An open-ended adventure that rewards you for talking to random NPCs, revisiting areas frequently, and being strategic with your time. Gear is very important, so don't spend frivolously.

It's like a D&D campaign without the DM there to warn you if you're in the wrong dungeon for your level of preparedness, so save often and make use of smoke bombs to escape unnecessary fights. Gold and Class-training jewels are scarce, so your main priority will be completing quests to fund your party. If you make the mistake of grinding, the world clock will rapidly progress, and you will likely miss early quests which are more interesting and lucrative. If you are a completionist, just go with the flow (I think Albert is a good first character), as the game is intended to be played many times with many characters as you piece together the overall story from many perspectives.

A refreshingly complete game with a variety of impressive levels and deep customisation. The numerous weapons and other machine part combinations make for a wide variety of playstyles. Your AC's overall weight, its chosen boosters and the generator determine how quickly you move, how long you can fly, and how fast you can boost; your legs determine jump height, each type having an unique property (reverse-joint legs spring high, tetrapods hover, tanks can drift).

Buying and testing new weapons as they become available is a lot of fun - everything feels and sounds great. The sound design is really outstanding. Yes, weapons are almost universally satisfying and impactful: but you will have to build intelligently and manage distance wisely in order to hit without being gunned down yourself. In order to reliably hit the stronger, more evasive enemies in the game, it will be important to watch your Fire Control System's red tracking reticle, and choose an FCS that quickly locks on in your preferred combat range. Some builds will tend to kite at range, and conserve energy for reactive quickboosts to evade, while others will assault boost aggressively into melee range.

The monstrously large bosses present some of the hardest difficulty spikes in the game, but they are fair; with time, each enemy seems easier to overcome. After slowly piecing together your personal AC, mastering its playstyle, and beating the bosses, returning to previous missions feels like a new experience. By my NG+ second playthrough, I felt like a speedrunner and greatly enjoyed racing through familiar stages in a destructive flurry. Getting good at this game feels amazing, and you will find yourself trivializing formerly hard enemies. This includes bosses that might have stumped you for hours, who you will likely crush with only moderately better equipment (but a smarter build and better skills). New missions and changes in NG+ add to what feels like a perfect difficulty curve for a second run.