I liked Geneforge 1: Mutagen better than either of the Queen's Wish series, though there still isn't much here that sticks with me.
The major problems here are that the gameplay is just too repetitive and samey and the whole of the game itself goes on for too long without enough to say or introduce. Similar problems to Queen's Wish. This seems like a Spiderweb constant to me.
Being an individual character that summons minions does work better than the party based approach in Queen's Wish. I played as an Agent, which basically just becomes a mage by the end of the game, blasting everything down without too much of an issue. I used summons for the first part of the game, but their power and value fell away by the end and I just stopped summoning them (which is probably intended with the character I built).
Things feel very random in this game, unfortunately, with arbitrary stuns or slows having a massive impact on a fight going from intensely difficult to completely trivial. This does cut both ways, but every combat sort of resolves into who can stun who first. Not much of interest here by the end.
I will say that some of the summons and some of the spells are interesting and have some positional gameplay, but the aforementioned stun meta sort of removes most of that anyway.
Exploration is sort of novel, with each zone you travel through having some specific task you can do to make it "safer," allowing fast travel through it. As you progress you are making a network of conquered areas across the island that, while extremely meta, feels like you are having an impact on this island and your place in it.
Narratively there are also a lot of parallels here with Queen's Wish, with three factions you are dealing with as you smash your way across this island. Each of them has a different philosophy and you are sort of picking which of them to support (or just doing your own thing). I didn't find this super compelling and the actual divisions between the factions feel pretty contrived. This feels more like Shin Megami Tensei than Bioware, which is novel for a western RPG.
There is maybe something being said about slavery and the responsibility of a creator to their creations, but things feel incidental because none of it is really tied to my goal (getting off the island) or the overall problem here (the Geneforge).
Geneforge suffers for having a lot of very similar characters, similar groups, and similar situations that make it seem like there are valuable interactions to be had, but really don't matter and sort of blur together by the end.
Just like Queen's Wish, if half of this game's content were removed it would simply be a better, cleaner, and more engrossing experience.
The game is visually just fine. It needs reactivity more than it needs fidelity though this remaster does improve things slightly in both respects.
Geneforge didn't surprise me and didn't really impress me, but I think this more straightforward RPG quest is a better fit for these Spiderweb games and I had a good enough time with it.
It brought me along much better than either Queen's Wish did, though I was definitely done with it before the end.
The major problems here are that the gameplay is just too repetitive and samey and the whole of the game itself goes on for too long without enough to say or introduce. Similar problems to Queen's Wish. This seems like a Spiderweb constant to me.
Being an individual character that summons minions does work better than the party based approach in Queen's Wish. I played as an Agent, which basically just becomes a mage by the end of the game, blasting everything down without too much of an issue. I used summons for the first part of the game, but their power and value fell away by the end and I just stopped summoning them (which is probably intended with the character I built).
Things feel very random in this game, unfortunately, with arbitrary stuns or slows having a massive impact on a fight going from intensely difficult to completely trivial. This does cut both ways, but every combat sort of resolves into who can stun who first. Not much of interest here by the end.
I will say that some of the summons and some of the spells are interesting and have some positional gameplay, but the aforementioned stun meta sort of removes most of that anyway.
Exploration is sort of novel, with each zone you travel through having some specific task you can do to make it "safer," allowing fast travel through it. As you progress you are making a network of conquered areas across the island that, while extremely meta, feels like you are having an impact on this island and your place in it.
Narratively there are also a lot of parallels here with Queen's Wish, with three factions you are dealing with as you smash your way across this island. Each of them has a different philosophy and you are sort of picking which of them to support (or just doing your own thing). I didn't find this super compelling and the actual divisions between the factions feel pretty contrived. This feels more like Shin Megami Tensei than Bioware, which is novel for a western RPG.
There is maybe something being said about slavery and the responsibility of a creator to their creations, but things feel incidental because none of it is really tied to my goal (getting off the island) or the overall problem here (the Geneforge).
Geneforge suffers for having a lot of very similar characters, similar groups, and similar situations that make it seem like there are valuable interactions to be had, but really don't matter and sort of blur together by the end.
Just like Queen's Wish, if half of this game's content were removed it would simply be a better, cleaner, and more engrossing experience.
The game is visually just fine. It needs reactivity more than it needs fidelity though this remaster does improve things slightly in both respects.
Geneforge didn't surprise me and didn't really impress me, but I think this more straightforward RPG quest is a better fit for these Spiderweb games and I had a good enough time with it.
It brought me along much better than either Queen's Wish did, though I was definitely done with it before the end.