I did have hope that the executives and pencil pushers at MS which forced Arkane to make that mess of a game would have wised up after the success of recent immersive, story-focused, single-player titles to let Arkane do what they do best instead of forcing them to make a game chasing trends in an attempt to garner the widest audience possible even though the devs have no experience in makes those kinds of titles.
But alas, giant megacorp will be giant megacorp about it.
Sneak King was fun but, sorry not sorry, Pocketbike Racer was the best. No clue what the third one was.
Sometimes I forget that the LEGO games are just really fancy ads.
*Pepsi Maaaaann!*
Those drink ad games were a fever dream.
Bethesda still manages to stay in the “honorable mention” category.
RIP to my hopes of another Prey title.
Felt like they would respawn but maybe I just misremembering between saves. I’ve not regretted getting the skills. Being able to make my own scrolls has been great.
I wanted parts and didn’t want to wait on the long respawn times; so I kept the wildlife plentiful until I had the ability to acquire their better parts.
Leveling is the strongest gains but leveling doesn’t do crap if you accidentally run into something you’re not supposed to and get ganked cause you were unfamiliar with the area on permadeath.
And that’s the beauty of this immersive game. My play was completely different.
I was also pretty liberal with my usage of consumables. I’m always blazing that smokeweed and I chugged potions like a kid discovering soda.
The scouting with scrolls is also a godsend permadeath. Things leave you alone to explore the wilderness. Granted, I don’t get to pick anything up along the way but I get to plan and sometimes straight avoid encounters over my head that are blocking my way somewhere.
I’ve never had an issue with ore. From stealing, flipping goods strategically, and pushing rolls in New Camp and selling harvests to Cipher, I’m always pretty flush.
Hell, as a warrior you could have just flipped the daily rations from Swamp Camp for scavenger scrolls since you didn’t need em.
The game’s friction and slow nature forces you to immerse yourself. You have to learn the combat just like you would normally learning to fight with a real weapon. You pick up a new weapon and swing it around to get a feel for it. If you aren’t trained, practiced, or strong enough then you’re not going to be efficient with those types of weapons and have to struggle to improve.
Lack of fast travel and it’s dense, hostile world makes you learn the environment to know where to go and where to avoid until later. The map isn’t that big but things are spaced far enough apart with danger in between, and the day/night cycle being considerably longer than other titles, forces you to consider what you’re doing to not burn daylight and be caught out in the dark.
Early you have to be careful who you mouth off to or trust because it could get you beat the fuck up and you’re shit stolen or you piss off the wrong person and now you need to find another way to progress or accept that you fucked up. Dialogue and character action becomes more than just fluff.
Leveling is slow and gaining learning points takes a while but the investments are well worth it. Specializing in doing something actually feels incredibly better than becoming the typical jack of all trades but also putting a few points here and there still feels like it makes a difference when rounding out your play style. It makes you actually weigh your options if you want to get better at one thing or try and branch out.
Yea, some of it makes the game frustrating at times but that frustration is what makes finally getting improved enough or finding an alternative way to to overcome it so rewarding as an immersive experience. Everyone loves a power fantasy but this game isn’t that, an immersive RPG is different from a power fantasy action game. Immersion benefits from friction.
Guessing you never made much use of the transformation spell scrolls? You can get those pretty early and even start crafting them if you are thoroughly doing things.
Even if you’re not investing in magic a scavenger scroll is only 5 mana. Why have a mount when you can just become the mount?
They are great for traveling and scouting. Other creatures even ignore you for the most part.
Thank you for the opportunity to gush about one of my favorite game series.
Nothing story breaking, so not too much worry. The quests are just some filler stuff involved in romancing certain notable storyline characters. Extra dialogue is just fluff stuff but is nice that’s it’s a thing.
Those discounts and extra items though, that’s some good shit.
Yes, there is a lot of walking. No fast travel or any other modern handicaps. That’s what I love about it.
Cairn was such a gem of an experience.
Bro affinity is major. Drastically lowers the vendor prices, they can have rare items added to the shop, and people leave you gifts at your house. Even a few quests can have different outcomes depending on the involved NPC affinities. Some quests are even locked behind having certain NPC at high affinity for the later game.
And oh hell yea! You have no idea how hyped I am to hear it’s the Dark Arisen expansion.
Nope, can’t accidentally lock yourself out of getting it. No worries there.
But you do have to put some thought into it because it is up to you to do what is needed to trigger it as opposed to getting the regular ending. All I will say is pay close attention to details during the late game
And man that’s the best feeling is seeing a pawn you hired before come through the rift again. The game is chock full of those little touches, like having people fight over you at your house after getting a few NPCs affinity maxed out.
I also heard the game is getting or has gotten a substantial update recently, so about time I give it another go around.
Kenshi! Best sandbox game ever.
10/10 would be sold into slavery again.
Don’t cite the deep magic to me. I was there when it was written. I grew up playing OG Prey