Zombra
An iron rock in the river of blood and evil
One thing I wasn't counting on was what a fucking pain in the ass it would be to get this thing to actually run at all. I assumed that EA would release something playable out of the box. (Turns out I'm stupid. Who knew?) Took me about 3 hours of testing graphics settings and CPU affinities before I got it a) to run and b) to run with graphics that didn't burn my eyes, yet at a decent framerate. (Tip: make sure Mesh quality is High+ to eliminate the awful "shiny hair" effect.)
Once I got past that stage I forgot my frustration completely and mainlined a straight 6 hours in the game with no crashes or other tech issues. This fucker is an Achiever's fever dream: walk towards map point quest marker, trip over half a dozen more quests on the way there, and for each one you pursue, you trip over a half dozen more quests or activities. I mean Jesus Christ. Very much an up until 4AM "just let me finish one more thing" type of game.
At the same time, I'm not a complete Achiever lunatic, so I got to prioritize which quests I cared about and which I didn't, which felt good. Food and blankets for starving refugees? OK, that's important. Finding some isolationist hermit to tell him his brother is dead? ... Yeah, that can wait 'til later. So I felt motivated to do the things I chose to do.
I took DalekFlay's advice and went with an archer since I wanted to play a Rogue anyway, and based on criticism of the combat here I just went with Normal difficulty so I don't have to pay attention to it much or use the subpar pause-and-command camera. I feel good about both decisions. Thanks for the input, folks.
I guess this isn't a review thread or whatever, but whatever. Bottom line: so far I don't feel as if I wasted my money. Stay tuned.
Once I got past that stage I forgot my frustration completely and mainlined a straight 6 hours in the game with no crashes or other tech issues. This fucker is an Achiever's fever dream: walk towards map point quest marker, trip over half a dozen more quests on the way there, and for each one you pursue, you trip over a half dozen more quests or activities. I mean Jesus Christ. Very much an up until 4AM "just let me finish one more thing" type of game.
At the same time, I'm not a complete Achiever lunatic, so I got to prioritize which quests I cared about and which I didn't, which felt good. Food and blankets for starving refugees? OK, that's important. Finding some isolationist hermit to tell him his brother is dead? ... Yeah, that can wait 'til later. So I felt motivated to do the things I chose to do.
I took DalekFlay's advice and went with an archer since I wanted to play a Rogue anyway, and based on criticism of the combat here I just went with Normal difficulty so I don't have to pay attention to it much or use the subpar pause-and-command camera. I feel good about both decisions. Thanks for the input, folks.
I guess this isn't a review thread or whatever, but whatever. Bottom line: so far I don't feel as if I wasted my money. Stay tuned.
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