i just played for a couple hours, gameplay-wise it's frustrating and inconsistent. it looks nice, the models actually look like the actors (but with really bad, splotchy skin textures), the bridge crew is there and each person gets at least a line or two in the first hour, the environments are slightly better than generic spaceships from every game ever, some environmental elements are destructible including exploding canisters (but not that big container of them just the individual ones laying around). so now my issues with it. crouching next to a wall does not provide cover and you will still take damage. you have to hit ctrl to go into cover mode and you can't just walk out of it unless you turn the camera 90degrees and walk sideways. when you're in cover and your reticle goes near another spot of cover it makes a target icon like in most games that allow you to dash to the next spot, but not this one, pushing ctrl takes you out of cover exposing you and he just sits there. all of these are forgivable, but really jarring coming from any other game that has a cover system. the normal reticle doesn't match up with the sights reticle which means you have to re-aim after hitting the right mouse button. if you're using your rifle in a fight and there's a minor cut scene (like more enemies coming out) it switches you back to your pistol. if you're using a weapon you found on the ground and there's an area-change cut scene (like indoor to outdoor) you lose it and are given the default starfleet ones again. in the skills screen you have 4 personal and 3 weapon areas each with 3 skills to purchase with xp, but you can only use one at a time. you can unlock all three but you can only switch between the 3 skills, which is really odd and unfortunate seeing as the skills given aren't anything special to really make a difference. your first encounter with the gorn is stupid as hell, it's a bruiser type and knocks your teammate down immediately so you have to revive him, but if you do he hits you too, stunning you then hitting you again killing you. there's no dodge, and if you try to sprint out of the way he'll turn just as fast. but if you don't get your teammate up he focuses you and kills you in two unavoidable hits in less then 3 seconds. have fun with that. the ai is pretty bad but luckily they don't seem to die that often or, in certain parts, have any health at all. telling them to use a healing or ammo machine is hit or miss and the animations don't always happen. if they get too far ahead or behind they'll just blink back to you which is a good thing cause if you go up and they're still down they will panic run trying to find a path to you which can cause them to engage the enemy and stop to fight locking them there. i stopped at a part with endless enemies, a "stand here in the open for an indeterminate amount of time" objective with a secret timer that runs out and you die game over. i hate those moments, i hated them in tomb raider (most recently), and they're not any more fun here. my first impression rating would be a 6 maybe, if they fixed the cover system, switching/replacing my weapons against my will, made the ai a little more relaxed, and made the objectives more clear (what does a vulcan space station walkway lock look like? how do you mark a location for a starship from a planet's surface?) it'd fix a lot of the trial and error game over frustrations. i'll play some more to see if i can get over my issues, but unless things get really interesting i doubt i'll even try to finish the game. maybe if i had a co-op partner, but that's not working.
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