This is one of the most well designed games I've played through, and I firmly believe it should be 2023's Game of the Year. It is not even nearly perfect though! My solo playthrough of this game lasted 170 hours. I micromanaged every single thing that I possibly could, tried to finish every quest, completely explore everything I could, and I thought I couldn't get enough! Well, I did - much more than enough.

I sat in the character creator for probably more than an hour, which was a bit of a nightmare in a good way. It was surprisingly not as in-depth as I've been accustomed to with many games lately, but still extremely solid. I enjoyed looking at my character for most of the game, which is great!

The mechanics are incredible for a game this diverse in options. From the incredibly fun to finagle combat system, to the mind blowing amount of loot and misc. items to parse through and potentially arm your characters with, the game does not disappoint with the array of options it gives you. The class system works mostly flawlessly, if a bit Not once did I believe that I was lacking in the tools to accomplish any task put before me, the only limit I had was my patience and knowledge. It was wonderful to feel so in control for most of the game!

The characters give this game a lot of life, to the point where I feel very stupid in hindsight for not switching my team up regularly. Since your party all gains experience equally, even not when in combat, you can theoretically use anyone and everyone in the squad. However, with how much of a loot goblin I was, it felt incredibly tedious to move my hoard around between characters and the shared party chest. This made switching characters and equipping them properly a massive chore which took more than an HOUR to do for the whole team, and I even optimized their builds a few times, which takes ages... I rolled with my player character, Shadowheart, Gale, and Lae'zel for almost the whole game, and really regret not seeing more of the others. By the end of the game, I was really fed up with Gale's character despite having warmed up to him halfway through. But by the end of the game, his role on my team felt far too important to switch out for another character, and I regret not axing him for Karlach immensely... Also of important note, this is the most queer game I've played short of a visual novel or dating sim. It's both loud and quiet about it, and it really sets the bar in that regard.

Back to the shared party chest, it sucked! While nice to have, its small menu and lack of extra sorting and searching features in a game with a gorzillion piles of loot really hurt, and makes me gnash my teeth when I think about it. If it had more quality of life feature, this one single chest would've improved the feel of the game immensely. I am an awful hoarder though, so this probably affected me disproportionately to the average player.

Now, the first two acts are some of the most polished and exciting gameplay I've experienced, but the third act really let me down. Whether in the quantity of glitches, dialogue mishaps, quest malfunctions, and the disappointing Gather Your Allies, everything seemed to let me down. One of my largest disappointments was how the game handled max level; rather than rewarding the player for continuing to quest and explore with an alternative to EXP, it did absolutely nothing. It felt punishing due to the lack of progression from that point, with blended terribly with the lack of endgame polish. The story kept strong until I neared the final battle, where it was passably decent. And how Act 3 droned onward and onward, I felt like I wanted to play something else many times near the end. However, I finished the game proud and happy. Had it not been for my character model's head glitching and vibrating wildly up and down every frame, the ending might have done something for me...

Act 3 really hurt my experience of the game, which admittedly is easily remedied: play less of it, just go for the end when you feel strong and fulfilled with the story. Playing the game the way I did almost felt masochistic, and in hindsight there's a lot of ways to enjoy it more. Even with all of the faults I stated, the game is a masterwork, and leaves me in awe of just how incredible a game can be when this much work is put into it. It's far better than its predecessor by Larian, Divinity: Original Sin II, in pretty much every way. I recommend that anyone and everyone that likes tabletop games should play this, whether by yourself or with friends. btw it has good multiplayer too which I'm pretty sure would eliminate much of my gripes with the game! I hope to revisit this with friends eventually, and hopefully by then my gripes with the game will have faded away.

All in all, 4/5 only because of the last leg giving me a soured experience due to my own playstyle and choices, really an amazing game in need of a few small touchups.

This is a game best experienced going in fairly blind. I won't say it's perfect, but the experience is more than worth it, especially for the price.

The game is (mostly :3) very serious about what it draws from, and I believe it is mostly for the better. Whether in looks, musical identity, or overall design (eg. title cards, UI), it manages to improve upon what it references while keeping a wonderful distinct identity. This endeavor to keep and improve its source material seems to have come at a cost: including antiquated features and design choices for the sake of authenticity.

I adore the authenticity and immersion that this provides, but I'd be remiss to overlook the very real flaws. For instance, no control rebinds (which may just be an early access thing!) sucks. I had a fun time figuring 100% of the controls out, but that's still not good! Next, no map. I also had a fun time drawing out a map for areas I was exploring and backtracking, but it is absolutely a pain in the rear. Menus are clunky and slightly difficult to use effectively/efficiently, even more so as you get more items. Last and certainly not least on this unfortunate list is the combat. It's simple, and very easy to get a feel for. It is almost mandatory to kite enemies, blocking feels useless, and ranged weapons mostly dominate when you get a good one. I'm not sure if this would be better remedied by changing how the player fights, or how enemies... are. they are mostly extremely sluggish, which creates the other combat issues. I would not strongly recommend that be changed, I'm just noting it kinda sucks in practice. Most of this is an improvement on the older games it learned from, but seemingly refuses to learn why later games make some of the decisions they do.

It's worth noting that the game also feels... hard to traverse. I'm not referring to difficult enemies, or not enough crystals, those are fine. The world is just big, and you have stumpy little legs. Even after upgrading my stat quite a bit, using a certain weapon as a (very) janky movement tool, and using a spell, getting around within areas is a chore. It makes the exploring more sluggish, which can be slightly frustrating. You can argue that you can just put more points into it, but why? I don't want to. It feels wasteful past a certain point, and there doesn't appear to be any advanced movement tech

On to better things, there's a lot. It has sapphic vampire lore, a birb merchant, Snuggly Friend approaches, the LowTierGod spell, a great assortment of weapons, and too many secrets to find. The music fits everything perfectly, the sections that make you feel fear do so very effectively (i do not do well with that so uh, ye), I almost collapsed with relief every single time I saw a new save crystal, and went wild every time I found a cool new weapon. I gasped at some of the areas I found, and felt like I'd had water poured over me as I explored others. I could ramble on for hours about what I loved about this game, but much of it is better felt than heard.

The game is still in early access, and I haven't looked too much into its development, so some of this review may be false or misleading when or after it's posted.

TL;DR Fun dungeon exploration with some early access crust
Pros? 10/10 atmosphere and design, an explorer's wonderland, great music, stays interesting the whole way through (so far), Le Fanu, and it scratches that FromSoft itch.
Cons? King's Field combat limits it, big world teeny legs, no in game map makes backtracking suck, no key rebinding, and inventory could be less annoying.