Recent reviews by Mr T

TLDR - Rose coloured glasses (this ain't it chief)

This game needs to be flagged as an "Early Access Beta". Baldur's Gate 3 did it right by fans I don't see why Avowed were unable to follow the same path.
Don't be like me and be blinded by my love for Fallout New Vegas, it's thanks to this game i'll never pay another full launch price ($120 AUD) ever again.

Pros
- Relatively interesting story and characters enough to keep me eager enough to sink a few hours in
- Basic MMO style quest and feel
And.... that's about it. It's doesn't reinvent the wheel in any sense and is what I would consider "safe" RPG mechanics.

Cons (Mostly game play and quality of life)
- Very one dimensional quest pathways - black or white with the skin deep illusion of anything else
- Crafting/Upgrade material requirements are unreasonable - the game encourages changing builds by making skills and abilities affordable to refund but it then makes the material cost to upgrade gear to match the build impossible to switch.
- Add on top of that the merchants have eye watering prices, which locks you in after a couple of builds changes before you run out of the finite in game materials/money from the world.
- Breakdown does not net enough mats to net any benefits to the user, you are better off selling them and buying higher grade gear.
- It should not ever take 5 keys (which I would consider uncommon to find) to open a single chest and hidden/puzzle chests like Pargrun chest should not require keys after all the hoops you jump through to get to them. (And 5 keys shouldn't "reward" you with 2 crafting materials and junk)
- Transmorg comes with an unnecessary penalty - you have to carry the additional weight of the item/look you wish to transmorg which reduces your carrying capacity. Why not just allow the stashed items at camp to be transmorged or designs to be "unlocked" in a wardrobe when discovered???
- No custom map marker in this day an age???
- When damaged by the elements, companions will constantly discharge AOE elemental DOT onto each other which then rebuffs and resets the counter, endless damaging them until death. Whose great idea was that???
- Bugs, far to many to list. I'm talking about Side/Bounty/Companion/Achievement bugs. Everything from quest items not dropping, key characters not loading to report, events never triggering, completion of achievements not loading etcetc
Couldn't see myself playing a second play through to complete the remaining achievements knowing it'll run into these issues again.

6/10 on a good day - Save your money, wait for a sale if you really must buy the game.
But in no way shape or form pay the full asking price.

8.5/10 - (26/09/24)
Simple mechanics / bugs that ruin what would be a near perfect game, to name a few:
- Enemies with unlimited cloak abilities (shroud self) - potions, scrolls and perks to see invisibility doing absolutely nothing (because of save throw)
- Astarion losing the ability to lock pick
- Critical Failures chances are far to high (4 in a row) - removing the mechanic will solve all the issues
*having all the buffs pass a check even when rolling a 1 to only have critical failure back to back is idiotic
- Camera angles bugs and walls still being up when entering buildings
- Act 1 and 2 are great. Act 3 in general has a mixture of bad mechanics, poor questing options/pathways and not so great battle mechanics.

Had the potential to be a great game, unfortunately the contents of Starfield's universe are only skin deep.

6.5/10 - recommended but buy it on sale if you want to pass time
- it's a forgettable game - 56 hours in and I still don't know what's going on
- Of those 56 hours, i'd say 15-20 of those hours are actual gameplay (battle). The rest of the hours would be made up of cutscenes, customising mastery combos/builds, in town activities, crafting, eating meals (for buffs), updating gear etc.(Characters are level 36-39)
- Most annoying Boss Mission to date - game introduces you to Sharky in the early game, you engage him for battle, he runs through the crowd of allied forces on the field, 1 shots your main character and you fail the mission - not sure if this is a bug or i'm just very unlucky - it's the only mission i've failed.
- Once you build a "tank auto counter/attacker" build the game is no longer a challenge. Every enemy that walks by you is automatically attacked (9/10 of them are 1 shot), Enemies that survive the encounter who then attack you will either have their attacks blocked or dodgeed. Your character auto counter/retaliate with a guarantee crit everytime which is 2-4k damage, killing them instantly trash mob OR Boss.
- Enemy/ally ratio is wack in some missions, 40-50 enemies vs 5 on the screen. Just make yourself a coffee or something because it feels like 3-4 min to cycle through them all.
I could go on but i'm over it and ultimately I am just not going to finish this game.

fun game if you can live with it crashing a couple or so times an hour

Died more times from the platforms for "Lord of Frenzied Flame" than any other boss
10/10 recommended

Superb little action puzzle game, with just enough variation and challenges to keep it interesting.
However at 5-6 hours of game play max, I'd wait until it's on sale to buy this.

A steep learning curve to the game, but once you get into the rhythm (of dying) it's arguably one of the most enjoyable rogue light games.

Buggy at times but I still enjoyable
Just wished they spent more time polishing the game or adding details/features like character customisation post creation page, option to modify cars, guns, transmog gear etc.

Bugs/glitches I've come across that are still active on v1.06
- Unable to draw weapons permanently after leaving a safe zone sometimes (fix: reload save)
- Katana doing 0 dmg or 0 attacks per second (fix: reload save or get a new one...)
- Flashes of your character standing in the T posture while driving (fix: none)
- Calling for your vehicle to only have it drive pass you and leave you (fix: recall it again)
- Ending where your character takes off their sunglasses and there's another one underneath (Miami CSI Easter egg)
- Cyberpsycho blood ritual quest not triggering (fix: reload save, interact with fridge last)
- Getting stuck in weird places and falling through the map (fix: reload save)
- Permanent "relic error' glitch or pop up notification staying on (fix: reload save)

32 Bonus Stages?! 10/10 recommend