I spent 12h playing, wondering whether it was wasted. The game has too many things to take care of (I may be a control freak, though). Inventory (no stash yet, only expensive backpacks), approval of you party members, gift mechanism, choices (this is of course at the heart of a RPG, so not so much a problem). Combat mechanism: ARPG with pause (some people seem to know the game enough and be quick enough to play without pause), where you control a team of 4 (why not 6 by the way or even 8?). Control is supported by a rule-based system : you can edit complex rules that the AI will use to take control of the party members (even the main player). However, you don't have enough slots (around 5, more by spending leveling points). Nevertheless, when your choice of rules (i.e., programming robots) come to a hole, your party members run like chicken here and there, and area magic becomes inapplicable. Of course I may have not played enough to fully appreciate the model, but this is a matter of choice of gameplay; I preferred to invest points in Intelligence for a mage or strength for a warrior, and disable the automatic control. Then it becomes a feast of pauses during combats (e.g. to prevent the warrior to nevertheless run into combat while the fireball is being cast). Then you also have to fully understand the skills of everyone. This quickly ruins some of the fun. Party management: morale+gift to balance the effects of certain choices. (not enough room here to expand). Do you need, for completing the game to nurture all you 5-10 potential party members or can you take care of only 3 at the risk that your progression will be blocked. You get the point: when engaging in a 60-90 hours of gameplay, you would like to get some reassurance that time will not be wasted. Bugs: random crashes while playing on Windows 10. Changed parameters, affinity set to 1, to finally no avail. My last save does not reload, and do not want to waste more time with support (if any).
I bought the game recently, after very much enjoying the 3rd installment (Wild Hunt+DLCs). Huge disappointment, as the gameplay is very "heavy" (combat, movement) and very constrained (I was expecting some kind of open world). Also, playing with a controller is far from easy; inventory is a mess; drinking a potion requires at least 6 buttons pressed; radial menu is painful. It even features QTEs!
I bought this game recently, benefiting from all the time that has passed since its launch - (almost) no bug, DLCs are included, etc. I support most/all the past positive reviews, I am happy not to have purchased at the time it was launched (seemed very buggy/not completed yet). Now this game is a wonderful experience all along, gameplay is excellent, story is very good (difficult to gasp at the beginning if you don't know the backstory, but fine after a couple of hours). NG+ is not really usefull (200h-long play for a completionist, who wants to do that again?) One "bug" that has not been fixed [SPOILER]: there is ONE gwent card you can't get if you choose to follow a quest and make the wrong choice during that quest. Keyword "Olivier". Also I believe they could have added a gwent-vendor-locator-magic-artifact when you complete the main story.
I have got this game at a 50% discount, after having been tempted by the looks, positive reviews and... the discount. Besides not being a great fan for so-called role-playing-open-word-craft-this-story-rich games, this one looked that it could be a rewarding experience. After 3 hours, I am ready to give up. There are a lot of positives for those who like this kind of games (beautiful large word, exploration seems to be rewarded, role playing with only one unattractive, blunt and stupid character), however the negatives I have encountered are a show-stopper: - melee combat (the only kind you get at the beginning) is slow (OK for axes) and very imprecise - dialogs seem to give choice but are ill-conceived (you discover a body, go to the dead man's friend with no new dialog option until you report to the quest giver to report; then the new option opens). - more than once, I wanted to get more information on a follow-up quest, thus chose a line of dialog. Bam! this line closed a chance to follow-up that quest. At this point I wanted to get more information on the game before spending more time in it: reading reviews I then discovered that you can't complete the game without joining a faction [Bersekers, Outlaws, Clerics]. I would have thought you could play the game as a "free-lance". No faction is really attractive from a story point of view (sure, you can get your upgrades). So... bye Elex. Last : 50$/€ is definitively too high a price. Wait for a large discount.
I played the game for 2 hours before hating it and giving up. Then I continued and played for 5 hours before hating it and giving up. Then I played for 100 hours before ending it (more or less completing it). A future classic. A very well crafted combat system. A very well crafted set of interactions with various factions (with some minor bugs). A very well designed set of mazes^H^H^H^H^H maps that interconnect in a very smart way. A frustrating set of limitations (you CAN'T explore everything). A series of frustrating dungeons or bosses until you find the way to work them around. A creepy feeling here and there, and there too. You will hate Depot A or Mushroom Forest or Creeping Dread or Burrowers or the Robot Factory and I.R.I.S. and the Ironheads and more. A probably well crafted choice of "classes" (I played only one, but could appreciate how others could do). One of the best games of the year. SuNo
Well, I made a big mistake purchasing this game. Sure, I was warned (old school, etc). But I can't even pass the first boss. For getting there from the last save point, I lose half of the life - OR I need to train for hours. Do I want that ? Nope. I want some fun, even retry a few times, but not be upset by a hardcore game. Also, you get a limited number of lives. I thought this game would allow for more casual gameplay, but no. Maybe it is casual for a number of people, not me. Please Devs, advertise it as challenging.
I bought Fallout+FO2+FO tactics during the sales a few weeks ago (good deal, 7€ or so for the bundle). I was very disappointed... People talk about a great turn-based RPG, I saw a game that has not aged very well. For example, you'd better play low res, because you need to hover over the objects to find them (no "highlight objects" key or mode, so this is a little bit a Hidden Object game). Then, you do not control your squad (hired NPCs) - that would be OK, but removes quite a lot of fun. Also planning a fight might be difficult, as you will rely on the AI to do the right thing (I did not come up to this point, but I have been friendly-fired shot once). Also, interface is clunky (OK, I did not expect more). These two would be OK, but what make drop this game after a few hours is how bad the RPG options are - I just suggested I could get some money from a rescue job : the NPC did say bad things, which is fine, but immediately attacked, along with the rest of the village (dogs included). No dialog option to save the situation, no options, no nothing. The hired NPC, which was part of the village before being hired start to shoot everyone, while I was going away (running to stop the combat). This is not what I expected, especially because my character just saved the village from red scorpions. Some bad karma points would have been enough. I could have reloaded a previous save, but what is the point of playing such a limited game (in term of RPG options). Time is the most precious resource in the era of abundance of good RPG and turn based strategy. I had the feeling continuing to play this one would be a waste of time, with very limited fun as a result. I have not even tried FO2 and Tactics. So... this is it. At full price (9€), the game is definitively not a good deal. If you are interested in this game, you should first play a demo.
