Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

Perhaps subconsciously motivated by @RogerRoger , here’s another review of a walking sim in space!

We now live in a world where Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an expanding part of daily life. AI are composing poems, creating art, and writing research papers, not to mention chatting with you like a friend or recommending recipes. It’s not too far fetched to imagine a reality 60 years from now where AI moderated space stations exist.

Enter Tacoma, a game made by Fullbright studios, which you may recall made a splash with Gone Home.

When Fullbright began developing Tacoma 10 years ago, ChatGPT wasn’t even a twinkle in Elon Musk’s eye, but the fiction surrounding senescent assistive interactive computer personalities dates way back to Knight Rider’s K.I.T.T., or HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The idea of commercial space travel has also been percolating for many decades. And so it is here that Fullbright selected a setting to tell this story — in the year 2088 we begin our journey of the tragedy of the Tacoma space station.

The game drops you into the role of Amitjyoti "Amy" Ferrier who has been sent to investigate the abandoned Tacoma station and retrieve information from its AI, ODIN. With no remaining crew members and only partial augmented reality (AR) log data and environmental clues left behind, you are tasked with unraveling the circumstances surrounding ODIN and the 6 crew members.

The Good

It’s not necessarily a novel gameplay idea, but it’s done expertly here. The clues about the events are given thorough AR generated clips that were preserved prior to the partial destruction of the station’s database. As you might guess, the messages and scenes left behind are scattered, disjointed, and cryptic. As you uncover information, it’s like putting a puzzle together one piece at a time.

It sounds like it might be frustrating or boring, but in reality, the unfolding narrative is done in a way that keeps you engaged throughout. You’re never very far from the next piece of story and the game directs you through a relatively linear feed of information so that each reveal builds upon the last. There’s plenty of gaps in information, yet the major events are laid for a foundation. The end result is a satisfying storyline that manages to be both concrete and also open to some interpretation. If you have the patience to explore more thoroughly, environmental storytelling embellishes the experience further.

Surprisingly, you grow emotionally attached to each of the six crew members, despite spending very little time with them. From the first AR scene, each individual’s part in the tale starts to crystallize and uncover its own compelling story in the background of the greater narrative. Much of the success of these personal story hooks come from solid voice acting performances.

Like I say, Tacoma doesn’t pioneer new storytelling territory, but what it does is keep you engaged. It’s aided by a very short runtime — the whole game can easily be completed in under 2 hours. But I’d argue that its brevity is one of the game’s positives. There’s no prolonged exposition about how the world got to this stage or excessive side content to distract from the tight narrative.

The Bad

In the “walking sim” gaming genre, by definition there is little by way of dynamic gameplay, so the extras surrounding a walking sim experience need to be top notch. Things like visual appeal, set piece design, and strength of lore should be compelling and captivating to help sell the experience. Unfortunately Tacoma falls short in a few of these areas. The world building and artistic representation of life on a space station come across as oversimplified. I do think some of this was done for the aforementioned storytelling purposes, however there’s a difference between tactical omission of detail and flat infeasibility of concept. For example, it’s hard to believe that computer interfaces would be this simplistic in 2088. It does keep the gameplay easier to manage, but for me it was immersion breaking at times to see things like smiley faces 🙂 and frowning faces ☹️ to represent mechanical parameters that were either good or bad. It’s difficult to describe, especially without story spoilers, but suffice it to say it wasn’t the most convincing vision of the future I’ve ever seen.

The Ugly

And from a technical aspect, the game is not without flaws. Firstly, the performance was very spotty on my base PS4. In fact, after about 30 minutes the game started to crawl and stutter so badly and eventually froze, so I had to shut down and reboot. I did a database rebuild on my PS4 just in case it was my hardware’s fault and that seemed to help, but the game still slowed down at points and looked like it was about to crash again on a few occasions, although it didn’t recur. I had been heavily using the rewind and fast-forward mechanics of the AR sequences when my crash occurred and so I avoided doing much of that again, but I’m not sure if that’s what the problem was.

