I've tried to only write here when I have nothing to say but fuck it, I bought the game on launch day and wanted to join the shit posting with my excrement. This is the 2nd game in 10 years I've bought on launch day. Yes, joke is on me. The other game? Moving along...
Only thing I knew about the game was that Cain and Boyarsky were behind it. Didn't follow it, didn't read about it, wanted to start playing it spoiler free and not already burnt out by the hype and crap. There will be spoilers so jump to TLDR if you're thinking of playing this (lol).
Launch the game, looks nice, sounds nice, char generation, ooh, looks pretty nice, plenty of skills, omg this is gonna be awesome. Rolled a whitey who can talk shit but is useless in combat. As in, dumped all my points into dialogue and tech/sneak stuff. Difficulty? Eh, let's go with normal for a first gameplay since I got no combat skills. Avellone gameplay here I come! I just hope there are no wolves at the start, this is a Cain-Boyarsky game remember. :<
Immediately I'm surprised how I can melt bandits without any problems even though I got a basic peashooter and no weapon skills. I put it down to it being the start of the game and the first few levels. Not a fan of the art or char design, but it's passable. Zone exploration feels ok, music ok, sounds ok, itemization basic and boring, is this an MMO? Is there crafting or are all these skins and stuff just plain vendor trash? Quests are basic and ok, mildly entertained by what the game is offering at this point. So on we go.. pew pew ..
Hmm, finding out people are only eating canned tuna and it is making them sick. Ok, so we got space travel. We got cryogenics. We can colonize other star systems. But we've somehow lost the tech of basic nutrient additives. I'm sure a big corporation would keep their workforce alive as that is cheaper than bringing new workers from ANOTHER FUCKING SOLAR SYSTEM. Ok whatevs, I'll play along, I just hope the quest doesn't tell me that you can cure the people by going all vegan. Hah that would be.. wait.. what.. The fuckers actually shut down the tuna plant, because fish have feelings too you know, and went full vegan and now everyone is well again. Right. Ok. Whatevs, next zone will be better.
End of the first zone I had 81 stimpacks. Eighty one stimpacks. Never needed them, never bought any, just looted 81 of them. Never need to use the vending machines, don't need to buy anything, money is just for tinkering, never run out of ammo (got thousands), don't even need to mod your weapons, you do not need to do anything. It's there if you want to do it, but you have zero need to do it. Oh right there is bullet time too, I literally forgot about it. You do not need it. And I don't even know what the Vicar combat ability does, never tried it, forgot they are there. Don't need to use them, everything just melts in your presence. And I have no weapon skills.
Speaking of companions. Parvati. Thought it started out good and I kinda liked the character at first. Engineer woman, ok, why not, I've dated one in real life. When it was revealed she is asexual I was like what, tripling down on the minority stuff here. Engineer woman, minority check, kinda pretty engineer woman, double check, pretty asexual engineer woman, triple check. Who then meets another engineer woman at the first pit stop we make after leaving the starting zone who also happens to be a lesbian/whatevs. LOL. Give me a fucking break. Who writes this shit. Maybe it is me who is out of touch with reality, but this is monty python territory to me. And no, I will not go buy you a dress and get you pastries for your date, I'm too old for this shit, been there, done that. Just fix the ship thanks, we got a universe to save.
The Parvati storyline is just... banal teenage stuff. The storyline would be enormously more interesting if it would be revealed that the reason Parvati is asexual is because she was raped and molested by her father, who everyone thinks was a good guy. That would be dark and shocking, and would have some gravitas to make the player feel *something* towards the character. Most likely compassion unless you're a long time codexer with 1000+ posts. That would explain why she is like a naive teenager even though she is 28, and of course why she is asexual. At first I thought the storyline would be about her mother, which felt obvious, but it wasn't even that. We got the worst possible option imaginable. If someone competent started writing her, and some untalented hack finished her, I wouldn't be surprised.
The Vicar companion seemed interesting but I wasn't into the biblehumper archetype when playing. All new IPs have the religious infodumper who spams your chatbox full of some religious tripe fitting the lore. That is fine, but I didn't feel like getting into his exposition because I was bored and just didn't care about the side aspects of the gameworld when the meat itself was rotten. If the game would be great, I'd get into it on a second playthrough.
Got to the 2nd zone, finished all there was to do. Not much to write about that. The place looked kinda nice but the content was boring. So bland, so utterly utterly bland. I can't really even remember what I did there besides being in agony reading the dialogue of Parvati and her girlfriend. Went to bed and thought I'd continue it the next day. Never did. I just had no interest to start playing it again. The next day I did not even remember what quests I was on. The next fucking day! The game is just so utterly bland and boring, with bad gameplay as well, that there are dozens of things, even games, I'd rather put my time into.
I cannot see how anyone with experience in RPGs could enjoy this game. I simply cannot see it. Every single thing the game does and attempts other games do better, and the game doesn't even try to do anything new. There is no creativity here. It's a Feargus slam dunk project, playing it safe. If you are new to RPGs, are of Generation Z, are a non-gamer who rarely plays games, then sure, I can see how you can enjoy the game for what it is, but calling the game a good game, a quality game, is an utter joke.
Cain, Boyarsky, why? What happened?
Did a lot of the content get cut? Did a lot of the mechanics get cut? Was there an executive order (Feargus) to cut / change things and we ended up with this uninspired and bland thing? Was the game rushed? I am so disappointed. The perks are so bland and boring they could be removed from the game and nothing would be lost. The skill system does not work either. The weapons, items, and itemization are all boring. It all needs a total rewrite.
TLDR; Bland, boring, tasteless, lacks creativity, lacks vision, lacks content, lacks substance, bad writing, bad gameplay. One of the worst RPGs I have ever played. 3/10
