I spent a lot of time in this game. While I enjoyed the DLC for Void Shadows (excellent NPC, great writing, excellent VA) and Lex Imperialis introduced some interesting mechanics, the game is a convoluted buggy mess and I'm tired of pretending like they don't exist simply because I WANT to like the game so much more than I actually do.
I pre-ordered the game in hopes they would release a Midnight Isles procedural expansion where we can enjoy combat mechanics and test builds without the constant narrative loops being forced on us, but sadly, narrative loops and closed stories are the 'artistic' vision they pursued.
The writers are called 'Owlmates' (I sh*t you not), and they consist of cosplayers, fanfic writers, streamers, and 'artists' who submit an application for corporate approval so they get early access to content before other gamers in exchange for their 'contributions'. Like a drip-flow of information leaked to an internal circle of elite members so they feel like special insiders. It's like a V.I.P. pass for some elite Digital Country Club. Any challenges to these people is met with a feral defensive ferocity that screams 'fragile pretentious ego' because they see it as an existential threat to their self appointed head-canon superiority. It eventually becomes the content they then turn around and sell to you, the gamer.
It may seem a grandiose explanation of what in some groups has been normalized as 'industry standard practice', but a simple search will reveal many of the controversial and predatory business practices that Owlcat has been exposed for. Don't take my word for it, it's readily available until they can bury it deeper in the depths of the Algorithm with the assistance of curated articles from their Owlmates.
While it appears on the surface its 'by gamers for gamers', its more like 'made by content creators who pat themselves on the back', than a community passion project. As soon as Owlcat stepped in and acted like the 'noble corp' discovering and uplifting 'hidden talented artists', they actually just established a content farm by people who are so desperate they're willing to exchange work for limited corporate sponsored recognition instead of a paycheck. Even their website is full of safely neutralized performative corporate jargon that will appeal to people they can prey upon, and eligible hosts for hyper-parasitism. How do I know this? They published a nearly unreadable article about how awesome their Owlmates are instead of actually communicating and being transparent with gamers who already pre-purchased their final DLC. They called it 'Celebrating Content creators', while ignoring customers that ask them why the last DLC sucked so bad and introduced so many bugs they haven't addressed. On their application for Owlmates, celebrating Owlmates is a list of perks for becoming one. No one will celebrate an Owlmate more than an Owlmate. Clearly publishing that article was more important than being transparent with their customer base who just want some answers about when the DLC is going to be released.
Customers are getting bashed by the 'community' from within, because some of those people who are bashing are actually Owlmates. They're even bashing people that are confused why Owlcat was so loud and pushed so hard in advertising the Infinite Museon, that the sudden jarring silence on the final DLC has left them confused. They're shaming customers for asking for information after setting a strong precedence when they dare ask for an update.
I stopped buying after Lex Imperialis, and even though I can't take back buying a copy for a friend or hyping this game up when it was released, I can certainly share my opinion and review here in hopes the right people can see it before they make a big mistake in paying for this.
I wanted so badly to be wrong about these devs and the direction of this game. And I am so damn disappointed to be right.
I'd also like to apologize to my friend whom I purchased a copy for. On hindsight, I'd give away my own digital copy if I could.....but only to someone I didn't like......
......really, really didn't like.
