...and I've been enjoying computer games for 35+ years! The story was utterly compelling and emotionally and intellectually gripping. If you like extremely well-made adventure games with a few brain-teasers along the way, you'll be delighted with this game. Test your intellect and see if you can solve the puzzles without referring to the very well rendered .pdf game guide that is included with the game. I couldn't...;) But my defense is merely that the story was so enthralling that I found myself short on the patience required to get through the puzzles in order to advance the story! One thing I will say about the puzzles--all of them fit within the game! That is, there are no puzzles to solve that lack a relationship to the progress of the characters in the game--all are in context, and that I think is a big and positive point to make. I refuse to give any of the plot away, and I won't comment on it because you must play this game to fully appreciate it, with no preconceived notions going in. I'll just say for most of the considerable length of the game I was nailed to the edge of my seat! Highly recommended! I'd love to see a Stasis 3!
Tolkien used Gollum masterfully in the entire LotR saga. A bit player NPC whose character served to illustrate the damning effects of greed, avarice, and covetousness, and their proclivity to warp a human being to such an extent that he becomes physically deformed to the point of being unrecognizable, Gollum nonetheless was never created as a central character meant to carry an entire story-line by himself. Tolkien told Gollum's tragic story in the books in a gradual arc that served to highlight the power of evil to warp people in various, very intensive ways, and to ultimately destroy them. It was a magnificent and skillful morality play, woven so well into the LotR fabric, but as this game reveals, Gollum was never meant to be a central protagonist around which a deep plot and story flows. I thought the developers didn't seem to know quite what to do with Gollum, precisely...;) As well as the obvious problems with using the Unreal engine, as described well by fil-cat. Another problem is that we already know when and how Gollum ends up! No mystery there, of course. I suppose such a story could succeed, at least theoretically, but it would take a lot of work--basically an entire reworking of the game.
The only reason I didn't pick this game up when it was first released is because Remedy's ads, trailers, and general promotion of the game didn't do much for it except to convince me that the game was just another gimmicky first-person shooter very light on a story with little if any content detail while waxing very heavy on the bang-bang shoot'em-up (dumb) aspect of all high-rated shooters today. Anyway, the game is A++++ for me, just a great game of the kind we unfortunately don't see as often as any of us would like Most shooters today are of the "Go from A to B, being careful to blow up and destroy everything in between as you go. Rinse and repeat from B to C, C to D, D to E, and so on until everything is dead--and then the cannibals come and throw you in the pot with the Baptist missionaries they are having for a late-night snack! (J/K!)...;) You won't see anything like that in this game, fortunately! Something that popped out from the first minutes into the game--I love the options spread and layout--it's super and well organized to a near-perfect 'T'. The design is top-notch, first-rate, designed by persons who obviously know exactly what they are doing--it's nearly ideal in its logic and in the fabulous efficacy the options all seem to have, starting with the graphics option. Just the way the options are presented does so much for explaining them in the context of each other as to what they do--settings close by--and if an option doesn't logically flow like that Remedy includes some text to better explain the function. I bought the PC version, obviously--AMD 3900X/AMD 50th Ann Ed 5700XT/ x570 Aorus Master/ 4X8GB 3733MHz system ram, Win10 v2004, b21390.2025. I play the D3d12 version of the game at 4k and the game runs extremely well with max graphics options on. Highly recommended!
Great game, imo. The turn-based combat is a blast--difficulty levels range from "I don't have to look at the screen to win the fight" levels (well, that's slightly exaggerated), to levels that make you moan with frustration. RPG story is deep and nuanced and responds nicely to the choices you make--there are many multiple-ended quests that turn on your decisions. Practically every encounter offers multiple consequences for your actions and decisions. Even better, this game has already received major upgrades since it launched, and inXile says there's more to come. Basically, the game has Legs. If all you want is simple click-mouse combat you'd better look elsewhere as this game delivers far more than that. It's the kind of game you can sink your teeth into for a long time. Not for the bang-bang-you're dead crowd--it's not a first-person shooter, thankfully, or I wouldn't have bothered with it. (Wasteland 2 isn't comparable, imo--to say it's "better" than W2, while true, does a disservice to W3.) You can scum save all you want or not at all--the choice is the player's, which is the way it should be! This one should be in your library. I'm glad it's in mine!
