Recent reviews by Zutiala

Don't support Mike Z.
Don't buy this game.
I backed the kickstarter and just now got around to playing & checking up on the game.

Context: (Written better than I could by the best guide this game has by user @Retro Menace)

Originally posted by Retro Menace:

The game is unfinished, will likely remain that way forever, and Mike Z is scum
Hello to anyone reading this guide! I was very excited for Indivisible when it came out, and made this guide within two weeks of the game's release after having a few conversations with close friends that missed a few things. We were all kickstarter backers who were very excited for the game's release, even though the game launched missing some things that were promised during the backer campaign.

As of September 2nd, 2020, a lot has happened, it seems very likely this game will NEVER receive a major update ever again. This is due to the fact that one of the lead devs on Indivisible, Mike Zaimont, did a hostile takeover of the company and is now the sole owner of Lab Zero Games. [www.eventhubs.com]

Mike did this because Lab Zero was about to become employee owned, and the employees wanted Mike to leave the company due to an immense number of allegations that came out against him that showed Mike harassed basically all of his employees, including making several remarks based on the sex and race of his employees.

These claims were investigated by two companies which are partnered with Lab Zero: Autumn Games (the IP holders for Skullgirls) and Hidden Variable (The developers of Skullgirls mobile). These two companies released a joint statement on the controversy and "[found] their allegations to be credible."

When employees were understandably upset about this and asked Mike to resign, he demanded an obscene payment to leave the company. Not wanting to reward Mike's behavior, the staff began to resign en masse instead.

Everyone who did not quit was laid off by Mike a few days later. Without severance.

Yes, you read that right. The entire development team of Indivisible is now just one guy.

So, at the current moment, Indivisible is down AT LEAST 11 characters compared to what was promised during its kickstarter - the 9 guest characters, plus the 2 base-game character designs they showed off, promised, but didn't make in time for release.

The SOLE PERSON who is now responsible for getting ALL OF THAT CONTENT OUT also just burned so many bridges by doing a hostile takeover, and laying off his entire working staff WITHOUT SEVERANCE, that I don't think many people will be lining up to apply to Lab Zero Games any time soon.

Which is why the title of this section is what it is. There is only one guy who works one this game currently, not many people will want to work for him again, and as a result I don't think this game will receive any major updates ever again.

Consider this a warning. If you're someone who recently bought this game and are looking at guides, I highly recommend you look at refunding it soon, because this game will never be all that it is advertised and the SOLE person who makes money off of this game (other than the publisher) laid off all of his staff IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC rather than face consequences for his awful, reprehensible actions.

And if you absolutely MUST play Indivisible... did you know it's available on Xbox Game Pass PC? You can get a month of that for $1 if you've never signed up before! And Mike won't see a cent of it.

More important than spiting Mike, however, is supporting the ex-Lab Zero devs who stood up to him, choosing to lose their jobs in the middle of a plague rather than abide by an awful person.

Kinucakes, one of the artists behind Indivisible, is selling physical art books with proceeds going to support Lab Zero devs who resigned or were laid off by Mike. There may be more efforts to make money for these devs in the future, and if you love Skullgirls or Indivisible like I do, I would look in to supporting the people who made it possible.

Lastly, I would advise people not look on Skullgirls or Indivisible, as works, too harshly now. One of the devs is reprehensible in every meaning of the word, but games are joint projects that are made possible by dozens or hundreds of talented people. The shocking actions of one vile person should not render an artwork void when so many OTHER amazing people made it possible! Remember to celebrate Skullgirls and Indivisible for the amazing projects they are, rather than thinking of them as tainted by a single person.

I wish I'd written this review a year ago, but this game deserves as high a recommendation as I can give. It deserves better than the slow success it saw. It's not fresh enough for me to go too in-depth, but even this small collection of praises which stuck with me leave me wanting more.

Reactivity: The world acknowledges you, and you acknowledge it.
Having set my character's homeland in PoE 1 to the Deadfire Archipeligo, I was pleasantly surprised by how many small dialogue options I had to comment on the fact that this was a homecoming for my character; and even more so by the amount of NPCs who actively commented on it throughout the story. From characters across the islands bitterly telling me that I know how things are to some companions actively asking me how it feels to come home, I was able to roleplay the bittersweet homecoming that this was.

Companions: If you thought the first game had strong companion writing, Deadfire knocks it out of the park!
Though I still miss my beloved Devil of Caroc and my bff Sagani, Deadfire did not leave me at all wanting.
-Eder quickly becomes your reliable bro, having pulled your unconscious body from the smoking ruins of your castle. He spares no effort in his attempts to save everyone he can, all the while having a larger crisis of faith than he ever thought possible for a follower of a formerly-dead god.
-Aloth returns along the character path on which you helped set him in Pillars 1, though now he's all-in on being nerdy elf boyfriend material. He has a goal, and he has his loyalty to you as his friend or partner. It's up to you stand by the values you instilled in him before, or to bring him around to the realisation that you both got it wrong.
-Maia Rua joins the party in lieu of her brother, Kana Rua, and brings with her a delightful pet bird! This definitely-not-an-assassin has her beliefs put to the test in the most brutal fashion, though even if she cannot stand by you at the end (choices-depending) she remains willing to part ways as friends.
-Xoti is your new cleric, and whilst she doesn't have the fiery devotion and conviction of Durance; she carries her own beliefs and convictions as she harvests the souls of those who fall along your path, to ferry them to the other side. Whether she succumbs to the harvest, is able to form a healthy friendship with ||fellow Eothian Eder|| or even a budding romance with ||Maia Rua|| or the player, she has boundless empathy for those who may struggle along the way.
Serafen the former slave, Tekehu the insecure prince, and Pallengina the... You remember Pallengina, all have just as much depth and character, but this is getting a tad longer than I expected.

