I start by saying that 4 stars is a stretch here. But I also think 3 starts is not enough. I bought this game because I really like Mutant: Year Zero from the same developer. I hoped to get something like that and Miasma delivered... almost. Miasma Chronicles has a story just as weird and crazy as Year Zero. It has very similar, all be it updated gameplay. It is bigger and looks better, so I suspect the budget was slightly higher here. I think that characters are a little more fleshed out, but then they are not as charming. There are a few more similarities, Year Zero players will quickly recognize the handiwork. Over all, it has a very similar vibe to their previous game... but not quite. Something is missing, something small, but significant, something that I can't quite figure out. Still, I had a lot of fun with this one. If you like Year Zero I think this game will also be worth your time and money. What if you didn't play Mutant: Year Zero? Well, go and play it :). But also play this one, if you like tactics games and/or weird and crazy stories with weird and crazy characters.
I played this game a while ago, so this is not a fresh review. That said, even after so much time I still remember this game well. It doesn't happen too often with those smaller titles. I think that is a recommendation in and of itself. It took me by surprise just how fun I had playing this game. The awesome looking duck and boar draw me in. The weird story and simple, but very fun gameplay kept me engaged to the end.
I start by stating that I never read the book on which this story is based on, so I came here with no idea of what to expect beyond what I saw in trailers. Before I bought this title I wasn't sure if an RPG and action game player like myself would enjoy a "walking sim" like this. But since I'm also a huge fan of anything sci-fi and fantasy I decided to try this and I was quickly blown away by how much I sunk into this game. This story is one of the best thing of sci-fi genre I know. It's well put together, perfectly voice acted and just so damn interesting. And the retro-futuristic setting, taken straight from 1960' pop culture visions of the future, gives the game this amazing vibe. It doesn't hurt it also looks very good. The music blended perfectly with events and made an already great thing even better. The game has several choices that lead to radically different endings so there is some value in replaying it. One thing that bugged me sometimes were invisible walls. In games that look so realistic I prefer either some clear way of marking the path (even if it breaks the so called immersion) or be able to basically go anywhere. I got the game on a slight discount but with what I know now I would have bought it with its current full price.
I had this game in the library for a long, long time. I think I got it for free or in some very large discount, but until now never got the mood to play it. The story and gameplay never looked like something I would be interested in. I finally gave it a try because I was considering another "walking sim" type of game and didn't know, if I would be able to enjoy something like this. Surprisingly, I learned not only that I can play "walking sim" games and have fun, but also that this game is actually quite interesting despite what it may appear at a first glance. The story quickly turns into a surprisingly good thriller in the woods. There is of course a mistery, but the most important thing about it is how it's presented. I was surprised by how much I sunk into it and wanted to get to the bottom of it. This was helped immensely by the amazing performance from voice actors. The story is short but I think it is to the game's benefit: it doesn't pad the runtime with unnecessary nonsens, when it starts it goes efficiently to the resolution. Two small gripes I had with this title are the graphics and the ending. I know this is a low budget game and unimpressive graphics is to be expected. But I couldn't shake the feeling that this setting would have been so great with a better presentation or something stylized. A bit of a lost opportunity, but nothing to loose sleep over. The ending wasn't bad per se, it was very logical and well put together. It was just less interesting than some of the scenarios hinted during the game. I was expecting something more extraordinary. Since this is a short and already quite old game, I understand that the regular price may feel a bit much for some. If you feel this way, I strongly suggest adding the game to a wishlist and waiting for a discount. This title can be obtained for a very low price and it's definitely worth it.
