I've only played about 1h, but most of the time I was pretty bored by the lackluster gameplay. This game is a fantastic audio-visual experience... but it's very poor in terms of mechanics... There's no real puzzle, you just have to find the symbol or the totem to progress to the next area, nothing clever about that. The chapter 2 is basically : find the symbol to progress to the next area -> find the totem to progress to the next area -> find the symbol and the totem to progress to the next area - > find the two symbols and the totem to progress to the next area -> find the three symbols and the totem to progress to the next area... That's where I called it quit... Nothing challenging about that. Even a headless chicken could "solve" this by wandering aimlessly around the map... I don't mind repetiting mechanics spread through the game, but doing this 4-5 times in a row... Combat was also pretty repetitive, with the same basic ennemy attacking you each time. Overall, the game rely too much on its audio-visual experience, and forgets to make the gameplay actually engaging.
This is probably the worst Myst so far... First off, as others have mentionned there is a lot of lagging moving through the screens, it's pretty anoying playing like this for 8h... Second, the puzzles are horrible. There are two components to resolving a puzzle : 1. Understanding what the goal of the puzzle is. What are we trying to achieve ? 2. Understaning how to solve the puzzle to achieve that goal. Other myst games usually are pretty good at number 1. The level-design or the design of the puzzle will make you understand what the goal is. The how is the hard part, but you have clues to help you resolve it. However, here, it fails on both count. The "spider-chair puzzle" is the perfect example. You actually have zero clue what the goal is with that chair... You only understand what that chair does after you resolve the "puzzle". But resolving that puzzle is next to impossible with the clues you find in that level. They are so vague that you're not even sure to what "puzzle" they refer to. For example, you have no way of knowing that the clues for the "cable tension" actually refer to the cables at all. I don't think anyone can figure out that puzzle with only the info given in game. The UI for several puzzles is also very bad. For the "spider-chair", even if you figure out the clues, chances are you're gonna input the solution the wrong way. You might have the correct solution, but the interface is so terrible that you put the solution the wrong way. So even by poking around, you have no chance of figuring out what the goal of the puzzle is. Another good example, is the puzzle where you interact with "monkeys" using sounds - short or long. The interface is bad that most of the time you end up doing something you didn't want to do. That puzzle is not difficult to solve, but the interface with the sounds makes it very frustrating. Apply those principle all through the game, and this makes this game very frustrating instead of challenging and fun !
Everything that made D2 magnificient is gone. The amazing level design ? Gone. The customisation of the power set ? Gone. The charistamtic characters ? Gone. The worlderful world of Dishonored ? Gone. And you end up with an empty shell, that forces you to play a very specific way through some uninspired level design and boring missions. I loved Dishonored 2, but everything that I loved about it, is missing from this game. I got it on sales at 6€ and I still regret it. Don't waste your money.
I don't get the 5/5 review... It's a good game but not a great game in my opinion. So I've played 15h out of this, and it think I'm done with it. Here's why : - Story isn't that great... Granted I'm only in the beggining but so far the main quests are : Go talk to that NPC to get info on X, NPC tells you to go there and kill that monster, go kill that monster, go back to the NPC and get info on X. Most of the secondary quests are the same. Ok, killing monster is the point of the game but a bit more effort on the narrative side would have been appreciated. - Very slow paced. The story is slow and the progression is slow. I mean it takes a very low time to just level-up or aquire ressources to get better equipement.... And the main quests doesn't give you enough xp to just keep up with them, so you have to find and do a lot of repetitive side quests to gain xp. - Combats are not that great. I mean, you have you powers to make it a bit better, but otherwise, it's basicially dodging and attacking with your sword. You have to adapt a bit for each type of monster, but after a while it's a bit boring and repetitive. - Technically flawed. I've failed two quests without meaining to. Some less serious bug here and there. But the last straw for me, was a level 6 side quest that had me fighting against a level 20 monster. I was level 8... It's still a good game though, other reviewers have talk about the good side of it. But for me, I don't see myself playing again for 60+ hours to finish the game, it's good but not that good. God of war for exemple is better imo. So not a bad game, but there are better games out there that I have yet to finish...
