I'm British but definitely not a Londoner (and can't stand the place frankly), and from the previews I expected to find this total overhaul a bit silly. And from the reviews I also expected to find it very crashy. But being free and having already played FO4 several times I thought, hell, why not try. I'm glad I did. It's not silly. And no it's not crashy - not one crash in first two evenings of play (though I installed the game after the update was published). I disabled weapon debris in settings (which I do in FO4 anyway). I also installed one mod called "Load Accelerator" from Nexus (it's just a dll file and config file, not an esp mod plugin). Other than that I used my usual settings. No "Buffout 4" either. The attention to detail is beyond impressive, and even the voice acting so far has been good. This has all the feel of Fallout New Vegas but set in London - i.e. more faction-oriented like comparing FNV to FO3, which some will like or dislike. And I love that it isn't too focused on all that tiresome minecraftian FO4 setllement building (though there's a few places you can build up if you're into that). The only minor issue I've noted is some new glassware is too dark (almost black, missing some texture or specular maybe) and a couple of FPS drops. I also think the terminal screens when in close-up view are set too far back (they want you to still see the very neat but utterly pointless keyboard in the foreground). No doubt more updates, tweaks, mods etc will sort these out sooner or later.
The main game only loaded once (Windows 10 latest, gtx 1650 latest driver), after which it "failed to initialise 3D" or something. The sunken dragon addon game launch icon still worked ok so could get into game that way, but even that locked up my PC any time I tried to save any change to the game's own graphics settings. I persevered and got through the tutorial and started an easy level random game. A bit boring - like Anno 1404 but slightly more lacking. Then after progressing through a couple of settler levels etc I got an offer of alliance just as I was in building mode - I moved the cursor to accept and as I did so - CTD. Lost all progress. I uninstalled because the game hadn't really grabbed me enough to replay it again and frankly due to its run failures I feel robbed (luckily not by much as I bought in a sale, but still it's the principle).
Where to start? I'd been pulled in by all the hype - oh the pretty scenery and quests etc. But no wetness and other graphics seem older and buggier compared to FO4. Sure, mods can help, but things like SSEedit doesn't work out-of-the-box with GOG (see forums for how I got it working). Then there's the fighting - oh dear, hack and hope. And don't expect ironsights in 1st person (i.e. you don't look down the arrow/xbow bolt during aiming). Mods can help with the ironsighting but not the hacking. True, FO4 meleeing is only slightly better but then most players are also shooting too and that's done brilliantly compared to Skyrim. Death-shots and animations are buggy - oh yes, I'm sure mods might help but for an Anniversary Edition they should've fixed it. Even FO3 was miles better than this! Dungeons have something to them - the mini-puzzles are def better than Fallout's hacking, but I'm sure after a while that'll get old as the ones I've seen so far haven't differed much between themselves conceptually. I also find the names of places, things and people often silly and seem too forced/made-up, but then sadly that's typical in 95% of fantasy games, films and books that aren't super-deep in lore like say Lord of the Rings. This would be semi-forgiveable if at least the writing style in the books had some effort but sadly the prose is too modern - imagine a kid pretending to write in ye olde English but missing badly most of the time and often not really bothering at all. The quests! Oh the quests - oh no, the quests. Sorry, the smaller side quests are just as simple and hackneyed as Fallout's, and the main quest lines/choices no better really. Maybe if I'd played Skyrim first I'd have been ok with it, but having played FO4 first which is oft-maligned on this score I must say it's better than Skyrim. Sorry. Get the game on sale and mod it up to bearable for some long winter nights if and when you're bored.
I liked how the game has a proper tutorial and how it's integrated into the game (they don't insist but ask you to practice in the holo sim before going down to the planet). This deserves a mention as many games do a bad job of tutorials. I also liked the graphics, and how easy the game was to install. And I like the keybinding - eg though they use WASD they've also preconfigured the arrow keys to do the same (old gamers like me have only used arrowed keys since the 1980s - that WASD nonsense only started in the late 1990s). The game looks polished, is nicely paced, ok music and not taxing. Anyway, sadly, things go immediately downhill from there. I find it totally silly (and simplistic) that though building units might be contiguous (such as your starter base with all it's units joined in a line), you still have to connect them via an external series of tunnels for them to operate! People can't just walk from one unit to the next (let alone from one end to the other)! No you have to build snaking tunnels and connections joining each and every one. Aven rationalises this as being because the tunnels also act as power conduits. Huh? Can't they even connect power between two buildings that are literally joined together? Nope. The only reason I can see for this is so you can click on the tunnels, zoom in and thus click on your settlers! In any rational game they would be safely walking between joined buildings and not taking wasteful and relatively risky exterior tunnels everywhere. Oh look there's Jim walking to the drone hub and mumbling about coffee.. Oh, really... This concept could've been done much better - eg click on a building and select a damn settler if you want to see their cartoony photo and have one say hello or moan about the power supply. Have some buildings with domes to see the little blighters walking around sometimes. The only exterior folk should be suited or in vehicles, not plodding literally everywhere in silly glass tunnels like mice.
