while i'm playing it, i keep having the feel that the developer are messing with me. all the inputs are quite the opposite you would expect! to do actions you use the right mouse button. to save, the cancel button is before the save button. every time i want to attack in melee with my melee units ( that happens to have a puny pistol ), i have to remember to re-select the melee weapon. the game itself is nice, but i think in the end i will remember more of the challenge to my muscle memory than the actual game.
it's a kind of game i really want to like, and at least a bit i actually like it. it does well the rendition of a tactical space marines vs a WAAAGH. There are interesting units, and while being kinda basic, it doesnt cost a lot. but there are some MAJOR flaws that don't allow it to truly shine. -there is nothing that tells you what the los would be when moving a unit, if a piece of scenery only provide cover, or it totally block los. after a while you will get it right most of the time, but is quite frustrating moving tactically your unit only to discover that it cannot target what you wanted because of x. it's a basic tool in almost any tactical game and i cannot understand why someone decided that wasnt needed. it makes some moves feel "random", instead of a careful tactical decision. -way too easy ( i read that criticism and the counter argument, like fortress 26 was really hard. then i reached fortress 26 and ended the mission 10 turns earlier by destroying all the enemies losing 2 infantry. that basically was the end of the game for me as i felt there was no point continue playing ). -maybe a bit too relying on random leveling up: every level give you 2 option in upgrading the unit, totally random. some are really useful, others are quite strange ( i ended up having an assault unit i used as a medic, an anti infantry unit receiving only anti tanks upgrades ). but when it works, it can make your units almost gamebreaking.
takes a lot to appreciate it's goods, take even more to really hate it. i will only suggest it if you are into self inflicted psychological harm. PRO: -nice story at least from begin to mid. -"realistic" weapons -cyberpunk done right at least till mid of the game. -definitely a different game, one you don't see to much. CONS -90% of the weapon are basically a reskin, i hope you enjoy hitscan assault rifle. -the story will fall apart a lot in the last part. -level design is not good, but in the last sections is REALLY bad. -needlessly huge, but quite linear levels(in some instances you can take different routes, but that will happen....twice?). -excecially towards the end, you will face a lot of instantkill weapons, from explosion that will hit you through walls to hitscan gatlings that will kill you istantly if you have a pixel visibile through the cover. -even if you really like classic cyberpunk, that will fall apart in the end, and it will not worth the frustration. -well, there are good reasons on why you don't see game similar to this i was really hooked at first, the problems were there, but the interest in the story managed to make them manageable. at level 13 the story fall apart ant it become total recall cheap ripoff. mind the levels are really lengthy, mostly uneventful. and there are 18 of them, 16 of which are a self-punishment exercise of bad level design. at level 18 the game introduce infinite spawn of mechs that will instantkill you repeatedly through the walls, in a huge foggy maze without any landmark and self-punishment reach it's apex. if it was a film, it would be so bad that it's good. given the length and the sheer volume of it's punishment, that wont apply here :|.
but that really tell how bad are the latest metroidvania :P i mean it excels at in some expects, like being very difficult and demanding, visually is really nice, the world is huge and mostly nice, controls are responsive and while levelling it's here, it's not a grind to win like most of the late metroidvania( you gan like 1 hp per 3~4 level, most of the enemies deal something like 20 per hit, at level 40 as i'm at late game, you get maybe a hit more to resist). at the same time it does a lot of things really wrong, the pacing is all over the place, at moments it drags badly : why on earth the longest level is the f***n fire temple ?! who had the idea to force you on givin up a equipment slot for the entire fire temple has to win the worse gamedesign award 2022. the totally random chests quest (you have to open like 10 "correct" chest in a pair, with no way to tell the correct one )... i can go on and on for a while :D that said, the positives and the negative give a net positive result (in my opinion) and if you like being constantly challenged, you are in a metroidvania crave and you hate metroidvanias where if you level up enough the challenge disappear, this one is a worthy one.
remind me a lot of 80 days. It's a really nice adventure/rpg/narrative game. story-wise, it's very dreadful at start, and failures will snowball a little ... but there always hope to reverse everything and it's very forgiving, even when it really seems to be the other way :P. I think is designed to push in despair at first and then dig you out of it. then when hope start to be on sight, it will become more and more optimistic. it can be hard on start, too easy towards the end, but nonetheless it's really a beautiful journey. the art is really nice and just give the right atmosphere for the setting.
i will start saiyng that "cyberpunk 2077 need more polish" is utterly ironic, since it was developed in poland. jokes aside, it's quite the biggest scope immersive sim i have ever seen, of course it need work and fixed, the scope is so huge. the better explanation to cyberpunk 2077 is : deus ex 1 get remastered and it was fused with gta, with a cyberpunk setting, the result is cyberpunk. it has the shortcomings of games so huge and with so much freedom (it's a complex system with so many moving parts that sometimes bugs/silliness ensues. ). but that's aside, i cant remember of a game hoping to be so big and succeeding. pro and cons will be ridiculous, something like this: pro = unique and awesome experience in gaming cons = some bugs that will be patched having pros hugely surpassing the cons by a lot.
