It's impressive in a world of call of duty's that this game was made by 10-15 people, but If I had to describe this game in one word, I would call it "stiff". But if you're looking to explore a world for 50-100 hours and keep seeing something new this game is pretty sweet, and "wide". Ton's of enemies, decent systems, and you're not really pigeonholed into anything, at least up front. Also this game needed toggle sprint functionality so bad, you spend so much time covering ground.
This game in mostly equal measure rewards and punishes exploration. Every time you think you're getting strong, you discover a fun new enemy that has a fast powerful ranged attack or hits like a truck, and you lose a little progression (usually). The game is decent and the economy seems daunting at first but tbh it's not so bad, this game as I've experienced it is all mainly about gear progression and going from rags to riches, which allows other progression in terms of skills, spells, and what I'll call perks.
I usually have zero issues with difficulty (I played TLOU blind and picked grounded, I always pick the difficulty above normal anytime I start a new game), but I just prefer to die and try again or something like a souls-like if I mess up or stick my nose where it shouldn't be. Having one enemy you've never seen before kill you in 2 hits despite wearing actual armor, and waking up 3 gold bars lighter while your on your way to a new town just isn't it tho. I know I'm a modern gamer but just putting weapons/armor in arbitrary tiers. and Putting an appropriate number next to enemy health bars would have made the game more enjoyable. Doesn't mean scale the enemies to the number, it's just so you can have any idea what you're getting into. The game encourages you to fear every new enemy which is cool, but isn't for me, at least after the 15th new enemy.
Maybe the DLC content is more gripping than the base content, as I haven't gotten super deep into the game, (Mostly cleared the first area, checked out the marsh and forest on a char with lots of mana and some spells and one without. Joined a faction, found it barely more interesting.) Narratively the game is just a snooze fest. Even if that's "not the point". Cool enough world tho.
I could be wrong, but if I had to yay or nay for the average gamer, it's a nay. Maybe I just needed to dump another 20 hours or something and unlock a bunch of moves for weapons and more skills so the combat gains any fun depth but I just don't care to. I'm probably just gonna find another stiff as a board npc that has 3 dialogues I don't care about. This game desperately needed a dark souls style system of item descriptions or books like TES to give narrative depth imo.
I hope the next game is just a super polished version of this that feels 5x better to play, has more lifelike characters you can invest in, and a better ui, and simple stuff like "when you put away your lantern or bow, it reequips your sword and shield/staff. so your quick select doesn't have to be half full with staple items. Like imagine if in Elden Ring when you swap your weapon to a bow, your shield/sword didn't just darken on the ui and come back out when you put away your bow. It was fully unequipped, along with your sword, and you have to put all 3 items on your belt you hold a button for to quickly access any of them ever. To give you an idea. it's only slightly better than I'm making it sound. But these slots are all the slots you got, moves, spells, consumes, and equipment all across 8 slots. They call it rewarding forward/strategic thinking, and meaningful choices, but I call it jank.
