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I really like the game. I feel like the stuffy, not very great magician in Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell when he meets the effortlessly great magician. (Sadly, I can't remember which is which; in life, as in RPGs, amnesia is all too common.)
I'm really liking it so far. I can see the game would plays VERY differently with different set of stats, since the entire game is (supposedly) under the mercy of RNG.
I've finished the game and allI'vesaidisevenmoretrue. The main problem of the game is that it's for one play-through only. Oh, I don't doubt that some storyfags will finish it a couple of times but most people won't find such determination because if you'll play it once you will see almost all relevant content. Stats don't matter much, we're still role-playing the same cop, doing the same things, using the same tools. With INT 1 we can articulate the same responses as with INT 5, the only difference is we won't be able to raise Visual Calculus (or other skills to a high enough level for it to be a useful skill (then again we can always save-scum, which is another problem, a game that allows that is just badly designed, although it's not a major flaw). But we can use a different skill to achieve the same goal so in the end there is no difference, only labels change. As I've said, it's Bethesda level of design. E.g. whether I used visual calculus or just broke the door down the result was the same.
Contrary to what ZA/UM are advertising this game isn't open world at all, we have invisible walls everywhere and in various forms. One such example I've provided here but there are plethora of them. We can't walk to the other side of the town until Wednesday, we can't progress unless Kim is with us (even though we can ask the same questions and observe the same things and his presence changes nothing we still can't advance and if we can we die because of plot reasons, e.g. when confronting a certain person that has both me and Kim under control anyway) and in general we can't do something unless we meet some stupid requirements like clicking on a "conclude day" as if that would change anything. Another example, we can't talk with "Sunday friend" once we walk out even though we know he's in there (unless he jumped through the window) because it's just a scripted scene. Or we can't play the tape unless Kim is with us. Anyway, in no other game I've felt so restrained. Even not having a flashlight prevents us from advancing in a certain area, we can't hurt ourselves trying to do it or just walk by holding our hand on the wall, developers just didn't give us that option and that's it.
Writing is very uneven, sometimes it's good, very good at rare occasions, and sometimes it's just atrocious. What I mean by uneven?
For example Titus guy, one of the more interesting characters in the game and one of the more reasonable ones will still kill us for no good reason. When he did shoot me I was like "OK, he's just some trigger happy brute that is impulsive and unreasonable" but later I've learned he can actually use his brain. Inconsistent writing in my eyes.
In addition that Kurvitz guy must have used drugs a lot and it shows. The ending was ridiculous and one of the weakest parts but that craziness that was often injected in even very well written conversations, spoiled everything for me. Most characters were also comical so unless I would treat it all as parody I can't rate it highly. The phantasmal madness was just retarded, dreams were retarded, characters like the woman with our gun or the guy in the container were retarded, scenes where we were incapacitated by waves were retarded, whole anodic music and that computer plot were retarded. On the other hand they often tried to make an impact by killing someone off, whether it was that near library woman's husband, or Renee or another guy (there were more) to me it felt like a cheap attempt to move us but in my case it had opposite effect mainly because in the end they were some random NPCs which we didn't have much time to get to know.
Once you reach the end some stupidities become evident, for example it makes no sense for hanged man's brother to wait until we advance our investigation and pretend to be a striker when he could just kill all Hardie boys anyway. During that scene I've provided some very compelling evidence that showed they weren't behind it but he ignored it anyway so why the wait when he didn't want to hear the truth but enact revenge only? Also, I hope that we could do that scene knowing who the real culprit was, otherwise the writing is even shittier than I thought and our options even narrower.
Or there are slip ups such as this one:
Kim says we've searched the church but I haven't asked about Ruby there.
Or this one:
At this point I've found Night City and knew what that is.
The world we can explore is very small and with not much exploration and the other part of town that opens up is rather empty, making walking even more tedious (and it is tedious because even running is slow, add to it constant loading and you have a disaster). There aren't that many quests either and although unique, most of them are quite boring. In general gameplay is almost non-existent so if one doesn't appreciate Kurvitz's "sophisticated" humour and writing he definitely won't enjoy the game.
Game is also super easy, at the end I had like 12 or 13 free points and easily passed all relevant checks (and without resorting to using substances/clothes), and I could have more to be honest. I've also had over 200 in Revachol currency and didn't know what to do with it (I wonder though whether it's possible to buy the 700 lamp, I assume it is). And morale/health system is just retarded, e.g. losing morale for thinking about others (and being emphatic), WTF? I would say it's a sign of a healthy person and I should gain a morale point if anything. The dialogue system is also stupid since we can repeat the same conversation and get different results and NPCs won't acknowledge that (compare it to recent The Outer Worlds for example, it's night and day difference):
Well, there is a plus side to this though and that is - sometimes it makes sense that once we find some new clue asking the same question again can get us new information but in general it is a bad thing and is just stupid. Some other example:
I show him my gun and tell him I've found it but a moment later I can ask about my lost gun and he says something along the lines "if you behave you might get it back", lol.
Add to all of it political correctness and SJW content and you have a game very much not to my liking.
What I liked:
+ I couldn't forge letters in the open because there was risk of Evrart's men noticing. Then again I could have written it in the open and they wouldn't know what I'm writing...
+ Music
+ Art
+ Some characters, although the writing was very uneven
All in all I rate it 5/10 but it's more of a "I should give it 4/10 or less when I remember how tedious and boring some parts were" and "but taking into account good parts I should rate it 6/10". It's not your average game which that rating might indicate, it's a rather unique game, with some fresh ideas and sometimes very good writing but due to the above I wasn't enjoying it that much in the long run and what's most important it's highly unlikely I'll replay this game. Like I said, it's a game for one play through only and in my eyes if an RPG isn't fun at consecutive replays it's not a good RPG (hence I consider Fallout, AoD and Arcanum as the best of the best).
P.S.
Here are some screenshots I've made that prove my points one way or another: https://imgur.com/a/YLQVXrV
I really like the game. I feel like the stuffy, not very great magician in Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell when he meets the effortlessly great magician. (Sadly, I can't remember which is which; in life, as in RPGs, amnesia is all too common.)
Ignoring everything else in your post, I still don't get this assessment. I'm 13 hours into my first playthrough now, but I can say with certainty that the game *lets* you *HAVE* opinions, which is the polar opposite of everything SJW and politically correct.
Sure, we get to see some of the NPCs here and there having *their* opinions, but you know what these NPCs do, unlike the NPCs that plagued us in real life? They're actually willing to listen to others, in this case *your*, opinions. And most of the time they're even discussing all the ideologies, including theirs, in a relatively objective manner. They didn't discuss their ideas and world view from a rose-tinted glasses, and instead they spoke of them as what they really are. The prime example being Joyce proclaiming herself being a liberal, and that liberals are the one who survived the Revolution. And yet she admitted that if she was there during the Revolution and has the authority, she would lead herself and everyone else with the same opinion as hers to their doom, *precisely* because of her being a liberal.