...with both expansions. The game has improved enormously since it was released late last year, both in terms of patches to the base game itself and as to the two expansions later on--both expansions are now available. Mods exist at Nexus--which is why you do not want to buy the Microsoft Store rental version (wrapped in copy protection code like a darn mummy.))! Can't mod it--last I looked. The GOG & EPIC store versions are moddable and w/o copy protection, and playable right from their executables. The graphics in the game are really well done--one of the best-looking games of this kind I've ever seen--very nice at 4k. Gorgeous. The story could be tweaked a bit, but overall I like the game and haven't gone all the way through yet and have 50 hours in it so far. I'd like to see Obsidian expand on the theme and really gin it up storywise in the future. Best thing I've seen from Obsidian in a long while. Recommended.
Pay no attention to the number of review stars given this game by various people--because none of them--including my own--are valid. This game is so deep into Early Access that it's simply impossible to rate it or review it. Even when the game is finally released (no ship date exists), the EA version selling now only includes Chapter 1--with 80%-90% of the full game remaining under wraps and hidden until the full game ships! *So at best you get a buggy Chapter 1, and nothing else. However, if you buy the EA version now, then when the full game ships you will likely get it a week or two earlier than the general public, and you have already paid for the full game, so no other charges will be forthcoming. As well, you will be able to provide Larian with feedback as the game continues under the EA, if you like doing that sort of thing. *I do think that buying the EA of BG3 is infinitely preferable to paying full pop in a pre-order --which I don't advise anyone to do with any game (unless you get a nice fat discount as an incentive, and you trust the developer, that is!) *My opinion based on what I have seen so far: BG3 has a very good chance of not only becoming the Game of the Year (when it is released, either very late this year or early in 2022), but very possibly the Game of the Decade. But it certainly is not either of those today, nor can such be determined until the full game is released. But what I have seen so far is only 10%-20% of the game--Chapter 1--and Chapter 1 has a lot of debugging and polishing ahead of it yet! *It is simply impossible, imo, to offer a review on BG3 since the full game is many months from release.
...simply not worth even $.74, reduced from an absurd $3. Beamdog should have done this gratis for their NN: Enhanced Edition game--just to add a bit more value to the EE.
Most of the people who wrote these "reviews" seem to think they've actually played the game...;) They write about this *early look* at a game which hasn't been released yet as if they've played it! It's more of an alpha-level pre-demo than anything. Comments like "It's full of glitches" and 1-star ratings are ridiculous because *the game hasn't shipped yet* and this *preview glimpse* of the upcoming game isn't it. Gosh, I hope this is clear enough...;) Link below is the actual GOG game page: https://www.gog.com/game/syberia_the_world_before It's clear that these people didn't like this Microids promotional ad done to give people an early look at the actual game, but this should never be confused with the game itself--which is yet to ship. Whew--I give one star to everyone who thought they were writing about an actual game.
I'm running the game with Win10x64, version 1903, build 18362.1 (Insider's), an R5 1600 @ 3.8GHz, 16GB system ram (2x8 @ 3200MHz), RX-590/480 X-fire system 8GBs, Adrenalin 19.3.3, and...the game is rock-solid--I never have trouble with crashing or instability. Game is right as rain, for me. Only thing I can think of to explain why others are reporting stability problems is perhaps that they are using mods that are buggy--although I am running a few mods, but have no trouble with them. The game is a bit over a decade old, now,--the DA: Origins game was released in 2009, the Ultimate version of course came a bit later, but imo it's the best of the Dragon Age games by far--because it's actually an RPG--at least much closer than the other games which are much more centered around MP & combat. This is a decent single-player game--and if you can get it on sale ($4.99)--it's a no brainer, imo. Ultimate edition has all of the DLC included, and other, separate campaigns, like The Awakening. If you collect these watermark games as I do, you'll want this one in your collection! It's not the greatest--nowhere near the worst--but for $4.99--yep--it's a no brainer if you are fond of Bioware RPGs and by some chance you do not already own the game.
