It causes me great pain to not give this game 5 stars. Ralph and his team clearly have a lot of heart and a lot of talent but unfortunately they missed the mark with this game.
The pros?
This game has all the hallmarks of an immersive sim. As an example, One of the main story missions sends you to a mansion where a local "entrepreneur" is meeting with a local rancher and buying his ranch. You need information from him really badly but he is a stubborn old bastard and asks you to go steal the deed from a nearby ranch because they won't sell their ranch to him. I ofc said fuck that I am not doing that quest and meticulously K.O'd every single gaurd at his compound before finally K.Oing him in order to get his safe key and get the information myself. Took me like 40 minutes longer than it would have to steal the deed but it was incredibly satisfying when I finally got the telegram.
Unfortunately the game relies purely on these elements to be "good." The story sucks, the combat is simplistic and unsatisfying, and being forced to play through 4 different stories left me feeling unattached and uninterested in the main protagonists. It really does make me sad because I think that this team has a lot of heart. It just so happens that this game failed to properly capture that heart.
I just don't understand why Ralph decided to try to make a game as big as this. IMO it would have been better to make a 8-15 hour first person Immersive sim to prove that his team can do great work. I mean Gloomwood just came out and it is 3 hours long but 1000x more enjoyable than this AND Gloomwood has all the hallmarks of the genre.
The pros?
This game has all the hallmarks of an immersive sim. As an example, One of the main story missions sends you to a mansion where a local "entrepreneur" is meeting with a local rancher and buying his ranch. You need information from him really badly but he is a stubborn old bastard and asks you to go steal the deed from a nearby ranch because they won't sell their ranch to him. I ofc said fuck that I am not doing that quest and meticulously K.O'd every single gaurd at his compound before finally K.Oing him in order to get his safe key and get the information myself. Took me like 40 minutes longer than it would have to steal the deed but it was incredibly satisfying when I finally got the telegram.
Unfortunately the game relies purely on these elements to be "good." The story sucks, the combat is simplistic and unsatisfying, and being forced to play through 4 different stories left me feeling unattached and uninterested in the main protagonists. It really does make me sad because I think that this team has a lot of heart. It just so happens that this game failed to properly capture that heart.
I just don't understand why Ralph decided to try to make a game as big as this. IMO it would have been better to make a 8-15 hour first person Immersive sim to prove that his team can do great work. I mean Gloomwood just came out and it is 3 hours long but 1000x more enjoyable than this AND Gloomwood has all the hallmarks of the genre.