This was ... heavy. It's a beautiful, emotional simple story that punches straight into gut. In my imaginary Museum of Games as Art, it would definitively be an exhibit.
It has been a long time since I played KB 1. But, a short time after getting adjusted to the new look and feel (3D world) everything came back. The original KB was a game that could eat hundreds of hours of your life by maintaining a perfect balance between progression and difficulty of the quests. Same holds here. The design is completely different, but conceptually this is the same kind of digital heroin. It can develop addiction and you may end up hating yourself for the time spent on it (one more turn, one more turn, ...) if you have any sort of big responsibilities in your life (yes, looking at you, middle-aged gamer). # Couple of remarks I played it on Linux using Gamehub (worked really good). Played on normal difficulty (in hindsight, maybe I should have switched to hard, would probably leave the game sooner). People complaining about controls: I don't get you (you can rotate the bloody cam, just look into controls menu). The friggin' horse is annoying (probably a conscious choice of the digital drug lords to play with my psyche). # So there, you have been warned.
Also, it feels more like playing chess, moving pieces across the board and planning moves in advance. Very little freedom in this game.
While I don't get retro graphics fashion in general, when it comes to this particular game, it's not eye-scratching. Character control and progression seem intuitive enough, the combat is fun despite the mechanics being trivial. This is one of those games where the sum is more than the parts. Do note that this is not a finished product (only a few classes currently available and the progression is feat-based)
You lead a group of (up to) three in a one-way network of nodes over a map. Each node is some sort of scripted encounter, some of them random, some of them progressing the story. RPG element is weak, very few skills, though they grow in power - like many other fantasy tactical games. Some predefined (unlockable) heroes and not much character creation, at least not yet. Combat is turn-based, click-on-a-skill-then-opponent/ally type of system. There's cover, there's range, there are your area-of-effect skills. Why does it remind me of Disciples? Mainly because of the atmosphere, but the setting and story are very loosely based on the legends of King Arthur [imagine creators of Dark from Netflix being hired by Holywood to make something involiving Merlin, Arthur and Holy Grail]. The rigidity of event selection feels stifling, but the game does have some charm. It definitively needs more flesh [in-dev. review]. Also, devs, have you actually ever played Rogue, Moria, Angband and the variants? This game is not a roguelike. Your heroes can die and there is some procedural generation to liven things up, but it's a far cry from what roguelikes were before that term got fashionable. There are no thousands of artifacts/weapons/dozens of races/classes. All in all, I am looking forward to see how the game evolves.
First off, I haven't tried the game in its current state (one year edition + DLCs), but seeing so many unfair reviews just ticked me off. I played almost every XCOM, starting with the original UFO: Enemy Unknown. I was one of the backers expecting the original reincarnated into the modern world [firaxis games, though great, do not create the same atmosphere of dread and excitement]. That's not exactly what I got. BUUT, we got ballistic aiming -- which is phenomenal. It completely redefined my tactical approach. It offers the most reliable way of estimating your chances to hit an enemy I've seen. The great thing is this actually works. On the other hand, ballistics work both ways which means cover is not something you treat as a high, or low probability to get shot. You'll get shot, so better have resilient armour. That (huge) detail aside, the setting with its post-apocaliptic fruits-de-mer menace is novel, immersive and even humorous. The gripe people have about the story and human factions fighting each other is just nonsense. Humans being humans will fight each other when there is scarcity of resources. Also, if you bash this story, then feel free to extend your aim to Mass Effect (Hugo Gernsback!) and countless others games that draw their inspiration from pulpy SF. Bases, recruitment and research are different from everything else in the genre, somewhat clunky, but nothing show-stopping (except for gaming snowflakes ;) ). Then the perpetual bashing of tactical gameplay where people compete to come up with the most ludicrous squad and prove how they gamed the system. For those of us who just want to enjoy the game as designers intended, the gameplay offers decent and varied ways of winning. Btw, I was playing on 'hard' difficulty. While I agree that there should be more variety in the kind of tuna can content the game throws at you and the way the organisational layer works, the game simply does not justify the level of hate it got. Just try it.
