I've played for a couple of hours now, and my first impression is that the game is supberb. I cannot believe how visually beautiful this game is. Everything about is it incredible. It runs like a dream. I was hooked from the first five minutes, and I can't wait to play on. To the developers: thank you. This is amazing. It was worth the wait. For those people who are having trouble with crashes, the buffout 4 mod took care of that for me.
Elex 2 started out seemingly just as much fun as Elex, but after a couple of dozen hours into the game the realization has finally sunk in -- they took out the most intruiguing part of the game, which was the wonderful, varied, eminently explorable world, and replaced it with a pale imitation of that world. Gone are the different terrains. Gone are the fantastic buildings to explore, replaced by generic, repetetive clones, and not many of them. Oh,sure, some of the locations are similar, and I eagerly run to them, hoping to revisit one of my favourite places, but but this time they're just watered down and much smaller, as if we'll just forget how great they were in the first game. The passage of a few years doesn't explain where all the buildings have gone, or why they shrank, or where all the rooms went. And I think the overall map size has been shrunk, too. It's ostensibly the same map, but you can run across it in about ten minutes. The cliffs aren't as high, and the terrain is flatter everywhere. On my laptop the game runs perfectly, and I've had no issue with the camera angles. No crashes, either, and only a few visual clitches. The gameplay is pretty much the same as all PB games, and it's fun enough, but for me, Elex 2 has had all the wonder leached out of it. It makes me want to load up another game of Elex.
I understand that console gamers were sorely disappointed with Cyberpunk 2077 on release, but right from the start it's been flawless fun for me on my Razer Blade, smooth, stable, and surprisingly bug-free for a game that was slammed for being buggy and unstable. In fact, I've encountered very few bugs and they have all been resolved. In my 250-odd hours pf play time, I've only had one crash to desktop. My biggest quibble with game came from the impossible driving controls with a mouse and keyboard, but subsequent patches have stabilized that and I'm now quite enjoying that aspect of the game. As for the gameplay, I'm having a blast. Like Witcher 3, the game map is littered with quest markers, some of them being simple "defeat the bad guys" and some of them leading to long, involved quests. I personally like the main story line -- I think it's engaging and richly detailed and the multiple endings do depend on choices you made in the game. Keanu Reeves really is an essential main character and didn't just show up for a quick cameo to sell games. I must say that the romances are disappointing, though. Once you've had a tumble in the hay, it's basically over, except for a few texts or phone calls. As is there's almost no point to them. Hopefully this will be addressed in DLC because as they stand the romances are pretty flat and don't add much to the game. Play style can be a mix of brawn, brain, guns, cyberattacks, swordplay and even fisticuffs, depending on what you want. I personally love the cyber/silenced handgun sneak assassin play style, and this game does it very well. All in all, the game lived up to most of the hype for me. I'm on my second play through to explore different options, and it's just as much fun as it was the first time through.
If you LOVE combat and not much else, this game is for you. If you're looking to explore a new world, engage in a strong story or actually have an enjoyable time playing, perhaps you might give this one a miss. I want to love this game, but every single square inch of the game is not just one enemy, but a mob of them. Not one Drake, but five. Not one haunt, but ten. Just cleared a huge mob? Want to get to that cave you know is just around the bend? Guess what, you have to fight yet another mob. There is literally not one inch of the game that isn't covered in high-level mobs. Add to that the very indifferent loot that all of this combat nets you, and it starts to feel pointless after a while. After a few days, I'm spending a lot more time reloading and swearing than I am playing and having a good time.
Yes, it's Early Access, but it's remarkably polished and we can look forward to a fantastic full game. The animations are smooth and the game feels very solid, with no crashes. Apart from gorgeous scenery, the facial animations truly stand out. Each face is different and well-animated. The voice acting is spot on. I haven't got very far in the story, but having leveled up a couple of times, I can now see differences from the original games in how the character skills will progress. Even at level 3 there are skill path options to choose from, giving you some interesting choices right off the bat. One other huge difference from the originals is the ability to climb and use the physical environment more fully, giving tactical advantages in combat and wider exploration options. Skill check rolls are front and center, showing the actual roll take place. Respecting character interactions, this is clearly a full-on Baldur's Gate experience. Dialogue choice do matter, only here you can see how characters react to what you say. Obviously the things you say and do matter here, as they did in the original games. So far, so good, and I'm looking forward to the full game.
I've played all of the original Bioware games endlessly since they first came out, so I do know my BG. Honestly, I think the EE versions are just fine. They run flawlessly, they introduce a few new NPC's, and the game is as solid as ever. What's not to like?
I bought this on sale years ago and then forgot about it. When my gaming laptop died, I had to look for something that would run on my other laptop, and this one caught my eye. I went in with no real expectations, never having read a review of it. What a game. Immersive and complex and with a terrifying world to explore. The first time there was a radiation event I actually panicked. Exploration of the sandbox world is well rewarded. Resolving quests gives you real benefits. And there are elements of real terror. The graphics are fine, perhaps not as polished as you'd see in more recent titles, but these are still good enough to carry the game.
