Exodus has a lot of little issues that add up. Many aspects of the game are great: environment art, setting, animations, pretty acceptable dialogue. The problem is that there are so many cheap video game moments that just rip you right out of the world. The things that frustrated me: I think the biggest gripe I had with the game was the mutant AI in the open world sections. Even on hardcore, the amount of time the AI would spend pathing was just dumb. On flat ground it wasn't uncommon to see watchmen struggle to find an attack path. Other issues included environment traversal, the liberal amount of supplies (hardcore left me with a surplus 90% of the time), and the weird and frustrating way radiation damage works when paired with scripted sequences. I was so frustrated wasting syringes during the final act because the game told me I was hurt, but once I was past the scripted sequence the syringes would heal like normal. Didn't preform particularly well on a 8700k-1080-16gb setup, weird animation hiccups on distant objects. The writing itself was better than a lot of other games, and the voice actors did great. Unfortunately I had issues with overlapping dialogue. And of course the "follow the NPC" sequences where they move slower than your normal speed but faster than your walking speed. Some of the scripted sequences feel cheap. The things I liked: The environments are pretty spectacular. I didn't care for the desert, but the other parts were pretty cool. One of the earlier stops during the journey was particularly fun, but I won't spoil that. Even if navigating the open world sections could be tedious, it never looked bad. The animations are as good as ever, it's always been one of my favorite parts of the Metro series. Guns are impactful and satisfying, and moving through the different environments affects the soundscape appropriately. The end was worth it. Some early game moments were cheap and ham fisted, but it was worth it in the end.
Wow, what a rocky start. Crackly audio bugs forcing restart, Ultrawide resolution doesn't always work properly, Swapping between controller and K&M bugs out the controller look. Everywhere you look, physics anomalies, buggy AI, and basically no interactive elements. Can't interact with literally anyone outside the quests, the world and its meatbag npcs are jarring and detached. I have yet to see a single meaningful dialogue choice or gameplay feature unique to my starting role. PC mouse look has some kind of weird acceleration going on, not an option to turn it off. Quite low performance in Ultrawide resolution. I expected an immersive sim with deep RPG and Dialogue and some well implemented gunplay and hacking, but the RPG mechanics are a basic tech tree, and Dialogue has almost fewer options than Fallout 4. This game really feels like it punishes you for looking behind the curtain. Not impressed with the final product, even beyond the bugs. This is not as cohesive an experience as Witcher 3, and I don't believe it lived up to the amount of marketing that was done. Something something transparency with your customers...
