Story mode took me I think about 7 hours on normal. Story was really dumb and pointless. Many things just happen for convenience or just to move the plot along. It was pretty fun until I realize that the way to beat it is to find that one weird trick in each fight and just repeat that ad nauseum. Most of the time I would just hold block, then sweep from a distance, or if they get close use a throw. Actually trying to fight improvisationally and use special moves never worked for me, but maybe that's because I lack the necessary reflexes. I don't play with other people or online so that probably detracts from the experience. On the other hand if I did that I would probably just get frustrated and stop anyway. It's a very beautiful game visually. I just wish the story would have tried harder to do something interesting, challenging, meaningful... or anything. Or that the characters weren't simply cookie cutter tropes. Overall I found the game to play great. I've played older MK games and always found the AI to be impenetrable. This game was manageable. In a way learning how to deal with each opponent was satisfying. As I tried to go into each match using the same techniques I realized the same strategies wouldn't work on every opponent. Periodically I would have to discover a different tactic. But again it was too easy to find one move that broke the match. Maybe on harder difficulties that wouldn't be the case, but I have no desire to see the story again. The elder gods are morons.

Riven was astounding to my adolescent imagination, and it's a joy to see that legacy carried on with games like this. There were some very clever and challenging puzzles in here. I really enjoy the way they let the puzzles breathe and speak for themselves. It required me to be genuinely observant. There were times when I got frustrated, but eventually I realized it was just because I refused to slow down, look closely, and think things through. I couldn't typically rely on the game to give me the next step, which was a breath of fresh air. Some nice music. I felt as though the voices were fine, but could have used more personality or character. For a game dabbling with the idea of many alternate worlds, everything looks very mundane and samey. I appreciate the opportunity to make a choice at the end. It was something I could reason through and I suppose people will make different calls based on their own sensibilities. But overall the story felt too vague. That works to some degree because it's dealing more with broad themes of power, technology, knowledge, and balancing these with ethical decisions. But it was so vague that for me it lacked impact by the end. Ultimately, though, it's about the quality of the puzzles, and I was very satisfied on that front.

Give my peaceful proclivities, the game essentially undermines itself because the native creatures apparently only attack once I start building things. So that means the ideal way to play is just not to build anything, completely undermining the point of the game. Fortunately there are settings to change how the game works and there are many mods. But there's still the problem that turning on peaceful mode means much of the tech tree is wasted. Part of the problem is that there's apparently no real reason to build anything. There's nothing driving actions in the game, apart from simply the urge to build. But this is at odds with the native creatures. So the peaceful method is to do nothing. The ideal scenario for me would seem to be a story in which the aliens are not just destroying my base once I start building, but are actually some kind of hostile invading force that is actively trying to kill me. Or maybe if I had a small society of humans that are threatened by native predatory creatures. I don't like games where I feel like I'm the "bad guy" and this game too often gives me that feeling. It's too bad because there's so much here that is extremely compelling to me. I suppose the Pacifist mod is the best path for me, as it removes military tech, but I would prefer the have the mililtary but in a game scenario that was purely defensive as opposed to the default which feels implicitly aggressive.

UPDATE
I finally was able to finish freeplay on default settings. What worked was maxing out game speed, starting out fairly slowly by manually mining a lot, and rushing research to all efficiency modules, electric furnaces and solar panels. I did get attacked once by an expansion that got too close so I packed up my entire operation and moved to an area that was not close to any nests and it ended up working until the end of the game. I don't know if I just got lucky or what, but I didn't even bother building any defenses, except for walls in the hope that they would deter invasions. So I guess for me the design of the game just isn't entirely what I'm looking for because I just really don't want to engage with the combat mechanics at all but it feels too limiting too play that way.

Love a game that just drops you into a place and says "Figure it out." Great balance between action gameplay and a need for a more cerebral approach. It feels so good to play, so smooth and visceral, but at the same time it's not a pure action game. It requires thinking, remembering, planning. There's huge map to explore and uncover secrets. Tough as nails dungeons that are so rewarding to conquer. And it got so much right so near the beginning of all this. It makes me sad that so many others don't feel the greatness of this anymore.

1. I don't like the guy who made it.
2. My system mouse cursor stays on the screen while playing.
3. The recording of the voices sounds awful at least sometimes.
4. I kind of like the dog thing and the baby is cute.
5. At least some of the puzzles are tedious and dull.
6. The graphics are sometimes difficult for me to distinguish.
7. There's apparently no way to access inventory even to see what I currently have.
8. It would be nice if he moved a bit faster.
9. It would be nice if there were a key to switch characters instead of having to click.

I don't like this at all so far. I guess that's another way of saying it's basically the opposite of the sort of thing that I like. I don't suppose that necessarily makes it bad though. That Nine Inch Nails song sounds exactly like "You Really Got Me." Why is the cat farting musical notes? Super Furry Animals should have done the soundtrack. I would have liked it slightly more in that case. Who am I kidding, I would have liked it a lot more. Not that the soundtrack seems bad really. I just really like Super Furry Animals. Anyway the style and humor are oil in my water. The gameplay seems bland, repetitive, monotonous, boring... Seems like the kind of thing where you're supposed to try to do cool tricks or combos, but I really just mash the button because I couldn't care less. Why does the main character have to be the most annoying person in the world?