Vlajdermen
Arcane
I've been playing this game for a while, and I'm up to the part where you have to do various jobs to pay that information broker. This is what I think so far:
If there's anything to be taken away from this post, it's that you should get it, if just for the fact that it's better than most games 5 times its price.
- The presentation, as a whole, is pretty good. The whole thing is unapologetic cyberpunk pastiche, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
- I really dig the visuals. They're as grimy as they should be, and whoever did the character portraits outdid himself.
- The music is awesome, no two ways about it. It gets the mood of the game perfectly. A lesser game would've had some dull orchestral mush (ahem, numanuma and filthomata) but SRDF knows its shit.
- It's surprisingly well written. Video game writing isn't normally given much effort, but here it's pretty solid. The world, story and characters are believable, and the dialogue is as concise as it should be. I never felt like skipping through it.
- More on that note, I respect its choice to have no VA.
- There's enough skill checks sprinkled throughout. I'm glad that my dumb thug ork couldn't handle situations that require intelligence or charisma, but could easily break down doors or scare the other guy into cooperating. Here we take another judgemental look at Numanuma.
- The combat is a lot of fun. It's standard turn based strategy, but it's done well enough to be consistently entertaining. The fights in the Matrix feel dull in comparison, though.
- The hub area doesn't feel alive or dynamic. It's just kinda there. This isn't a deal breaker, but it's worth mentioning.
If there's anything to be taken away from this post, it's that you should get it, if just for the fact that it's better than most games 5 times its price.