The poor performance was surprising, given the game’s visuals were nothing spectacular. In addition to rewind and fast-forward, I think part of the technical strain relates to the interactive items in the environment — you can pick up mugs, pieces of trash, floating rolls of duct tape, etc. Most of the items you can pick up are completely superfluous, but every now and then you pick up a letter or an item that helps tell part of the story. I appreciate that the unnecessary interactivity was included because it motivated me to be thorough with exploration, but it also probably contributed to the chugging frame rate and instability of performance.

Overall

Tacoma was a game I really enjoyed. It was a nice distraction from larger, gameplay heavy action-RPGs and open-world time sinks. In the end, your satisfaction of the experience depends upon your tolerance of walking sims. Additionally, it’s hard not to judge the game in the context of its price. I picked it up on sale for less than $5, so for me that was a good value. Due to the game’s short run time (even the platinum can be obtained within that 2 hours with a little effort) if you’re on the fence then maybe wait and see if it drops on one the the services like PS+ or GamePass.

For me, the game effectively scratched a specific itch.
I give it 7 lunar orbits out of 10.

@Pizzamorg Very interesting and informative write-up about Midnight Suns, thanks for sharing! Despite being something of a "casual-plus" Marvel fan, I've largely ignored this game, and right now I'm having a hard time coming up with a good reason as to why. The strength of its NG+ pull clearly speaks volumes, and I'm real glad that you "got" it because, based on your conclusion about its Marmite status, that means you've found a new favourite, and that's always awesome!

I like romance when it's kept PG-13 (make a few bad innuendo-laden puns, raise an eyebrow, pan the camera out the window and fade to black) but I think that the idea of romance with pre-established licenced characters is kinda weird, and so I can totally see why it's been left out here. I liked getting to know the original characters in Mass Effect and Dragon Age and could therefore naturally "fall" for some of them, but I doubt I'd feel the same way about someone like Spidey (even if it were a fresh take, with a new design and voice actor). It's the same with my favourite characters from other material; they feel too much like old friends, so it'd be icky to roleplay a romantic entanglement with any of them. This is just my two cents, of course, but I reckon it's a rare example of the positive power licencing rules and restrictions can have.

Besides, you can't please everybody, as your point about the writing's interpretation of these characters proves, so I think any and all grumbles would've been x10 worse if you threw romance into the mix.

I appreciate how detailed you've gotten about the gameplay aspects which you didn't like. It's tough to do when you've largely enjoyed an experience, so your honesty coming from a "I had a great time, but..." perspective is a lot of help, particularly when weighing up whether to invest in a game of this size. Honestly, after reading your description of the deck-building combat system and its RNG flaws, I'd learned enough to know that I doubt I'll ever wanna play the game for myself, and that's brilliant. I reckon my endgame frustration would far outweigh the charm of the concept and the early fun of the system itself, so you've saved me money and time. I'm real grateful, thank you!

But again, the fact that you "got" the game in spite of those flaws says a lot about how effective it must've been for you, and so I hope you continue to enjoy your return sessions!

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@Th3solution The genre's baaack!!

I'll admit, I don't think I've ever even heard of Tacoma before, but its premise sounds eerily similar to ADR1FT (another indie space-based walking simul... well, no, more like floating simulator, which I've played and enjoyed before). Whereas that game leant on the novelty of its gorgeous zero-gravity environment to unravel a supremely average mystery, it sounds like Tacoma does the opposite, and tells a great story in spite of its mediocre gameplay. It's a shame that nobody's managed to get the balance right yet, at least in space! The next time you're in the market for one of these brief stopgap experiences, take a look at ADR1FT. At the very least, it runs a whole lot better than Tacoma would appear to, but it'd make for an interesting comparison. Likewise, if I see Tacoma going cheap, I'll give it a go (maybe playing it on a PS5 might power through its poor performance?).

