I enjoyed the game a lot but found myself a bit disappointed every time I found a flaw, as I had expected a genre-defining title instead of just another good RPG.

Firstly, I have never really been into turn based RPGs like this since I played Fire Emblem Awakening as a kid, and never really went back to the genre since. In the first third of the game I found myself loving the gameplay to my surprise. However, as the game went on, I found that the game threw less and less manageable combat situations at you and found myself enjoying it less. I also found myself fairly underleveled until the third act, which is odd as I made a point of doing every possible thing I came across up to that point. A lot of combat encounters feel stacked against you in an unfair manner, with your party of four needing to fight sometimes three times the enemies on your own. The most enjoyable encounters for me were the early game boss fights, and the combat encounters that were based less on the actual combat itself (such as the Iron Throne). A lot of my issues with the combat led me to stop enjoying it about halfway into the game, causing me to drop the difficulty purely because I didn't want to hate the game.

The best part of the game by far is the narrative. Every party member has a compelling narrative associated with you, and their growth as people is bound to your relationship with them. The main story itself is also pretty decent, it gives you an immediate goal to work towards and spirals out of control from there. Most of the characters in general were very memorable, and learning their backstory and helping them work towards their goals was always very rewarding. The world itself was also very cool to experience, as someone who has no DnD experience outside of the movie from last year.

The final downside I have to mention is the unbelievable bugginess of the game. Visual bugs like faces stretching off the screen are things I can look past, but Wyll's questline completely broke and didn't allow me to finish it which seriously soured me on the game toward the end. The game actually had a lot of sequences that broke if you didn't do it EXACTLY how the game wanted you to, which is very at odds with the game's freedom in most situations.

Overall it's a good game that I look forward to playing again sometime, but there were many times I found myself frustrated with it and had my enjoyment brought to a halt.

ADDITION (FEBRUARY 17, 2024) - 4 stars to 5 stars

Having replayed the game, in multiplayer this time, I have come to appreciate the game a lot more despite flaws - some of which I was wrong about, and some of which are newly discovered.

My complaints with the combat were entirely reversed this time around, as I was never underleveled and knew how to better build my characters. If anything, I found the combat to be too easy by the end of the game. The only time during my entire playthrough where things felt unfair was the 1v1 duel with Orin. Having played a rogue, I was very squishy and the fight felt impossible. Using stealth resulted in combat ending upon Orin failing to find me and her healing to full health, while attempting to make sure she could see me resulted in being killed in one turn. It's a moment that feels like it's very much not balanced to be possible for any character. However, simply breaking the duel and fighting as normal worked out fine.

The story still remains great, in fact it may be even better. Oh my first playthrough I only had about four companions and played an entirely custom character, while on the more recent playthrough I had everyone but Minthara (messed up the recruitment method for good playthroughs) and played as the Dark Urge. If you have not played the Dark Urge, I would highly recommend it. It adds so much depth to the narrative from your character's perspective, and adds a completely fresh way to experience the game if you've already beaten it. While you can be funny and indulge all the viscerally evil things it urges you towards and have a fun evil playthrough, I found that the redemption path was actually one of the most narratively satisfying experiences in a video game. It was shocking, investing, and strengthened the themes of the game greatly.

As for the bugginess... It is not improved. It may genuinely be at Bethesda tier, as I constantly found new and infuriating bugs throughout my playthrough. Characters breaking and not moving where they needed to, quests failing because it didn't detect a quest item in my inventory, dialogue about things that never happened. It's a mess, and it can genuinely ruin the experience at times. The patch that released the day of finishing this playthrough fixed many bugs, but introduced even more such as the entire game lagging for a full minute upon opening a trade menu. It's exhausting, and it's easily the weakest part of the game.

This playthrough did change my feelings on the game though. It's a buggy mess, but I absolutely fell in love with it this time and finally began to understand why it is so acclaimed, and hope that there is more for the game to give.

No log dates as I technically started before release, and am still playing. I am reviewing based on a replay of the game from scratch after years without touching it, as I've played enough to review it.

This game gives me incredibly conflicted feelings. The good stuff is very good and makes me love playing the game, but the bad is downright predatory. I won't be mentioning the launch as while I did play during that period, I'm reviewing purely based on my recent replay of the game.

THE GOOD:
My favorite aspect of this game may have to be the map. Fallout games have long been joked about for having boring orange and green wastelands, but 76 changes this by having 6 distinct biomes with different color schemes and enemy variations. The biomes aren't all lifeless wastes either. The Cranberry Bog is visually distinct from anything else in the series, with vibrant red colors and massive pink plants. The Mire offers an incredible atmosphere, a dark swamp with vines creeping up everything and immersive ambient sound that makes it feel spooky. As it's a Bethesda game, all of these locations are packed with unmarked and marked locations, each with some amount of lore tied to each of them. Exploring in this game is perhaps the most fun thing you can do. A friend and I came across this small camp where screams and earthquakes would play periodically while the paintings and doors would freak out. We were confused, and spent over 10 minutes searching the area. We read every note and terminal entry, until finally we came across a hidden treehouse outside the campsite with a terminal that played all of the sounds, set up by a prankster from the campsite before the war. Bethesda exploration has always been fun, but it might be even better with a friend to experience it with.

