This game had a lot of negative press, for good reason in my opinion, upon release. I'm already reluctant to buy games outside of GOG because I love my DRM-free access and this one gave me more reasons to avoid it. But I had heard enough people rave about how unique an experience it was, how good the graphics were, that when it came to GOG it piqued my interest enough to talk to a friend about it. They gifted it to me and I tell you what, it would've been worth it if I had spent my own money on it.
In depth story line with tons of side content in this Ultimate edition release. Some main line DLCs can take hours to do on their own. I did every main side quest and the vast majority of the small stuff. I struggle with some boss battles so my time will likely be more inflated than yours if you make your playthrough as exhaustive as mine, but I can tell you that if you do, you will be well over the 15 hour average.
The gameplay is fun and you generally will have more than one way to skin a cat. Skill tree is pretty straight forward and the weapon and personal mods do a solid job enabling the way that you prefer to play, but I don't recall being able to switch out mod groupings. The gameplay was enjoyable and rewards being a more skilled combatant the majority of the time. But being overleveled can compensate for a lot.
HERE IS MY BIGGEST POINT:
The game world is immersive, every answer you get leads to more questions, especially with so many of the files being redacted. Learning about Jesse's history, the history of the Bureau, the nature of AWEs, OOPs, and altered items was so intriguing to me. The lore is what makes this game, no question. It felt lovingly crafted. The story is one that feels routine when you focus on the main quest, but it does integrate many established archetypes well, it certainly wasn't haphazard. But I must emphasize again, allowing yourself to get sucked in by the lore of this game world will make it one that you don't want to leave.
