Played this game for about 2 hours and couldn't stand a second past the opening 30 minutes, this game is trying so hard to be a love letter to old Immersive Sims but it's just so fucking boring and frustrating to play, It feels like trying to remember a mother's garden by burning a scented candle that smells mildly of roses, it's cheap bullshit and I'd rather be doing the real thing.
To start off with the only other thing I can make note of, the visuals, the game looks pretty, it's a nice unique almost retro future space station in an alternate history world where Kennedy lived until like age 120 and technology (and in particular, the space race) was heavily developed.
Unfortunately the game makes sure to ditch it far too often in my 2 hours time played, too many areas that are just beat up shithole labs, or ugly vents, etc. etc. or just throwing you out into space, and at that point I feel like I'm just going through the motions in a generic setting.
Graphics are just not great, for a 2017 game the graphics are just oddly weak and look hazy and low quality, this is the quality of like a 2014 game, and it forces motion blur on you, any effort that gets put into the actual good looking areas is lost because it feels like I'm playing an upscaled Xbox 360 game.
Onto my biggest problem, the gameplay.
To start, we've got a BAD PC port on our hands, it runs fine, but it's all the nasty disgusting issues past that that really ruin this!
To start, we've got a lowered cross hair, wow, love those! and because of it all the weapon viewmodels look a bit awkward. no option to change it to a centered crosshair.
UI does not function properly on keyboard and mouse, you can't move tiles from storage unit to storage unit/inventory without just using WASD/arrow keys, and it's just such a crazy oversight, I thought Immersive sims lived and died on their PC versions? Why is this just an afterthought?
Weapons feel like shit, I had the wrench, the GLOO gun, the pistol, a few grenade types, and what I had hoped was a crossbow, but what was in reality a fucking nerf gun.
The wrench is fine, it feels a bit clunky as it's a first person melee with not a lot of weight, but what can you do, you need SOMETHING and it does the job, burns stamina a bit fast which gets annoying though.
Pistol just straight up fucking sucks, every enemy you're dealing with that's worth shooting at just soaks up every bullet so you're dumping like 2 clips per enemy, I was playing on normal difficulty, and it was getting frustrating as all hell, did the game expect me to drop everything I was doing and just start mass producing ammo boxes in the recycler? I made like 4 and I thought it'd do for now, but I was out within an hour.
Gloo gun is a neat idea, but using it in combat is so clunky and unfun that I tried not to use it, until the shitty psychoscope gave me little pokemon stat insights telling me that it's pretty much the best way to win combat scenarios, oh fucking joy, the least fun gun to shoot with is my ol' reliable.
Using it for putting out hazards is just dull, it just feels like a pointless chore just to remind you "LOOK AT HOW COOL THIS GUN IS!!"
Using it for platforming was neat though.
Crossbow is used for stealth, but for a note on the stealth in particular, you're given very little actual use for it early on, every area you go through is either too open and big to bother with taking it slow unless you want the best years of your life to rot away walking slowly from generic enemies, and the rest are narrow hallways/staircases where it's impossible to avoid detection, Thankfully you now have a nerf gun that'll distract them for 2 seconds, yay!
Grenades feel awkward and shitty to throw, should have added a landing location indicator.
Enemy types are just dull, in the first 2 hours they introduce the Mimics and the Phantoms.
The mimics are a neat idea, these little headcrabs that turn into props to get the jump at you, except...
They just don't do this, they run around directly Infront of you, giving a healthbar pop-up so you know it's there, and disguise right Infront of you, basically inviting you to get the free first hit on them, all the while the game does an annoying fucking jumpscare sound every time one poofs out of being a shitty prop, wow, so fucking scary, the mug turned into a headcrab, wow.
Phantoms are just annoying, they're tanky, they deal a shit ton of damage basically whenever they feel like it and dash RIGHT IN YOUR FACE constantly, wow, so fun! I was probably supposed to just douse them in the GLOO gun, but it was getting really boring so by the time I figured that, I was clocked out and didn't want to play the game anymore.