Another positive is the weapon variety. Even before the numerous updates, 76 had a lot more weapon variety than 4 did with black powder weapons, a pump action shotgun, and the gatling plasma. With subsequent updates, the weapon variety is perhaps the best in the series. Each weapon has its own mods which can drastically change the way it plays, but it also features an improved legendary system. In Fallout 4, a legendary item would be one unique effect. In 76, you can get up to 3 unique effects that can work together to create some very powerful weapons. With easy to swap and change builds, you can try all kinds of weapons and playstyles.

The gameplay is also pretty fun and varied as a result of the weapon variety. It's not the best shooter by any means, but all the weapons feel fun to use. You can use a flaming chainsaw in power armor to play a melee tank, or you can be a stealth character who uses VATS to get crits as often as possible. I find that all the style are pretty fun, and it's probably the best time I've had with the actual combat in a Fallout game.

The new type of quests introduced with the game, events, are also really fun. The entire server will be notified of certain cooperative events appearing, and a lot of players will usually show up to work towards this goal. Some are simply wave defense missions, where players wilk fight waves of enemies off. Some are more unique, like an event where you rob cardboard cutouts for fake money as you fight off robots dressed like deputies and sheriffs. There are also the boss events, where players will work together to bring down an incredibly tanky enemy for unique rewards.

THE MIXED:
The story varies strongly in quality. The game initially released without any human NPCs or dialogue trees, and remnants of that still exists in the game. The biggest example of this is the game's original main storyline. You discover numerous factions only for all of them to be dead to the scorched plague, each one leading you to the next, until eventually you reach a secret Enclave bunker run by an AI. You then become a US general and gain access to nuke silos, which you can use to fire a nuke and spawn endgame bosses. This original questline is not particularly interesting. The later updates attempt to make it better by adding one or two NPCs to each quest location, but they are not important to any of the quests. It's a very lonely feeling experience. You can also skip 80% of the story by just starting the Enclave portion on your own.

However, there have been numerous storylines added since. The first of which was Wastelanders, which allowed you to create a vaccine for the scorched plague and raid a vault where the US's gold reserves are stored. This storyline is far more interesting, having skill checks, characters, and two branching factions to align yourself with. Having played both, the Raiders side of the story is generally more interesting to play than the Settlers side, but both are incredible improvements to what came before. The final mission is a fun test of skill, and the missions leading up to it take you to some unique new locations and introduce you to interesting characters.

Following that was Steel Reign, a storyline about the Brotherhood of Steel. I found this questline to be pretty enjoyable. It had twists with intriguing villains, and some interesting (if unsubtle) moral choices throughout. It was probably the highlight of the story content for me.

Finally (as of writing this) is the Pitt expeditions. To be honest, I have to admit they were disappointing. It's light on story, you fly out to the Pitt (which is an incredibly atmospheric revisit of a Fallout 3 locale) and do various random tasks for one of two people depending on which mission you chose. There are only 2 missions, each of which have cycling objectives including optional collectathons which increase your payout at the end. It feels like content designed for grinding, not for the story content. The payouts are generally pretty good, making the Pitt worth farming, but it's pretty light on the story.

Another mixed bag is the build variety. The perk card system, while controversial, is actually pretty good. It allows you to customize and change your build fairly easily, which makes trying new things very easy and accessible. There are also a variety of playstyles, you can build for certain weapons and make nearly all of them viable. Despite this, there is one build that renders most of that pointless: the Bloodied/Unyielding build. This is done by using radiation to permanently keep your health low, triggering the +15 to all SPECIAL stats that a set of full unyielding armor will give you. This buff will significantly increase your carry weight, melee damage, stealth ability, AP and HP amounts, critical charge, VATS accuracy, XP gains, and make you able to pass every skill check in the game. For reference, 15 is the max you can allocate to any one stat, meaning this will put you well above the max for ALL of them. It is such an alluring option that it's not wonder most of the playerbase uses it, and it makes playing any other way feel like you're putting yourself at a disadvantage.

Another mixed bag is the community, which may be shocking to hear. Most people will say that the 76 community is one of the nicest multiplayer communities out there. There is some truth to this, new players will often find help and in my experience it's easy to befriend other players. However, there is also the trading/market side of the community, some of whom even sell things for real world cash that feels very opportunistic. You're unlikely to trade anything with anyone unless you are offering to overpay. There are also the scammers, a plague that especially infests the Xbox LFG tab, which isn't helped by the lack of a simple feature to trade one item for another without one person having to go first. It's a mixed bag for sure, but I would say it's an overall positive community.

Finally, I'd say the CAMP system is a mixed bag. You're able to set down a CAMP and build anywhere in the wilderness (non-named locations), but most of these spots are hard to work with. The building itself is also finicky at times, though it has been improved greatly since Fallout 4's settlements system. There are also not nearly as many building items in the base game as there are from the Atomic Shop (which I'll get to soon), and while there are plenty of cool builds that use exclusively base game items, there are far cooler builds that use premium items. Despite these flaws though, I have fun building in the game. It's relaxing for me personally (when it works) and seeing a cool structure after a couple hours of work that other players can come explore is satisfying.

