Recent reviews by _Cultist_

It's not all that long for an RPG, but the campaign does have its fair share of branching paths.

The crafting system requiring significant financial and time investment plays at odds with the length of the game, as it takes quite some time before you have enough gear to even begin considering what your build is going to be. I for one found a sword that had quite the effect on critical hits, leading me down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out what items I can craft to capitalize on critical hits, and only achieved most of them before the game reached its conclusion.

Item variety is strong, but enemy variety is not.

The inconsistency of voice acting is a bit annoying, with the voiced characters only having 2/3rds of their lines voiced and all other characters having none.

The world is compelling, and the writing does a better job at building it than most.

Arkham combat system with special skills works quite well.

Nothing you explore feels grand or interesting with just abandoned castles and caves.

Story is fine but is linear with the final ending being decided with a dialogue choice at the end no matter how much dark magic you're throwing about.

Some characters are very interesting, others are just there to be archetypes.

Bonus points for being accurate to its source material, being completely unafraid of private school folks owning slave races.

I'm still confused how when poachers capture and sell animals from their natural habitats it's bad, but when I do it it's called rescuing them.

Same engine as Skyrim.

Entire floor was on fire due to combining fire orbit with bouncing shots as I walk through it with the fire immunity perk and explosion immunity perk. Dip my toe accidentally in chaotic polymorph. I hate this game. Gonna play more later though.

Git gud scrubs.

Welcome to my top ten list.

Terrible software if you're incapable of basic troubleshooting and asking a question on their active discord server.

If you're using esoteric motion tracking techniques in the first place like taping QR codes to a box of tissues please at least have some basic troubleshooting skills.

At what might be interpreted as being about a quarter of the way through the campaign I've come to realize that this game has nearly everything I could want from a CRPG.

The illusion of one's decisions shaping the grand story is both present and strong. Regardless of what corner of the alignment spectrum your character might fall on the game provides motivation to continue down the main story path whether your crusade and conquest is for justice or merely a spiteful grab for power.

Combat mechanics at play are almost dauntingly deep with mastery over all of the various factors to what constitute the best rolls coming with time and experience, although you don't have a >100 hour game without your fair share of bugs. (Save often.)

The character creation depth is however a bit heavy right off the start, with so many decisions to make before your character has even set foot on their journey, but I've found ample opportunity to lean into the backstory I've created and it's become very much appreciated.

Me likey.

As someone who has played through Bethesda games for fifteen years I've long seen them through rose-tinted glasses, but after growing up a bit and taking some time away from their franchises you begin to see them for what they really are.

These games are a part of what the late TotalBiscuit would often refer to as a desperation genre. Being so enraptured by the idea of a good game that can check all of your niche boxes, you overlook the engine instability, poor rendering performance, flat dialogue, lackluster combat, uninspired main stories and quests, and the 18 year old engine they keep re-branding to make it sound new when in reality they mostly just rewrote the shaders; the engine is the reason a Bethesda game has never had a main "glorious capital" city that wasn't more than a light scattering of buildings cut into dozens of loading cells.

Give Outer Worlds a chance instead.

How dare Bethesda charge this much for content in a six year old game running on an archaic nineteen year old engine? To paraphrase Gabe Newell, "the best weapon against piracy is to provide a better service than the pirates" and thus I'll tip my hat to anyone who goes that route instead.