At the time of review, I've put in 99 hours into the game, only to have the latest update break my saved game; right before the end.

The game, as a whole, is a ton of fun. The combat is engaging, the monsters are interesting, the environment is beautiful. They made a world that is interesting to travel through and I spent so much time just getting lost in the fields & valleys; finding every cave I could. I loved this game so much when I got it, I updated my CPU just to run it better. It is, at its core, an optimization nightmare.


System Specs:
GPU: NVIDIA 4080
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700x (Originally until hour 30, AMD 5 2700X)
RAM: 64 GB (DDR-5)

Overall: 7/10 - It is an optimization nightmare. Wait for the fixes & even then, its not worth full price.


Graphics: 9/10
It is a beautiful game by every notion. The monsters are detailed & beautiful, the environment is diverse & sprawling. This is a game that you could sit and admire the scenery for hours. Every location is gorgeous, with the small graphical hitches. Weird pixels around certain spells & lights. Items in the distance popping in here & there. NPC's popping in as you knock into them. Its nitpicky but its not perfect.

Gameplay: 10/10
The Gameplay loop for combat is amazing. It feels interesting, diverse and no one way to tackle a problem. I found myself swapping classes often and each one taking on a different combat style. Using my shield to parry attacks with patient strikes. To bouncing off enemies like a spring board with my bow (probably some of the best archery gameplay I've had to date). To tackling and knifing enemies as a thief.
The pawn system makes a great return from the first game and is just as fun as it previously was. I love seeing other peoples pawns & helping them complete quests in my world.

AI: 6/10
The AI is wonky at times; as everyone has probably seen the meme is pawns diving off cliffs after monsters. It happens a lot. The dialogue they spit out at each other is the new Preston Garvey of "Another settlement needs your help". I love how the pawns have their own personality & abilities, I just wish they had more varied lines of dialogue.

Optimization: 2/10
It is a mess, at best. This is an easy access game masquerading as a AAA title. The RAM & CPU is being consumed worse than Google Chrome has ever done. The texture pop in can be terrible at times and the NPC pop in is terrible. The cities are the absolute worst since its so dense. I was dropping to 20 frames a second, when the rest of the game was running at 40-60. The drop wasn't even that consistent. It took updating my CPU to an AMD 7700X to make the problems go away.

Story: 6/10
It's ham handed at best, leaving a lot of conjecture in its writing. It doesn't provide a ton of background or motivation for the Arisen; just saying "its always been this way! Why question it?!" That seems to be the resounding theme of the story, the cycle that you need to do as the Arisen. There are only 16 main missions in the game, which do a ton of heavy lifting. Out of the 16, 6 of them are all paired together, where you only need to complete a few. I spent a lot of time exploring before I really dove into the main story and completed it in less than 10 hours as I didn't have to do all the walking as the game expected.
The side quests are fun and interesting but the triggers can happen at weird intervals.

Last words: This game is an optimization nightmare with a lot of shortcomings. There are a lot of elements to the UI I wish were included, like a clock, since so much of the game requires you understand what time of day it is. The classes & gameplay loop are amazing, but I wish Warfarer didn't feel like something that was slapped together at the last minute.
The story is pretty basic until you get to the "True Ending"; which is sad that the story REALLY picks up in the games final hours.
I would wait for the game to get fixed and it to be on a discount. Please do not get discouraged by the microtransactions, as they're not necessary to play the game.

At the time of review, I've put in 99 hours into the game, only to have the latest update break my saved game; right before the end. The game, as a whole, is a ton of fun. The combat is engaging, the monsters are interesting, the environment is beautiful. They made a world that is interesting to travel through and I spent so much time just getting lost in the fields & valleys; finding every cave I could. I loved this game so much when I got it, I updated my CPU just to run it better. It is, at its core, an optimization nightmare. System Specs: GPU: NVIDIA 4080 CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700x (Originally until hour 30, AMD 5 2700X) RAM: 64 GB (DDR-5) Overall: 7/10 - It is an optimization nightmare. Wait for the fixes & even then, its not worth full price. Graphics: 9/10 It is a beautiful game by every notion. The monsters are detailed & beautiful, the environment is diverse & sprawling. This is a game that you could sit and admire the scenery for hours. Every location is gorgeous, with the small graphical hitches. Weird pixels around certain spells & lights. Items in the distance popping in here & there. NPC's popping in as you knock into them. Its nitpicky but its not perfect. Gameplay: 10/10 The Gameplay loop for combat is amazing. It feels interesting, diverse and no one way to tackle a problem. I found myself swapping classes often and each one taking on a different combat style. Using my shield to parry attacks with patient strikes. To bouncing off enemies like a spring board with my bow (probably some of the best archery gameplay I've had to date). To tackling and knifing enemies as a thief. The pawn system makes a great return from the first game and is just as fun as it previously was. I love seeing other peoples pawns & helping them complete quests in my world. AI: 6/10 The AI is wonky at times; as everyone has probably seen the meme is pawns diving off cliffs after monsters. It happens a lot. The dialogue they spit out at each other is the new Preston Garvey of "Another settlement needs your help". I love how the pawns have their own personality & abilities, I just wish they had more varied lines of dialogue. Optimization: 2/10 It is a mess, at best. This is an easy access game masquerading as a AAA title. The RAM & CPU is being consumed worse than Google Chrome has ever done. The texture pop in can be terrible at times and the NPC pop in is terrible. The cities are the absolute worst since its so dense. I was dropping to 20 frames a second, when the rest of the game was running at 40-60. The drop wasn't even that consistent. It took updating my CPU to an AMD 7700X to make the problems go away. Story: 6/10 It's ham handed at best, leaving a lot of conjecture in its writing. It doesn't provide a ton of background or motivation for the Arisen; just saying "its always been this way! Why question it?!" That seems to be the resounding theme of the story, the cycle that you need to do as the Arisen. There are only 16 main missions in the game, which do a ton of heavy lifting. Out of the 16, 6 of them are all paired together, where you only need to complete a few. I spent a lot of time exploring before I really dove into the main story and completed it in less than 10 hours as I didn't have to do all the walking as the game expected. The side quests are fun and interesting but the triggers can happen at weird intervals. Last words: This game is an optimization nightmare with a lot of shortcomings. There are a lot of elements to the UI I wish were included, like a clock, since so much of the game requires you understand what time of day it is. The classes & gameplay loop are amazing, but I wish Warfarer didn't feel like something that was slapped together at the last minute. The story is pretty basic until you get to the "True Ending"; which is sad that the story REALLY picks up in the games final hours. I would wait for the game to get fixed and it to be on a discount. Please do not get discouraged by the microtransactions, as they're not necessary to play the game.