Have some more thoughts after playing another four hours today. It is still very rough around the edges and admit I was frustrated by the end of the play session. Some issues I found:
- Some things are not explained well. Aegis I had to go digging through the CODEX to figure out what it did. I found food and potion that said it increased Aegis but didn't actually explain what that was. Same for Utility, had no idea what that was till I dug it out of the CODEX. Maybe spoiled from games with more helpful mouse over tips I guess.
- Hovering over some items with merchants or inventory had "Missing String Line Entry" error (paraphrasing) which for a released game was bad. Super obvious error that I saw on 4 different items and that was near the start at two different merchants and one thing in inventory.
- Loot bags/chests/etc. have little rhyme or reason. A sparkling bag or chest just sitting in open grass. Granted many games do loot poorly but at times it felt like they just dropped something down on the ground for the sake of having something at the end of a path.
- Game handles quests a bit like missions. When you are not on a mission you have no followers with you (or they stand and wait at an entry point). Also super annoying (for me as I love my animal companions) the Wolf you get with the Ranger is only there during combat and no other time. You run around and explore as one type of modality and then a mission that requires combat your select your companions. Reminded me of A Knights Tale or maybe Xcom in that sense. Outside of the Wolf I am getting used to it but for me its not very immersive.
- It feels a bit linear on the missions. Pretty much follow the path from A to Z killing some things along the way and looting some random stuff plopped down on the ground or some minimal scene setting.
- Picking up some quests was a bit message board like even from NPC's. You would click on them and not even get a dialogue choice. Just a pip up box with text that you would right click through and then you got the quest. Like games where you read a note on a quest board. You didn't even get to talk to the NPC. Most of the NPC's are like that. One line or text, if that. Merchants don't talk and just go right to the sell/buy. Very little interaction outside of your followers and you can only talk to them outside of missions.
- Inventory. I could find no way to group or sort. What you can see in it depends on which character you are on as well - as only things the character can use will be visible. While that seems nice it was hard to know my entire inventory at times. No auto-sort and if you sold things they didn't move to fill up blank spaces. Maybe I am missing something - some button to use to do that. The in-game help is very poor and mostly limited to the CODEX.
- After one mission I killed the boss. I went to explore a bit more and my screen went blank, got loading, and then I was back at my "base" which is a boat. I thought maybe I had hit a key in error so I traveled back, via the map (you can fast travel to certain places via your boat), to the same place. Picked my crew and finished exploring and found a few more treasures and items. BUT there was no way out. The exit kept teleporting me back to the start of the mission map. After 30 minutes of running back and forth and checking everything (and there wasn't much to check, it was a minimal map), there wasn't anyway out. The mission had two connected maps. You entered at point A, and there was no exit from that point where you start the mission. You then travel to B and zone into point C. Kill the boss and then the game auto-teleports (without any warning or button to press saying "Finish Mission") back the ship. If you end up going back, with no more boss to kill to trigger the exit, you get stuck there. I was stuck in the two small maps in an endless circle. Poor game design - either block being able to return or provide an exit. I had to reload, do the fight again, then save once back on the ship.
- Combat is a bit clunky but not being a combat person I am okay with it even if I find it less enjoyable than other combat in games.
- At this point the dialogue, which had bothered me the most, bothers me the least and find it more enjoyable.
The story has me intrigued to see what happens so still going to play but IMO it needs a lot more polish and fixing up … and I think its a bit frustrating to play as you are somewhat learning by trial and error how to do things and what things do.
If they continue to work on it maybe it will at least become less frustrating and a bit more enjoyable.
That being said this is all just my opinion based on what I personally tend to find fun or annoying in any game I play.