The first half or so was fantastic, had me engaged with the story, weapons, skills, and exploration - in fact, I kept running around looking for more npcs to talk to because I didn't want to leave those areas...around midgame I noticed the content was slipping, quests were less interesting (same blahness of the typical fedex quests), and the story began to drag...and the last third is simply utter rushed garbage.
It's very obvious that the devs (a) ran out of money, (b) chased a deadline, or (c) both. The first couple of worlds had lots to do, but the last few areas had almost nothing ... a complete letdown. I finished it, but it was over so abruptly that it brought to mind the last part of Rage (and if you played that game, you know exactly what you are in for here).
Great potential ruined.
Played via Xbox PC Gamepass.
BLUF: First Person Action "RPG" by the makers of Fallout: New Vegas with multiple locations, NPCs and outcomes depending on who you talk to and how you decide to tackle problems.
Pros:
- Nice graphics
- FPS with a story
- Interesting characters
- Some character customization that affects gameplay
- Some interesting sidequests
Cons:
- NOT open world. The locations are open with very well defined quest paths.
- The center of the screen is NOT where you are aiming, it is below, which is very hard to get used to if you play any other PC FPS with a centered crosshair (99% of PC FPS are centered)
- Story is lackluster and becomes very uninteresting shortly before halfway through.
- "RPG" system is lacking. Character customization is mostly between what types of weapon you prefer and if you want to be good at lockpicking/hacking.
- Shorter than I expected
- Game doesn't give many reasons to play through more than once
- Feels more like a slower Borderlands than Fallout: New Vegas
- The one interesting and attractive female companion is NOT interested in getting to your male character. *wink wink* Such a let down...
Summary:
I honestly do not understand the high review scores for this game. If this is the "creme of the crop" than out gaming industry is dying. The game is not open world, in fact, it's better described as linear in wide spaces. It is NOT an RPG in any sense of the world, better described as the player character's skills are somewhat customizable. The player's skill choices rarely affect the story, and more or less primarily determine if you can lockpick/hack a container and what weapon you will be using.
Verdict:
If you enjoyed Borderlands and are interested in a story-based FPS with skill customization, sidequests and a little loot to choose from, then pick it up for $30 or less.
If you are interested in a modern Fallout: New Vegas type of title, skip it and don't worry that you missed it.
The game starts out strong, with an interesting premise, decent character development and setup. You start off having to make choices on how to solve problems and who they will affect, and ultimately effect your own reputation. I took the high road and tried playing as a morally good character. Ultimately, towards the second half, or last third of the game, these choices are almost meaningless as the game moves to a linear path. Further, a lot of the customization is fairly shallow. You will find yourself with an overwhelming number of weapon mods that are duplicates or barely do much of anything. There is also a major questline for special weapons that turn out to be fairly benign as well. Not worth the time spent tracking them down and leveling up your character.
My guess is that some part of this was rushed to get it out the door, and much of the alternate paths were left on the virtual cutting room floor. That said, it was a fun game in the early stages, with unique, interesting graphics and settings, a good number of side quests, etc. It's obviously very close to the Fallout series without much of a depth. I'd say it is worth a play through if you commit to punching through the story without drawing it out. In that case, it's enjoyable. This is not a 100 hour game and if you look for more, you'll grow tired and likely not complete it.
The tl;dr is it's a really rather decent RPG that is well worth 30USD/EUR, but not much more than that. Also important: Do not think of it as open world Fallout in space, think of it as Knights of the Old Republic Lite. This is actually very important as you don't actually play in a single open world, you play across several locations within a solar system. You aquire a ship through luck. There's a robot on the ship. And so on. The combat is kinda ok, the writing is solid but pretty bland, which is fine. There's not much dialouge, and what is there is there to serve the plot. Don't expect a new Planescape: Torment, or New Vegas, or Disco Elysium, or whatever. It's pulp fiction.
What I will say is that the worldbuilding is top notch, and world building goes way beyond dialouge and what you find in terminals. It is the loading backgrounds, the seemingly gazzilion kinds on consumables - all with their little slogans -, the jingles the vending machines play, the way the different locations are designed, the different kinds of armour... It's basically what elevates this game, to me anyway. The world feels complete, it feels more alive to me than say Fallout 4 because it makes sense unto itself, and that is the difference between mediocre and good writing. It absolutely is shallow, but it doesn't pretend to be anything else. Your companions have like one subplot each. There aren't many quests, and many that you can find are not amazing, but that's fine. What plot there is moves along and you with it.
The game doesn't try to be a deep, meaningful thing or a thing you can sink hundreds of hours in (I finished in about 20h), but that's ok, at least on a discount.
(I got it at the Epic Games sale plus I had a cuopon so I got it for about €20, and I would consider €30 to be an ok price, but not more than that)
Thrown into the new world I found the story development really decent with enough of open ends and miseries to keep you going. Even if swamped somewhat by less important side quests. The companions are well written and very versatile so I guess job well done here as well. The graphics are stunning, carefully crafted worlds/ships/star bases with the strong sense of alien all around. Again well done. And that is it. All good stuff to comment about. I found the combat system boring and quickly repeatable. Not really engaging. The cut scenes with companions attacking are too many and not well timed that additional ruins the game play (at least for me). Yet, as some other comments say, the plot of the game nose dives somewhere around the middle of the whole game. To call it an epic trashing is by far not an overstatement. I have no idea what has happened but the change to the pace and story depth in the game is so abrupt that it had to be something serious. Tragically from that point the game is dead boring.