While still not perfect and 5 stars is a bit much, I feel the effort developers put into fixing their mistakes (and even more mistakes of the CDPR management) is well worth rewarding with a good score and review :). So, the DLC, how is it? In short: very good. The story is written and presented in the good old CDPR fashion. It feels complete and very well paced. Doesn't hurt that it's also very interesting. It gives the player several important choices, which not only result in different DLC endings but a possibility of a new game ending too. And that ending is awesome, every CP2077 player should have a chance to experience it. New story choices are also much more in the grey than most choices in the base game. There is rarely anything that has no bad consequences. This DLC for sure injects more "cyberpunk" into CP 2077. There isn't really any side content as extensive as all the side character quest lines from the base game. It wouldn't make sense narratively, so I get it. But those few side jobs that we got are still engaging and fun to play. They did improve fixer contracts and expanded the role of Dogtown fixer, however. Mr Hands feels more like a proper character than most other fixers from the base game. New generated, repeatable activities are fun first few times, but get a bit stale later. Fortunately, they are optional and can be skipped entirely. Dogtown feels unique, very different than the rest of the city. About the 2.0 update. Again: this is how it should have launched. While I had fun playing the original game (and on launch no less), I always felt like many skills didn't add anything meaningful and were simply boring. They addressed this head on and it made the gameplay even more fun. Also specializations actually matter (somewhat). MaxTac engagements are brutal (as they should). Vehicle combat could use some work though. CP2077 came a long way from that botched launched. This DLC is a happy conclusion to that story, and a good lesson, I hope.
The game is impressive, truly epic in scale. You have so many ways of doing things, so many choices throughout the story, that you and your friends can have vastly different experiences. This alone makes it worth for every fun of cRPG games. Companions are fun to talk to and fun to have them in the party. They are very well written and marvelously acted (seriously, all actors are great). The world we explore is rich and interesting, enemies are plentiful and companion quests are excellent. All of that is so great, it makes up for all the issues that this game has, and there are plenty. The main issue is the ending. Actually, most of the act 3 doesn't feel as good as 1 & 2. The ending though, it was clearly under cooked. I hope Larian makes an enhanced version with focus on expanding the ending (and adding one clearly missing resolution, which I will not spoil!). This game deserves to get that. Other big issue I had is the D&D system, stupendously over complicated, gameplay limiting D&D system. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I much prefer the system from Divinity Original Sin. And to think I complained about D:OS system being limiting. I clearly didn't know what a limiting system was, which is of course this D&D thing, that I really disliked from the beginning to the end. I will probably never play any other game based on D&D (excluding possible expansions and continuations of this one :)). The music could be more pronounce. There are only maybe 2 moments where the music made me feel something. Most of the time it's just there. Not that it's bad but it's also nothing special. To me at least, music in games can massively add to the experience (Witcher 3 is still the king). Finally some annoyances: equipment management is very clunky (especially in camps), party should stop when perception checks happen instead of walking into literal mine fields, act 3 could use some optimization. Despite all that I thinks it's a must play for all who like the genre.
This is a game of extremes: - On one hand, the gameplay is excellent. But only after you gather a descent amount of upgrade points, abilities and equipment, which takes a looong of time. - The game doesn't hold your hand as if you a preschooler, like many other games do today. But the game tells you very little and sometimes deliberately obscures stuff, so you either have a mountain of patience for searching or look it up online (I have no patience at all). - Gear management is fun, until you realize you spent 4 hours just to make your heroes work on that new level you just got, because without gear they are trash. A caveat: payoff here is excellent, I wiped the flor with the final boss (on normal) :) The story, setting, character and music have some moments but in general they are ok and just ok. It was fun playing through this story with those heroes, but this is one of those games where the gameplay is the main draw.The mission before the final boss is king od annoying to play, and once again the game tells you almost nothing and you have to figure this all on your own. I know some people prefer this, but to me it was a bit too much. Oh, and there is very little decision making, so it makes RPG elements a bit under-cooked. If you are the kind of player who wants to spent hours figuring what to do or finding that one button you missed, this is a game for you. If you want to spent hours picking and choosing which boots should your heroes equip, this is a game for you. Finally, if you want to wait patiently (very, very patiently) to finally be able to get some new abilities, this is a game for you. All that complaining aside, I did finish this game (150+ hours) and I had a lot of fun. I just wish I wouldn't need to use Internet guides so often to simply progress the main story.
