I was thinking about the game a lot yesterday so fuck it, I bought it for a few bucks off at GMG. Just 2.2 hours in so far.
Disorganized impressions:
As always, the first thing I did was turn off objective markers. This makes exploring the levels a pleasure as the game
does provide enough text to figure out where you're going with your brain, at least in the early game.
Game runs buttery smooth on my 6 year old power rig. I did have a hard graphics engine crash at one point so I may have lost some story progress.
Moment to moment exploration and combat is fun. I didn't say challenging, but fun.
There's a very strong sense of place - it feels less "fakey" than the Dishonoreds.
Music is good and suits the setting beautifully.
The Julianna character's portrayal is immediately annoying - she tries way too hard to be pouty and clever with cutesy dialogue. I get the feeling I will like her more later. I
do appreciate her writing on a deeper level - she is reminiscent of GLaDOS, giving blatantly contradictory information to pressure and disorient Colt. Since she is the only person who will actually talk to Colt, he has no choice but to try to decipher her bullshit.
Unlike
<3sRichardSimmons, I like Colt's character. He feels natural enough, and a substantial amount of time is given over to him saying, what the fuck is going on, none of this makes any sense. Freaking out when he dies and wakes up again, etc. is given enough breathing room to make him sympathetic, and is a nice framing for easing the player into the "rules" of the loop.
"Combat" is indeed very easy, at least in the earliest part of the game. Do not come to this because you're looking for a tough-as-nails tactical shooter or high stakes elite stealth experience.
Turning off the stealth awareness markers helped make navigation more interesting.
Early guns feel weak, like Fallout 4's guns made of leftover plumbing, but not "floaty". There are a lot of guns lying around to pick up and try that all offer distinct gameplay. I'm looking forward to getting better, punchier guns, and/or some optics. I did find some kind of drum-fed automatic shotgun which I like a lot!
Maneuvering, dodging, mantling, climbing etc. all feel exceptionally smooth.
There are NOT a million diaries and storybooks about what it's like working on whaling boat, or how someone's little sister caught the plague in another city. Thank god, this game has one solid story and sticks to it.
The "rewind" mechanic has some interesting repercussions. I went through a door which locked behind me, died, and "rewound" to before I entered the building. The door was just as I left it, now locked from the other side, so I couldn't get back in. Frustrating in a novel way - I'll have to wait 'til the next loop to get back in there, and be extra careful not to die inside.
The introductions to the eight "Visionaries" are very well done. You find a cork board with some very basic details, group texts that flesh out their personalities, etc. They really made these 8 targets an intriguing group of distinct personalities and I look forward to getting to know them all.
Game feels good, world is attractive and invites exploration, story is interesting, learning the weird systems is fun. Excited to play more.