It's always a pleasure to read your contributions to this archive, buddy. Whatever secret ingredient makes a good writer, you've definitely got it. Thanks for sharing, and for the tag!

@RogerRoger Thanks so much for the feedback and also for reading. 😄 And I now I do remember reading your ADR1FT review a couple years ago. I’ll have to keep that game in mind too for when the mood strikes. I read someplace else that Tacoma was also comparable to Deliver Us the Moon which is encouraging because I already had that in my backlog and if I enjoy it, it’s sequel Deliver Us Mars also reviewed well.

I feel like you’d like Tacoma but after I wrote the review I realized that I probably subconsciously gave it a small bump, maybe 0.5-1 points worth, just for the sheer welcome change it was from the longer games I’ve been playing. As much as I’m loving Jedi Survivor I can’t help but feel a little overwhelmed that I’m 25 hours into it and I’m still closer to the beginning than I am to the end. 😅

@Th3solution great review! I actually think I have owned this for years and just never played it. Think I got it for free for some reason because someone said its like BioShock which is one of my favourite games ever. Based on your review I dunno why those two games are similar, I guess I need to play it.

Thank you for your kind words @RogerRoger! I must have done something right, given I sold it to some and put you off 😂

Interestingly they actually got Yuri back to voice Spider-Man here (same actor as the PS4 game), the game actually has a lot of name value cast members when I looked them up on IMDB, so it kinda surprised me the acting wasn't better, but that probably speaks more at the quality of the writing.

@Th3solution nice write up sol! Had never even heard of the game but you experience with it has definitely put it on my radar. Added to the wishlist, so the moment it hits a sale I’ll pull the trigger 👊

@Pizzamorg Thanks! Likewise I really enjoyed reading your Midnight Suns breakdown. It was entertaining as well as very informative. I feel like I’ve got a much clearer picture into the game. Midnight Suns seems quite unique. I can’t think of another game that sounds anything like it. For that reason I continue to be tempted. I usually try to support games that innovate. Honestly I’m intrigued by the social sim aspects more than the combat. The gameplay I’ve watched and the explanations in your review haven’t really inspired me with any confidence that I’d like it. The only deck building game I’ve tried was Slay the Spire, which I did get some enjoyment from but I fell off it pretty quickly. I dunno, there wasn’t enough of a hook to keep me engaged, I guess. And that’s where Midnight Suns should have a edge with the Marvel theme, which I like, and the social sim / relationship building, which I also usually like. It’s almost as if Firaxis Games has planned for these preference contingencies by throwing several genres into the mix, just to cover their bases. I imagine the board room pitch going something like this:

“Alright people, we have the Marvel license secured. What do we do with it? People are at the saturation point with this superhero stuff. We can’t possibly churn out a competitor to Insomniac or Rocksteady’s games here. We could never improve on NetherRealm in the fighting genre. Square-Enix is flailing with the multiplayer action venture. How can we give gamers something different and a reason to stand out?”

“Let’s do a deck building strategy game.”

“Hmmm… ok. That’s a pretty small gaming niche.”

“We can add in a social sim part. Don’t people want to see what it would be like if Wolverine were to hang out with Dr. Strange and have pint?”

“Sounds good. Let’s throw in some Metroidvania components because people need a familiar loop to hold on to.”

“Perfect. Something for everyone.”

[Two weeks later…]
“Uh, scratch that Ghost Rider-Magik sex scene. Disney says no.”

😂 Anyways, I’ll continue to keep Midnight Suns in the back of my mind. If I didn’t have so many games in the backlog I’d be more inclined to pull the trigger on it.

As for Tacoma, yeah, it’s way different from BioShock. More like Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture on a space station. I suppose it’s like BioShock in the way that there’s a lot of narrative told through collectibles, environmental clues, and recordings, but not nearly as fleshed out as BioShock and it has absolutely no combat.