I'm almost at the very end of the Awakening expansion and I can say that both the base game and its expansions are great. The story, while not groundbreaking today, is very well crafted. The gameplay seems a bit dated (and it is in some ways) but after a while, and after unlocking some abilities, gets really fun. Voice acting and dialogs are also top notch. All that pales in comparison to the true strength of this game: companions. Their conversations, stories and interactions are awesome. And their banter during the exploration is hilarious. I think that BioWare made it better in Mass Effect series, but that's probably the highest bar there is. If I can still compare companions from Origins to Mass Effect, that must mean something good, right? So why only 2 stars? Because, even after some many years, this game is full of bugs and sadly they will never be fixed. There are plenty of situations where you cen get locked out of some quests for good (mods help sometimes). The game randomly crashes every once in a while. It is especially problematic in battles, where you cannot save. Oh, and when you load the last save after one of those crashes, the game often crashes again right before loading. I don't know if I'll be able to finish the expansion because of this problem... This might be the most broken game I've played and I played Cyberpunk 2077 on launch :). The game sometimes borders on unplayable. Beware! It's a shame that this game is in such a poor state.
I wasn't sure about this game at first, read many opinions about bugs and lackluster mechanics. I finally decided to by this version with all DLCs and turns out, I really like this title :) Yes, there are some bugs, the quality of certain elements could be better for this price, and the game will disappoint people who spent most of their lives in RTS games. It's definitely not a game for hardcore RTS players. Mechanics are good enough for someone who is interested in a fun, but not too complex gameplay servicing good story. There are many strategic elements to choose from, but none of them are especially deep and groundbreaking. But none of them feel terrible either. The game is heavily inspired by older titles, and that's ok too, for someone without thousands of hours spent on strategy games like myself. You don't but this title for deep mechanics, however. You buy it for the story and, especially, the amazing world based on Jakub Różalski's 1920+ art series. Unit design, map elements and music are great. A really fun story is somewhat based on Poland, Germany and Russia from around 1920s, but with diesel powered mechs instead of tanks. It all seems familiar and new at the same time. Writers fund a way to introduce some real life people in this unreal world, and in a way that is both awesome and makes perfect sense. And the playable heroes and NPCs are a fun bunch to hang around :) Not all is great, of course. Some of the dialogs are a bit cringe and uninspired. Some voice actors could do a better job in the future. Also, there are bugs that can cause frustration at times. Interface designers could use a little time for thinking things over. My biggest letdown were poor quality cut scenes. You could see right there that the budget of this title wasn't very big. In general, the technical aspect leaves something to be desired, so I suggest waiting for a discount. Objectively, it's a 3/5 title, but for the story and world design I've added +1 to the score.
The good: - characters - lifelike main and side characters, who I could genuinely like (or dislike) - story - while not as compelling as in some other titles (Witcher series or Mass Effect), it was still a great experience and everyone, with even a slight inclination towards SF or cyberpunk, should experience it, one caveat: some of the optional quests should really be considered as part of the main story, the game looses so much if they are skipped - endings - strong stuff - side quests - while the map is an overwhelming soup of quest markers, and much of those are rather standard and uninspired (but still mostly enjoyable) quests, there are still many that are just insanely good - shooting - while hand to hand combat is crap, melee weapons (katanas, baseball bats and the like) are just ok (too simplistic), I really, really enjoyed shooting in this game: there is good selection of different guns that feel really different, when you use it - hacking - I invested heavily into hacking, and while it can get a little tedious in mid game, with some additional upgrades and high quality hacks, it becomes really fun (and incredibly overpowered) Now the bad: It's a crime (possibly literally) that this game was released before it was finished. I played on launch and there were tons of glitches and some side quest were broken. Much of this could be fixes by now, but this should have never been released in this state. There is overall feeling unfinished and rushed product here. Hand to hand combat and driving are only some examples. The city looks great at first glance, but once you stop for a moment and look closer, the illusion breaks and you are left with a cardboard decoration. AI is practically nonexistent, probably a basic placeholder for the real thing that wasn't finished on time. Worse than even all that are broken promises: choices are nearly meaningless, life paths do not matter, crowds on streets are idiotic, next-get world is actually quite archaic in design.
