they put crack in this game. the first 30 or so hours were magical, nothing but going from point a to point b and fighting generic fantasy enemies on the way but with some of the most solid gameplay and feel out of any AAA ARPG i think i've played in a while.

by the end though it felt like the amount of world to explore and quests to do ran out long before my hunger for more of this game did, culminating in me getting to the very end of the game (before the post-game) and going "wait, that's it??", and i ended up exploring every corner of the world map thinking i had missed something, and unfortunately ran out of energy to move on to the post-game.

i WILL eventually play it, though i might wait until more content is added or i gain the motivation to again.

the most finnish eurojank source adventure game i think i've ever played (positive). even if the puzzles feel like kind of a slog at times, and the battery drain mechanic is kind of just an annoyance (luckily, you can edit the configs to decrease the rate that it drains, or just turn it off completely), every environment has an endless amount of care put into it and the photography helps to incentivize you to explore every little crevice you can, find every document and easter egg.

i do wish it was made a bit more obvious at times which path leads you to the next area and which is optional, because there are multiple times where i'll walk into a hallway thinking it's more map only to be met with a level transition. still, i'll definitely replay this at some point, maybe check out the surprising wealth of fan-mods too. i like this game quite a bit, even through the tedium.