THE BAD:
Something worth mentioning is the Atomic Shop, a premium currency store in a fully priced game. I will not pretend I have not purchased from it before, both with earned in-game atoms and purchased atoms, but I do think it's ridiculous that it exists. In a free game I'd understand it, but in a paid one it feels very out of place. It also features numerous items that offer gameplay advantages, such as things that produce consumables or recharge power armor batteries, on top of the numerous cosmetics. It also contains the subscription service: Fallout 1st, which locks major gameplay QOL features behind a paywall, such as infinite crafting material and ammunition storage containers, meaning you don't have to fill your limited base game storage with either. Simply put there is no defending it, if you intend on playing the game extensively, you will almost certainly need to buy 1st at some point.

Monetization practices are not the worst part of the game though, the grind is.

First of all, the currency grind. There is the standard caps, which you get for buying and selling regular items, up to a max of 1400 a day. There is gold bullion, which can be earned from events and some daily quests, which you can turn in to a max of 400 a day. For context, 1/5 of an armor set costs 1000 gold. There are also stamps, which are rewarded in amounts of 8-11 upon finishing the Pitt. For context, the auto axe weapon costs 500 stamps, an amount that I still have not gotten. There is also scrip, gained from selling legendary items you don't want, that is used for rerolling the legendary effects on your items...

Which brings me to the worst part of this game by far: the slot machine legendary system. You aren't able to reroll any of the individual stars of your weapons, and instead must reroll for all 3 at once. There are dozens of useless effects, such as "+50% damage at night" that pretty much only exist to keep you from getting something you'd actually want. People have rolled items for MONTHS unable to get what they want, and cannot trade for them because desirable items are so absurd in value that you'd need one of your own to have a chance. This is, of course, by design. They want you to sink every waking hour into grinding for the chance at what you want, similar to gacha games. The three star legendary system is great for build variety, but that system fails when you have to grind for that perfect roll. The game would be much better if you could reroll individual effects instead of the entire thing, that way you can feel like you're actually making some progress towards what you want instead of endless gambling. This is even worse when it comes to armor, as each armor set has FIVE separate pieces you have to hope you get your three ideal rolls on. Even outside this system, the game has some items with sub 1% drop chances, which further adds to the ridiculous grind someone who wants it would have to go through. The game sacrifices enjoyability for keeping players hooked as long as possible.

CONCLUSION:
People often say that Fallout 76 is good now, and to an extent I would agree. There is a great world with effort and care put into it, with stories worth experiencing and things worth doing, and it's a fun experience both alone and with friends. However, many things keep me from truly loving the game as a Fallout fan. If the game was simply more player friendly, I could love it as much as the other titles in the series, but as it stands it is weighed down by its desire to keep you addicted to the grind. Would I recommend the game? As someone who likes RPGs and Fallout, it's kinda the perfect multiplayer game for me. I can safely say it's worth giving a try if you want more Fallout or a decent RPG to sink some hours into with your friends, but it's far from a masterpiece or even as good as what came before it.

Finished a week or two ago, Odyssey remains one of my favorite Assassin's Creed games.

The negatives are that half the side content feels very boring and lifeless, and the characters are quickly forgotten about. The world itself is also fairly uninteresting outside of major cities and the more alien and mythological spaces, which is perhaps due to being realistic. There is also a very weird glamorization of Greek slavery in this game, one that makes you question how it got through development into the final release. The combat, while fun, was often against enemies that felt too tanky even on the easiest difficulty. This is partially to blame on the gear system, in which you must constantly spend resources to upgrade your equipment or risk being underpowered against your enemies. I would've preferred the gear be unlevelled.

With the negatives out of the way, now I can speak to the positives. Much of the main cast are interesting and acted fairly well, with Kassandra and Alexios both being fantastic in both their roles as the likable protagonist or the villain Deimos. The main story was very engaging, with choices that actually did end up mattering. The ending I got the first time I played resulted in the deaths of my character's entire family, while on replay I got the ending where they all lived. The stealth is probably the most fun it ever has been in the series, with more mystical abilities giving more variety to the system than ever before. While I did not like the gear system, the legendary gear specifically had unique abilities tied to each piece and could actually change how you played, which was nice compared to the more bland +5.5%s of the standard loot. The naval combat and sailing was also really nice, and it was always fun to fight and board ships. While some side content was bland, other side content (especially the fights with mythological creatures) was very engaging and even challenging at times. The combat and combat abilities were fun, but shined the most in 1v1s against tough enemies instead of group battles. The interactions with historical figures were more fun in this game than they usually are in Assassin's Creed. Tracking, hunting, and killing cultists was also quite fun, and I constantly did it throughout the game as I became a high enough level to take them on.

Overall a game that is flawed, but it's a pretty good action RPG set in a well-realized ancient Greece that has an engaging main story that will take you all across the Greek world.