I don't want to sound rude when I say this reminds me of a forum discussion I was in when we ran into a number of guys who said they wouldn't see Princess Bride because it was a chick movie.
Let me spell it out for you:
1. The game is still being patched 18 years after it was released.
2. When it was released there were better games available (and by better I mean not sloppy unfinished messes).
3. Steampunk is not a selling point for me, to me that sounds like "half of what you like and half guns, which you don't".
4. The combat sucks.
5. The inventory and loot system sucks.
6. Crafting is not a selling point for me, quite the opposite.
So what are you 'loving' about it? Let's read on and find out:
Play it, you'll enjoy it. You're missing out. Its a gem with a few flaws.
Or perhaps it's a stinker with a few great highlights?
It had bugs (only real one was the Directx8 audio bug. It was easily fixed by reverting to Directx7 IIRC.) and it is unbalance. But its a fantastic game with tons of RPG options. My favorite was the Ogre conspiracy.
It has RPG options? I assume you're only referring to narrative and story branching here when you categorise this kind of thing as an 'RPG option'? Are you not confusing yourself here and mistaking the general concept of Choose Your Own Adventure with the concept of RPG?
Having the option to kill A or B is not a selling point for me. It is not something that is fundamental to the RPG genre, least of all an aspect of any game that has ever appealed to me. I honestly don't care if the plot is entirely railroaded or if I have to flip a coin every time I talk to someone, neither version nor anything in between has anything to do with the concept of RPGing beyond content that's gated by either skills or class.
If I'm misunderstanding here and you're suggesting that the game has any qualities beyond narrative pomposity then I'm all ears, I've never heard anyone talk about any positive points beyond things like "Dialogue option ABC resulted in XYZ amusing outcome". And here I'll admit, if that's enough to make you love a game, more power to you, I'm sure you've found yourself a great game. But this idea that this makes it some kind of king of RPGs? LOL… no.
Keep in mind Troika was forced to release the game early (even though they bragged about it).
I don't care what the excuses are TBH, from a playing point of view at least. It's certainly amusing reading the schadenfreude of famous fuck-ups, but I usually prefer not to play them.
Some people thought it was ugly though. The faded colors and coal dust look gave it a gritty realism you don't see even in modern steampunk games.
Never heard that complaint before, but sure, I just love gritty realism in my fantasy settings… [sarcasm]. Perhaps what they were saying was that it suffered from tonal imbalance but you chose to imagine they were only talking about coloring…
