Only about 8 hours in game for now. A decent city builder in a very cool setting. ;) Not as great as the first one was, abundance of gamplay mechanics, some of which do not make much sense, is distructing from what feels should be the core of the experience. First game is still unique in it's focus and precisons even at places where I dont' agree with it. Also, UE5 is a blurry mess and preformance for now is abysmal. It's playble for a city builder, but 30-40 fps at 2k all-high on 5800X3D + 7900XT is... confusing?
I like Larian's business and work ethics, happy with their success and glad that many enjoy their games to 5/5. I don't even have a strong issue with Larian launcher, it's easy to deal with and it does not break on linux (unlike many others) However, I can't neither fully enjoy nor recommend DOS2. 80% of effort is there, but at least another 10% are needed for it to be rally good, rather than 'good in comparison to AAA' + Multiplayer. + Nice adjustment to mechanics and effects system with physical and magic armors. + System of elemental effects and interaction still very cool. + Great first act. - Technically writing quality is better than DOS1, but story and tone are extremely inconsistent. - World-building is even worse. There is no explanation to differentiate Source from any other type of magic, all factions constantly double-crossing themselves to a point of incoherence, everyone just works for the God King, apparently. Except for the main antagonists, who are just manipulated by agent of the God King. - Side quests tend to jump from silly jokes to moral dilemma with choice between extremely bad and even worse inside the SAME quest and than just ignore it, like it never happened. - Breaking scripts in main quests from named PC 6 years after release. - Acts 2-3-4 don't have any flow and contain sudden spikes in difficulty, which forces player just to blindly stumble around, ignoring the story just to find, what they can do. There is a difference between allowing player to break that flow in second playthrough in PST or Fallout1 and not having it in a first place. - Encounter design in second half of the game is progressively bad. You either found how to chees the fight or over-leveled and it feels unsatisfying easy or you didn't and party just melts in 3-4 rounds. - This game, unlike DOS1 hates it animals. Most of them are suffering and in many cases there is no option to help, where I can think of several ways to do it.
There seems like might be some fun ideas donw the line, but I probably will not get there. AI does not have a fog of war while also having numbers advantage. That means that only way to win is 1) Ignore survial of players units. 2) Look for breaks in AI scrips. Together they complitely breaks any immersion of the game, and no amouont of cool scans of real field manuals can change that. I just feel like I'm wasting my life against artificial challange. At least fog of war should not be a thing for player too, it still coul be interesting tactical puzzle. As it is, it is a game of trial and error. Maybe, having a narrative which allows for mission falures and designed against likely streak of fails and retreats in the beginign would also compesate for the issue. There are hints of some sci-fi shenanigans with either time or dimensions straight from the begining, so that might work well with narative explanation of perfect information for the enemy.
+ Fundamentals are here. Movement, guns, particle effects. + Decent AI, which does some of the staff similar to original FEAR. + A lot of difficulties to master. + Part SCP-like, part corporate conspiracy setting. - Most arenas are too small and open, so enemies are all around you all the time. Low tactics, mostly reaction. - No ADS and leaning, so main play style is spamming slides. - Story is close to non-existant, even by comparasion with FEAR.
Well, finally there is a way to legally own a copy of game! Is seems to be working well for most of the folks there, but I have some input issues (maybe because I have a KVM switch) and I don't have cinematic. There is still excellent working guide for installing game from image on the GOG forum, which can be used, once you legally have the game.
