Best TES game, one of the best Open World games ever made too. Wonderful world, superbly balanced-yet-exploitable elements such as spells + stats etc., incredibly immersive. I even like the combat, which feels tied to those stats and very RPG-like, unlike the later action-esq games. A masterpiece.
This game certain has a B-Movie, budget feel to it. You aren't here for the story, you're here to blow the living shinola out of bad guys. And to that end it does a great job. Basically, Robocop not only absolutely nails the feel of both playing as Robocop himself, with his slow-but-tanky bag full of tricks (such as ricocheting bullets) , but it also nails the feel of the Robocop world. They have absolutely perfected Detroit to a tee here, alongside all the core elements from the first 2 films, such as the Police Department and ED-209. And the gameplay is satisfying as hell. It's simple, it's straight forward, but it's really well crafted to offer challenges which evolve nicely, which give you some lovely feedback, and which come dripping with gore too. Great stuff all round. Main complaints were that it crashed a bit too often, and that some of the side-quests were dull and should just have been left out.
Despite some archaic elements which require some patience, BG2 is still up there with the best RPGs ever to this very day. It just does SO much right. The character builds, the wealth and depth of support characters, the deep combat, the great dialogue, the stunning performance by David Warner as the lead villain, but most of all...the epic sense of adventure. No other game has ever managed to find the superb balance of exploration and linearity which BG2 has. Granted, you do spend too long in the middle act in an area called The Underdark, this is weaker than the rest of the game. But the rest of the game is just SO good, that it's very forgiveable. I played this for the 7th time through 9 months ago, and I'm already itching to replay it again. Simply superb.
The gameplay is kinda OK, but again I preferred the original. It's main gimmick, Bravado, is just too OP and feels like it should have been an end-game top end special ability for 1 or 2 characters, not the core focus of the game. Bar a few unpredictable events when you first encounter something new, you can easily control all battles once you get the hang of it. I played on "Hard" difficulty (medium setting) first, and it was way too easy; I lost only 1 battle in my entire playthrough, and that was simply a case of setting a "pod" off prematurely. I then tried Nightmare and the timer actually emphasises this flaw, rather than helping shake things up. And that's where the real crux of the lameness lies for me - it's a game which enourages you to beat the system not the scenario. From not hurting magical opponents until you can definitely kill them in that turn, to pulling back when you sense a "pod" is up ahead, to taking shots to increase luck before taking shots to actually kill someone, it's grating how much this game rewards you for predicting what the (predictable) AI will do rather than playing the scenario naturally. The balance is all off as there are few well rounded enemies and there's almost always a way out of your situation, and so you rarely feel pressured. What you do get though is a buzz out of chain-killing enemies. This is why I think a lot of people are able to tolerate all the sub-standard stuff, and enjoy it for a while. Despite my gripes, I've found some enjoyment in the gameplay too, and when I sat back and pondered why it really was down to this, just basic bloodlust. Story is also a downgrade, and a big one at that. Gone is the forboding sense of doom and desperation, where everything and everyone is evil and doomed. Instead, here you have a Bioware-esq gang of too-happy wannabee badasses, who feel limp. I skipped tons of it, it was just weak. It is OK, I'm just very disapointed in how gimmicky a direction they've taken the series in.
There's a LOT to enjoy in DOS2 for sure, it's a game which has clearly been handcrafted with a lot of love, and which I had some great fun with. But I'll confess it did annoy me too. Pretty much everything from story, to the combat, to the exploration, to the game's pacing is top notch. The effort and care which has gone into this game is very evident, and all that comes laced with some nice humour too (as one would expect of the Divinity games). Freedom of choice regards character builds, quest completion, mission approach etc. is all superb as well; again emphasising the effort Larian have put in here. But it just annoys too much too. Basic stuff, such as shopping and itemization is a chore, quests are often botchy with the journal being pretty useless a lot of the time, and the game is surprisingly linear due to how enemies are leveled. This would have recieved a 5/5 if it wasn't fotr the fact that all too often I found myself confronted with some really bad, basic design choice. The first area, Fort Joy, doesn't suffer from these flaws much at all, but when you leave the island the consistancy of the game's quality definitely wavers. So it's a great game, but one which is admittedly a bit messy too. 100% worth buying, the world is just so wonderfully crafted that it demands appreciation, just don't expect perfection.
