Finished a lot of RPGs quite close to each other, so reviews got a bit spread out in time due to my day offs (should write couple of posts yesterday and day before on my day offs too, but completely derped). Like with Gothic 2 this review will be somewhat connected with previous game review that I wrote earlier.
Let’s see what Spiders made this time…
I remember The Technomancer release and how I really liked trailer, then I saw the price that was on AAA level and already became a doubter. Reviews quickly became Mixed and my doubting got stronger to the point I completely forgot about the game until recently. Mixed reception for such games on release is quite common I’d say, but it usually gets better after patches and discounts, which didn’t happen to this game for some reason. And I’m a bit surprised to be honest, because personally I enjoyed the game and for the price you can get it on sales nowadays it is pretty good.
Again I’ll start with gameplay, because Spiders so far out of 3 games of theirs I played from different times consistently deliver decent combat system. Not sure, maybe it just clicks with me good and others dislike it, but honestly I think with system like this worst case you should be neutral on it, because there is just not much to hate about it. Fluid, diverse in ways to approach it, mechanically satisfying with perfect dodges and character system allowing you to adjust the experience to your liking. This time we have 3 “styles” which define weapons you use, which creates only one issue to me – parry is locked behind one of the weapon sets and gun locked behind another, so I ended up not using parries at all, because gun+dagger was more aggressive and dynamic style. In the end you have dodges, parries, stealth (that I also didn’t use this game compared to previous, because just facing enemies in combat was more fun) and finally dodges have better invincibility frames this time including perfect dodge that has some interactions with talents you level.
Story of this game is a lot more interesting and a bit less generic than first game, even though I have to say I called final twist of the game way early, because it’s just that obvious when you take lore details in account. Was a bit sad that there weren’t many connection with first game, because that sure would improve the experience, but I think first game’s lore details that you get in playthrough and especially in your journal already helped me a lot to understand and immerse better in this game. On top of the general story we also get to work on our relationships with companions through their own quest lines which is a great approach for my taste in RPGs. Companions comment on situations, interact with each other and main character, participate in cutscenes while traveling between areas etc – really well made. Oh yeah and of course everything is voice acted in the game again, which I really appreciate as a streamer and you get that AAA feeling from that too.
Graphics wise game still looks really good and doesn’t need any mods/patches to play on modern PCs, but it’s also relatively fresh so nothing really surprising there.
Character progression improved since previous game and got closer to their “final” current version of it in Greedfall, which I really like. Companions and equipment giving you bonuses for your stats is a nice touch for my taste, but creates a little annoying situation when you need to go through some inventory management to equip a jacket that gives you +1 lockpicking to open the box just to go through all process again right after.
Now a little bit of negative things for me personally. Carry weight limit is awful for loot hoarder like me as always, but at least you get your storage box that you can always drop stuff to, so it’s not too bad at least, but considering you get mobs respawn a lot and you don’t even need that much stuff I just stopped looting things at some point which also feels kinda bad. Respawning enemies is actually another issue I have, even though I like the combat and theoretically should be happy to get more opportunities to fight, but it just becomes a nuisance after 10+ runs through same area with same enemies. And that’s another little negative thing – a lot of running through same areas for new quests, quite a lot of reusing for same locations and coupled with respawning enemies it sometimes feels a bit annoying. They added some unique equipment from some story enemies, but you end up getting them quite rare and rest of the loot is quite generic and just doesn’t excite you much, not a big deal, but could be a bit better. Game was finished in a bit over 30 hours which for RPG is not too much, also considering that a lot of that time was running through same areas killing same enemies I totally can see how people who paid full AAA price would leave negative review.
Overall with sale price nowadays it’s totally worth to give this game a go, especially if you liked Greedfall and want some more of that with sci-fi makeup. Kinda hope we will return to Mars eventually with bigger budget and the experience they earned through other releases.