@colonelkilgore Thanks, colonel. Worst case scenario, it’s half of an afternoon and a couple pounds wasted. And even then there’s the platinum at the end, so it’s not all in vain. Have you played the likes of Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Gone Home, What Remains of Edith Finch, or Dear Esther? I think I recall you did Edith Finch but can’t be sure. Either way Tacoma would be a reasonable entry point into the genre, although Edith Finch remains my favorite of the bunch.

@Th3solution yeah I played two of those - Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture and What Remains of Edith Finch. I really liked the former but was left a bit unsatisfied by the latter… so guess that there’s a 50/50 chance that Tacoma will land for me.

@colonelkilgore As far as “piecing together a narrative of past events by reviewing historical accounts of people who are no longer present” goes, Tacoma is definitely more like EGttR, so that bodes well.

@Th3solution Nice, tightly written review. I enjoyed how you established context for the game's exploration of AI in the introduction. And, yes, the almost overnight explosion in commercial and popular adoption of AI tech recently is another one of those things that has made me realize I'm living in the midst of the sort of science-fiction settings I used to read about as a kid.

It reminds me way back in the 00s when people asked William Gibson (early titan in the cyberpunk subgenre) why his novels stopped adopting explicitly futuristic settings, and he said that contemporary reality was sufficiently filled with science-fiction potential for him. I feel that more than ever.

I used to be intolerant of the 'walking sim' genre, but I've since come to appreciate what good ones can offer in terms of immersion and atmosphere. Sometimes adding gameplay elements actively detracts from the effectiveness of a genre, too (SOMA is a good example of what should have been a walking sim, but had a bunch of standard horror game mechanics stuffed in that didn't do any favors to the pacing or ultimate experience with the game). But you're right: sans real gameplay, the writing and presentation need to be top-notch, so it's too bad that the game fails somewhat in this respect, even if it did ultimately end up winning you over.

@Th3solution Morning friend! Just got round to reading your excellent review of Tacoma. I picked the game up a while back and you’ve brought it back to the forefront of my mind. I’m a big fan of the potential of immersion and world building in games so ‘walking sims’ definitely scratch an itch, though I too would/will be annoyed by simplistic interfaces. It is highly plausible that interfaces in the future could be understood by toddlers mind. Thanks for posting 👍

@Ralizah I’m fascinated (and at times horrified) by Artificial Intelligence and evolving computer technology. AI is a well-worn science fiction fodder, but is becoming more and more relatable by the day. We are living in a world dominated by unchanged ethical dogma which is thousands of years old and how it interfaces with technology that has literally cropped up within the last 25 years is going to be interesting.

@AgentCooper Cheers for reading and for the positive feedback and comments. It’s a little game nestled to the side so I thought it would be nice to shine a little light on it.

@Th3solution see that Tacoma just went on a pretty deep reduction within the Days of Play sale, nice one for drawing my attention to it at just the right time 😉

@colonelkilgore Fullbright should give me a cut! 😅 But yeah, if you utilize the sale price it’s relatively low risk. $20 is way too much for as short as it is, but $7 is a reasonable cost, imo.

@Th3solution yeah it was already on the wishlist thanks to your review, so I thought it’d be rude not to. Picked up a few bargains tbh… the backlog is a monster

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (PS5)

Gameplay (Exploration):

• Like it's predecessor, you'll be traversing multiple planets "Metroidvania" style, as they largely comprise of labyrinthine corridors that you'll be able to more thoroughly explore as you progress through the game unlocking new upgrades (both Force powers for Cal, and tech upgrades for your little Droid companion BD-1). Interestingly, you actually start out with most of the upgrades you obtained in the first game (like the double jump), and success requires you to master a new set of upgrades on top of them (such as a grappling hook you obtain early on).
  
