1) Can't use Steam Workshop mods because the developers haven't enabled Anonymous Downloads. 2) Does not have cloud saves implemented for the GOG version
Relaxed; thoughtful experience.
I avoided any hype for the game and, maybe because of the lack of expectations, I am very, very satisfied with what I am getting out of the game. The bad: Getting the ugly parts out of the way first, there are bugs. I haven't found any game breaking ones yet, or that many as a matter of fact, but there are a few. In my opinion, expected in a game of this magnitude and early in the launch phase. World building: the city is rich and full of detail. It can feel overwhelming at first - especially the constant blasting of techno music at high volume from the dozens of radios present anywhere you go - but if you take it slow and start exploring (especially on foot) you can see the amount of work that was put into building this world. Story: I haven't progressed much in the story so far but it seems like a unique take on the cyberpunk genre. Visuals: they are breathtaking and the game is exceptionally optimized from my experience. The only issue I have with visuals is that it has a very 'cartoonish' aesthetics which really doesn't appeal to me (reminds me a lot of the future in Back to the Future). I would much rather have preferred a more sober/darker look and feel to the world, but this is a minor thing since I accept I don't have control over this as a participant in the world. Quests: they aren't super unique, but good enough to keep my attention. "Dungeons" are very satisfying to complete, really presenting multiple ways to solve the same mission (a very Deus Ex feel to it). Overall I do recommend the game if you have a good platform to play it on (if you don't have a beefy PC, do try the cloud computing platforms as I am playing on one of them with great results) and are willing to pay the extra for the 'early adopter' phase. Looking forward to updates that will fix the bugs.
Singularity is a fun, story based FPS game. It has elements that make it somewhat similar to Bioshock, Half Life 2, Dishonored and Metro. Game mechanics are fun, with interesting physics based puzzles. Gunplay is satisfying but not exceptional. The storyline is interesting (albeit short) and can keep you interested in the game. The soviet thematic is a very exaggerated, but doesn't take too much away from the experience. The one major critique I have for the game is that it is very linear (a-la Half Life 2). You get used to this but early on the invisible walls or sections you can't just go to (for no apparent reason) are a bit immersion breaking. I usually don't like games like this, but this one managed to keep me hooked. The other (minor) issue is the FOV which is small compared to modern games. I played it on Linux and it ran fine, out of the box, under Wine/Lutris.
There is an issue with 32 Bit sound libraries and this does not run on Linux out of the box.
There are good ideas in the game and it can be very immersive, but the jankiness is too strong... On the positives I'd list the mechanics (changing clothes, alarms spreading throughout enemy camps in a 'natural' form, decent difficulty) and moderately interesting missions (I've played only 3 at the time of the review). As negatices my main problem is with some mechanics and the controls. Things like being forced to approach an enemy from behind if you want to punch them, added with only being able to do said attack (or any other stealth takedown) while moving extraordinarilly slow... this combo makes approaching enemies for stealthy takedowns extremelly delicate. Which sounds like a good idea, but there's no depth to this difficulty... it just turns into a boring mechanic which demans constant reloads... The action menu was another pain point, with it's awkward controls (involving pressing "e" and scrolling thru options which are shown in a tiny menu on the bottom corner of the screen). This gave the game a feeling of slugishness which goes against the need to act fast during stealthy missions. In the end you die alot... not because you had a bad strategy, but because you had trouble executing your plans given the game's controls.
As background, I have about 10h in this game and about 40h in Shadow of Chernobyl. I have not played Call of Pripyat, yet. Overall, I do think this is worth playing for fans of S.T.A.L.K.E.R series, but I would definetely NOT recommend it as a fist S.T.A.L.K.E.R game for someone just starting out. The AI: One of the high points of SoC in my opinion - seems dumbed down. NPC behavior is vanilla: they are overly agressive, do not take cover or flank as often as in the first game and have the annoying superpower of immediately knowing where you are. In the first installmente NPCs behaved as if they had some idea of where you last were instead of having this 6th sense of always doing the straight path towards your current location. NPC weapons also seem to have a significant lower spread compared to the ones the player use. This is a cheap cheat mechanic to make the AI harder... Bleeding: This was changed for the worse. Instead of the red/yellow/geen indicators which made it obvious to you how bad the situation was and how many bandaged you would have to use, now the only indication you have is the intensity of your heartbeat sound - which during combat is nearly impossible to pay attention to. On top of that you seem to bleed a lot more which leads to spamming the bandage button all the time. Ironsights: pistols no longer have ironsight I have no idea why this was done as I see absolutelly no benefit. Thankfully there are mods that restore ironsights to pistols. Damage: They managed to make gunplay a bit more satisfying with the increased damage. Now you can realistically headshot enemies even with pistols... Atmosphere: Nights are now actually dark, which is great. But overall, the game seems to not really have the same bleek atmosphere the first one did. Maybe improves later on, who knows... Faction wars: seems like a cool idea, but in practice it ended up being a dull mechanic. Doesn't really add a lot to the experience from what I've seen.
