Boy Wander
Member
So 2 fortresses down and about 25 hours in, I've made a decision to give up on this game. I can't remember the last time I decided to quit playing a game but I'm done here.
This game is honestly everything that's wrong IMO with supposed "AAA" "Open World" experiences. The game is so vast and there are so many systems, side-quests, collectibles etc that it just doesn't come together as an enjoyable whole. The random elements and encounters just don't gel well and actually make the game less enjoyable.
Example: I want to do a story mission and happen to drive by a compound I'd freed up earlier. Surprise! It's under attack. Stop what you're doing and defend it. This happened on a bunch of occasions and it's not enjoyable, it's annoying.
This game is, after not too long, a slog - an energy-sapping, frustrating slog - with generally boring gameplay smoothed slightly by a few redeeming features.
The wildlife, rather than being an enjoyable addition serves simply to frustrate. You can fight 50 men off at an outpost only to be killed by a bloody badger! Every 100 yards someone is crying "EAAGLEE" at the top of their fucking voices and/or being attacked by an Eagle. Eagles are top of the food chain in Kyrat. They attack humans and animals at will with absolutely no hesitation. It's completely fucking stupid. I can understand a bear or tiger being aggressive but a fucking eagle?!?!
What else is stupid is the writing and the characters. The radio station, featuring Billy Ray Rana or whatever the hell his name is, is literally the most juvenile and asinine piece of video game scripting I've encountered in years. I actually want to fight alongside Pagan Min because Rana and the two unlikeable individuals who run the golden path are all way more unlikeable characters than Min himself. They're way too dramatic, way too shouty and just generally unpleasant. I'm guessing the script was written either by the game designers teenage son or an intern on work experience.
The gun play is hit and miss. Sometimes I swear I hit people and they don't react and other times it seems accurate. The healing system is stupid. I've been in a gunfight and I heal myself and see an animation of my character removing a large stick from his forearm. It makes no sense whatsoever. How the fuck did I get a huge twig lodged in my arm? Just stick to the bandaging animation and maybe you'll have more people to concentrate on making the game actually fun to play.
There is some fun to be had. Attacking compounds and coming up with new ways of doing so can be fun. Shooting an elephant in the ass and watching it trample everyone is amusing and an example of a rare occasion where the game's systems gel and make for a fun experience. Vehicles handle reasonably well and the wing-suit is fun to use but overall I think the map is just way too big, too similar and full of places that just aren't that interesting to visit. Even if you want to explore, the game artificially stops you from doing so until you've completed certain main missions. Also, it's way too easy to be killed when heading towards a new point on the map and get thrown waaay back to your last visited safe-house.
Overall, this is just "let's make a really complicated game with tons of content", rather than "Let's make a really fun game set in a cool location". It's like they threw tons of shit at the wall and some of it stuck and quite a lot of it didn't but they went with it anyway. It reeks of design by committee where the committee was the whole development team. Games are supposed to be fun, this quickly becomes the opposite, it becomes a boring slog to finish the game and it's not a journey that I was willing to complete.
This game is honestly everything that's wrong IMO with supposed "AAA" "Open World" experiences. The game is so vast and there are so many systems, side-quests, collectibles etc that it just doesn't come together as an enjoyable whole. The random elements and encounters just don't gel well and actually make the game less enjoyable.
Example: I want to do a story mission and happen to drive by a compound I'd freed up earlier. Surprise! It's under attack. Stop what you're doing and defend it. This happened on a bunch of occasions and it's not enjoyable, it's annoying.
This game is, after not too long, a slog - an energy-sapping, frustrating slog - with generally boring gameplay smoothed slightly by a few redeeming features.
The wildlife, rather than being an enjoyable addition serves simply to frustrate. You can fight 50 men off at an outpost only to be killed by a bloody badger! Every 100 yards someone is crying "EAAGLEE" at the top of their fucking voices and/or being attacked by an Eagle. Eagles are top of the food chain in Kyrat. They attack humans and animals at will with absolutely no hesitation. It's completely fucking stupid. I can understand a bear or tiger being aggressive but a fucking eagle?!?!
What else is stupid is the writing and the characters. The radio station, featuring Billy Ray Rana or whatever the hell his name is, is literally the most juvenile and asinine piece of video game scripting I've encountered in years. I actually want to fight alongside Pagan Min because Rana and the two unlikeable individuals who run the golden path are all way more unlikeable characters than Min himself. They're way too dramatic, way too shouty and just generally unpleasant. I'm guessing the script was written either by the game designers teenage son or an intern on work experience.
The gun play is hit and miss. Sometimes I swear I hit people and they don't react and other times it seems accurate. The healing system is stupid. I've been in a gunfight and I heal myself and see an animation of my character removing a large stick from his forearm. It makes no sense whatsoever. How the fuck did I get a huge twig lodged in my arm? Just stick to the bandaging animation and maybe you'll have more people to concentrate on making the game actually fun to play.
There is some fun to be had. Attacking compounds and coming up with new ways of doing so can be fun. Shooting an elephant in the ass and watching it trample everyone is amusing and an example of a rare occasion where the game's systems gel and make for a fun experience. Vehicles handle reasonably well and the wing-suit is fun to use but overall I think the map is just way too big, too similar and full of places that just aren't that interesting to visit. Even if you want to explore, the game artificially stops you from doing so until you've completed certain main missions. Also, it's way too easy to be killed when heading towards a new point on the map and get thrown waaay back to your last visited safe-house.
Overall, this is just "let's make a really complicated game with tons of content", rather than "Let's make a really fun game set in a cool location". It's like they threw tons of shit at the wall and some of it stuck and quite a lot of it didn't but they went with it anyway. It reeks of design by committee where the committee was the whole development team. Games are supposed to be fun, this quickly becomes the opposite, it becomes a boring slog to finish the game and it's not a journey that I was willing to complete.