Disclosure. Huge fan of FO3 (3 playthrus, over a thousand hours), less so of FNV (one full playthru), also one playthru of TTW (a megamod which combines both games), hardly played FO1 & FO2 long ago. Own all these games. But not played F76. Anyway, imho, FO4 is, on balance, the best I've played so far. I've completed one long playthru and look forward to the next. The plot is arguably not quite as great as FO3 (although FO4's Far Harbour is easily on a par with FO3's Point Lookout). And I don't like what FO4 did to power armour (changing it from a late-game servo-assisted suit of good combat armour into a lego-parts kit, jet-packed flying tank) much of which you start getting within 30 mins of leaving the vault! And a few other niggles (like the lack of subways - yes there's a few mods for that but nothing like FO3's integration). However, FO4's gameplay and gunfighting is superb, the factions more interesting (and for example far more realistic than FNV), the map and detail of the FO4 world is great, and graphics amazing. And - if you're interested - it also adds base-building (and mods take that side of it to another level). For yes, mods work just fine, I have maybe 100 installed from the Nexus mods site. I can't comment on potential Galaxy nor any mod manager issues as I don't use either - I mod manually (which is pretty easy with this game), and always download and install from GOG's off-line files. As to mods there's just too big a choice to mention and I won't bore you with all my faves. But for just one example - that great Point Lookout DLC from FO3 is available, recreated as a major DLC-sized mod for FO4.
This review is based on the original CD-ROM, bought in 2004 (for £29.99). From just the battlemaps this game might look a bit like Age of Empires II or a mediaeval Cossacks, but don't let that fool you, for it goes much deeper with strategy and political maps. And the battles look and play nicer than those other two games, with nice scenery and castles your troops have to fully interact with! And the period artwork, music and voice acting are all neat and from a time when studios put surprising effort into such immersive extras. In short, the game has real character - which is why I kept it all these years. The single player campaign scope is huge, to take any one of a hundred factions to conquer Europe. Yeah ok they aren't all radically different but they do vary a bit and there's so many, and each does have at least one unique unit. The AI is pretty average but, you know, fine for a 2004 game. And economy is your standard resource management, trade and tech development stuff. But the politics are evolved with things like intrigue, non-aggression pacts and dynastic marriages rather than simple allies or enemies, and your generals and other characters develop traits based on events, choices and gameplay. And finally, don't be put off by how deep that might sound, just jump in and enjoy it, for the early game is well paced and gives you time to experience and get the hang of these aspects in an organic and intuitive way. Black Sea Studios, who made this game, just brought out a sequel (Knights of Honor II) in Dec 2022.
The heyday of 1990s FMV (full motion video) games. No finer example, imho. I wish more had been done with FMV, but thereafter games went to naff early 3D (which took another decade to be as nice to look at as FMV) or went down the interactive-movie route (which frankly bore me). Sure, today's 3D AAA games make FMV redundant/dated, but I feel what could've been another decade of FMV gaming was abandoned before it's time. Compare these previews to the 3D ones in Gabriel Knight 3 - 3D would be trash for at least another decade. Story-wise you get a nice sense of the mystery. I'm only knocking a star off for some typically clunky 1990s gameplay sequencing - eg a neat little location I found and searched thoroughly for evidence, but presumably earlier than the expected sequence because nothing was there - but when later stuck I eventually went back there and the evidence was now magically in place, presumably having been triggered by a certain conversation/sequence. Why not have the have it there but alternatively later enable a conversation about it? Painful - but thankfully there isn't much of that.
If these peak your interest for a casual trade-sim game, there is LITERALLY no point in getting them - get Patritican 3 instead (see my 5 star review there). That is because 3 is literally just the re-release of 2 plus the Hanse expansion pack for 2, plus other languages support because (back when first released) 2 + Hanse were only available in German whereas 3 was the first version made for the international market. And Patrician 1 is just too old, it's a 1992 game that looks even older. Sure, if you're really into gaming history or somehow studying game development etc, go for it, otherwise buy 3. What I don't understand is why GoG even sells this - they should just include Patrician 1 as a freebie alongside Patrician 3, and forget 2 entirely. But I guess the game makers want them sold this way. Oh well.
