I bought this on an impulse yesterday based on seeing a video in the past and the CD Project RED veteran credentials. I'm digging it so much and it does a lot of fresh things I haven't seen put together in this exact way before. I've been playing RPGs and isometric games since the early Ultimas and this one is surprising me with its design choices in really good ways. For an isometric game, the world and action of it is extremely fluid. You're definitely in the driver's seat as a player and it's not the style where you click and wait for a character to walk there. For how many ways you can bounce around the environment, it moves and handles extremely well. If something looks reasonable to climb, you can do that and the feel of what's possible is quickly intuitive. The hustle and bustle of the city environments is well done. It might be one of the few RPGs I've played where the number of people in a city area feels right and fuller than usual. This matters as you're a thief and it has an effect on what you can and can't get away with. The openness feels really alive. After the tutorial chapter, you're given a wide amount of freedom of what to go do as you explore this new world. If you want to go running into a militarized zone you don't have a visa for, you can totally do that. Just don't get caught. Exploration gamers who like open settings will really like the feel. The vertical nature of the game also feels very fresh and creates some fun puzzling. You might know a secret hideout might be just below your feet, but figuring out how to get to that particular story of the building is part of the fun. The level design is interesting and there's clear care in how it was put together. The lore and world building is fresh. For people who like me who like lore, there's a lore section like the Witcher where it fills with people and place descriptions as you explore. Finally, I haven't run into technical problems yet. My desktop is three years old if that helps.
