This game is probably the best sim out there. It's not hard to play, but extremely hard to master. Chef's kiss.
I did not expect to like this game as much as I have, but this game is a gem. It has an engaging story, good combat and lots of fun side content. All in all a must buy for people who love RPGs like Baldurs Gate 3.
Is it buggy? Yes. Did it affect my playthrough? Yes. Did it ruin my playthrough? Hell no. This game has a story that tugs at the heart strings in a way I haven't felt for years. Where all of the games I've played recently, except for Outer Worlds, were completely forgettable or just plain bad, this game sucked me in and would not let go. Even the end credits makes you nostalgic, where you get goodbye messages from your friends. The emotion put into even these is amazing! It's the first game in years (except Outer Worlds) that I've wanted to replay and replay ad nauseum. I want to experience all the endings. I want to see if I can save V or change the fate of Johnny Silverhand. I've played through the game twice allready and want to do another one as soon as possible. There just hasn't been a huge game with a compelling story like this in at least half a decade. It's a damn shame that this game has gotten so much bad publicity, because it's frankly a masterpiece of a game which deserves all the praise I can heap upon it.
First of all. If you enjoy Divinity Original Sin 1&2 you may enjoy this. There are a lot of similarities. There is one thing that completely kills this game for me though. Killing a child in ANY game is something that makes me want to walk away immediately. I don't play games to be innundated with poorly veiled modern day politics in poorly worded dialogue. When you add child murder I stop playing. Weaving current events properly into a game can be a thought provoking and moving experience. That seems to be completely lost in this game. It is brought into the game with the finesse of a sledgehammer through killing a child, and having a druid of all things (has Larian studios read ANY of the Forgotten Realms novels?!? It certainly doesn't look like it) act like some sort of neo-nazi is incredibly immersion breaking. As a 35 year veteran of D&D it is obvious that they have no idea what druids are about. If druids believed the people from Elturel would disrupt the balance of nature they would never have shown themselves and carefully manipulated them through magic and animals to move on. They WOULD NOT invite them in and then have the second in command turn into some sort of nazi all of a sudden. And every druid in the grove would know that the person had a tadpole in their head the SECOND it happened. Sylvanus would never allow this kind of desecration of his most holy groves. You want to create a story in a 40+ year old world? LEARN THE LORE! I realise that this is an early access game, but when you charge $60 you don't get to have as many bugs as this game has. Broken textures and shaders, horrible camera angles, unresponsive UI, crashes, dozens of invisible walls stopping targetting. The fact that you can't click on a spell and then on someone's portrait to cast it on a party member, something that was possible in the original, is just bad. All in all. The story seems lackluster, the mechanics are ok, It's not worth $60 though and I doubt it will...
