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Notes -
Worth A Buy's review convinced me to hold off until it's on deep discount.
Can you explain why so I don't have to watch the video? All of the negative reviews I've seen are bitching about the performance, which hasn't been an issue for me or my circle of gaming friends, the only bitching about the gameplay or story I've seen has been generic 'oh its corpo shlock with cut content and sweet baby were involved' and that's a knee jerk reaction these days.
Also on the side, you shouldn't buy any triple a game that isn't on a deep discount. With things like gamepass and scheduled steam sales triple and double a devs instantly put about $30 on top. It's a sick industry that you should exploit however you can, because it will do the same to you.
I plan on playing the game eventually, but my expectations and hopes have been tempered by the reviews I've been seeing, which all seem to criticize the same things. The performance is one of them, though that's been a mostly minor point; more serious issues are the stealth gameplay and the puzzles, both of which have been described as insultingly easy by almost every review I've watched. Particularly the stealth enemy AI has been said to make this year's Star Wars: Outlaws's enemy AI look smart in comparison. Bad stealth gameplay in an Indiana Jones game is perfectly forgivable, but then the puzzles are also said to be extremely easy, which would leave basically just the combat to carry the gameplay, which the reviews say are pretty bare-bones.
The tone and story have received basically universal praise, which is what draws me towards the game as a lifelong fan of the original film trilogy, but I was also hoping that it would have some decent puzzle-solving or exploration gameplay, like it was a modern incarnation of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, the LucasArts point-and-click adventure game from the 90s.
Ah yeah, my puzzle expectations were tempered from the get go - aside from the December release I know how Bethesda operates these days so I knew we were in for uncharted style puzzles, and it would be largely casual level. I'm actually impressed at the lack of hand holding in the game in that Indy doesn't tell you the solution two seconds after you find a puzzle.
As for the stealth sections... The ai definitely sucks, sometimes it won't see you standing right in front of it and at other times it will see you straight through walls. You rarely are forced to stealth though, most of the time you can just barrel in and start punching and smashing wine bottles - and the fist fighting is a lot of fun once you get the rhythm down. The only time the direct approach has failed me so far was when I was sneaking through military tents at the Vatican and somehow alerted every guard in the city.
I too wish it was more like the Fate of Atlantis though, damn did I love that game.
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