• While it doesn't really offer a greater number of planets to explore than Fallen Order, the rotation here is all new, with the game largely centering around Koboh, a planet with an absolutely gargantuan map. While it still has a crapton of labyrinthine places to spelunk, it's noted for an open world-ish area surrounding "Rambler's Reach", a small settlement that has some light town building elements weaved into it (you'll run across people you can invite to live there, who'll open up shops or otherwise renovate buildings, allowing you to nab the chest or what have you stored within). Honestly, first exploring Koboh's open-ish area is a bit of a chore because there's still a bit of the "Metroidvania" puzzlish element of figuring out exactly how to get to where you want to go (which runs kinda counter to the entire idea of an open area, IMO), but once you start unlocking shortcuts and save spots (which act as fast travel points) it becomes much more bearable. Of course, the formula works fantastically once you're in one of the more labyrinthine environments that it was designed around (and make no mistake, most of the game is still designed this way).
  
• Of course, there are lots of things to collect hidden behind platforming or combat challenges & puzzles. The most elusive of these are the max number of Stim Canisters you can carry (healing items, they refill whenever you rest at a save spot), followed by Perks/Perk Slots (equips which grant passive buffs), Force Crystals (rotate between increasing your max health, max Force meter, or just give you a ton of EXP. There seem to be much more of these than you'd ever need to max out your health & Force, 'cause after awhile I'd only ever get EXP dumps from them). There are also Chests (which hold cosmetics, and you can customize everything from Cal, to BD, your Lightsaber, & Blaster) & a bunch of different knick knacks you can trade in at the various shops that open up. Most of these are again cosmetics, but you can get one Stim Canister & a few Perks this way as well). Oh, and if you see a plant swarmed by lightning bugs cut it, as you'll obtain seeds which can be planted in a garden in town.
• Lastly you have Force Echoes (Cal can sort of feel the past of an object/location) & Scans (BD-1 can well, scan stuff) everywhere as well. These are primarily lore dumps which are tucked away in the menus, but each one also nets you a tiny bit of EXP. Force Echoes are easy to spot as they appear as a bluish haze, while BD will beep and jump off you if there's a Scan (or something else he can interact with) nearby, so keep an eye on his actions.

Gameplay (Combat/Growth):

• In order to dispatch foes you'll need to master 5 different Lightsaber stances (in comparison to the 2 of the first game). You actually start out with 3 stances at the start of the game (Single Blade is the jack of all trades, Dual Blade for large groups, and new Dual Wield trades defence for superior offense. You'll also obtain Blaster, which is useful at a distance & Crossguard, which mods your Lightsaber to look like Kylo Ren's and has a slow but very powerful strikes). While enemy types can be more resistant to some styles over others, I mostly stuck with Blaster & Crossguard once I unlocked them & didn't have much of an issue (Oddly, you can only swap between two different styles on the fly, and have to switch out what those are at save spots).
• Luckily you also have a bunch of Force abilities to make use of which might be able to get you out of a pinch if your preferred Lightsaber stance finds you in a tight spot. You can shove foes (sometimes small groups) off the edge of the map, pull & throw objects (and some enemies) at foes, and can even temporarily confuse organic enemies into fighting alongside you, amongst some other tricks (not Force related, but you can also have BD reprogram enemy Droids to fight alongside you. This isn't temporary like confusion on organic life, however it's harder to pull off, and the ability to hack each different Droid type is it's own separate upgrade, some of which can only be unlocked in optional areas). Your biggest ace in the hole is the ability to temporarily slow down everything around you, allowing you the chance to get out of a tight scrape (this ability gets an upgrade late in the game, but to say more would be a spoiler).
• Of course, there are also Skill Trees aplenty in order to increase your repertoire & effectiveness of attacks/powers. They're individually not very large, but you have a Skill Tree for each of your 5 different Lightsaber stances, 3 different Force categories, and 1 Survival category for abilities that don't fall in the others (such as a couple health upgrades). Don't hoard your skill points. Outside of a few options that cost 3 points, most everything is either only 1 or 2 points & if you die you lose your unspent experience & have to defeat the enemy that killed you in order to get it back (unless it was a boss, at which point you just have to walk over the spot where you died).
• In addition to the Skill Trees, you have the aforementioned Perks, which are equips that grant you passive buffs (such as increased damage to an opponent's block meter).
  
