I can't say anything that hasn't already been said about this game, it's a great RPG, it has plenty of great and memorable characters, a nice soundtrack and fun story, well written, well voiced, both the DLC are incredibly good for being DLC. Now, the bugs can be really annoying and the navigation is really shoddy both as Geralt and while on Roach, I can't tell you how many times I've had to load saves on races because of that GODD**N HORSE! But yeah other than that annoying stuff it's good, everything is pretty perfect really, it's been a while since I've REALLY liked an RPG, there's Planescape, KOTOR 2, I guess Mass Effect 1 & 2, this game isn't really the same type of RPG as those so they're not really that comparable but it's still nice to play a genuinely fun mainstream RPG with a meme-able af fanbase, more meme-able than Mass Effect's I would argue.
This game... this game is like the embodiment of when publishers screw with devs too much. I played this game without the patch initially and haven't completed my patched playthrough yet but don't see it changing my opinion significantly. I feel like the races are a bit eh... Like, after playthrough one who is going to play anything other than Malkavian or Nosferatu? Those are the only interesting ones. I tried playing a bit as Brujah and Ventrue and they literally had the same dialogue as my initial playthrough as Toreador except with Ventrue, they *spoiler* throw up when you feed on poor people. So yeah, there are only really two fun races to play as. Gameplay wise the game is fine, I enjoy it. It doesn't have any real lock-on system and spamming bloodbuff is all you need to do to win any fight but whatever, it's fun enough. That horror segment, HOLY S**T that was the scariest shit my first time through, oh my god I am terrified of it, it gets me every time honestly. But yeah, it's a good game, and as for people giving one stars complaining about price, wait for a sale dude.
I tend to like Double Fine's point-and-click titles as they're cleverly written and contain genuinely memorable and what feel like genuine personalities and characters. But it tends to be in games like Psychonauts and Brutal Legend where this changes and Double Fine's quality goes down a bit. Firstly, this game is wayyyyyy better than Brutal Legend, that game is a cringe-fest and has a very unlikeable protagonist and I could not play it any further than I did which was a few hours. This game on the other hand is genuinely good, good in the sense that I acknowledge it's quality but personally, I don't enjoy it. The ideas and the way they deal with gameplay is really fun, like Mental Cobwebs, Emotional Baggage, Figments, it's just so clever and charming in the way that Double Fine's point and click's tend to be. But, there's no emotional core. I don't feel anything when playing this game, other than the occasional snort or "Heh, that's funny" I don't care much for this game in the way or the characters, the dynamics between characters and I get that it's a fun rollercoaster ride of 3D platforming but usually there's gotta be something triggering within the first few hours that REALLY makes you need to get into the head of your hero and sympathize with them but there is nothing remotely resembling a motivation for me. For the character it's that he wants to be a Psychonaut, okay, good for him. But I can't relate to my parents not wanting me to be a Psychic Soldier so I have to go out of my way to join a camp where I can be one, I can't even remotely fell any emotional connection to this game so I had to quit. But I acknowledge that this is not by any means a BAD game, I just personally couldn't enjoy it.
This game is incredible, this may be controversial, but this is superior to Fallout 1 & 2 in all regards in my opinion. The worldbuilding is great, when you ask Sunny Smiles for directions she'll give 'em to you by referencing the highways and the environment, the tribes and their place in the world make sense and are intriguing and the main conflict between the NCR and the Legion over Hoover Dam makes sense practically and isn't some supervillain plot. There is also a lot less of something that really bothered my about Fallout 2 which was the weird amount of sex options for female character, which at times felt gratuitous and the rapey stuff which was definitely kind of weird even if you excuse it by saying, "It's the apocalypse broooo, people be like that". Great voice acting work which really immerses you I would definitely recommend playing this game on Hardcore, I do because I personally enjoy survival mechanics so if you do as well than be sure to toggle it on when the game prompts you to. Lot's of fun weapons and armour and interesting characters who you can be a dick to or help out, your choice, and because of all this there's many more options for roleplay in a meaningul way than the older Fallout's and other RPGs of the time this released.
I have never finished this game, I didn't dislike it but I didn't love it either. It feels too unfocused when it comes to the main story, you just drift from place to place doing quests, and while it's somewhat engaging to have the amount of choices that the game provides you with when it comes to how to accomplish a task it also contributes to this pervasive feeling that arcs over the entire experience for me which is a my brain asking me "What's the point?". Why am I doing all this stuff? What's the point? Because I do not care at all about this stupid tribe that I was born into, the world isn't particularly interesting and outside of map pixel drawings there really isn't much worldbuilding the way that there is in New Vegas, which is to say, it's not convincing, I don't believe that this is a real world, I believe that the devs want me to believe that this is a real world.
I don't dislike this game because of Beamdog or whatever other reviewers are mad about. I simply think it is too big for it's own good. I played a significant amount of this game, around 25-30 hours I believe and the amount of side quests and things you can do outside of the main story were so overwhelming. This might sound like a good thing, but, everything you accomplish kind of feels meaningless as a result. I'm the kind of person who tends to enjoy playing a significant amount of side quests and engaging in side activities in a game, but I don't know, this game is just too big, so big that it feels like none of your choices really added up to anything or that no matter how many quests you do everything's irrelevant. It placed this pervasive sense in me like there's no point to continuing and because of that I didn't continue. The characters aren't really that interesting either and they don't really embody their moral standing very well, Viconia and Edwin aren't really that evil when it comes to you or your party and it's kind of weird. I don't dislike this game, maybe I'll finish it one day and change my mind about it but up to the point I played which was a significant amount of the way through Shadow of Amn, I did not enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed other CRPGs like Planescape or DOS2.
I can understand why people might enjoy this game, I enjoyed this game for a bit but it really just does not work for me. -The build everyone wants to play in a steampunk fantasy is completely unviable, the gunslinger. -It looks terrible, and I mean terrible, not terrible for it's time, absolutely horrid. Planescape: Torment came out around two years prior, Fallout 1 four years, and both these games look infinitely better, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 even more so. You might think, "Well, I wouldn't be playing older games if I cared that much about visuals", trust me, they are really bad. -Now, people always talk about how good the writing is in Arcanum, okay, what? Maybe it gets better later, because I didn't play it through and through but I think I played it a significant amount and I can really find nothing redeeming about it as far as I played which was about 10 hours, which might not be a lot to you, but, if there's nothing enjoyable in a game after even 5 hours I usually quit it but I put more mental effort into playing this due to the overwhelming love I see for it and it did not end up being enjoyable I'm sorry to say. -Some people say, "Oh yeah, the first bit of the story starts off slow", ahem. WHAT? My man, I've played through quite a bit of slow story-ness, e.g. Peragus Mining Facility & Telos, Shin Megami Tensei IV, etc. and nothing comes even remotely close to this game. +Character creation is fun. I really wanted to like this game, I enjoyed VTMB, which was kind of why I wanted to go back and check this out but yeah, didn't exactly work out.
