I've now spent about 20 hours playing and it's been quite the journey. This game is a joy.
I spent an inordinate amount of time exploring the Wastes now that I have access to them and the pleasure of learning ecosystems, what you need and not. It's memorization done right, everything has a place and it's fun learning what everything does and then taking advantage of it. It's a systemic game through and through, with impeccable lore and world-building achieved through both text telling and the world showing you. It's the best kind of immersion, the sort where you have to do things for gameplay reason that make intuitive, logical sense. You need to keep your blade sharp, so you do it. You get exhausted over time, so you eat rations. Some insects give you specific boosts while you learn to look out for specific plants and mushrooms that you need to craft things on the fly. This study of the world's nature, the love of it that the game instills and nurtures in you is amazing.
And how alive it looks! Everything is so fluid, there never is this stilted look to animations as they transition from one to another, everything is always so responsive and every movement lifelike. Motion in this game is a joy and the way everything moves and animates is masterful in its display of fluidity. I have no idea how many animations are blending at any one time and the way fauna behaves is dazzling with character and fidelity. I can tell this game has monstrous production values. There is still a bit of snapping into place and alignment when two monsters attack and grapple each other but even then the result is miles above anything I've ever seen in terms of unscripted, unstaged moments. It is a deeply lifelike game, which showed in a surprisingly quiet moment.
I was tasked with capturing a Kulu-Ya-Ku and I stumbled upon it in a grotto, where I found it cradling his shattered egg. Something had broken it and it wailed softly as it held it in front of him, clearly grieving the loss. It was so well-animated, so unexpected that I felt deeply saddened and bad for it. That's amazing animation, right there. This is a game that has quiet moments of wonder, where you stumble upon a herd migrating from one spot to the other, or where you feel a monster's shadow sweep over you as it flies down into its watering hole. And outside of those, the combat is another place where I'm really amazed at what they did. Even when you are locked into attack animations, it doesn't feel as bad as other games that do the same thing. It might be something about the way the camera controls, I can't quite put my finger on it yet. I think the combat's biggest strength is the visual language of monster animations, from the way they walk and idle to the way they attack. You can truly anticipate what they are going to do, what is going to happen by observing them. You can win fights by keeping your eyes open and thinking on your feet, which feels amazing.
I still have a few gripes with animation and movement, notably the jumping which is context-sensitive and the rope-swinging which sometimes snaps to the wrong target and sends you barreling down several z-levels. Still, nothing I couldn't get the hang of, but it's not perfect. So far, things were going really well. I had fought and barely won against that fox-like, electricity-wielding creature and I could only thank him for being such an awesome fight
Then Anjanath happened.
I wish I could say I had a blast hunting this fire-breathing, ridiculously handsome T-Rex... But I mostly haven't. To explain why, I think I have to begin by pointing out that fights have started spreading across larger areas. That overgrown chicken has some nasty charges when he isn't busy trying to medium-rare you. And that's where my first death and one-shot happened. To be fair, it looked like it deserved to be a one-shot with such an awesome fire-breathing attack. I could see it coming a mile away and I sprinted to get out of the way. I still couldn't make it. The distance was too large, and that's not a great feeling. Being one-shot never feels good and I'm not sure I agree with the game there. Still, preparation is key and during later runs I seem to recall I could endure his fire breath attack with a mixture of health-enhancing potions and elemental resistance meals while not being dumb about armor.
Still, that kind of started to make me worry and it's a feeling I can't shake. I'm afraid the honeymoon might be over. It feels like the game is becoming harder and while I can completely get behind needing to learn the monster's general tactics - in this case, stay close to avoid this attack more easily - the sheer amount of damage it caused left me feeling my enthusiasm seriously dampened. I can't help wonder whether this is how things are going to be from now on. I don't want to fall behind the power curve so I'll try to work at him a bit before moving on, see how climbing works and get better at the tools I have. It doesn't help that a friend told me that the game had a lot of farm and grind, which furthered my feelings of uneasiness.
I don't want to fall out of love with this game. It's amazing in so many respects, often looks like concept art and does so many things right. I think I'll try to pace myself and take it easy, spend more time doing the things I like : exploring the world, learning its little mysteries and taking my time. I've grown way past the stage where I rush a game's content. Instead, I try to experience it my way. I just hope that there's still a path for me ahead.
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