Let me start by saying the game is fun. I enjoy the interactables, most of the story, and the combat. If you like the genre, you'll probably like this game. However, I've played 10 hours on a different launcher than GOG and have experienced a multitude of minor bugs and two game breaking bugs. Knowing how some RPGs suffer from this I had multiple saves but re-initiating certain events or sequences brought back the game breaking bugs. I also have a few gripes with the a bit of the UI and some of the balancing, but I think those may be minor bugs as well. Other than that if you like tactical iso-rpgs this is a pretty good one, has the typical Wasteland flair if you're a fan of the series. My recommendation is wait three months and then pick it up.
Like many other reviews, I want to say I love the CRPG aspects of the game. Love the building of characters, I enjoy even the cliche characters, etc. If you like rules heavy, DnD style spacebar pausing combat up a storm games to micro difficult encounters, you will enjoy this game. Like other reviews have said, yes this game does not explain a whole lot about certain features, but I'm still loving it. One thing I have not seen on many reviews or just touched on slightly that I think is important, is if you don't have a SSD hard drive, do not buy this game. I've played on my gaming laptop (2016 stats) without SSD, and my main desktop with, and there is a big, BIG difference. Even with the SSD though, I probably spent 20% of my time in game in loading screens. For some reason the kingdom making UI is graphics or computation intense? And without the ability to open your journal and check available time to complete certain quests/objectives, you have to leave the kingdom making UI, loading screen, ok now check journal, alright reload kingdom making UI, another loading screen, turns out I have enough to building points to maybe upgrade my town, ok another loading screen, nope not enough money, back to kingdom making UI, another loading screen, dont need to do anything in the UI now, and back to my character, another loading screen. Each one of these loading screens is between 3 and 25 seconds with the SSD. When I was doing kingdom management on my laptop without the SSD, I was able to read a book simutaneously. Really do enjoy the many different aspects, staying true to the roots, kingdom/character building, nice 6 player party size (I have room for a bard!) but for what you get on the kingdom UI (which doesnt seem like much more than a fancy map), load times are very frequent, and often long enough that makes the frequency irritating. If I would have just played this on my laptop without knowing the beauty of the SSD, I would have lost interest in the game.
One of the best point and click games I have played in a while. A quick list of pros and cons: Pros: - Most puzzles seem to be in the easy to medium difficulty range, which keeps the pace of the game moving forward - My playthrough was essentially bug free and I only experienced one place with an odd looking delay, and one loss of a frame - Interactive point display (spacebar) is a nice touch. - Fun things to interact with and learn about the world. - Art style meshes well with the characters and setting - I personally enjoyed the voice acting and dialog (not overly dramatic, comedic or corny, even if Pendrells self deprecation doesn't seem to fit occasionally) Cons (all relatively small imo): - Suffers from point and click puzzle stereotype where you know how to accomplish a task but may not neccesarily be able to implement the solution exactly the way the game wants to move on. Part of this may just be the intentional misleading of certain puzzles and doesn't happen often, but twice I had to look up a guide to implement the exact step/usage of an item to proceed in the game. - Tutorial timing was way to quick to understand what it was trying to show me (may just be me) - One mechanic (multitool), trying not to spoil here, seemed... unnecessarily complicated? Like obviously some things could be solved with multiple applications in real life but you needed to specifically use one of 6? options where several of them are useless for the whole game? And as a last note timing-wise, I felt the duration and pace of the game (left game on once, so around 3-4 hrs, not 11 hrs) was just right. Each area felt like it had similar amount of time dedicated to it and nothing was really rushed or forcefully long. Ending felt pretty satisfying and overall I really enjoyed the game.
