@stony4cloud It may sound shocking to you but all reviews are are the impressions of an individual and this is why you should take them as they are meant - as impressions.
You need to check multiple reviews and watch some gameplay footage for yourself in order to find out if the game is interesting to you or not.
His review is factual and spot on, just play the game for yourself or watch gameplay videos and you'll find out that he is right.
Unless you really, really want this game to be good, then it is "good", despite its flaws, but you may be lying to yourself to justify a possible wrong purchase.
I agree with the review and would like to add that all characters cast a shadow but the player character does not - is the player a ghost ? This breaks immersion from minute one.
Also when looking down, the feet slide around silly when turning and the inventory system doesn't make any sense at all and neither does the crafting system.
Looting itself is boring and requires no second thought and it doesn't even take time to loot a container, basically you approach orange blinking object / container and press "loot all" and move on, wondering what you just picked up because it doesn't matter as all the required stuff is lying around everywhere anyways.
The alien feels heavily scripted and its behavior doesn't make any sense at all, not even for an alien and it's also "game-y bugged" because more often than not it doesn't even see you and walks away and the second you move it teleports to the player and plays the "you're getting killed" animation.
The maps are absolutely linear with only one way to go and there's no reason to explore and barely any interaction with anything except the orange blinking story elements.
From a graphics perspective it looks pretty good until you realise that all the lighting is pre-baked and there's barely any dynamic light and also all the objects are static and feel floaty / disconnected - SSAO could've helped here to better ground them.
The story is fully linear and handholding and the player can't do anything on his own, there's no reason to explore, there's no alternative paths or storylines and any deviation from what the designers want you to do ends in a "game over" screen.
Once you get the flamethrower the alien becomes merely a pop-up mannequin annoyance because you just let it get close to you, fire the flamethrower for a second and it'll get away for a few minutes - you move on, rinse and repeat - so much about advanced, intelligent, dynamic, adaptive AI. (more like a summer intern coded it during lunch break)
Also you can break line of sight to Androids and hide in a closet all you want, once they saw you they'll find you using the power of their AI script and all-awareness but that's rarely ever needed because they can easily be outrun.
The player is also not required to use his brain even for a second, there's not even the need to remember locations or check the map, you just follow the magical indicator at the corner of the motion tracker because for some reason that device knows where you need to go (not just the direction but even every single step ahead to get there) - another game-y nonsense element.
Start a second playthrough and you can be sure to meet the alien at the exact same spots again, some random running around behavior aside.
The only thing this game has as a plus is the good art design and believable alien themed level design, sound and music, but the game itself is a whole lot of wasted potential.
Might pick it up in a sale for max 8 EUR though because of the pretty environments and who knows, perhaps it'll be fixed and more interesting / challenging until in a year.
@vbplaya It just looks too linear because in the video you can already see the level transitions, they are cutscenes of your character opening and closing a door which conveniently cannot be opened again after the cutscene of your character walking through that very same door.
Also, just more than waist high obstacles which you just jumped down a second ago and cannot climb back up.
So what's the point in playing a 100% fully linear game when you can just watch a let's play on YouTube - There needs to be player choice, replay value, randomness factors and so on to keep it fresh and interesting instead of a one time experience, otherwise it's just a interactive movie in which the player shoots some braindead AI guys every few scenes and then moves on to the next cutscene.
All that linearity and handholding of just about every recent "AAA" game needs to stop.
I'd very much prefer open games over this where I'm able to freely move around a believable world and put the pieces of the story and puzzle together myself instead of it being told for me, receiving it spoonfed in short little, fully linear chapters. (unless they sell it at the price of a movie)
Looks very linear and scripted and the boring cover shooter gameplay and braindead AI doesn't help much either.
So much wasted potential, it's almost saddening.
There might still be a decent game hiding outside of what was shown in the gameplay video, so I'll reserve final judgement until after release, but if nothing improves I'll get it in a -75% off sale on PC or not at all, sorry Remedy but from what I've seen in the video it's worth no more than 10 to 15 EUR tops for me.
I wonder what the replay value is going to be besides "collect all of X". (journal pages, thermos cans, ...)
Looks like I should just quit my dayjob and announce some overly promising hype game with a few cute art pictures on KickStarter, then take the money and say "sorry, I didn't fully look this through but here, have some TF2 hats instead" and keep the money. (and perhaps start another KickStarter using a new artist name to keep the money flowing in)
Seems easy enough and since people are just backing the idea of a game, KickStarter probably can't even do anything against it.
Well done Yogscast, I'm sure you'll feel peoples love after this screw-up.
Options are good, they allow us to customize the experience to our liking and what our gaming rigs are capable of.
Since they are developing and testing these features on their dev PCs, I'm pretty sure my current rig will be able to handle them too, not just some supercomputer from the far future.
Looking forward to losing myself in the singleplayer experience and maybe some co-op multiplayer once the finished game is available (on Steam for around 45 EUR).
First reaction of my better half : "If the loading times and performance haven't improved, I don't give a damn".
I'm so proud of her and since she's waiting for the complete pack anyways it should be crystal clear by then (if not an hour after launch when the first gameplay video shows up on YouTube anyways).
@toffifee (the comment system ate my previous reply it seems - or a moderator is going haywire without giving a reason or warning because I mention a game that's not Diablo)
If you enjoyed Titans Quest, give Grim Dawn a try, it's by the same developers and it's on Steam Early Access - 2 chapters and 4 character classes (that can be cross-classed like in Titans Quest) are already playable, since last weekend the crafting system is also in. (next up are the various "random" / hardmode dungeons and afterwards PvE cooperative as well as PvP competitive multiplayer)
Completing all main and sidequests from what is currently available should net you around 50 to 60 hours of gameplay per class and it's only about 50% done, plus once the remaining chapters and content are released they will also make editors and mod tools available which offers pretty much limitless possibilities. (aka the better 25 EUR investment than a only online playable, locked down experience)
@AlmaDanny I do have a working internet connection and a fast and reliable one too, but this has nothing to do with me not wanting to put me at the mercy of some developer / publisher to play a game - I do not support that business model.
I do however buy products which I can download and enjoy offline whenever I feel like it, without having to worry about anything inbetween me and my enjoyment. (I simply do not buy online DRM and only online playable games)
Diablo 3 with OPTIONAL multiplayer would've been fine for me probably (before I found out that the game itself sucks and no longer is "Diablo"), then I could've played it offline primarily and maybe in the very few occasions where I'm in the mood for co-op with friends, play it online, but since they're FORCING online only they're not getting my money.
I am not going to buy a console either because I have various powerful gaming PCs to which I can just attach a controller if I feel like it, so I don't need some limited brick (console) lying around for that which breaks backwards compatibility to the next hardware generation every few years and only has a extremely limited choice of input devices and can be used for almost nothing else.
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