The good:
Piranha Bytes jank charm
Piranha Bytes handcrafted world which is rewarding to explore
Piranha Bytes progression system which has you unable to beat more than 3 types of creatures until you're 10 hours in the game
Jetpack allows for more vertical exploration and all sorts of skips
Exploiting the AI is fun and also funny (Example: if you don't touch the ground while using the jetpack, the guards can't talk to you, meaning you can enter any restricted space that is otherwise blocked off by an NPC activating a dialogue)
The bad:
World is less lively than the worlds from their first games
Stunlocking is too easy, combat system is broken
Story is uninteresting and wonky
Romance in a Piranha Bytes game, lmao
Environmental puzzles (AKA some codes are just written on random pieces of paper, walls or tables near a safe), who cares, just give me the loot
World has less distinct locations than even their first games
Really weak setpieces
Game looks pretty bad
Piranha Bytes not-so-charming jank
For sidequests, I do not want to search for shitty pieces of paper scattered across the map without any indication of where they can be, stop this video games, please, it's awful.
Score:
You, reading this, just play/replay Gothic.
Quite honestly, I've had enough of Piranha Bytes games. I don't think they will ever release a game I'll be able to enjoy without a quadrillion caveats. They just have cool exploration left, and they're even oversaturating that with environmental puzzles to make me run around a location in search of some secret code. I don't know how much more they have in them to even make playable games if they keep going like this.
See you in Elex II
Piranha Bytes jank charm
Piranha Bytes handcrafted world which is rewarding to explore
Piranha Bytes progression system which has you unable to beat more than 3 types of creatures until you're 10 hours in the game
Jetpack allows for more vertical exploration and all sorts of skips
Exploiting the AI is fun and also funny (Example: if you don't touch the ground while using the jetpack, the guards can't talk to you, meaning you can enter any restricted space that is otherwise blocked off by an NPC activating a dialogue)
The bad:
World is less lively than the worlds from their first games
Stunlocking is too easy, combat system is broken
Story is uninteresting and wonky
Romance in a Piranha Bytes game, lmao
Environmental puzzles (AKA some codes are just written on random pieces of paper, walls or tables near a safe), who cares, just give me the loot
World has less distinct locations than even their first games
Really weak setpieces
Game looks pretty bad
Piranha Bytes not-so-charming jank
For sidequests, I do not want to search for shitty pieces of paper scattered across the map without any indication of where they can be, stop this video games, please, it's awful.
Score:
You, reading this, just play/replay Gothic.
Quite honestly, I've had enough of Piranha Bytes games. I don't think they will ever release a game I'll be able to enjoy without a quadrillion caveats. They just have cool exploration left, and they're even oversaturating that with environmental puzzles to make me run around a location in search of some secret code. I don't know how much more they have in them to even make playable games if they keep going like this.
See you in Elex II