Every once in a while you find a game, that is one of a kind, special. Firewatch is one of those. It sets out to do few things, and does them very well. A "walking simulator" is a fair way of characterising the game, as you will spend the entire game hiking around the national park. Another focus is narrative and you will use RPG-like conversation system to shape the direction of your character. There are also quite a few items to interact with. Gameplay is simple, and the story is the focus. You don't have much influence on the story, and choices are there to help you get immersed into the story, rather than direct it. I found the story to be worth the addmission fee, but I would warn people who look for entertainment per say - it is more of a character drama, than an entertaining intrigue, even though there are some great tension building.
From the 3 announced DLC this is the one I was looking forward the least. I mostly play RPGs for story and exploration so combat driven content wasn't exactly my first choice. That said I still enjoyed it quite a bit. SSS adds a new location which revolves around an arena. Most of the content consists of various fights which you will be doing there, divided into 3 main categories: Seeker (making you think more of your tactics by adding unique constrains or giving opponents advantagious position), Slayer (usually against heavy hitting opponents) and Survivor (wave based encounters requiring resource management). Luckily they are well designed encounters. They are challenging and most of them are quite unique. Still, even more so than BoW, this is a DLC which should work best when played with the main game when you do couple challenges between the core game content, rather than doing them all in a row. On top of a lot of fighting, there is a story to the arena, which once again manages to add to the overall story and lore of the base game + an additional content for one of your sidekicks.
Black&White style caught my eye back in the day, so it was finally time to check this game out, especially with so many positive reviews. Its alright. Mediocre. Not my cup of tea. The Saboteur feels like EA's budget response to Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed series. Game follows similar formula, albeit with a bit more of GTA instead of stabbing and swordfighting. I found game entertaining for an hour or two, but shallow gameplay, dumb story and not entertaining characters made me wish I bought it through steam so I could refund it. As it is I beated the game to completion doing all of the main content - Missions, Sidemissions, some open world activities. Luckily the game is fairly short (about 10 hours). However, if that type of open world title is something you fancy you should get a decent amount of enjoyment out of the Saboteur. It is not a bad game.
Whenever you will be pleased with BoW DLC depends a lot on your expectations. It is a DLC - not anexpansion. If you want to jump into a new campaign after completing the base game, BoW will probably leave you disappointed. Its plot is fairly straightforward and doesn't have much power on its own. The adenture if fairly driven and linear. What I am saying is: it is not White March. As it is expected to be. At a lower price point what we get is a side content added to the main game. I imagine that BoW will work the best when experienced together with main campaign. It is a sidequest added to the main game (albait bigger than any quest already in the game) rather than new adventure. And I like it. While the adventure explores area and culture unrelated to the main game, BoW surprisangly explores characters and events which do have revelance to the main plot. The great thing about BoW that it doesn't distract from main game, but should rather strenghtens it. DLC itself is really well crafted, with new enemies, new items, spectacular areas and good balance between story/puzzle/combat. As DLC tend to be it is "more of the same" rather than adding new mechanics, new levels etc. Still, with an enjoyable adventure, some much needed exploration of key characters and lore, new items and a sidekick and added companion/sidekick content, this expansion is worth grabbing. Here is hoping that the next to expansions will only get better.
Sexy Brutale could have been a must play. The concept is inspired, but the final result is rather disappointing. Sexy Brutale is a lavish mansion, and within 12 hours guests get murdered by staff. You are a anti-hitman – your job is to save each of the guests one by one. You have 12 hours to explore, watch and interact with the enviroment before time resets. The mansion has a metrovenia-like structure. Sounds good? Puzzles are really really easy. You can’t interact with characters and environment in any interesting way. Each “saving guest” sequence takes place in a really small section of the mansion, with limited objects to interact with. The result is the puzzle game, where main effort comes from scouting (discovering rooms, character paths) but solving actual puzzle is brain-dead easy. The story is actually pretty clever, but it told very poorly with a very heavy exposition dump near the end. If done better gameplay and storytelling wise, it could have been phenomenal. As it stands, it’s a curiosity worth checking out based on its concept rather than merit.
Bastard's Wound adds a new location with a multilevel dungeon and adds companion quest for three of the companions. The latter is the best addition the expansion provides. The new location is fine - if you liked the Oldwalls sections from the base game it is a more elaborate version of that. However, lack of unique enemies mean that it suffers from the very same issues the base game did - dull combat. There is quite a bit of ambition to the main quest behind Bastard's Wound, but game suffers from noticable design problems - quest cutting each other, forcing you to ally with certain side of a conflict without you making that choice, small quests which have a major bearing on the conclusion too easy to miss, if you wont backtrack to certain locations, which for all you know are completed. I would recommend picking it up if you are planing to play or replay Tyranny. Not worth returning to the game just for the new content, though.
Deadfire is a sequel to Pillars of Eternity. That’s important. It is not a second attempt to recreate an Infinity Era RPG. Rather, it looks at what PoE did and strives to improve on it. Baldur’s Gate purists might dislike some of the changes, but the end result is, for the most part, a better game. Deadfire addresses pretty much every complaint I had about PoE: pacing is better, quests are intricately designed, items are unique and interesting, quality over quantity approach. The core of the game have seen plenty of improvements. There is multiclassing, which acts more like rebranding of PoE system – while single class characters aren’t as flexible, the new system is more intuitive and does allow for new synergies. Some leftovers from table-top system were removed – skills are mostly per-combat and health system has been simplified (personally not in favour of the latter one). Companions have much less to say in individuals conversations, and instead tend to join conversations when talking to NPCs, providing a better pacing and make them feel more present throughout the game. However, it is not all roses. While Deadfire addressed all shortcomings of PoE, it also lacks some of what made PoE worth experiencing. An open-world structure and a reactive implementation of companions resulted in narrative of Deadfire lacking focus and momentum. It is not per say, that writing in Deadfire is bad – there is a lot of good in it. But giving a lot of control to the player, meant narrative contrains. A lot of thought and care was put into the world of Deadfire, but it doesn’t communicate it’s ideas very well. A loose structure of the title could be tied up nicely with a strong finale, but unfortunately the game ends on something close to a SequelTease. PoE’s strong vision managed to overcome game’s many shortcomings. Deadfire makes for a much more enjoyable ride, but it’s lacks meaning necessary to make the gray and complicated world of Eora relatable. All DLCs recommended.
This small DLC adds a shopkeeper with couple unique weapons and armors tied to upcoming sequel, Deadfire. It is absolutely free for anyone who owns the game. The 4 soulbound weapons are neat, and extra unique weapons are handy as well. More over, item discriptions give an additional insight into cultures and stories we will be experiencing soon. Good stuff, nicely played Obsidian and can't wait for Deadfire.
