Recent reviews by wittekip

Let me start by saying that I'm not really that much of a shooter fan, but I did love the first game and I'm also a fan of co-op stuff like Left 4 Dead and Borderlands.

That being said, this game in its current form just isn't a very good sequel to Shadow Warrior (2013) and not a very good loot-based co-op shooter either.

The main problem I think is that the game is hurt by too much randonmess: rather than a tightly crafted and challenging corridor shooter, you get a a game in which nearly everything is random and as a result of that, more often than not just not very compelling.

Despite of the random nature, pretty much every fight and every level feels exactly the same, and apart from very basic tactics regarding various elemental weapons, there just isn't too much to most of the fights - sure, they can be fun and fast and frantic, but the majority ends up feeling far too easy and far too long. This is made worse by the fact that especially in co-op dying rarely feels like it matters and it's far too easy to use cheesy kiting techniques.

On top of that, exploring the levels just isn't very much fun since all they will ever offer is more of the same, and the game throws so much and such poor loot at you that running around collecting everything is rather pointless - pretty much all the cool stuff is obtained automatically or very easily found by killing the mini-bosses and the endless slew of weapons mods that you get is more of a chore to sift through (using a horrible interface) than something to get excited about. This is probaby the first game ever, also, in which low level common or rare upgrades are often better than ultra expensive and and rare legendary upgrades, further adding to the sense of pointlessness of it all.

And to top it all of, the system with a quest hub and numerous fetch quests adds very little to a game of this type, other than constantly keeping you out of the action with endless loading screens and boring cutscenes. I simply started skipping them halfway through.

I'm not ruling out the possiblity that this game can be ultimately saved by a gigantic patch that overhauls the loot system into something meaningful and rewarding, but even then I feel that the repetitive and random nature of this game will not lead to something memorable. It's OK to play in short bursts if you just want to have something colorful to look at without having to think to much, but it feels far to much like busywork to be compelling for long periods of time.

I don't normally write many Steam reviews but given the veritably avalanche of rave reviews for a game that I consider very mediocre, I feel obliged to offer a dissenting opinion.

Bluntly put: I have no idea why everybody thinks this is such a great game. Sure, it runs smoothly and it looks nice but those are about the only above average aspects of an otherwise fairly forgettable and annoying experience.

And yes, I know I write this after only a couple of hours of game time. Maybe it somehow gets better after a while but that is still no excuse for such a lame start

Mad Max is first of all enormously unpolished. The key bindings and the menu structure are a mess...in every meny every key does something different (if it works at all), actions are mapped to the most stupid keys imaginable, and for some reason you have to hold rather than press just about every key. Because of ..reasons.

Next, too many of the activites you perform feel like busywork for the sake of it...things like activating balloons, tearing down scarecrows, killing snipers (I dare you to miss, and they don't shoot back 99% of the time), blowing up stuff etc all force you to repeat the same unchallenging, unnecessary and unfun actions time after time again, often accompanied by lengthy unskippable cut-scenes that add absolutely zero. All kinds of stuff that would be automated in better games you either have to do by hand, or can only be unlocked after even more busywork.

This might still be acceptable if the core gameplay (vehicle based combat and on foot exploration/fighting) were any better, but alas. The on foot stuff is at best OK and usually quite tedious (lots of just walking around searching for meaningless stuff to collect) and the fighting is rip-off from Batman, only with a poor camera, zero fluidity and almost no challenge. It can in most cases be cheated by simply mashing the attack button.

I am not too far into the car combat yet, but I am still hoping for somebody to explain to me how it is fun to run endless circles around other vehicles in the hopes of ramming them to pieces at some point (which is once again not much fun given that the car controls like a wet towel and spins wildly out of control after hitting just about anything) or using the ultra-cheap trick of simply harpooing the driver, followed by the boring process of ramming a stationary car to pieces)

For just about everything, I'd say just stick to the Borderlands series. I know that's technically not an open world but at least it provides a much more fun Wasteland experience, has actual characters and story, better car combat and vehicle handling (though the vehicles are one of the poorer parts of Borderlands), and doesn't actively try to waste your time with filler. As for open worlds, even Ubisoft doesn't normally waste your time this badly.

Impossible to get running - I've tried pretty much everything but I can't get this bloody thing to run propertly with a very common video cart on Windows 7. Tbh that's a disgrace to any AAA title.

As an avid fan of the old Infinity Engine games, and after all the rave reviews, I was very excited to be able to finally play this game, and for the first couple of hours I was impressed at the scope, the overall quality, and the succesfull way in which an old gaming formule was brought into the 21st century. A couple more hours in, I am still impressed by the scope of Pillars of Eternity...but somehow I can't help but feel slightly let down.

That's not to say that there isn't an awful lot they DID do right. The combat, e.g., has been given a successful overhaul. It's still fun and deep, but plays out a lot faster and seems far less dependent on fairly random crowd control effects from the old games. I also like the little touches like the per-battle (rather than per-day) abilities, the fast movement mode, and innovative classes like the Chanter.

Also, in general the story and dialogue are interesting, although I do agree with some reviews that the entire affair does tend to get a bit long-winded and a bit too serious at times.

That being said..I feel the whole thing is a bit uninspired. The quests, the level design, and even the loot (basically you get very little good stuff, you have to enchant it) certainly get the job done, but it never strays far from the established formula and all feels a bit...bland. Compared to the freshness of e.g. Divinity: Original Sin, which did manage to bring something truly new to the table in spite of being decidedly old school as well, PoE is a letdown. It also falls quite a bit short of the game it's so obviously paying hommage to, Baldur's Gate 2..that game constantly managed to surprise you with great level designs and quests..here I've waded through 7 levels of Endless Path dungeon without anything that stood out.

Maybe this comes across as overly harsh, since it is a good game and I am enjoying it, but it does feel like quantity over quality..they basically throw everything but the kitchen sink at you and hope it will stick. Most of it does, and there are some really good idea on display here, but a lot also feels like padding (far too many samey accounters, a flimsy stronghold...ironically, exactly the things that Dragon Age origins also did wrong)