izigame.me

Probably one of the greatest games I've played in the past 5 years.
(Spoiler free)


Summary


I don't play story games for very long, if it's 8 hours long, I will play it for 8 hours, even if it's a genuinely amazing game, there is no way to re-experience my first interaction with a title I love, any reruns would just dilute my memory of it.

That said, this is different. This isn't just a story game, this is a narrative masterpiece, mechanically almost perfect and the single longest amount of time I've ever spent on a game of this nature. I struggle to keep hooked on high fantasy but this game exceeded every single expectation I had from the genre.

In short, the game is a turn-based RPG, with dense player interaction, dialogue, story, and an absolute treasure chest when it comes to variety, the combat is practically a sandbox, only limited by your creativity when it comes to turning goblins and human alike into a puddle where their torso used to be.
You're immediately given a fairly substantial task upon first loading in and it's your goal to progress through the story with the aim of resolving it.
However, the steps you take along your path to resolving it entirely shifts the dynamic of whole regions and thus how people treat you as you progress through the story. Eventually, the major task you have becomes a footnote as you're thrown knee-deep into something much larger than you ever anticipated.
Of course, how it actually DOES resolve, whether for the betterment of everyone you've met along the way or to achieve absolute power is entirely up to you.. but you might often find yourself making choices with a special party member in mind ;)

Oh and the CO-OP is absolutely unreal, it from experience (with a good host) works absolutely perfectly and I've essentially completed the entire story 3 times with entirely different groups of people, each time yielding its own absolutely chaotic outcome. It does seriously impact how you interact with companions though as there are a limited number of party slots, so don't take your CO-OP play-through as your sole experience of the game.


Characters


Phenomenal writing, it's very easy to dismiss the companions you find along the way as being relatively abrasive or otherwise uninteresting, but as you progress through the story they begin to open up to you as your relationship (dictated by your actions, through dialogue, interactions with the world or quest outcomes) grows, and thus you gain major introspective with the character.
Every companion has their own quirk, something that they personally want to resolve by the end of the game. If you choose to ignore them they may never achieve that without your help, and potentially abandon you, or worse.
They all react differently to how you roleplay your character, some despising signs of empathy while others seriously admiring it, it creates a situation where the dynamic of your party isn't always relying on you picking the "morally good" answers to get a desirable outcome.. ahem Starfield >.>
Some companions even outright love evil acts, and will encourage you to do them.. oh and of course there's romance so that's always a win if you want to romance someone with the bloodlust of a bag of angry hornets.

Additionally, the non-essential or non-playable characters you find beyond your own party are all intricate in their own right. Some are a little sparser content-wise than others but everyone typically always has something to say, often in regards to events you've caused or partaken in. Even if you don't cross their paths early on, they often show up with unique dialogue later, often remarking about how your actions led them to where they are.
Something I especially enjoy is that often you'll keep seeing characters you save or aid throughout the entire length of the game, gradually finding new ways to give aid back or just give you a little insight to story each time you find them.
A very notable example (without sharing too much detail) is saving a character in something I originally thought was a throw-away gag, where if you choose to (or accidentally) kill them just by pushing the wrong button, it not only locks off a major outcome of a literal end-game quest but makes another entire quest-line marginally harder. Your choices DO matter even if it isn't immediately obvious.

Finally, the "bad guys" in this game are probably my favourite in all of high fantasy media, and while there is an implied major boss that you're seeking out, there's a multitude of equally plot essential bosses you find with their own backstories, and beyond that, even the non-essential bosses are all very fun to fight, all with their own gimmicks which invite you to switch up your playstyle.

Plus, J. K. Simmons, the voice of Cave Johnson, Omni-Man, Stanford Pines.. the yellow M&M for some reason, and basically hundreds of other characters you'll recognise voices my single favourite boss in the whole game.


Story


Dense, utterly dense, packed with scenarios, people to meet, people to kill, people to revive for reasons of questioning them about who killed them.
Quite frankly, 500 hours of content is barely scratching the surface, I'm doing a brand new run as of right now and still discovering things I've never seen before.
There is a deep level of world-building, both direct and indirect, physical and implied, entire regions are impacted by actions delivered long before you even arrived, some are more dangerous than others for explicit plot reasons. There's little stories and quests to be found in the most obscure of places, each with differing outcomes.

I don't think I could ever do the story justice in this section so I won't further elaborate, experience it yourself.


Gameplay


Really not what I expected when I first got into the game, I was a little sceptical because I don't much care of the RPG formula of having all your actions as little buttons at the bottom of your screen, I especially didn't think I would much care for a top-down turn-based point and click style experience.

However, I am genuinely captivated, it isn't just a combat system, it's a sandbox. Every class drastically changes how you approach issues, from getting the perfect position to fireball as a squishy wizards/sorcerers so you don't die first turn, to just paladin charging face first at any inconvenience, and it hitting it with a 7ft sword in the name of your oath for vengeance.
If you're not satisfied with just playing a singular class, you can then sub-class and create absolutely insane builds, my personal favourite being throwzerker (a barbarian that can practically insta-kill most targets by across map throwing OTHER ENEMIES at the targeted enemy)
Alternatively you could just ignore the class system and be a barrelmancer, using explosives of various types to essentially ignite entire battlefields and inconvenience your whole party.
There's legitimately no end to it. If you want to play the game a certain way you probably can, it's absolutely DnD in nature.

The fights can be quite hard at times, but only if you're unprepared or have a poor party dynamic. Sometimes just finding the right gear can shift a whole fight in your favour, even potions I found are incredibly important as some of them can essentially triple your melee damage or let you heal after every kill. The game WANTS you to experiment, go nuts.



TL;DR I could go on for hours about this game, I've barely scratched the surface with this review, but it really is mostly just a letter of love for this game, you won't ever get a good clue of the experience you'll have just from my text. So genuinely try it even if you don't think it's going to be your thing, and better yet, try it with friends. The CO-OP experience is so insanely fun.