indie physics games can often be quite hit or miss, largely due to physics puzzles being a difficult thing to manage without them either being tedious or difficult in ways that the player can't always deal with this initailly was actually quite fine, I was even able to play it with a game pad for most of the way with the platforming and physics stuff being easy to manage. it was quite definitly a plesant stress free experience. towards what I presume is the end however, things got too much for me to handle, with me needing to simultaneously carry physics objects around, do platforming and avoid an instant death gaze attacks, that weren't always functioning properly, all at once, with spaced out checkpoints slowing me down even more. I ended up having to quit at that point as I didn't really feel that there was enough to pull me through that frustration, which is a shame, cause I otherwise wouldn't have a lot to fault this game with
I think I preordered this game a long time ago whilst I was kinda drunk after finishing the witcher 3, I musta been sauced casue I really don't remember the purchase, and woulda probably cancelled it when I found out about some of the crunch that went into the wild hunt, had I remembered. I didn't however which lead to me unexpectedly getting a notification telling me I owned it on launch day. point behind all this is that when I did play this, I was very detached from me actually spending the money on it which adds a lot of bias to what I'm about to say, I suppose me enjoying witcher 3 does too since this game has a fair few parrallels to that and even shares some of its issues. I also played this on a semi decent RTX card which from what I can tell, shielded me from the vast majority of the bugs; I only had one crash and there were nevere any events that broke the game for me. anyway, what I want to say is that this game isn't hollow bullshit. its definitly buried up to the neck in it and is so troubled that neither it nor the company that made will ever fully recover. but underneath all that is something substantial, made by people who actually give a damn that I hope will eventually be remembered as a part of this game's legacy, rather than the debacle its currently known for. the game play is fun, the effort put into it is both real and tangible, but more than anything else, this game lives up to the energy and themes of the original table top and holds true to a lot of that game's core principles, even the ones ironically railing against the problems currently trying to suck the life out of it. I don't think it could have achieved any of that if there weren't at least a few people working on it pouring their spirit and soul into it. for that reason I hope that whilst the management at CDPR continues to be lambasted for their unforgivable decisions surrounding this, the people actually responsible for making this will retain some respect in the public's eye
the first thing you have to understand about this title is that it is a rogue-like first and a space dogfighter second the game begins much like any other in the genre by setting an unachievable goal and telling you to complete it; which can be quite daunting at first as you are never quite told how far away it is and start off in a rather under equipped state. As you throw yourself at the wall repeatedly however, you will inch closer and closer to the end goal by acquiring perks, finding blueprints that make advanced gear progressivley more attainable, and ultimatley learning the flow and feel of the game, as well as what it wants and expects of you. it is in this inching closer that towards an ultimate goal that the game finds it's true sweet spot for those who're truly patient. the game's core progress mechanics themselves are similarly fun; though the flying mechanics are rather fun too, with reasonably achievable dogfights to be had at nearly every stage of the game. that said, the gameplay is somewhat forgiving, I personally would have liked less excessive inertial dampening and less of a v-tol esque flight style, but I understand that you can't have everything. ultimately it's just unreserved fun trying to reach the end goal. unfortunatley when you do reach it, the game becomes decidely less fun; rather than ending the game straight away upon reaching your goal, the story (which I won't spoil beyond this little tipbit) challenges you to redo the entire run potentially up to eight more times (hough it can be done in 3 or 4 if you know what you are doing) as fun as it is trying to do this the first time, it is decidely less interesting on successive attempts as your over powered build by this point renders the game from a challenge into a chore. as not so fun as this section is however, I find myself forgiving it, simply because of how well paced the initial run is, and for that run alone, I recommend the game
