playing through it now too. I like some elements: quest design is pretty robust in that you can kill just about anyone and still continue the game.
but like most obsidian games, the writing just isn't very compelling. chose between hippies or the cannery because. choose to take indian woman or not because. choose to kill people or not because.
it all feels very random, but the overall gameplay is decent for shallow fun, which I'm sure is why many like it so much.
also, the world itself is pretty unlikable. a solar system filled with corporate hipsters and sjws. just nuke it for all I care.
rpg mechanics are equally uninspiring. pick X for more damage or pick Y for more zany dialog options.
also enemies often have their limbs all pop off at once from being shot. weird but ok.
Yeah I think there's a lot going against this game.
If I have to draw something positive from this game it's probably: How stable the game is (doesn't crash), some skill use reactivity and decent graphics when it comes to landscape.
While the negatives are plenty.
- The Character system doesn't make a serious impact. I know New Vegas isn't exactly screaming with 'amazing varied builds' but after nearly 10 years and TOW only added Oblivion perks - and very safe 'generic' perk on level up. Even background don't matter. Companion skill boost made it pretty clear you can afford to dump certain skills and not be punished for it.
- Consumable seems like a broken mess. I think a lot of people who complain about vanilla Skyrim inventory UI would be outraged by TOW's consumables and the inability to hotkey that shit.
- Companions writing are pretty bland. I can see a lot of effort being put into Parvati but everything about her revolves around that stupid date. What the fuck? Vicar Max's conclusion is a joke of a concept.
- Itemization thru Item Lvl is banal shit boring. Science weapons are the only thing worth trying. A lot of the options are 'simply bad' or 'inferior' to specific guns. And you don't even have to try hard to find them. Even ammunition stops being a problem once you're done with the first planet. There's way too much loot.
- But finally, if you cannot make people care about the setting after 2 hours, then it's just a trudge of doing fetch quests and kill X while listening to NPC droning about 'what you do matters' and getting paid currency they hardly spend.
- Stealth Disguise system cracks me up - this is the best they can come up with? Ha ha ha. I'd take faction armor over this.