The two strongest DLC, Beast of Winter and The Forgotten Sanctum, additionally expand upon and flesh out the two sidekicks who didn't have quite enough funding to make it into full companions for the base game. Beast of Winter turned Ydwin into a permanent fixture in my party, alongside its own strong writing.

At the end of the day, I remember and enjoy Deadfire even more than the first Pillars of Eternity. If you're looking for something on the narrative level of Original Sin 2 or the original Baldur's Gate, this is the series and the game for you.

I want to recommend this game. The gameplay loop is incredibly fun and the overall meta-narrative bathed in the satire of a runaway capitalistic hellscape is the Starship Troopers game I never knew I needed. Visually it's a hoot, as well!

But, and it's a big but.
The devs feel incredibly out of touch, or antagonistic. Their updates, balance changes, and dialogue towards players sends a message that we enjoy the game and play how THEY want us to, or not at all.

BUGS:
For weeks, the devs sat and pushed content whilst letting the bugs build and build and build. It took weeks for them to address the constant crashing that their playerbase was experiencing, instead releasing and hyping up a new warbond. It's been 4 months since the game released and they STILL HAVEN'T FIXED THE SCOPE ALIGNMENT ON THE GUNS!! Most of the guns are noticable but workable. It's by FAR the most egregious on their ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ SNIPER RIFLE and I am so sick and tired of having to aim to the side of where I want to shoot.
That the devs haven't fixed the SCOPE ALIGNMENT in their SHOOTER sends a message that devs don't care about the games quality of life, as long as they're able to keep us distracted by flashy explosions and managed democracy.

BALANCE
Whenever the devs play the game on stream, they play on mid-tier (6/9 at most) difficulty and it shows in their design.
The civilian extraction mission is actively unbeatable on tiers 8 and 9, yet the devs somehow think this is fine.
They see certain weapons becoming popular in mid-tier because they're amongst the few that are viable on tiers 8 and 9, but instead of buffing the underperfoming weapons they nuke the viable ones. We WANT there to be a wide variety of viable weapons at high tier, but we use the same 3-4 because anything else just doesn't work on tier 9 difficulty. Yet by far, the devs only ever seem to nerf the viable ones.
Example: The Quasar Canon is one of 2-3 viable support weapons on tier 8 and 9. As such it sees use every match. It's fantastic, but not overpowered. The devs see it being apparently over-utilised, and dominating the scene on medium difficulties. So instead of bringing the other support weapons into line with the Quasar and Anti-Material, they nerf the Quasar by giving it 40% more cooldown time between shots. Wonderful. I love having my selection of viable weapons on the heavy-enemy-dominated gamemodes reduced from 2-3 to 1-2.

It was the same story with the flamethrower. It was a very strong heavy weapon, so the fact that damage-over-time doesn't even apply properly most of the time was manageable for it. It was strong enough to be viable. What do the devs do? They nerf the flamethrower into the ground, so no one uses it anymore with the DoT bug. Suddenly they see no one using any fire weapons and instead of fixing the fire bug, they increase ALL fire damage by 50%. This leads to players getting insta-killed by the flamethrower-weilding robot hulk or small patches of fire on the ground.
This goes on for months with players STILL not using fire weapons. What the devs do instead of fixing the fire bug is release new content with a NEW type of DoT grenade that shares the same bug, and add a planetary modifier of FIRE TORNADOS to instakill their players. TO THIS DAY the fire bug isn't fixed. It's been months.

TL:DR: The devs don't seem care about the QoL for the players, preferring to push new content over fixing game-breaking bugs. They also only balance the game for medium difficulty whilst never playing the game above that themselves, leading to a continually more terrible experience on the higher difficulty missions with each new patch.

I played this game through from leaving Candlekeep to fittingly climactic and epic conclusion in Throne of Bhaal, and have clocked a total of nearly 230 across both games, often staying up long into the night to finish a specific story beat. Simply put:
The Plot: A long and twisting tale of power, revenge, and destiny, where the stakes continue to climb higher and you must confront what it means to truly be a Child of Bhaal. Will you succumb to the taint of evil, give in to the sweet taste of power, or will you accept your heritage and stand tall despite it?

The characters: Shadows of Amn's villains were certainly more memorable in their motives and personalities, though at the end of the day the climactic showdown at the end of ToB as my resources were utterly spent was the most epic fight I've had so far.
Your companions are beautifully written, in particular Viconia and Jaheira's respective arcs over the two campaigns see them grow as people to an extent I could not have dreamed in the first Baldur's Gate. Neera is a wonderful mix of chaotic, sweet, responsible, and vengeful, and the bond you forge with Minsc cannot possibly be overstated. Your loving step-sister Imoen is taken apart piece by piece, and she is a far more haunted figure than the carefree rogue of the first game.
Every single one of them was compelling, and I love them all dearly.

I can't recommend this game enough.

This game is so very worth it!

There are no choices, per se. More, you choose who you will spend time with, and this determines the course of the story.
The stat-raising is well implemented, and while I may be mildly annoyed with it at times, I feel it works. Stats are used to unlock scenes and continue the story.

Story:
I've not finished yet, but the characters are wonderful and three-dimensional! The route I'm on has me feeling SO much!
And Becky is... Becky is so much better than I could possibly deserve,

I pulled an all-nighter to play through this.
It is a solid 5-6 hours of great characters and music, with excellent character interactions, dialogue, and plot!

But you just wanna know: "Is the Yuri good?"
Yes. This is some of the cutest, most adorable ♥♥♥♥ I've ever ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ seen. The angst is... mildly infuriating, but necessary for the amazing scenes it leads to.

10/10 am already Yuri'ing again.

Great gameplay, fun story and brilliant humour!
I loved the characters and characterization!