I tried to play this, co-worker got it and let me have a spin. The youtube footage looked quite good.
The game is really promising for the first half an hour. I said, "Wow, it's The Witcher 2 in space!" which is not that big of a copliment for me, because I only sorta liked The Witcher 2.
By the time I was done with the tutorial zone boss, I was sorta okay with the game. The combat felt decent.
And then I started to do the main quests. My interested kinda flopped there. The main quest just wasn't interesting at all. I was initially tasked to find some deserters for a military bitch. I decided to do Chaotic Good and let them go instead of executing or arresting them. Not only was I disappointed in the outcome of my choice, I googled to see if it resulted in any long term story effect... Yeah. Just, yeah.
The talent tree in the game is dumb. You have 4 trees you can invest in. One is for magic. One is for staves. One is for daggers. One is for maces. Each weapon uses a combat stance.
Now, if you could switch stances quickly like Devil May Cry rewards, or do a stance-dance to pull off something meaningful combo, or if talents in the different trees synergized in interesting ways, I'd be on board for the progression system. Considering none of that is really true (You just invest in one weapon talent tree and put your remaining points in magic), your chocie is kind of stunted and boring. Whatever. Most of the talent bonuses are meaningless anyway, the biggest buffs are just a puny +20% damage dealt with some minor effects sprinkled in. Typical trash, shallow design.
I was at least expecting to stumble into some interesting, memorable, drawing characters in the first couple of hours. Instead, I was saddled with characterless mooks. I got turned around a few times and fought some respawning monsters, got my party wiped, and just decided to give up.
It could have been a gud game, I guess. Okay, no, not really. I mean, at best, an Action RPG Mass Effect 2 is what it could have been. I hated ME2, but considering the neverending good high budget RPG drought, I could have maybe enjoyed this game at a base level if it had enough T n A and space fantasy. It didn't even have gratuitous sex!
I guess, if you're going to make a quality game - really, get the details right. This game doesn't get the details right. It could have gotten the broad strokes right at least, but it doesn't even accomplish that...
If you can't get the details right, give me a stupid AAA plot I can at least want to reach the end of...
This game is better than DA3, but that's about all the praise I can give it.
Okay, maybe I'm being too harsh on it.
I would say this game definitely is on the same shelf with the likes of all recent Mid-Budget RPGs of the last 2 years. This is basically Bound By Flame in space, quality wise. The story is awkward, the gameplay is awkward, the presentation layer is okay. It's completely forgettable.
