I put this off for a while for two reasons: 1) Didn't care that much for Gwent in The Witcher 3 so I put this off for a while event, even though TW2+TW3 are among my favorite games ever. 2) Read the difficulty was trivial during launch. After they fixed the difficulty, I still waited a while (somewhat just because of time), but I finally jumped in and WOW. This game is fantastic. Lots of varied battles, difficulty balance is near perfect on the hardest level. Story+choice is as good as anything they've produced and the prose is better than most novels. The only negatives I can think of is progression was a bit dull (it generally felt more like horizontal progression, giving yourself options rather than feeling more powerful) and there were a few too many battles (but you can skip them, it was just unclear if I would need the resources later but after playing I'd say it's safe to skip 2-3 battles per map starting with map 3). Pretty small complaints compared to all the good. Buy it if you're interested.
Adverb overuse in the narrative text would drive Stephen King mad, but the story is solid. Using heroes on the battlefield is such a game changer. The real problem is the overworld AI is atrocious. It'll let you do whatever you want so playing it becomes a triviality (or a tedious slog). It seems like there a few challenging maps, but overall there's way too much turning off of the brain for a supposed strategy game.
2.5 hours played. No crashes. Some random texture pops. Runs flawlessly. Fast load screens. Technically speaking, it's as good as I can expect for EA. Little things will get ironed out. The companions need a little more life to them. There's not enough banter (only one so far) or interaction from them during dialogue. Like, they don't even chime in when I'm recruiting a new party member. This is my biggest worry right now. I'll update if this improves. Combat is D&D goodness. Might end up being the best implementation of our favorite tabletop system out there. The verticality in the game really has the opportunity to take combat to new heights. A darker palette and heavier undertones to the music will go a long way to transitioning the D:OS feel to BG. It's entirely "fixable".
I grew up on JRPGs, so I like to delve into the heavy hitters from time to time. Most are duds, but I'll occasionally stumble on a good one. The Sky trilogy is not part of that club. The main plot moves too slowly to ever maintain momentum, the characters are one-dimensional, the side quests are largely a snooze fest, and the battles are heavily repetitive. The writing has it's moments, but dialogue tends to go on and on for no reason, repeating the same plot points or simply throwing in unnecessary "Good idea", "Okay, cool", "See you later"," and the like. It literally feels like they hired a main writer who knew how to write, then a secondary writer whose sole purpose was to drive the word count up. There are a few good auxiliary elements like the soundtrack and minor NPCs who respond to the major events, making it seem like the world doesn't revolve just around you. But those are there to support the gameplay and the story, which at their core, are largely mediocre. A few years ago I forced myself to finish Sky FC (which is a significantly worse game). I gave SC a try because of all of the hoopla about how it made the dismal Sky FC worth it. While SC is a decent game, I regret buying it...but I won't regret finishing it, because after 20 hours I'm done. I just don't have the time anymore to waste on mediocre games.
The story is very good and is propped up by something I rarely notice - amazing voice acting. The characters leave lasting impressions and the script provides some very memorable moments. Music is on point the whole time. The world is absolutely brimming with life - so much more lore than I'd expect out of a 12-14 hour game. I really liked both the linear nature and the character progression. The game never, ever wasted my time. So many of these open world games and more traditional RPGs send me on fetch quests, offer me pointless side quests, and fill my inventory with garbage loot to sell. All actions feel important to the story. Character progression is a skill tree with 4 active abilities that can be leveled up after key points in the game. Various Mascherines change the character ultimates. Finally, a ink "tattoo" system of sorts provides substitutes for typical weapon/armor. Unfortunately, some flaws mar an otherwise fantastic game. First, the lore is overwhelming. You will be hit with an avalanche of foreign terms. Be prepared to read the in game encyclopedia or just miss some things. Second, though I liked the idea of "tattoos" replacing weapon/armor, they never felt that impactful. Likewise on Mascherines, by the time I used an ultimate the battle was over (or I was fighting a boss). All of this feeds into the game's biggest weakness - combat. You'll approach every battle the same. Spam abilities and dodge various telegraphed attacks. After you have your skills setup, it basically plays itself. Though the game isn't super challenging on hard, you may occasionally die. The game only saves on scene changes so you might die on your 3rd battle, forcing you to repeat the easier battles. This would be fine if the battles were connected AT ALL, but they aren't. It makes no sense not to either implement carry over effects (like HP) or allow retries after battles in this system. Hopefully Masquerada 2 fixes "tattoos" and combat - if so, I'll be all in.
I think by the time this gets released it will be the best blobber available (first person party based dungeon crawler). Why? As it stands, the combat is genuinely interesting. That's more than I can say for most blobbers with simply rehash basic attacks for physical damage types. Magic types in blobbers typically get the same spells you've seen in all of them (single target DPS, group DPS, heals, etc). The combat resources in StarCrawlers is time units which basically forms a combat queue. Each ability has an additional affect past "do more damage". Additionally, the lack of a healing class gives you more options for forming your party. IMO, damage mitigation and efficient combat is way more interesting than mindless battles with heals afterward. The combat in this game leads to a fantastic progression system. Every level in StarCrawlers is awesome because each ability (or ability upgrade) is awesome. Elemental damage and resistances were just added, and it's yet another improvement to combat. The randomized dungeons themselves are solid with fun loot to find, but are (as of this writing) lacking puzzles. I don't expect amazing random puzzles, but some things here and there would be fun. Events occur or open up in the dungeon based on your party members which adds a nice touch (like a smuggler assessing the high value of an object that looks useless to others). The main story seems interesting but will be a relatively short amount of the game time. Most of StarCrawlers is spent in randomized dungeons. You make your own story with those because you do missions for various unique factions. Factions that like you give you things, factions that hate you hunt you down. It should help with replay and help you "build your own story". StarCrawlers is still in development but the dev team is worth supporting (story, combat, dungeon randomization, etc all still work in progress). They're active on Steam forums and it feels like they really listen.
