"Never argue about taste". Therefor, I very rarely review books or games. This is an exception because I want to address the negative reviews here that stem from critique on the writing. I've played through this game twice now and spent around 150 hours total with it, so I'm confident enough to form an opinion. Minor spoilers ahead though, so take heed. Some reviews here kind of crap on the story and plot presented in this game, and others crap on the writing. "Average". "Mediocre". "Weak plot". "Uninvolved story"?! Really now, come on. Obsidian delivered something grand here. The gameplay is there. It tries to expand on the formula of its predecessors without taking away what made (makes, for some) that formula work. Party management, class-based combat, weapon types matter, hundreds of quests in a world where you play an important role. The plot glues everything together. It is engaging, atmospheric and epic. You *are* the centerpiece of the story. No, you're not a child of a murder god like in Baldur's Gate, but your party's actions determine the fate of thousands of souls. Literally. You can verify that by the questions you get when you start a new game of PoE 2. Is that "uninvolving"? No, I didn't think so, either. I'm guessing negatives in regards to story primarily comes from two reasons: People who are feeling lost because this isn't a Forgotten Realms setting (or D&D for that matter), and people who don't enjoy reading all that much. I don't intend this as an insult, if you don't enjoy reading text, that's fair. There *are* a lot of words and prose to work through here, but for a video game the writing is atmospheric and of high enough quality to be enjoyable. To those who are on the fence because of those negative story reviews, I say give it a shot. Take your time. It won best RPG in the Global Game Awards in 2015, it didn't do that by not having an engaging story or uninteresting plot. My €0.02.
Long have I awaited the day that I would see this title pop up on GoG... And today, it's finally here. I will admit that this review is more or less biased towards the positive because of my situation at the time. This game dragged me through my very exhausting school finals of 1999, even though I'd only play for an hour a day after each exam, after which I'd continue studying late. I was immersed in RTS games and the cRPGs at the time. Yet, after trying Rogue Squadron on recommendation of a school friend, it caught me completely by surprise how good it was (hence the title of this review). I actually learned to appreciate the Star Wars universe thanks to this game. The music, the sound effects, the story (which borrowed heavily from the Expanded Universe) and the controls made for a very immersive experience. Graphics were good for its time (running even on slower/less powerful graphics cards). I remember feeling nothing short of thrilled when, after getting a bronze medal in all missions, I unlocked the Millenium Falcon (which flew as you'd expect; very bulky, but very fast with lots of firepower). The sequels for this game that were released on GameCube did not do it for me, even though the gameplay is roughly the same. But this one did its job, and I loved it dearly.
I remember this game being one of my first shooters, after Quake and Duke. While the graphics are not fantastic, they never bother the gameplay experience. There is a -lot- of detail in the game environment, even for this era. Where Duke is an obvious caricature, Caleb (the protagonist) is more of a character that ran away from a Stephen King novel. The one-liners he utters are all pop-culture references, which makes him a dark, gritty anti-hero with an equal sense of humor. You'll love playing him. The weapons are diverse, fun, and never overpowered (save the rocket launcher, but yeah… It's a rocket launcher). One thing I always favored over other shooters is that the ammo is really well balanced. Ammo never comes in packs but you'll find a few bullets here and there, so at times where you really have to watch what you spend. Which in turn makes it invigorating when you finally come across a "resting area" packed with ammo. The level design is very diverse, ranging from a hellish carnival, to a cathedral, to an old train station, to hell itself, and lots more in-between. A fair warning to people who are sensitive to "motion sickness", this game might affect you (commonly in older games where the perspective is not 100% correct at times, basically this is your brain disagreeing with what you see/hear).
