So far game's p. cool. Two things that bother me - enemies respawn. In a PB game. That's a problem bc then the XP rewards must be small, therefore the only way to level up early game is to do quests, running around areas with mobs that one-shot you (like the lake island with the fucking demon). In G2 you could go hunting for a while and get a nice XP haul, here you can't. It also encourages avoiding combat completely which is not good.
Also still can't get the hang of the combat. The enemies seem p. retarded so far, unfortunately so does my dude. "Combine light attack with heavy to get combos" they said, but how? Sometimes combo goes off, sometimes my dude just stands and stares or just randomly flails.
Apart from that the worlds seems fucking massive and handcrafted in the PB trademark style, the first town is grate and quests too.
I haven't seen any respawning enemies. And I've completed pretty much the whole game. Just can't beat the final boss battle because of one of the other "awesome" game mechanics, where you fall the fuck down and get stunlocked for like an eternity every time you get hit by a rocket.
And yes, avoid combat like the plague for the first part lf the game. At least until you join a faction, preferably until you get one of their armors. The xp you get from enemies is a fucking joke, and you need to be really highly leveled before you can actually damage things and take hits. Where you DO need to fight, for example if enemies are blocking a quest item or npc, some tips:
1. Get a companion that rushes into battle and distracts enemies so you can hack away at them. The chick is good for that, Carja. The Alb dude too or the Cleric. Others will just stand around and only trigger combat once they get their skulls smashed in, sometimes not even then.
2. Get dat Force Push. As many as you can. This is what I spent all my money on in the first half of the game. It does a huge amount of damage and stuns the enemy for a few seconds during which you can bash it more.
3. Rocketman. Use the jetpack. All. The. Time. Mash that spacebar. You can instantly disengage from most combat by blasting off. Some things will shoot you but with recent patches you can dodge the projectiles. Was hilarious in the release version with autotracking fireballs and rocks taking you down despite apparently missing. Later you can get a skill that allows you to shoot while jetpacking and it is awesome. You become the attack helicopter you always wanted to be.
I'd say the combat is broken but once ypu get to a high enough level and with decent gear it becomes comically easy and thus fun, especially if you get a shotgun and just insta-BLAM BLAM BLAM everything in the face including house-sized Cyclopses that used to send you running and Albs.
