I've put a little over [b]3 hours into the game so far[/b], making it through the first Coffer, and wanted to leave some feedback based on my experience.
There is a lot that I really like about Amsterdam 1666, especially the story, but there are also some things that have unfortunately stopped me from being able to continue.
[h1]The Performance[/h1]
[h2]Great at the start, but terrible once you get into Amsterdam[/h2]
The performance was great going into the game and running through the prologue, and I had a similar experience when I played the demo. However, the moment you're put into Amsterdam and get introduced to the living world, the performance takes a pretty big hit.
I was running at a comfortable 60+ FPS during the beginning of the game, but once I got into Amsterdam and started dealing with the first Coffer, I was down around 30 FPS or lower, even with an RTX 5070.
I wasn't too surprised by this at first, since there are a lot of NPCs walking around and the city is clearly doing a lot more than the earlier areas. Still, the drop was pretty noticeable, and I think the larger populated areas could definitely use some optimization.
[h1]The Story[/h1]
[h2]Honestly one of my favorite parts of the game so far[/h2]
I absolutely love the storytelling, the drama, and all of the little bits of lore that get shared throughout the game. It honestly takes me back to the peak of Assassin's Creed storytelling, where the setting and history are a huge part of what makes the game interesting.
Learning about the Zandaris tribe and their customs, Aaron and Noa, the witch trials, and the history of Amsterdam kept me really invested. This is probably the biggest selling point of the game for me because I actually want to know what happens next and learn more about the world.
The problem is that I feel like some of that immersion starts to disappear once combat becomes the main focus.
[h1]The Combat[/h1]
Going through the prologue, I was starting to get into the rhythm of the combat. It seemed pretty simple: dodge until the enemy gives you an opening, then attack. That worked between all of the enemies I fought, including the first bookmaker boss. I could learn their attacks, dodge them, and then take advantage of the opening they gave me.
Because of that, I assumed the first Coffer boss would continue using that same system.
Unfortunately, this is where things started falling apart for me.
When I got to the Fox Coffer and confronted him, I was able to cast the spell directly in front of the entire court and seemingly faced no consequences for doing it. That immediately broke some of the connection I had with the idea of being a hunted sorceress who needed to conceal her abilities.
Then, later that night, I ended up fighting him in the middle of a crowd of people who just stood around us like we were in a fighting arena. I kept thinking there had to be some explanation coming for why this was happening or that there would be consequences for openly using magic in front of everyone, but that never really came across.
Maybe this is something that gets explained later, but at the point where I got to it, it just felt really strange. It made me question why I was being so careful about hiding my abilities earlier in the game when I could apparently just use them openly in front of a crowd.
[h2]The Fox Coffer Boss[/h2]
The boss fight itself is where I think the biggest issue with the game currently is.
The previous combat encounters had taught me that I should dodge until the enemy gave me an opportunity to attack. The Fox Coffer, however, seemed to attack almost constantly without giving me much of an opportunity to actually do anything.
For what I assume is supposed to be an early introductory Coffer boss, having [b]three health bars while constantly attacking[/b] felt extremely punishing.
I died on my first attempt, which honestly wasn't a big deal. I expected to die a few times while learning the fight. What I didn't expect was to then find out that dying means losing the upgrade I had and getting a random selection of new ones.
[h1]The Roguelike System[/h1]
I don't necessarily think the roguelike system is a bad idea. I actually think it could work really well with this game. The problem I ran into is that the upgrades are random, and some of them seem to be focused more on free-roaming and exploration than combat.
The first couple of times I died, I was given upgrades that improved the free-roam experience but didn't really help me with the boss. That's great when I'm exploring Amsterdam, but when the thing preventing me from progressing is a boss that keeps killing me, it doesn't really help.
Eventually I got an upgrade that gave me [b]two additional health bars[/b], and I thought that would give me a better chance.
Then I noticed that the boss seemed to change his attacks and movement after each death. I understand the idea behind making a roguelike boss change things up, but it also made it harder to actually learn the fight when things I had already learned could change on the next attempt.
There was also one attempt where I skipped the cutscene to get back into the fight and the boss seemed to be able to attack almost immediately while I was still loading in.
The worst example was an attack where he rapidly swiped around five times in a row. On that attempt, he basically took all five of my health bars before I had a meaningful chance to react.
Then I died, and the next upgrades I received were once again mostly focused on free-roaming.
At that point, I felt like I had hit a wall and simply couldn't continue.
[h1]Why This Is A Problem For Me[/h1]
I don't mind difficult games. I also don't expect to beat a boss on my first try.
What I do want is to feel like I'm actually getting better at the fight. I want to be able to think, [i]"Okay, I died because I did this wrong. Now I know what to do differently next time."[/i]
Instead, my experience with this boss started feeling more like, [i]"I died, hopefully I get an upgrade that helps me fight him, and hopefully his attacks don't change in a way that catches me off guard."[/i]
That's the part of the roguelike system that really frustrated me.
If I keep dying, I don't necessarily get stronger against the thing I'm dying to. I can get upgrades that help with exploration while the boss remains the exact wall preventing me from seeing the rest of the story.
I think there needs to be a little more player control over the upgrades, especially when repeatedly failing against a boss. Maybe give the player a choice between a combat upgrade and an exploration upgrade, or have some kind of guaranteed combat upgrade after dying to the same boss several times.
It doesn't necessarily need to make the game easier. I just think the player should have some way of improving their chances instead of having to rely so heavily on getting useful upgrades randomly.
[h1]Overall[/h1]
The frustrating part about all of this is that [b]I really want to keep playing.[/b]
The story is probably the part of the game I'm enjoying the most, and I really want to find out where everything with the Zandaris, the Coffers, Aaron, Noa, and Amsterdam goes.
But right now, the Fox Coffer is where my playthrough ends.
I don't think the boss needs to be made easy, and I don't necessarily think the boss itself needs to be completely redesigned. I just think there needs to be a better balance between how aggressive the boss is, how often the player gets an opportunity to attack, and what kind of upgrades the player receives after dying.
Right now, it feels like I can die, get upgrades that don't help me with the boss, go back in and deal with a boss that may attack differently than the previous attempt, and potentially lose most or all of my health before I even have a chance to react.
The frustrating part is that I [b]genuinely want to continue playing[/b].
