Those of us familiar with the Infinitys Engine games (Baldus Gate or Icewind Dale) will feel at home.
Yeah, the whole LGTB angle and political correctness kinda surprised me. Felt totally out of place and pace in a game like BG, that played on all the right fantasy tropes / stereotypes. Worst of all it was a 'in yo face' approach. I don't play D&D for that kind of stuff. You need this in your game...well, Second Life is your game. The usual crate-load of Bugs (God, the bugs) and funny design-choices in terms of UI were only mildly surprising. The Portrait selection (the custom ones) was the real shocker for me. As someone who has a extensive library i was quite miffed. That with being a click-fest. Other that that I don't mind the UI changes much. They are for the most part ok. And the Extra graphics options can be turned-off if desired. So no biggie that. The biggie was actually that once again, an update broke all mods and made updating all the mods necessary...again. That said, the addd-on boast some really nice atmosphere and mood. The IE is pushing awesome effects in terms of areas and level of details. The Crowd in BG is another nice example...unless it crashes. That being said, I think the Devs should have been more mindful writing SoD. The core audience is not the edgy sexually confused teen, but people like us in their prime. People who grew up with those characters and spent a great deal of time with them. Non of us felt that Jaheira's heckling of Khalid or her cynical nature was such a big deal, or that Minsc was a mockery of all people mentally challenged. Transgender or Political agenda aside, nothing can excuse bad writing. Selfinsert-fanfiction. None cares about sexual preferences of certain characters (Khalid wore a Gridle of Gender in my game), if we do not like a Char we do not invite him/her to the party. But we do care if they rewrite our beloved childhood Heroes as the see fit just to push SJW agendas. Refrain from buying till the MP and other glaring Bugs are fixed....not to mention the mod support.
You like Jagged Alliance? You dig Fallout 1+2 and Arcanum to boot? Well, Underrail will scratch that itch. It has all the old-school bits people miss in an RPG these days: Lots of stats, attributes, feats, skills, skill checks, crafting, great TBC and lots of text to read. The atmosphere is great and somewhere between Metro and Fallout. It's got awesome places to explore too. So why not full star-age? Because its not perfect. The writing is not Plancescape: Torment levels, but not bad either. But then again, how many games can claim Planescape: Torment level of writing that are not PS:T? Some bits and pieces tend to be repetitive, and sometimes things are dull. But such bits are far and few in between. Then again some section are really tense and contrast glaringly with those dull moments. Still, it's a more than solid Hardcore RPG with leanings towards combat and exploration form a tiny 3 man serbian dev team that has been in development for quite some time. You like classic RPG...well grab this one too. Gonna be a classic soon enough. :)
I knew it was only a matter of time before you gog-guys put this baby up. But what makes this offer so great is sheer quality. I still have the Box with the countless CD's sitting on my shelf- The Mission are diverse and every decision you make is reflected in the events that follow later! The pinnacle of the Wing Commander Series. Nothing that came after this one worth the brand of WC.