In the current drought of at least half-decent roleplaying games ... comes this. Of course, it was released before it should have been (there are obvious inventory bugs, camera could be more fluid, etc ..) which I hope get better with time. But, this does not detract from the amazing story and world the player is immersed into. I appreciate a solid SF (yes, SF (Delaney and Leguin) not the cringe-inducing term "sci-fi") story, be it a book, or a movie. So it was a very surprising development that a mere computer game was actually able to draw me in. This hasn't happened since the times of KOTOR II. As far as the roleplaying elements go, it is one of those games such that lets you develop your character as you see fit. There is really nothing revolutionary in it, but it works. The combat is engaging and fun and so are the various mini puzzles. The world seems vast and multilayered. Crafting is not boring (an achievement). NPCs are interesting, dialogues well done. I have to say, the amount of comments that compare this game to Fallout AND say that it was released technically semi-finished almost stopped me from buying. Fallout was incredibly boring to me in all its incarnations. I also hate unfinished games and most of the time i try not to award prereleased releases. But, this time, I did not regret it.
Since I am on GOG -- and that's for a while now -- the only modern RPG games that caught my attention and manage to keep it have been Tyranny and now ATOM. This is coming from a guy that plays RPGs for decades (since Interplay's Lord of the Rings). This is probably one of the most natural post-apocalyptic immersive experiences for me, likely because I am a native of Eastern Europe and a Cyrillic reader. In the vein of Elder Scrolls games, the main story (which, for the moment, seems worth following) does not prevent you of exploring the expanse of the intriguing game-world. I find the characters and dialogues quirky, funny and reminiscent of Eastern European movies from the pre-Fall-of-the-Wall era. This is why it was hilarious to read the comments by native english speakers about the horrible translation and writing. Maybe they just cannot figure out the stuff which is immediately clear to us raised on the socialist ideals. I wonder how they feel moving through the world where all the signs are in a language they cannot read. Others have elaborated on combat system and other aspects of the mechanics. The only thing I would add here is that I advise against playing in permadeath mode since there is no way to prepare for (random) encounters in such way that you always have a decent chance of winning them (You do not have any info on your opponent relative strength, at least not in the beginning). The reason I am deducting two stars is the companion management. First of all, this games forces you to specialise. There is no way you are going to pick up all those skills. There are occasions in the game where you have to interact with the world using skills. Weirdly, it is impossible to get the assistance of your companions in many of these situations (any multiple-choice-interaction-with-object dialogue). I hope this behaviour is patched. Developers could also pay attention to companion AI in combat (especially with grenades).
I'm playing this with a keyboard and mouse on a year old laptop (yes, intel graphics, so what? I'm not a professional gamer) and, well, the game feels thoroughly clunky in behaviour. Setting graphics to 'low' (still looking good) helped a bit more responsive feeling. The combat is completely chaotic. While hiding and sneaking all is good, but once you need to resort to excessive use of obvious violence chaos kicks in. At least when using keyboard+mouse it feels difficult to accurately move along planned vector of attack. Also, as there is no visual feedback, I have no clue if the character is executing combos, or not. Another thing that gets on my nerves is amount of clearly unnecessary clicking during the conversations with merchants. It feels console-ish. For the moment it's 1) get into barter window, 2) finalise bartering, 3) why the heck do i need to click on goodbye option?? 3) what's with the redundant 'press space to exit dialog' option?? I've noticed that people praise the atmosphere, visuals and the story. Atmosphere is certainly good, but the story is a mish-mash of worn-out SF cliches. Also, starting out on a prison island? Come on folks, Original Sin 2 is not that old. That said, it's not like playing yet another post-post-apocaliptic cyberpunk-technology-is-magic adventure can't be fun. My journey has only begun.
