I really really wanted to love this. It has so many things going for it that normally I'm all for: letting the player explore freely without holding their hand; allowing the player to encounter difficult and punishing scenarios right off the bat; a serious exploration of the morality of different factions and moral quandaries that go beyond 'good' and 'evil' choices... but unfortunately the frustration and the bugginess of it all proved too much for me. There is so much that doesn't get explained to you- I died so many times in the first cave to literal rats because I straight-up couldn't figure out how to attack or access my inventory. Later on, it turns out the way to resupply your companions' ammunition or change their weapons is to use the "steal" function and place those items in their inventories. You frequently end up in combat situations that you are almost impossible to survive, but instead of feeling immersed in a dangerous world full of death and hard choices, the meaningfulness of death just dissipates as you learn to save scum before any challenging encounter.
All of these are difficult game design choices that balance player freedom and frustration, which are all understandable. But what really drove me over the edge was the simple fact that your companions block your path. How many times do you walk into a small room, only for fucking Ian to follow you in and then just stand unmoving in the doorway, blocking you from ever leaving? The final straw was when I got finished talking to the Gunrunners, went to leave the island, and found the guy just standing at the other end of the bridge, blocking the path. Nothing you say to him can get him to move, and what's worse is my party members had followed me onto the narrow bridge, blocking my way back onto the island. Sure, I could always load an earlier save from a couple hours earlier, but the thought of it just fills me with dread. I think canonically my character is just forever stuck on a thin bridge over a pit of toxic waste, blocked in by two idiots who won't get out of the way.
All of these are difficult game design choices that balance player freedom and frustration, which are all understandable. But what really drove me over the edge was the simple fact that your companions block your path. How many times do you walk into a small room, only for fucking Ian to follow you in and then just stand unmoving in the doorway, blocking you from ever leaving? The final straw was when I got finished talking to the Gunrunners, went to leave the island, and found the guy just standing at the other end of the bridge, blocking the path. Nothing you say to him can get him to move, and what's worse is my party members had followed me onto the narrow bridge, blocking my way back onto the island. Sure, I could always load an earlier save from a couple hours earlier, but the thought of it just fills me with dread. I think canonically my character is just forever stuck on a thin bridge over a pit of toxic waste, blocked in by two idiots who won't get out of the way.