Full Review pending completion of game, 80% there, loving it right now.
The Review that's also a commercial. You need to install Horizon mod. It fixes the game, it adds things that feel the base game should have come with, it upgrades the existing game features sensibly, and it doesn't crash nearly as often. The people(or person) that made Horizon shouldbe hired by Bethesda, because seriously they did in a couple years what their team couldn't do with 8 years of updates? Just wow. Alright, now to the base game: It's a vanilla experience compared to some of the shenanigans in the original 4 fallouts(especially original 2 and new vegas), that having been said it still has a few twists and turns and you owe it to yourself to play a character through all 4 endings. I very much enjoyed the base story. Sound design is dismal. The same creature noises you've heard before in every other game. Nothing breathtaking. The cooler thing was keeping tabs on enemies based on footsteps with 3D audio, that addition I enjoyed a lot. Music is reminiscent of New Vegas a bit, but with a more professional team working on it. The radio music is okay too, and probably my favourite compared to 3 and NV. 3 had some of the same songs, but they added a lot more for 4. The combat design is where it's lacking drastically. I only know this because after playing the Horizon mod, the original is a janky mess. Enemies always seem to have near perfect sight of you and accuracy with any weapon while yours seriously lack. Healing you can just spam the injectors and take on almost anything. The guns were lacking in every which way, not enough ratings, not enough guns, not enough ways to upgrade them. Woof all around. The game really shined with the talent tree, for me. The base building and settlement system was another aspect they really tried to integrate but it needed so much more time to cook. That having been said, it's still a huge step forward in what could be done, and I enjoyed building settlements despite all the shortcomings. Alright, i'm out of room, thanks!
I've been playing this off and on(through different playthroughs) since 2020. Beating it each time I play because it's a great game. What makes it so great? It has classes, it has multiclassing set from level 1. It has companions and their quests. Those companions are romanceable. It has a story that can go a lot of different ways depending on your actions(far more than most games). It's an Obsidian title worthy of the name. I like it a lot more than the first somehow. You can be a pirate and steal some booty. The downside is not having DA/BG3 conversations, but this is a classic CRPG like baldur's gate 1+2, Icewind Dale, etc. So it's less immersive than the newer generation of gamer might come to expect.
I've played through the main game on Steam, got the definitive on GOG. I love this game for a lot of reasons, it takes itself seriously when it needs to, and it lets itself hang loose when it's time for a lil' party. I went into this game expecting GTA in Hong Kong, but it's much more than that. It came 1 year before GTA5, and produced by a much smaller team, yet it's more intimate and I found it a lot more fun. You play as Wei Shan, a big shot cop that's taking to the streets of Hong Kong to take out the Triad. Things ramp up naturally, there are cop missions as well as Triad missions. You're taking down drug rings, rackets, but also helping some gang members with their heists. Does it stand up to 2024? Heck yeah! I know it's a 2012 game but it had fighting like Arkham Knight with a talent tree like an RPG, plus gear that affected your XP gain or damage. It's a lot of different elements that blend really well into this kind of game. I wish more were made, to be honest. In fact(and sorry to Yakuza fans here), I played this game back in 2015, and I tried Yakuza in 2020 thinking it was like this game, and it didn't hold a candle to it. I got so frustrated with how basic Yakuza felt in comparison and couldn't keep playing it. That's how much I enjoyed this piece.
They've come a long way since, but this title was the start for my love with the studio's work. It's a great entry and I still enjoy playing it a lot even after WotR and Rogue Trader.
The art is a little deceptive, I thought we'd be going to some masquerade, haha, it's a party in Kenabres, and a full tie up with the rest of the game. I finally played through my Azata Commander to the finish for this one. My earlier attempt I ended up taking Legend in perfect chaotic fashion, lol, but this time I said nay to that Imposter :P Just in time too, this DLC perfectly celebrated the Azata path, really tying up my romance with Arueshalae, turning stuff into plants, and ending the celebrations in a way that felt very much like my chaotic good mess of a dude. I really enjoyed all of the playthroughs of WotR, and I really hope there are more Pathfinders in the future. Especially ones that feel like this one. Having mythic paths gave this SO much replayability, so much mystery and wondrous exploration. I wanted to do EVERYTHING on EVERY playthrough, and I can't say that about any other CRPGs I've come across. Hell, I've only played BG3 once through and I wasn't even that tempted to go back. So really, I have to give a huge Kudos to Owlcat Games for making one hell of a game(Lawful Evil or not :P lil hell humour)
So the neat little idea is great, and the proceeds do go to a charity. So before you go off thinking this is a 10 minute game for $5 it's actually a donation that comes with a neat little narrative experience. I do wish it was $1 with a "Pay what you want" option, but c'est la vie.
