While the gameplay is structured based on multiple fairly ubisoft-like (mainly far cry) systems like outposts, traversal and combat challenges. I enjoyed playing the game. The main story and it's structure was pretty intriguing. However, I felt disappointed by the ending, it was too convoluted (and too long) for it's own good, in my opinion. Still, I had enough fun with the game to actually complete it 100%. Honestly, I had pretty fun visiting different villages and doing quests for them. I also loved the jetpack which made traversal more fun, if a bit janky. Environments felt appropriately alien-y too and the variety in the biomes made for interesting visual variety.
In the end, I highly recommend it.
I enjoy the story funny dialogue, Beautifull world, the jetpack is amazing,
The game is a bit easy
I have alot of frame rate drops
Some times the creatures bug out
Still blast to play this game
Would highly recommand it
The title says it all: this is no Ubisoft "check all the boxes" timewaster, at the same time this is also not as complex as, say, an Assassins Creed. This will keep you occupied for about 40-50 hours for 100%, and at this point may I recommend setting it to HARD, or at least NORMAL, otherwise this is barely a challenge from the get go. The OST is full orchestra and reminds me of David Arnold (specifically of his Stargate work), which is very fitting. The visuals are the best you can get out of UE4 engine, thankfully there is DLSS support btw, it is not 100% optimized otherwise.
My only real gripe is the writing. At times it was hard to stomach the archetypical Jack O'Neill main character, you know, quippy, sarcastic and a bit on the simple side. He refuses to learn from all the interactions you are having over the course of the journey, till the very last dialogue he confuses the alien side with Earth expressions and even causes a slightly severe last Act conundrum by his instinctive decisions actions.
Ah the last Act... it feels rushed, in writing as well as in technical execution. Most likely it was, as the bugs start to mount, nothing serious at least, but annoying. Audio clipping, sound triggers, muffled dialogue, it detracts from a AAA game rating. Some soft locks are possible, so make use of the 4 save slots, again, nothing too severe.
I left the credits feeling slightly unfinished, not with the main mission, but with some interactions with the NPCs, especially after things turned "a bit sour" in the last act. You know, words were uttered, things were said, and you do not get a last dialogue to clear things up. You leave with a fanfare but with an uncomfortable number of characters not remembering you as "a true hero in the end", so to say.
In the end, it was good to return to Adelpha after exactely 25 years, for me as for the main character. I missed it
The vast majority of the game involves four iterative, tedious tasks (warning: I haven't bothered to keep track of the names of all of these things):
(1) Oryx tasks - at least these don't have time limits
(2) destroy monster towers
(3) the shorter timed chases, which are mostly doable, after a couple of restarts
(4) the longer timed chases, for temples or whatever, which are just miserable, and we can't even save at intermediate points...
Frankly, I'm just getting bored, and on the verge of deleting the game...
I enjoyed this game for the most part, even though it has a couple issues.
Exploration isn't very rewarding, as there is not much interesting to discover. The writing is a bit hit or miss, and the ending is downright weak. There are also quite a few fetch quests, which can make the game feel like "errant boy simulator" at times.
Story and characters are interesting, even though the character models and animations could've used more polish. The quest tracking takes some getting used to, but once I did get used to it I really liked how it reflected individual quests contributing to larger objectives. Mechanically the game works well, and the dialog system is pretty decent. Side activities felt varied enough to keep me engaged throughout my playthrough.