I own at least two copies of every major single-player Fallout Game, and three copies of some. This is a series that I've been playing since the only game was called Fallout without a number attached because there was only one. My absolute favorite one to play is the GOG version of Fallout 4. I have the Steam version, but I always turn to the GOG version. The difference is that GOG enables me to play the game I want to play, not the one Bethesda wants me to play. The game is great, it's a massive open world with tons of lore and Easter Eggs. Yes, it's very much a simplified ARPG, but it's still amazing despite that simplification. Most importantly, it's a Bethesda game, which means even a decade after launch we're still getting almost a hundred mods a week of additional tweaks and content. The edition GOG sells is not only more stable than other versions, but it's also compatible with more mods. It's a win-win.
There's an interesting idea buried inside this DLC, and I like some of the items and dialogue quite a bit. It's great if your primary interest is solving combat as a series of problems. Unfortunately, that's pretty much all it is. Everything's a framework to allow you to go into a whole bunch of arena fights and if that's not your jam you're not going to love it.
I've been playing isometric CRPGs since the original Fallout. I remember drooling over previews of the original Baldur's Gate more than 20 years ago. I played my way through Pillars of the Earth and backed Deadfire. Pathfinder Kingmaker is the closest fit to my gaming tastes of any game released since the Infinity Era. Yes it had bugs; it had a lot of bugs at the start but even they weren't enough to hide the fact this game hit all my CRPG buttons: Companions with personalities and relationships D20 mechanics Moral choices A story that let me explore rather than forcing me down a railroad. DEPTH Campaign length: I've played 250 hours already and won't be surprised to play 250 more. Yes, the difficulty can scale pretty high and some find that off-putting, and that's not even mentioning the bugs it started with. At the same time, Owlcat has been very good about fixing bugs and they have done wonders in decreasing load times. I have a fast NVME SSD and the first versions were just terrible for load times, but now it's no worse than other games of the genre. If you like western style isometric RPGs you can get lost in it for untold hours, and that's what I want most from any game. Hours of enjoyment.
