The writing in the game is good, and the mechanics are almost perfect. Unfortunately, this game was designed to be savescummed. That would normally not be an issue, but there are certain parts that need to savescummed differently than usual. If you're in the habit of hitting F5 before heading into something fairly nasty, you might to surprised to find that choosing to do so may brick your game, as it did mine. The game has spikes in difficulty, where you will feel comfortable about how you're handling things, then suddenly you can't even kill a simple mugger on the street. You'll get frustrated, go to the internet to find what you're doing wrong, and if you're lucky, you'll find an answer. Some of these spikes, however, are not due to anything you control. Certain parts of this game seem like they were designed with one specific build in mind, and if you aren't that build, good freaking luck. The Arena and Gauntlet come to mind. Earlier when I mentioned that you might brick your game by choosing to do what you always do when saving; I'm sure everyone who has played it will realize I'm talking about the Gauntlet. The Gauntlet is designed in a way that has no business being in this type of game. You are racing against AI in a time-based challenge (yes, a time-based challenge in a turn-based game). I want to touch on this part specifically, because there is where my 46 hour playthrough came to a screeching halt. Once I realized my options are to throw away about 15 hours of play (my last non-quicksave), or to finish this challenge (I've already realized this is impossible in my case), I am uninstalling the game and letting everyone know that I cannot recommend it to anyone at this point. Save your time and money, and go play Fallout 2 instead.
