Order items, Kickstarter items, Commander/Mythic items do not appear in inventory even after downloading them from the "extra" section separately and restarting the game three times and starting a fresh character following the download. Same incredibly annoying inanities from Kingmaker carried over such as tedious combat lasting in excess of fifteen rounds (trying out the new turn based option) against a single opponent where RNG refuses to land a hit for either side (playing on core) -be prepared to carry your incompetent party through combat btw. There are all new ones as well, like 30 target number perception checks to open a door. . .at level 2. . .maybe a half hour into the game in the third area you arrive at after the prologue. I don't even know if I want to continue. So glad I popped for the mythic version to have the DLCs taken care of in advance.
At the point where I find myself with the crone in the woods, I have followed the crafting tutorial far enough to dry the mushrooms and roots but she is stuck in a loop where she keeps offering me candles -without actually giving me candles- and I can do nothing to proceed further. I enjoyed the fifteen minutes of the game I played I guess. Maybe I will try again after they release a patch
Everything about this game seems designed to frustrate the player. The mystery is too vague and obtuse to be interesting, the 'puzzles' seem arbitrary, and there isn't sufficient emotional investment in anything that the various timers (sanity, Old Ones' curses et cetera) come across as anything but sigh inducing and annoying. As you progress, your odds of success do not increase but rather dwindle. . .As well as my appreciation for the game. Two stars, because there seemed some honest effort even if it was ill managed and poorly directed.
So the game is not as close to perfect as my rating might suggest. There are some issues with the environment in regards to terrain stickiness, texture clipping, lighting et cetera. Maps are inconsistent, at times encouraging exploration while at others explicitly thwarting it. There are story issues where people who are killed in one instance (looking at you Brother Virgil) will pop up again alive and well -with friends and without explanation. It is also tonally inconsistent, with some rather surprisingly good writing at times featuring reactive, and creative elements while at other times it borders upon cliche and becoming frustrating inflexible. So four stars obviously seems too high? Except. . .Its fun. Its the first game in a couple years I have actually wanted to play a second time. I appreciated how every faction is flawed and has internal schisms brought about as a result of competing interests even where is common cause. The only real fault I have with the game is the respawning enemies. I understand why they incorporated them, but by mid game it became incredibly tedious clearing out packs of dog-bears which presented no challenge. It realizes enough of its potential to be worth the price of purchase but also holds the promise of better game from this developer in the future once they have a greater experience and budgets. Its not perfect, but is better than average. It is like a watered down Witcher 3 with one third the content.
This is a strategy game which uses the RNG almost flawlessly. For the most part the RNG contributes variability and difficult without heavily influencing outcomes. When it says 50% chance of an outcome, it seems more like 65%. 25% feels more like 30%. I wholely approve of a causal relationship between percentiles and expectation. The AI is competent, the encounters are balanced, the graphics are acceptable for the scale of the project, but I suggest you watch a video to make sure they are acceptable to you. I only have two complaints. The first concerns the story which is more or less insignificant. You can pretty much ignore and choose combat everytime and not worry you made a mistake or missed out on anything. Maybe that is a feature not a bug, but I like reactivity (a lot a lot) as well as seeing the relationship between choice and consequence play out and would have prefered a narrative which delivered. . .Anything. If you are going to have a story at all, go for broke, make it deep, meaningful, and impactful. Especially if you have gameplay decent enough to support it. Lastly, and most significantly, the food mechanic. You need a single food item to camp for the night, not camping comes with some steep penalties, but you have no control over whether or not you actually come across food. I found myself in a spiral a couple times where I would not find food until my party was in the red, I would camp and wake up tired necessitating another camp out only to find no food until I was back in the red again immediately after that. In a strategy game, I strongly feel luck should influence but never dictate results. Losing due to variables beyond the player control is always a disappointment. A possible suggestion would be making a "scrounge/scavenge" option for camping available for those with no food where no benefit can be gained by camping -no honing, health gain, meditating, or item bonding - and no penalty for not having the requisite materials.
So the DLC doesn't seem bad, but I am setting it down half way through and not going back to it. My priority was definitely going the non lethal route, which would require dismissing all animal companions. . .Except some, like Poultron or the bot that speaks Russian, cannot be dismissed. Either are powerful enough on their own to take down workers in the factory. So I am stuck either resolving the main quest in a way I find unsatisfactory or waiting for them to (hopefully) introduce a fix. I can't believe this was launched without any consideration given to this particular aspect. I mean, either put something in base at the menagerie were all pets can be crated en masse, or introduce an NPC after the scrapyard has been clear who will hold them there with a single dialogue interaction. Better than any of those suggestions would have been a trainer maybe with a question line who could teach them non lethal take downs, and someone in the plant R&D who could reprogram the robots for similar effect. I am not saying the game is broken, but it sure as hell isn't worth it for me to play as it is. I would have to start a whole new game and then avoiding taking any pets until I played this DLC and I am not in any hurry to do that.
