I came to this game late, it was one of those you missed out on and finally pick up and I was rather disappointed. I was caught off guard by the lack of polish when it comes to stealth and ai interactions. Some things you can hack in front of the enemy looming over you, some you can't, and sometimes there's really no "tell" as to what the rules are in this regard and you'll think everything is cool until a whole room turns on you. You at least get warnings from enemies when you enter areas they don't want you to go but a lot of the immersion is broken by weird interactions. You shouldn't compare the games but I remember more complex interactions from fallout 3 so I guess I was just surprised by the lack of care. For example, you can freely roam the world and enter rooms and loot and a quest might bring you back to that area, doors wide open--eliminating any immersion or enjoyment really. "oh yeah, I was here before and they're just standing in an open room I broke into.." It's funny how those small things can take you out of a game and make you treat it like a game just to plow through it with no connection to the context the story is trying to provide you with. Hacking breaks and ultimately ruins the game, at least for me. Hacking got me a ton of this xp to level up early on and it reaches a point where hacking doesn't change, same ol' same ol' and there's a lot to hack so you get sick of it. You could stop hacking but I wish they did something to keep progressing. Areas can be needlessly confusing and nonsensical. Rooms or streets where instead of just navigating own the road you have to take a weird turn into an alley and dip into a hole and lose all sense of where you are, or at least that's the case for me. In the end, I might finish it or I might not.
The difficulty spikes dramatically at "lakeburg" and I mean dramatically. It feels like there should have been a zone between it at the first zone to help at the very least. As a result, you'll be beating your head against the same measly second level over and over and that will be the game for you and because of that, something feels off. Something is wrong if you're only this far in the game and you're spinning in circles. A little more variety in the scenery or music would have helped because as you're unlocking new stuff and enjoying yourself, there comes a point where you sit back and realize how many times you're either repeating the same level or spending so much of your time just to die to unlock stuff and that's even before you actually meet the boss who will kill you in the first try until you figure out the gimmick so that cycle continues again once you reach a higher level in your endeavors. Nice visuals, armor changes when you change it. I like the music but like I said, I've heard the same song for so long after repeating the same node that it drove me a bit crazy that I turned it down. If the game was a bit easier or at least had a better sense of progression I might have enjoyed it still as much as I did initially but I've reached a point where I get excited to play then realize how much time it would take and the fact I'd just inevitably die in the end. If there was a sequel I'd check it out to see if they made any improvements after whatever feedback they got after this one.
