It is actually nice, about 7 out of 10. But it is still rare like early access. Tons of bugs. 5 years and such price – and still cannot use ropes and traps disarming kit, get stuck camera and characters, crooky controls, quests random reset, and much much more. But oh yeah can romance everything. If you are looking for decent tactical DnD without romancing bears, better check out Solasta.
If you like Witcher "ecosystem" and Gwent you'll probably enjoy Thronebreaker once or even twice. Sad truth is, this game is just one big ad. Yes, it is kinda nice-looking. Also it's accurate to sources while expanding original stories in some ways. But let's be honest. Story has though choices on every step. Well that's Witcher universe after all, but with every step it becomes less and less enjoyable. That's why story is short. Another reason for it to be not that long is exact length to understand that there is no meaning to play gwent against computer. Also gwent does not have those crazy puzzles. Some of them are nice and funny, while others are really strange, illogical and unpleasant. Ah, and you know what you will get for these puzzles? Some Gwent bells and whistles. With all pros this game have, generally it is indie-level humble reward for a significant donation to CD PROJEKT RED's general course. Just look at the price. Nuff said.
I am giving it 5 out 5 because i enjoyed it more than once. But true grade is about 6-7 out of 10. A lot can be said about, so i'll be quick and state only what you absolutely need to know: - you most likely enjoy ATOM if you enjoyed Fallout 1 especially. If Fallout 2 is your favorite – still worth trying - game may seem too hard but it's mostly at start. It's wastelands after all - game has a ton of references and humor, but to get most of it you need some knowledge about late- and post-soviet culture - world is not very big and sometimes lacks choice. Still a lot of quests have more than two solutions - game has a lot of one time checks, gone for good if failed. Some quests can be gone too if wrong time/sequence. Still, nothing good old grind cannot fix - some quests have really harsh and/or unexpected ending. Makes you remember that it was you who wanted to play in post-apocalyptic wasteland - art, namely drawing and soundtrack, is relatively weak - game still has bugs and incompletes/things that obviously could be better. Some are fixed by mods, but - mods mostly hosted on steam. I believe it is not developers fault but it's still disappointing - developers team is international. I believe now you are ready. Go enjoy it. And yes, it is too dangerous to go alone. Take this Alexander the Brain Worm with you.
And the reason is not only that Icewind Dale 1 got "Enhanced". As others have mentioned before, this part was a try get more money from first part's popularity. Second part was made in hurry. It is not so good as first, even considering some improvements. You will never see Ten Towns you are supposed to defend, except ruined and abandoned Targos with no interesting side-quests and NPCs in it. More so, you will have no "base" and many locations will be impossible to visit twice. Locations (backgrounds) themselves got worse than in first part. Art is not that impressive (still better than BG 1-2). Locations are ridiculously small, like Wandering Willage and surroundings, or absurdly big, like Ice Palace that can simply host one of Ten Towns. Every step on these locations however has tough battle in it. Most of them are impossible to win without decent preparations, but reconnaissance will be mostly ruined by cutscenes and/or monsters showing only when battle starts. Loot is overspecialized, meaning you need to carry tons of different equipment to change it in almost every battle (and interface is not helping at all). More so, there is no bestiary. You need to read battle logs very carefully to understand why your +2 axe cannot harm this yet another beast. Oh, and you have beat all crap from yuan-ti in first part at level about 6? Forget it. Here they will beat all crap from you on level about 14. Because screw you that's why. And so on. Better get first IWD. Hope someday we will see this old but cracked gem on proper engine (like Solasta) with turn-based fights as they should be in DnD.
Being a big fan of classic isometric RPGs, including Baldur's Gate 2 and Icewind Dale (real time fights) i started PoE long time ago. Those days i dropped it for some reason i can not exactly remember. Now i returned to it to finish what was started. What i found is that i barely can force myself to finish it. Also i cannot recommend it. There are a lot of pro reasons for this game, but even more contra. Describing all of them will take pages. In short, as i see it, authors tried to add absolutely everything they counted as great. It made game overloaded in many ways and meanings. Despite real-time battles, game requires a tons of battle micromanagement. Yet almost all possibilities, features and spells remain completely useless due to poor battle rules (especially ranges and combat-only use). It could make battles too hard but there is short set of actions that makes them just routine (while tanking, use clerics, druids and maybe mages infinite set of spells, especially druid's "returning storm"). Castle management is troublesome almost like real one. Consequences of actions are unclear and very annoying sometimes. Story and characters are undoubtedly rich but doesn't catch on for some reason. Really lots of magical items are in fact mostly useless. I doubt i'll ever re-play it or go for next parts.
First of all: "this game is similar to Disco Elysium" is not true. What they have in common is only lots of text and isometry. It is not RPG but pure adventure, yet it doesn't have linear plot of classic adventures. How so? Well, it's because what is called here deduction/detective is actually by 95% next scene generation based on player's choice. Sounds great? Well it's not. One walkthrough is short, and so called "logic" of so called "puzzles" is so peculiar that it made you talk to your screen very loudly, asking "Why? WHY? Goddamn why? How so? What the hell?!". Mostly you will pick decisions randomly just to end all this and see what's next. Also after about a half of one walkthrough you will be informed that your "detective" work has no meaning at all, and now you must decide how this strange sick world will continue to exist. But in this decision you will be restrained by choices that you made perviously (and mean literally nothing because spoiler). I am literally out of words to describe how strangely disappointing this game is.
Short. Many restrictions. Weak lore, almost absent RPG part. TOO MUCH cutscenes. Cutscenes are ruining reconnaissance/battle preparations. Still, playable, enjoyable. Saved me from just another Icewind Dale 1 replay.
Maybe it is not perfect. Maybe it can look too gloomy. Maybe can be harsh in start. But it has great art, good enough story, many ways to deal with enemies, and almost makes dying part of fun. It can be mastered easy enough to your comfort level, and it can offer wide spectrum of fun – from "just hack them all" to "i like to count just everything". I recommend it.
It could be nice and atmospheric dungeon crawler, with pieces of classic fallouts, metro and cyberpunk. But it is not. Developers had failed in their task: it is imbalanced from the start. That is the reason this game needs strange cooldowns, terrible barter system and ultimately implemented hardcore elements in battles (e.g. if enemy CAN stun you, he WILL stun you. No pathetic excuses like misses (enemies almost never miss), saving throws, full metal armor or even constitution resist). And while you see it that way, you cannot overlook mediocre (sometimes amateur even) graphics, generated-like soundtrack, almost absent story or terrible elements of game design. I completely understand that there are players playing hardcore for the sake of hardcore, while generating builds is greatest pleasure and do not mention the world. But that's not me. And this game has very little common with "classic Fallout" if we are talking about enjoying game, not suffering it.
Huge neon city. Rain and run never stops. Great soundtrack. Flying cars! Good enough story. These are pros. Cons: - too much loadings; - too much long slow dialogues; - this is not RPG at all; - strange mix of open world and visual novel: city is big but has very little to explore, almost no side quests. Enjoyable enough, but do not be over-pre-charmed.
