Playtime: 18 Hours
Score: 8/10
A really excellent game! Obsidian will always be my favorite game studio and this game reminds me why that is. I remember watching various podcast interviews with Josh Sawyer when this game came out and to see his passion for the game got me excited to play it. It is a very different type of RPG from Obsidian but it still has that charm and ultimately plays like a passion project. But what did I think overall?
The roleplaying mechanics are dialed back a bit from other Obsidian games but its still pretty effective here. You can pick things like where Andreas (the main characer) studied and what he studied. I picked Law and Occult studies, and it made for an interesting combination. Both skills came up quite often in conversation and were very handy when I was investigating leads. When talking to characters sometimes when you make dialogue choices the game will pop up a "This will be remembered" message like in a Telltale game, and this basically comes up later when trying to perusade someone, as it will list a bunch of options you picked before and whether or not that person agreed with you which leads to either a successful or unsuccessful persuasion. Simple but it gets the job done. Its funny how I was just reviewing and complaining about Starfield's skill checks being meaningless and yet this game does it so much better imo. Overall, I liked the roleplaying aspects of this game which is what I play RPGs for.
The comparisons to Disco Elysium are fair in some cases but a bit off base in others. It definitely has that similar detective vibe of you trying to solve a murder, but otherwise its quite different. DE has a lot more systems at play and the skill checks are based on dice rolls, where as this is just a simple you either have the skill or you don't system, which I ultimately prefer. I do wish there was a leveling system similar to DE's but otherwise theres not much to complain about.
The story overall I thought was very good and well told. The first two acts had me hooked as to who the killer was and I kept feeling like I was making the wrong decisions, but in a good way. There's plenty of choice and consequence here and I love to see that in RPGs. Act 3 did drop off a bit for me in terms of my interest in the story, as your not really solving a murder but rather learning the history of the town, which I didn't find as interesting. However it does pick up towards the end and I found the twist to be very unexpected. And I thought the story wraps up nicely by the end of the game.
Otherwise I don't have many complaints. The OST is very good but it only plays during certain key story moments and I would have liked it to be used more. Even just a simple town theme that would play when your running around the town would have been appreciated. But overall, I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes RPGs or history and with it being on game pass which is how I played it, its worth your time!
All Games I've Played and Reviewed Ranked - https://www.backloggd.com/u/JudgeDredd35/list/all-games-i-have-played-and-reviewed-ranked/
Score: 8/10
A really excellent game! Obsidian will always be my favorite game studio and this game reminds me why that is. I remember watching various podcast interviews with Josh Sawyer when this game came out and to see his passion for the game got me excited to play it. It is a very different type of RPG from Obsidian but it still has that charm and ultimately plays like a passion project. But what did I think overall?
The roleplaying mechanics are dialed back a bit from other Obsidian games but its still pretty effective here. You can pick things like where Andreas (the main characer) studied and what he studied. I picked Law and Occult studies, and it made for an interesting combination. Both skills came up quite often in conversation and were very handy when I was investigating leads. When talking to characters sometimes when you make dialogue choices the game will pop up a "This will be remembered" message like in a Telltale game, and this basically comes up later when trying to perusade someone, as it will list a bunch of options you picked before and whether or not that person agreed with you which leads to either a successful or unsuccessful persuasion. Simple but it gets the job done. Its funny how I was just reviewing and complaining about Starfield's skill checks being meaningless and yet this game does it so much better imo. Overall, I liked the roleplaying aspects of this game which is what I play RPGs for.
The comparisons to Disco Elysium are fair in some cases but a bit off base in others. It definitely has that similar detective vibe of you trying to solve a murder, but otherwise its quite different. DE has a lot more systems at play and the skill checks are based on dice rolls, where as this is just a simple you either have the skill or you don't system, which I ultimately prefer. I do wish there was a leveling system similar to DE's but otherwise theres not much to complain about.
The story overall I thought was very good and well told. The first two acts had me hooked as to who the killer was and I kept feeling like I was making the wrong decisions, but in a good way. There's plenty of choice and consequence here and I love to see that in RPGs. Act 3 did drop off a bit for me in terms of my interest in the story, as your not really solving a murder but rather learning the history of the town, which I didn't find as interesting. However it does pick up towards the end and I found the twist to be very unexpected. And I thought the story wraps up nicely by the end of the game.
Otherwise I don't have many complaints. The OST is very good but it only plays during certain key story moments and I would have liked it to be used more. Even just a simple town theme that would play when your running around the town would have been appreciated. But overall, I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes RPGs or history and with it being on game pass which is how I played it, its worth your time!
All Games I've Played and Reviewed Ranked - https://www.backloggd.com/u/JudgeDredd35/list/all-games-i-have-played-and-reviewed-ranked/
2 Comments
@Joltzz Ya no I totally agree as well. I get why devs choose dice rolls because it simulates the table top experience, but I have always just preffered the New Vegas approach of you either have the skill or you don't, like you said. It was always frustrating in games like Fallout 3 or Disco Elysium (both games I love) where my skill would be very high, sometimes even maxed out yet I would still get a low chance skill check. Like bruh lol
Joltzz
1 month ago