I dislike first person games, so got this on high discount as a fix for lack of RPGness.. Oh boy, am I glad I did! Story, immersion, music, voices.. so many things are way above what you get on average from many AAA games. There is plenty of bugs, and weird mechanics that can get on your nerves, but they are all immediately forgiven the moment the game drags you into being Henry and makes you live his journey. Bad: limited saves, characters get stuck walking, sometimes unclear what to do, quest breaking bugs. Mixed Feelings: Combat - you can be easily outnumbered and killed, no matter how good you get. Good: Lots of interesting interactions, realism (history, no magic). atmosphere, story, immersion, music
Arcanum is beautiful, engaging, has a nice story, beautiful lore, well-acted few dialogues, and strikes a nice balance between steampunk and classic fantasy. It belongs to an era where these things mattered more than fluid combat and shiny renderings, so if you are the kind of person that favors combat encounters this may not be for you. But if you are there to play adventurer, discover locations/people with their unique character and politics, uncover mysteries from the past, then do not hesitate to buy this gem.
The world of the game is really interesting: the mysterious island vibe mixes well with the strong personalities of the colonizing factions, and the "Avatar" vibes are really nice. The game is fully voiced, which is always nice, has a well executed levelling system, the armors and weapons are elegant.. It really ticks a lot of boxes for an RPG fan. On the minus side, it is a bit heavy on walking around already-explored areas for my taste (the quick-travel hubs can be very far from the objectives), and it tends to spoil the plot twists a bit. It lacks that I-want-to-spend-every-second-available-on-it effect, but it is nonetheless a very enjoyable game, well worth the 44h I spent on it.
Dunno why I have waited so long to play this masterpiece, perhaps I was afraid it was one of those games for people who like punishing meaningless fights; well, I was wrong, and right at the same time: you see, people like that would have the option to get their buttocks kicked to their heart's desires, while people like me that likes stories and amazing companions will also be fully satisfied, while skipping the optional annoying areas. Developing a relationship with my boy Atreus feels amazing, the Norse setting is a thing of beauty, levelling up feels as natural as upgrading your gear (the two are in fact strictly related), the fights... oooh the fights.. The acting is fantastic, the interaction with the environment is great. Seriously the only thing I could complain about is fast-travel not being that fast (you need to walk for a bit in a transition area). Other than that I would 100% recommend this to any fellow gamers, with the exception of the impatient ones that get annoyed by the smallest amount of cutscenes (this is clearly not for you)
The game is a pleasure to play and drags you in with a well characterized world with its quirks. Something mysterious has happened, involving some technology from an obscure civilization: great! It is very unfortunate, in my opinion, that through the game you do not learn anything at all about why and how the main events get put into motion. Leaving a bit of mystery is usually ok, but here it feels a bit like the main story is some undefined background noise. I would still recommend the game when discounted.
The bad part: the ending feels rushed and you get a message like "continue exploring while the story gets finished" which was probably not the smartest idea, especially since the story feels kind of complete, even if leaves a door open to a sequel. Other than that it is pretty much what I would have expected from a King's Bounty game: a sequence of battles aimed at minimizing army losses, wearable items influencing you stats, leadership, a spellbook.. It lacks a tiny bit of the charm of the older games, and it seems like the development effort that went into a nice looking 3D world with voice acting is a bit of an overkill for the dull "Walk there and fetch that" quests that fill your journal... Overall, not a masterpiece, but something you buy on sale and you kill time with for around 30h.
Geneforge is such an amazing saga that even minor changes to it may feel blasphemous, and yet... This title is the perfect mix of respecting its predecessor and boldly introducing significant changes. The story and old maps are still the same (with new esthetics), the mechanics however are new and refreshing. Two examples: 1) there is an entire new line of spells specifically dedicated to Guardians (full disclosure: I am a Shaper so haven't tested the new skills); 2) if Spinecores and Pylons were your nemesis in the old games, wait until you see them now... I am also really glad that the creation system has been kept in line with what done in the first remake: if a creation dies no big deal, after all we can shape a duplicate at will (even if you are the kind of shaper that feels bad about it). For those new to the series of to the developer, I give my usual advice: definitely go for it if you like rpgs where your character has a hard time choosing a side, well written dialogues and stories, a well characterized universe, meaningful choices.
Don't get me wrong, I am still annoyed at the neverending Early-money-Access, but bad business practices aside, what an *absolute* blast!! Best 116 hours of my life! I would have to put so many spoilers here to explain why this is heaven for old fans of the BG series, but even not mentioning any of that, the incredible combination of music, memorable fights, great acting (voices and body), Faerun setting, well written companions and story, and so on makes this game my no.1 of all time (cannot believe BG2 became third in just a couple of years). Immersion is definitely one of the game's strengths, and if you are the kind of hero that loves bonding with your companions, well, this is for you. For people who are familiar with the Divinity series, and are not into its tendency to be a parody of the RPG genre, I would still recommend to give this a try, the divinityzation has been kept within reason and this is NOT DOS3 as many say. For the old BG fans, I will just say that the moment you hear familiar punchlines, accents and even enemy battlecries gave me the goosebumps... Have not done an evil playthrough yet, but I hope it will deliver as it seems to be promised. The huge amount of fun and tears can even make you forget those small slips, like conversations not updating properly, enemies taking ages for their turn (Boo even complains about it).. that said, the game has not crushed a single time, even on my struggling laptop.
I've played plenty of older-style RPGs but none of them was so unbelievably boring as this one. go around switching between left and right click, with the most uninspiring story ever ("fetch this piece of scrap or we all die"), a "tactical combat" that means repeatedly shot and miss on rats... Not for me, sorry
...even if this is a reasonably priced DLC, and well worth the sequel campaign, you cannot shake off the feeling of having bought some half baked thing a couple of years ago, so that you could finance them again now. In addition to that, every single update of your machine or of the game seems to come with an increased probability of machine freezes: Solasta CotM-> runs great + Lost Valley -> frequent freezes + Palace of Ice -> very frequent freezes + latest update -> freezes 2min after start every time Additional negative feedback: please do not make all decent loot require attunement, that is not fun :( Other than that, had plenty of fun, if you loved the game so far you will probably love this as well.
