I completed the game recently and it could have been better if it was not so frustrating at certain points in the story. Some examples that stood out among the others: - finding and replacing the broken power relay 428 (the relays are not at all numbered and good luck finding the one that is broken in 4 labyrinths on the Maintenance level) - cyberspace fights are annoying to me, with the green critters being very hard to hit and the screen being filled with particles it is hard to stay oriented - the final boss fight is in cyberspace with 4 stages, no healing or saving in-between with an unskippable monologue sequence at the start
It takes place after the main game. PROs: - entire large new area map (with a size like the basic 3 in the main game) - storytelling elements and atmosphere of the new area CONs: - no compass pointing to the current objective, so sometimes You can get a little lost Neutral points: - 2 endings for which the good/bad outcomes are very debatable - player character that finally talks, but You have no way to influence what he says (so it addressed one of my biggest CONs, but in a way that I just cannot put among the PROs)
This expansion is completely linear with a single ending, very small corridor maps.
I played the entire Metro trilogy recently and this one is just a bit better than the previous 2 games. PROs: - 3 large area maps with opportunities to explore them better - you get a compass that will always point to Your current objective, so You still won't get lost - a bit of an improvement upon the obscure morality system of the previous 2 games (You no longer need to be touching guitars, or listening to the entire length of some background NPCs talk to each other) - finally a save system, the previous 2 games were lacking this CONs: - the objectives of the morality system are still hidden, so if You want to get the good ending and don't want to follow guides with spoilers, just don't kill anyone (including random enemies shooting at You, stealth all the way), that in itself can be very tricky since the only non-lethal option You have are melee takedowns - the player character is still completely unable to talk, never says a word and all NPCs just talk to him, there is no way to react (this is just some artistic decision that rubbed me the wrong way, especially when NPCs ask You for a response like begging You to respond with the radio You carry and that works perfectly fine)
I played the entire Metro trilogy recently and this one is just like Metro 2033. PROs: - linear shooter with small corridors You cannot get lost in - some storytelling elements - atmosphere CONs: - the same obscure morality system as in Metro 2033 that decides which ending are You going to get (like good moral points for standing around and listening to background NPCs talk, touching every guitar You come across and such), since I knew about it after going through the first Metro game I managed to get a good ending, but otherwise I would not have gotten it - the player character is still completely unable to talk, never says a word and all NPCs just talk to him, there is no way to react (this is just some artistic decision that rubbed me the wrong way, especially when NPCs ask You for a response and .... nothing)
PROs: - just a linear shooter with small corridors You cannot get lost in - some storytelling elements and atmosphere CONs: - very obscure morality system that decides the ending You get (it is even based on things like listening to certain background NPCs talking to each other or for example touching every guitar You come across no matter the context of the situation) - the player character is unable to talk, never says a word and all NPCs just talk to him, there is no way to react (this is just some artistic decision that rubbed me the wrong way, especially when NPCs ask You for a response and .... nothing)
I finished the base game + Phantom Liberty in something over 150+ hours along with gigs and side quests. Price/Hours of fun ratio was worthwhile, but given its scope as a AAA title done by a large studio my review will be more critical than for small indie developers. The review points are for the un-modded ultimate edition, points that can be changed with mods mention it PROS: + incredible graphics that are top notch even today (some 5 years after release), it is clear where most of the work was done + a lot of side quests and gigs to do + lot of written materials filling out blanks about the state of the world in Cyberpunk + satisfying combat and stealth, even with level scaling enemies You can get far better than them (combat can be made more challenging if You want that as much as You want with mods) CONS: - the game at its 1.0 launch was a bugfest, that will remain as a minus in its history, if they just called it Early Access (v0.1) back then it would be tolerable - most of the budget and work apparently went into fancy graphics, so after some playtime I noticed how the interactions with other characters and the world were shallow and very limited (even mods change this only in very small ways) - dialog options without real options, I really hated the parts where the player is forced to play as Johny Silverhand and all his dialogue options were in essence the same, all these parts could have simply been cutscenes, but I guess the designers thought that the players would not pay attention - the lifepath choice (Your origin story) at the start does not really change anything, only a very short prologue mission is unique for them and a couple of dialogue options in side quests - gigs do get repetitive after some time, they boil down to roughly 3 types kill someone, steal something, save someone (side quests are more varied and interesting) NEUTRAL points: ~ if You want a possibility for a happy ending, this is the wrong game for You, You will only get depressed (this applies double for Phantom Liberty)
TLDR: When I was about to get bored from the game and give it some 2 stars and a "meh" review, it turned out to be one of the best games I played in a year. Do not play this game as just another 2D space shooting/trading sandbox (that is how it feels at first). Play it as a story rich space exploration game that it truly is. It is easy to miss some of the great campaigns that are started by some average looking missions from the spaceport. It would be great if the first "tutorial" mission series ended with the old retiring captain saying something along the lines of "Good luck in your travels youngster. If You are looking for a great adventure stop by the spaceport on XYZ." Because I spent the first hours just playing the game as an average space sandbox doing randomly generated missions with some small single missions from the spaceports that were hand written and were just a tiny taste of what was to come, when I completely by random stumbled upon a galaxy altering hand-written campaign with dozens of missions. It had a great storyline, plot twists and great characters.
PROS: It runs on Windows 10 with the occasional crashes to desktop around once per hour. Since it is old, it is fine, just save often. I finished both "The Suffering" and "The Suffering: Ties That Bind". This one is definitely the better from those 2. It involves less escort quests and the ones that are present at least did not present such a huge challenge to the pathfinding of the NPCs. The NPCs seem to suffer from the same bad pathfinding but at least in my case they did not get stuck so often as in the second game. CONS: Bad NPC pathfinding, but after playing the second game it is not the worst I have seen. The story is nothing great and very linear, but I guess its enough for a short shooter.
PROS: It runs on Windows 10, with the occasional freezes and crashes to desktop around once per hour. Since it is old I can overlook this and this is also where the PROs for this game end. CONS: The first game was better, because at least it did not involve so many escort quests with NPCs trying to walk through walls, getting stuck indefinitely or just running around like headless chicken until they do get stuck. This game so far had the worst NPC pathfinding that I have seen. And since the good ending is dependent on You successfully finishing these escort quests, trying to get it gets seriously frustrating.
