Finished this a few weeks ago. Visually stunning. Lots to do and many fun different gimmicks and game-modes.
Online play had bugs here and there but I blame EA not the devs. The gameplay itself was not very innovative. It was extremely easy at times. The main two characters were a bit unlikeable to me. Rose was sort of interesting at first but the story just dragged on without developing her or revealing anything. I would've preferred if they explored her a little in the beginning and she was left a total mystery. The ending felt,,,, very awkward and anticlimactic. Honestly the entire story felt like it was lacking in direction and not in a good "spontaneous Odyssey journey" way but more like a "things keep randomly happening but the story hasn't advanced at all" way. It reminded me of the first Avatar movie which was full of stunning scenes (the whale, the musical(?) world, the skiing town, etc.) that didn't amount to a cohesive aesthetic or story. I also didn't think the character arcs or development made much sense and many of their conflicts with one another felt contrived. The book of love's character.... was okay. I wasn't gagging the way the millennials were but at least he kind of had charisma. It felt less like he was guiding them to profound self-realizations and more like he was assigning random cruel Herculean tasks to the two and then beating them over the head with some dull platitude as a message. Actually, overall the game has the tone of Buzzfeed/Jackbox/Corporate-bonding-event but if you don't mind that sort of vibe then you might not find the game so bad at all.
It feels a bit bad to rate it so low because the game brought me many fun hours. But as a narrative and as a work of art (and even just as a video game) I thought it was pretty subpar.
I recommend this game if you and your partner want to play a video game together and have no better choices.
Online play had bugs here and there but I blame EA not the devs. The gameplay itself was not very innovative. It was extremely easy at times. The main two characters were a bit unlikeable to me. Rose was sort of interesting at first but the story just dragged on without developing her or revealing anything. I would've preferred if they explored her a little in the beginning and she was left a total mystery. The ending felt,,,, very awkward and anticlimactic. Honestly the entire story felt like it was lacking in direction and not in a good "spontaneous Odyssey journey" way but more like a "things keep randomly happening but the story hasn't advanced at all" way. It reminded me of the first Avatar movie which was full of stunning scenes (the whale, the musical(?) world, the skiing town, etc.) that didn't amount to a cohesive aesthetic or story. I also didn't think the character arcs or development made much sense and many of their conflicts with one another felt contrived. The book of love's character.... was okay. I wasn't gagging the way the millennials were but at least he kind of had charisma. It felt less like he was guiding them to profound self-realizations and more like he was assigning random cruel Herculean tasks to the two and then beating them over the head with some dull platitude as a message. Actually, overall the game has the tone of Buzzfeed/Jackbox/Corporate-bonding-event but if you don't mind that sort of vibe then you might not find the game so bad at all.
It feels a bit bad to rate it so low because the game brought me many fun hours. But as a narrative and as a work of art (and even just as a video game) I thought it was pretty subpar.
I recommend this game if you and your partner want to play a video game together and have no better choices.