The campaign has a great atmosphere, the secluded mysterious valley setting is lovely, and the factions this time are actually meaningful (oppressor, oppressed, political rivals, business people.. ) and you will have to take side. I had a few laptop freezes, even on minimal settings, and the campaign could use some polishing (if a certain giant sends you to a certain facility and you come back to report with an additional friend you made there, why would that make him angry?). That is why I give it only 5 star instead of 7 :) I usually avoid DLCs as the plague, but this is not some overpriced eye-candy, it is a new campaign with a fair price.
For Spiderweb fans like me: just get it, do not worry about how unpleasant may be the outdated graphics and user interface, less than a hour in and you'll have adapted. I can't believe I replayed bazillion times every other Spiderweb game, before giving this pearl a chance. For everyone else: if you have never played the Avernum series before, play that first and then come back to this if you enjoyed it. The game is great but it is old (forget about clicking a NPC to initiate combat or dialogue...), so you may want to try something very similar but a bit more user friendly. The story is nice, the turn-based combat system is fun, the writing is excellent. 50h of playthrough, zero of which spent in loading times (old man ranting about modern day customs here...)
I played this after all the other Arkham series games, and absolutely loved it. The story is good, the combat system looks even better than the other games, the fight with Deathstroke is the best of all the series for me, there is no bat-tank nonsense (sorry AK). Perhaps a bit short with 20h of game time (but I gave up on collecting all of the Riddler datapads). P.S. Xmas Gotham is lovely.
I would give it 7 stars because of: - the initials - that feeling of being involved in greater machinations (have I ever heard before of an evil god leaving unpleasant things in his wake....?) - building up on solid tradition but adding new elements (new universe, new thief mechanics, clerics being able to cleanse cursed items so that they become good wearables..) I would then remove 1 star because, at that price point, I would expect some more polishing (e.g. the look on the character wearing equipment is quite rudimentary) I would then drop 3 more stars because the "loading screen" thing completely ruins the experience: even with little budget there are always no excuses for badly written software. Just to give you an idea of how bad it is: the last savegame before the final battle happens before a change in map, that means that when you get wiped by the boss you have to wait for the load of the previous map, then click on the exit, then wait again for the load of the boss map (and go through a cutscene, just in case you weren't bored enough). Even worse, whenever you reload in other occasions, even with no change of map, you have to wait to reload the same map (what is the thing even doing, mining Bitcoins?). If you can get over the annoying waiting times, the game is well worth playing. Maybe get it on sale to reduce the frustration.
There is so much that they got wrong in this game: 1) are they targeting RPG players with what often feels like a FPS version of GTA instead? 2) Melee in first person is atrocious, I gave up after the first attempt at fist fighting, and stared sadly at the katanas in my backpack afterward... 3) Actually the whole 1st person thing is terrible, why would they even do that, when they had the beautiful 3rd person engine from the Witcher at their disposal?!? 4) The awkward pauses between lines in the dialogues are just as unforgivable as they sound unnatural, and to make it worse, if you instead take more than a nanosecond to read through the possible answers the NPCs start nagging you about it... 5) Driving a car is nearly impossible (do yourself a favor and ride a motorbike instead) 6) Who are all those weirdos that keep calling me at the phone (or cyberimplant or whatever)? 7) You make me customize my character's genitals and then he showers in underpants?!? 8) I was so disturbed by the gameplay that I skipped almost all the sidequests and went straight for the main story (really a bad sign). All these things really make me think about a 1-star review and still... the relationship with Keanu Reeves' Johnny is worth exploring, the romance I pursued led to an interesting event, V's personal drama and your intimate view on it provide a great experience... in the end there is enough good for me to pump up that 1 star to 3, a real shame that it could not go higher than that
The good first: 160h of play, great turn-based combat experience (haven't tried real-time), epic journey from simple mercenary to legend, lovely characters, good writing. lots of BG vibe. Not a fan of kingdom management, but I must say it kinda makes sense in this game. The bad now: it is absolutely impossible to have a smooth experience without constant googling: when the journal is telling you "Wait for stuff to happen", it is imperative that you google what needs to be done to avoid a game over due to (sometimes hidden) timers. Had to reload a couple of times (loosing a day of playing) because a timer shows up and it turns out there is no way I am gonna make it (that long kingdom project wasn't optional after all!). Even worse, you are supposed to explore a lot to figure out where to go, which would be normally great except that exploring itself requires time (in-game-days) and takes you closer to the impending gameover. Overall this turns an excellent game into a stressful experience. It also goes without saying, a lot of optional content cannot actually be accessed, because if you go after that, well, game over. That said, the core game does deserve to be played, especially if it has been a while since you last cast high level spells like "Horrid wilting"... If you decide to give it a try, I suggest to turn the kingdom to invincible in the options, but do not turn kingdom management off.
Was utterly bored when playing POE1 and so I waited for POE2 to be on sale before giving it a try. Gone is the tedious constant soul reading, and I think that the new turn based system made a huge difference in enjoying combat. The pirate theme and exotic scenery is lovely, the cultural clash between the factions very enjoyable, so is the characterization of the Gods. The party banter is a plus for BG fans like me. The main quest is somewhat short, but if you take some time for exploration and side quests you'll be fine (100h gameplay for me).
Fun and challenging combat, beautiful maps, dirty politics, the only RPG where I have actually used light spells, party banter (even if you create all 4 characters!), reasonable attires... what more can an old rpg lover ask for? Yes, the epicity level could have been higher, the game is pretty linear with very little choices, and there are some glitches, but overall I constantly wished I had some more hours in the day to spend on this. Well done on this first game Tactical Adventures, I am looking forward to you next piece of work!
The good: story, atmosphere, stunning world design, intuitive UI, enemies can and will one-shot kill you (then you resurrect and enjoy a fight, with some respect for their strength), lockpicking requires some (small) effort. The bad: a few crashes when during scene transitions (save before entering that door!!); although there is a fast-travel system within Venice, those 2 times you need to visit the countryside....(wear comfortable shoes). I finished it in 24h of game time, it didn't feel too short, but don't expect a huge map to explore
The game runs smoothly and the story is engaging enough. It's not a triple A game, but the experience is overall very pleasant, and practically every single dialogue is voice acted. It took me 26h to complete. Even though there are a few side quests, the game is overall linear, with exploring generally leading to more junky loot. Top bad: expect you character to look different between gameplay, images, and cutscenes Top good: it features the best voice acting of a zombie I've heard in a while :)
