Well I played Prey and Metro Exodus.
And stopped both.
For Prey, I love the atmosphere and the story is... fucking bland and rehashed, but okay.
But the gunplay is miserable, and you only fight the two same ennemies. Oh yeah, there's huge differences later with a bigger mimic, or a fire phantom. Huge the differences. Like a texture or two. And oh, I guess I take more damage from the auto tracked AoE.
But really, it's the talent tree that's just boring. You can hack, lift heavy things, and half a dozen ways to do the same thing, unlocking new rooms... which means more to explore. And exploration is getting more from the abundant consumables taking inventory space, or more points to get more talent points. But hey there's chipsets! Which are RNG. And cool, like "do more crits with one weapon". Riveting and game changing experience.
Metro, I love the atmosphere and the story is... not bland actually, it's just a giant retcon. Dunno if that's better.
But it's just boring to play because it's slow and... you just explore to get mats to get upgrades and... I'm feeling a sense of deja vu suddenly.
Why do every single game that exists need those shitty RPG elements?
All they bring is more fucking around in the game world to find shinies, and more fucking around in menus.
But what about making the experience more fun to play rather than more of the same shit?
If you want to make an RPG, make one.
Or just make a good FPS, action game or whatever. Stop piggybacking on grinding mats and +5% "upgrades". Yeah, Deus Ex and System Shock played like garbage, they are also 20 years old. If 20 years of evolution means "looks better" and "more time wasted in menus", I'll keep to my 2D games.