Phantom Liberty's main story is silly and out of place in the context of the base game. The game mechanics it introduces are tedious and not fun. They should have left well enough alone with the 1.63 version of the game, this DLC isn't good and the game version 2.0+ changes are a step backward. I'll give Phantom Liberty this: the new zone looks great and the additional missions Mr. Hands gives you in that zone are pretty fun. But the rest of it is just bad.
The game looks wonderful, but that's about it. In no particular order: I don't know why this game is isometric; there is so much verticality in the maps that the inability to look up makes you feel crippled, it's beyond frustrating. Everything is fully rendered so why even bother with this limitation? It would have been a wonderful experience with a free camera system like the one in Dragon Age. Instead it's claustrophobic and frankly nausea-inducing. I didn't think I would ever say this about a game, but there is simply way too much content. You can't walk 3 feet without finding a sidequest. Some sidequests are straightforward, some take you all over the map into areas you're not even close to ready for, or which you'll need to go to later for a main quest. Keeping track of all of them becomes more work than fun. The combat is just plain silly. The idea of combining environmental effects tactically seems clever, but in real life it just means the entire map is on fire after two turns. And turn-based combat may have been interesting in the 90s but it's like watching paint dry today. In short, it's a game that should be good, but it's crippled by throwback game mechanics that detract from the experience.
This is one of the most ridiculously unbalanced games I have ever played. It actually does a pretty good job of modeling the player's sensors. Depth, flow noise, thermals, and sensor fields of view all affect your ability to find contacts and obtain an accurate firing solution. Your towed array works better to the sides, you are blind in your baffles, etc. There's even a neat feature where you can match the sound signatures of contacts to improve your tracking. The problem is, the enemy AI has absolutely none of these concerns. Enemy subs and surface ships detect you very quickly regardless of your speed, use of thermals, etc, and enemy aircraft always know where you are whether or not they drop sonobuoys. Worse, you can't track aircraft or even get a warning of their presence; most of the time your first indication there's an aircraft out there is half a dozen torpedoes or depth charges appearing around you. As a result, the real game here is to manage your sensors to get firing solutions on whatever you need to kill as quickly as possible, fire your weapons, and run for your life. Stealth and tactics don't make any difference. This is a real disappointment, especially at this price. Definitely not recommended.
This game makes me sad. The world is beautiful and the story is intriguing, but its mechanics are so abysmal that it robs me of any desire to play it. Combat is simply abysmal; every enemy is a bullet sponge so your stealth and tactics don't matter, but you can just keep chugging your near-infinite inventory of health consumables until you win. Every combat is a chore and you absolutely never feel like you're a tough and cool street samurai. Everything about the UI is terrible. It's filled with inconsistencies; sometimes your clothing can be managed from the base inventory screen, but sometimes you have to go to your backpack to equip an item. The map would be cool except different icons appear and disappear at different zoom levels, seemingly at random, sometimes in different locations. The whole thing is just a mess. The one bright spot is the story; it's a pretty typical Cyberpunk tale, but it's told through well-acted cut scenes. But even there, the game's mechanics are simply bad. Some dialogue options are timed, some are not, and there's no clear reason why. It doesn't seem to matter anyway because the story is completely on rails; the responses you choose allow you to ask more questions but don't allow you to change the course of events. CDPR may be able to fix some of these flaws and make the game actually fun, but in its current state it isn't worth buying.
I loved Jedi Academy back when it came out, but I had never played Jedi Outcast until now. I got Jedi Outcast because everyone says it is the better title, with the same mechanics but a better story and gameplay. I don't understand how anyone can feel that way. The combat system is incredibly dated and feels about as tactical as the original DOOM. The gunplay you are forced to endure is awful, with inaccurate weapons, no cover system, and enemy AI that just runs around from side to side to dodge your already inaccurate shots. Skill and tactics are irrelevant; the combat situations you are put into are inherently unfair, so the key to survival is just to manage your health power ups and keep your shields and ammo topped up whenever possible. Worse than the combat is the level design. The missions take place on a succession of bases, which consist of endless mazes of corridors that meet in near-identical rooms. Progress requires you to solve puzzles, some of which make sense and some of which are utterly illogical. There are no hints, and the game's design language isn't consistent, so there is no indication of what you need to shoot, what you can open, what consoles you can activate to get to the next piece of the level. It's just a clickfest of trial and error until you manage to stumble upon the solution, usually after you've fallen to your death or been burned alive numerous times in the attempt. All in all, this never feels like a Jedi simulation. It's just 1990s FPS mechanics dressed up in a Star Wars skin. If your idea of fun is dying and reloading constantly until you get it right, and having to look up walkthroughs on the web to discover where to go next, this game is for you. I will say that the game runs well, and the engine works great on modern 16:9 and even ultrawide displays with just a few config file entries. So if you're an old-school fan of the game and want to relive it on a modern system, it definitely will satisfy that. Just don't go into it sight unseen and expect a satisfying Jedi simulator; skip this and go for the far superior sequel.