With all those heavy hitters, I quickly found that managing health was a total chore, you might as well spec into the medkit bonus very VERY early on as if you fight enemies at all you'll burn through them constantly, mostly just because a phantom tags you for 40 damage because you existed for a bit too long, or you walk into an electrical box hazard for .2 seconds dealing 70 health, I was at best an hour into the game when this started happening, glad I'm just thrown to the wolves even while the game is putting me through the most boring tutorial sequence imaginable.
Speaking of that, the tutorial sequence that I was going through fucking sucks, they're just throwing things at you and expecting to figure it all out, just dropping you like 15 upgrades, all your weapons and I don't even think they explain the recycler until you're at a point where you've probably used it like 3 times.
The story pacing in the sequence sucked too, you're given a hook to keep the mystery going, only for your biggest questions to be answered within the next 40 minutes, and they don't follow them up with any more, just follow through on more boring quests through boring areas with boring enemies.
Quest design was pretty annoying too, just a lot of moments where you're dragged on because they tell you to go to area A, but you can't go to area A without watching a video in area C, but you can't go to area C without the keycard from area F, and so on and so on.
And then there's the part where I stopped, when you get the psychoscope, it throws this piece of shit on you, the pop-up that I can only hope told me how to take it off disappeared within 1s and now I was stuck in a fight not knowing how to get 60% of my screen's visibility back, then I died setting me back a 25s load screen and the last 5 minutes of progress, through a room where I have to fight 2 phantoms, with a pistol and some explosive tanks, great, just fucking fantastic.
Outside of that, the propulsion controls for flying through space worked well enough I guess, I would have preferred something more like old school/HL2 esque swimming controls instead, but it's smooth enough.
Anyways, I can't see myself returning to this game anytime soon, as all I'm seeing here is a mediocre game made by a studio who makes as many bad games as they do good, with the only tagline I can imagine they're putting in the trailers being "By the people who played System Shock"
Second time I've been burned on a Arkane game, first Deathloop now this.
To start off with the only other thing I can make note of, the visuals, the game looks pretty, it's a nice unique almost retro future space station in an alternate history world where Kennedy lived until like age 120 and technology (and in particular, the space race) was heavily developed.
Unfortunately the game makes sure to ditch it far too often in my 2 hours time played, too many areas that are just beat up shithole labs, or ugly vents, etc. etc. or just throwing you out into space, and at that point I feel like I'm just going through the motions in a generic setting.
Graphics are just not great, for a 2017 game the graphics are just oddly weak and look hazy and low quality, this is the quality of like a 2014 game, and it forces motion blur on you, any effort that gets put into the actual good looking areas is lost because it feels like I'm playing an upscaled Xbox 360 game.
Onto my biggest problem, the gameplay.
To start, we've got a BAD PC port on our hands, it runs fine, but it's all the nasty disgusting issues past that that really ruin this!
To start, we've got a lowered cross hair, wow, love those! and because of it all the weapon viewmodels look a bit awkward. no option to change it to a centered crosshair.
UI does not function properly on keyboard and mouse, you can't move tiles from storage unit to storage unit/inventory without just using WASD/arrow keys, and it's just such a crazy oversight, I thought Immersive sims lived and died on their PC versions? Why is this just an afterthought?
Weapons feel like shit, I had the wrench, the GLOO gun, the pistol, a few grenade types, and what I had hoped was a crossbow, but what was in reality a fucking nerf gun.
The wrench is fine, it feels a bit clunky as it's a first person melee with not a lot of weight, but what can you do, you need SOMETHING and it does the job, burns stamina a bit fast which gets annoying though.
