For context: I started playing the game about 1.5 years ago, and stopped because of bugs, and resumed after the big update. TLDR: I played through the main game, completed probably about 60% of the sidequests, but I didn't really have any fun. I certainly wouldn't recommend you buy this as something to play and enjoy unless HEAVILY discounted. Even after the updates, there were still some situations where I had to reload an older save and redo some bits because of some bugs, e.g. a vital NPC that I needed to complete a mission was half stuck in the floor. Gameplay: Not fun. Shooting and driving and all of that is serviceable enough, but there is no joy in it. There was no looking forward to it for me. I am a sneak-based player, and the random, scatter-brained way some of the enemies behave made that a real annoying save-scum chore. Progression was just a convoluted mess. Even though I knew exactly the kind of character I wanted to play as (as pacifist as possible, sneak based), I had no idea what tree to choose and what branch to build towards. As a normal player, near the end, I had a bunch of unused attributes and perk points, that I was only using every time I needed some skill check in the game. Story was also a big convoluted mess, nothing stuck with me, nothing resonated with me, and a few months from now, I doubt I'll remember anything of it. Having said that, it was probably the strongest point of this game, and that's saying something. Music was also not enjoyable at all, even though there were genres that I could've liked on the radio. In the end I turned off the radio, and got annoyed every time it automatically came back on again.
Everything great about 1 (humour, story, character interactions, fun faffing about) is present and better in 2, and everything bad about 1 (somewhat janky gameplay in some parts) is reduced, but still present in 2.
There's no doubt that this game had a lot of heart put into its creation. It's very pretty, the music has high production values, and it's incredibly big. But somehow I feel it is missing heart. It felt much longer than it should have been- at about 2/3rds of the way in the burnout started creeping in, and I felt a bit tired when it didn't end at the big climactic battle (that turned out to be only the first one). The combat got a bit repetitive, so much so that I ended up avoiding a lot of encounters not because of difficulty, but because it felt like a chore. The balance is a bit off- I kept these big lead-ups to quest conclusions with trumped up rewards that ended up being less powerful than what I already had. Likewise, leveling up wasn't as big a deal once the new perks started feeling underwhelming. Herb collection for alchemy became pointless about halfway through. The world was too big for its own good, and too full of meaningless busywork. Still, it's the only Witcher I've been able to complete, so it has that going for it!
The game was just FUN to play. Discovering and using new weapons and powers was enjoyable. The gameplay got a bit repetitive near the end, and it had a couple spots along the way where you had to kill every hidden enemy/do the hidden thing to be able to unlock the next area to get to- which you wouldn't know before you did it, but I played through the whole thing, which is a rare enough thing for me these days. I found the deeper mythos and story a bit convoluted, but the jokes and aesthetic were self-aware and really hit the mark- I found myself actually looking for and hunting the fortune cookies, even if I didn't need the health, and grinning at the intentional silliness of the jokes, and I always knew what the characters' were after and what their motivations were. All men eat, but Fu Man Chu.
I am a long time lover of point and click adventure games, but had disappointedly shifted to the indie sphere for my fix in the 2000s. Then I picked up this game in a sale, and found a breath of fresh air. + Comedy that hits its mark (and I say this speaking as someone who really dislikes the Daedalic brand of comedy, so don't worry, this is not that) + An engaging story where you're invested with the characters + Full of that sense of exploring a new world on an "adventure" that made the classics so great + Beautifully done backgrounds, characters, animation and music + Headscratching puzzles but not the kind that will have you reaching for a walkthrough first thing - As a non-hardcore/for-the-puzzles adventure gamer, I did have to reach for the walkthrough a couple times, and often it turned out that this was because I didn't see the interactable patch of dirt that was 2 shades lighter than the patches of dirt around it. Pixel-hunting and some of the more obscure puzzles was enough of a problem that I felt it removed 1 star.
Where Sands of Time had a beautiful colourful aesthetic with a fairytale story and trappings, this has "dark" "grungy" aesthetic, a metal soundtrack that shows its age (in a bad way), cringeworthy attempts at seeming more adult (the Prince constantly cussing and calling people bitch, and this incredibly ridiculous intro to a "baddie" at the beginning: http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/2/1/8/336218.gif ). Still, you might say it is unfair to compare it to the game before, and it should be judged on it's own merits. Even so, the supposed improvements in the mechanics didn't stop it from becoming repetitive and boring near the middle. So...nothing left to recommend the game for.
Just so you know where I'm coming from, I had never played the original game(s) and thus have no opinon of them, and I'm not obsessed with cyberpunk or dystopian futures, but I played the main game to completion and enjoyed it. Some people complained that the game was too linear, but I have nothing to compare it to, so that's not a complaint of mine. Some people say that the turn-based combat is a tad simplistic, but again (aside from it perhaps getting a bit repetitive near the end) I had nothing against it. These days I'm completing less and less games, so I was very happy to find one I was motivated to play all the way through: Interesting story, interesting world, engrossing gameplay, while it may not have been the greatest games ever or anything, it checked all the boxes for a great experience. As far as the technical stuff goes, played it on Linux on a fairly weak laptop, and had no technical hitches.
