Very promising Arx Fatalis like game! Imho a bit too much cramped level design, too mazelike for the sake of the puzzle aspect instead of a more relevant layout related to the meaning of what the area portrays. And a lot of stuff like NPCs and such feel placeholder-like and need quite a bit of polish. But otherwise... when it comes to the core virtues, then the dev clearly targets mostly the right aspects of what made Arx and other ImersiveSims appealing! Just wish he'd go a bit further on that part and for example remove the "I'm a pickup"-glow/shine of some items laying in the environment. But it's no dealbreaker. I really hope he doesn't rush things or can hire help if aiming for a certain date. I just wish him luck, would hate to see such a promising project die eventually!
The good thing is, they kept the emphasis of the core aspects of the prior game. Similar hilarious story and chars aswell as overall designs. Some minor stuff, like the IMHO too much recycled "puffer"-creature base designs are a bit meh, but overall it's fitting. Sadly there are also some really bad decisions... imho at least. The first being the 3rd person perspective... this reduces the important part of the screen to a fracture of the available space severely hampering overview. The 1st person was a lot more serviceable in that regard. And TBH I never had problems with platforming in 1st person. So that's a non-argument in my case. The better visuals when aiming is much more important in such a shooter type of game. The second was the design of the controls and action layout... for example that charging the weapon now made the Avatar stand almost still while taking ages to load for such a fast paced gameplay. The design with loading the weapon beforehand in a bit more skillful maner and holding that charge until fired without movement penalties in JTTSP made it far more useful and rewarding, IMHO. In ROTSP those updates are barely useful, as a single hit during the long loadup interrupts it, and the movement penalties make it even worse of a gamble. And as icing on the cake those upgrades also barely make any difference now. In the first game the upgrades felt meaningful, as they enabled slight gameplay changes, like the final explosion shot AOE allowed to hit enemies otherwise impervious to frontal assault and such. Not so in ROTSP. After trying it many times, I almost never bothered with anything but the first charge level anymore. A pity. Also, no idea if this is woke stuff or a bug, but that all voices except the anime and animal voices alternate randomly between male and female feels a bit off too, imho. In general, when they introduced the wardrobe I hoped it would be better possible to create avatars inspired by wacky characters like Shaggy or Velma from Scooby Doo or sumsuch. But not really. Very much "uncanny valley".... to much to ignore, not enough to really bother... Not to mention ya need an EGS account for multiplayer now... WTF!? (that alone should actually be another -1 star, but I decided against it, as the devs released the game quite early on GOG, so thumbs up on that) So yeah... to put it that way, for me, when it comes to well rounded gameplay and developement decisions, the predecessor (JTTSP) feels like the successor in many cases. So in the end: recommended but with some caveats
Clearly has it's upsides, but also many downsides. Like the models of enemies... the molerat for example is, IMHO, simply awesome! A clever redesign that captures the original intend while adding meaningful enhancements. Nice, that's how it's done! Then again there is stuff like the new scavenger. that simply butchers the original design without thought, remodelling the ratite/emu like design simply into a lizardlike snapper clone. Similar for the new bloodfly, that has no insect-mandibles anymore, or skeleton mage design and others. A real pity. Repeats with world design, that now looks more like the Pyrenees, drastically changing the atmosphere. Not to mention the crazy Alps like mountains in the background... WTH?! *big thumbs down* And not sure what happened with the dialogues... they range from improper to nicely authentic, mostly within a single topic?! Also a bit disappointed with the HUD including the inventory. The typical floating white scribbled lines UI that is EVERYWHERE these days. Is this lack of originality really all current devs can bring forth? :( But at least the controls feel ok-ish, nothing I'd rate annoying. On the upside. for me the designs of the iconic armor types are mostly well made. Akin to the molerat redesign, it felt both characteristic and true to the orignal at the same time. Thumbs up! At least for what was present. Sadly, the demo pretty much ended before it really started, so it's hard to say anything about the skill system and gameplay with its feel. I hoped it would end with Nyras joining the swamp camp, after a very limited amount of 2 or 3 small quests, and being denied access to the old and new camp. Or something like that. Sadly not. But they depicted Nyras with full hair, showing that novices get their head shaved. Please put this love of detail in more aspects of the game! PS: the sleeperhead popup in the end: second-hand embarrassment! Idea nice, executing terrible! Final verdict: worried, but not without hope
What can I say... the art style and atmosphere of the game are simply awesome! There are a lot of games I wish had this type of both immersive and yet slightly fantasy inspired design. Also the management aspect of the group with the small camp building is an interesting touch yet a bit finicky. One can be divided about the "arena-like" battlefields... but omg... when it comes to interface/menu and the class/combat gameplay. Menus are as inconvenient as possible, and abilities way to limited to be of use for any real interesting gameplay. Don't expect any Xcom like tactics or real RPG goodness. Goes on with classes. Animals (except for carry ponys) are pretty useless, as they add way too much party slots for their minor benefit. Makes beastmaster classes horribly bad. They should change animals to a DnD like System, making them a part of the beastmaster instead of full partymembers. For me that creates a love-hate relationship with the game. At least they added drop in/out MP.