Pistol just straight up fucking sucks, every enemy you're dealing with that's worth shooting at just soaks up every bullet so you're dumping like 2 clips per enemy, I was playing on normal difficulty, and it was getting frustrating as all hell, did the game expect me to drop everything I was doing and just start mass producing ammo boxes in the recycler? I made like 4 and I thought it'd do for now, but I was out within an hour.
Gloo gun is a neat idea, but using it in combat is so clunky and unfun that I tried not to use it, until the shitty psychoscope gave me little pokemon stat insights telling me that it's pretty much the best way to win combat scenarios, oh fucking joy, the least fun gun to shoot with is my ol' reliable.
Using it for putting out hazards is just dull, it just feels like a pointless chore just to remind you "LOOK AT HOW COOL THIS GUN IS!!"
Using it for platforming was neat though.
Crossbow is used for stealth, but for a note on the stealth in particular, you're given very little actual use for it early on, every area you go through is either too open and big to bother with taking it slow unless you want the best years of your life to rot away walking slowly from generic enemies, and the rest are narrow hallways/staircases where it's impossible to avoid detection, Thankfully you now have a nerf gun that'll distract them for 2 seconds, yay!
Grenades feel awkward and shitty to throw, should have added a landing location indicator.
Enemy types are just dull, in the first 2 hours they introduce the Mimics and the Phantoms.
The mimics are a neat idea, these little headcrabs that turn into props to get the jump at you, except...
They just don't do this, they run around directly Infront of you, giving a healthbar pop-up so you know it's there, and disguise right Infront of you, basically inviting you to get the free first hit on them, all the while the game does an annoying fucking jumpscare sound every time one poofs out of being a shitty prop, wow, so fucking scary, the mug turned into a headcrab, wow.
Phantoms are just annoying, they're tanky, they deal a shit ton of damage basically whenever they feel like it and dash RIGHT IN YOUR FACE constantly, wow, so fun! I was probably supposed to just douse them in the GLOO gun, but it was getting really boring so by the time I figured that, I was clocked out and didn't want to play the game anymore.
With all those heavy hitters, I quickly found that managing health was a total chore, you might as well spec into the medkit bonus very VERY early on as if you fight enemies at all you'll burn through them constantly, mostly just because a phantom tags you for 40 damage because you existed for a bit too long, or you walk into an electrical box hazard for .2 seconds dealing 70 health, I was at best an hour into the game when this started happening, glad I'm just thrown to the wolves even while the game is putting me through the most boring tutorial sequence imaginable.
Speaking of that, the tutorial sequence that I was going through fucking sucks, they're just throwing things at you and expecting to figure it all out, just dropping you like 15 upgrades, all your weapons and I don't even think they explain the recycler until you're at a point where you've probably used it like 3 times.
The story pacing in the sequence sucked too, you're given a hook to keep the mystery going, only for your biggest questions to be answered within the next 40 minutes, and they don't follow them up with any more, just follow through on more boring quests through boring areas with boring enemies.
Quest design was pretty annoying too, just a lot of moments where you're dragged on because they tell you to go to area A, but you can't go to area A without watching a video in area C, but you can't go to area C without the keycard from area F, and so on and so on.
And then there's the part where I stopped, when you get the psychoscope, it throws this piece of shit on you, the pop-up that I can only hope told me how to take it off disappeared within 1s and now I was stuck in a fight not knowing how to get 60% of my screen's visibility back, then I died setting me back a 25s load screen and the last 5 minutes of progress, through a room where I have to fight 2 phantoms, with a pistol and some explosive tanks, great, just fucking fantastic.
Outside of that, the propulsion controls for flying through space worked well enough I guess, I would have preferred something more like old school/HL2 esque swimming controls instead, but it's smooth enough.
Anyways, I can't see myself returning to this game anytime soon, as all I'm seeing here is a mediocre game made by a studio who makes as many bad games as they do good, with the only tagline I can imagine they're putting in the trailers being "By the people who played System Shock"
Second time I've been burned on a Arkane game, first Deathloop now this.