Recent reviews by manaburn

As political activism increasingly infiltrates tech, this engine has sadly followed suit, losing touch with its user base in the process.

I liked it back then but doesn't seem to work on Windows 10 (or my my video card, or whatever else). I looked for a solution online, installed a patch and still I can't even start a game. Not gonna bother anymore if it's too much trouble: I already work on a computer all day, just wanna play games at home, not keep working even more. Shame on Steam and everyone involved for selling games that stopped functioning years ago.

This is a game around a guy who loses his hat all the time.

I played every CRPG that matters since the late 90s. Even if you consider the differences in technology (my favorites are old, like NWN and BG), this is a strong contender for the best one. Of all time. All the publications which gave it scores like 9.5 must seriously review what the heck they consider a 10.
I cared about this story. I literally laughed, and I literally cried. I did many things not for gold, XP or even roleplaying, but because I... felt it. I'm getting goosebumps right now just remembering the ending. I only did one playthrough because I'm giving it some time so it feels 'fresher' when I play again, because I'll definitely check other characters and their stories.
"What about gameplay, the class system and.." All way, way above average. Fun, rewarding, much freedom of choice. In many RPGs I restart the game multiple times after some minutes or hours when I realize I made bad choices. Not here. It just works, and after a point you can fully respec anytime, at no cost (but since you feel your char 'works' however you want them to, I barely had to change anything).
Safe buy at full price.

In fact I don't know whether this is a good game since there's literally no one to play with in the whole wide world. Waste of money.

The premise is amazing. I would have a lot of fun playing with friends. Immense potential.
But this game is not ready. It crashes constantly. On a decent, well kept, machine of someone who knows his way around a computer. And it crashes spectacularly, in a have-to-restart-steam and/or readjust-Windows-display-settings way. If after 8 years that's what we get, be sure that whenever you read this, it's safe to avoid.

My first 5 playthroughs didn't last more than 10 minutes each, but when I got the hang of it, I was completely hooked. It's hard on the beginning, but worth the effort. If I hadn't got addicted to GTA 5 multiplayer some years ago, this would be the game I've played the most in my life.
Anyway, I'll not make a lengthy review, just say that:
1) try it for a little less than 2 hours (or whatever the refund period is), and ask for a refund if you "don't get it".
2) maybe look online for "beginner's tips" if you feel like so, but I can lay it down quickly: mine copper for start money, hire people to avoid bleeding to death alone, don't feel bad running away from fights.
3) yes, "there's nothing to do" because it's the first game I've ever played where you actually do what you want, no inane quests or filler content. Become rich, kill literally everyone, free slaves, build a city... you make your game.
4) you'll probably want/need mods. I generally prefer vanilla games but you'll need at least one to avoid CPU spikes and performance problems. Only con of this one-of-a-kind game. A quick web search should guide you.
5) Beep.

TL;WR: it was worth the money, on sale it's a safe buy, you'll have some fun.

At first I liked it so much I thought it would be my next "many hundred hours playing" game, but after 60 hours I was like "okay, I have 100 million to buy basically anything and I'm fully equipped, now what?". The main quest lines are very boring and I didn't even finish. I liked grinding (mining material) for money, flying without direction and fighting in space, but it gets old, especially in a procedural world, where everything starts to look more and more the same. Fighting sentinels (like evil robot cops) on land and space don't change difficulty throughout the game, it's a just bit challenging at first but soon becomes too easy: I still had a crappy ship and got all 'ships destroyed' achievements very quickly. Oh, and multiplayer is useless: there's really no lobbies or similar to gather with strange people, there's only the 'Anomaly', a space station where users converge to get quests and buy some stuff, but there's a limit of like 15-20 people when you enter it, so what are the chances of finding a nice group, or even one other person to do missions together? I tried sometimes and no one even answered the chat. All in all, the game is very good, I enjoyed a lot but you can only do the same things for so long.

I don't know why I thought this would be an RPG, but it's a point-and-click adventure. May be cool for someone who likes this "click everything that glows in the scenario, exhaust dialogue options with everyone, and move on".

I remember when I had a computer that couldn't quite play this game, it ran just too slow (we didn't talked about 'FPS' back then). But soon mother bought me a better one and oh man, did I got addicted.
Totally worth the full price, at sale it's mandatory.
"SON OF A B*"!