• At some pre-determined points you'll be joined by Nightsister Merrin (the "Force Whicraft" user from the first game) or Bode Akuna (a jetpack clad gunslinger) as AI helpers (not unlike Atreus & Freya from the modern GOW games. You don't have to worry about kitting them out & they don't have their own skill trees though). They'll fight by your side and sometimes can be instructed to attack enemies or help you with an environmental puzzle. They'll only ever stay within the bounds of the area they're supposed to help you though, so you'll have to spelunk optional areas by yourself.
• In terms of optional combat/challenges, you'll run optional bosses (some of which are labelled as "Legendary Enemies") which grant you with a ton of EXP once defeated (I didn't have much trouble with these outside of a giant frog that took me forever to beat because it has a OHKO move), as well as Rift Challenges that also grant you a ton of EXP (these will take you to a broken reality, where you'll either have to take on waves of enemies under a certain condition, such as using a specific stance, or are balls to the wall hard platforming challenges that require you to master a medley of your traversal abilities). I think the only Rift Challenge I noped out on was one that wanted me to fight TWO of the aforementioned frog at the same time.

Graphics/Performance:

• I'll get things out of the way and say this can absolutely be a rough experience, and across my 40+ hour playtime I had about 10 crashes (not enough to be debilitating, but enough to be an issue to worry about). First time it happened was while taking a screenshot of all things at the beginning (though this was pre-patch), while all the other times were during times where it had to load up a lot of environmental data at once. Fast travel or riding an elevator were the main culprits, but once I even got a crash after returning to the main map after completing one of the platforming Rift Challenges (it took me at least 20 tries to clear & of course it went unrecorded due to the crash so I had to do it again. I was livid, lol). Also got a few random glitches that kept me from progressing until going back to the main menu & reloading. One was right after you learn to lift & slam objects with the Force, and for whatever reason it wouldn't let me to slam down the platform I needed to in order to progress (though it'd let me do it to other near by objects/platforms). Another time it wouldn't go into "BD Mode" when I needed to (where you can do stuff like use the little guy like binoculars & use some of his puzzle solving abilities). Lastly, there was a time when it wouldn't let me charge up my Blaster shots (this wasn't necessary to progress, but annoying nonetheless).
• Otherwise it was minor stuff like asset/texture pop in (especially when fast traveling or otherwise loading an area), though it wasn't nearly as bad as Fallen Order on PS4 in that respect, and a few framerate issues. Most prominently being near the river at the side of town would cause it to tank, but this was fixed in an early patch. Otherwise I only noticed drops if I was standing directly under a waterfall or during certain cutscenes (and one brief absolute tankage during a segment when a character sets off an explosion in order to distract enemy forces). For reference, I played on graphics mode.
• Otherwise it's obviously a game with AAA production values, with some absolutely beautiful scenery at times, whether you're traversing a verdant forest, desert ruins, foggy mountain pass, military instillations, & more. I'm generally not a fan of the western AAA industry's insistence on making their (human) characters a near 1 to 1 scan of their mocap actors though. I'm of the opinion that, male or female, it's kinda an uncanny & ugly approach all around (and emblematic of their desire to be seen as Hollywood adjacent, "look, gaming's all grown up & we have honest to goodness actors"). IDK, this is gonna sound terrible, but Bode had these little dark specs all over his face that I found to be distracting, lol (that I can't help but think probably would have been covered up with makeup if he was actually in a movie/TV show).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Story:

• Looking for a place to lie low after helping the resistance irritate the Empire in the few intervening years since the last game, Cal ends up on Koboh, a world on the Outer Rim of the Galaxy without much Imperial presence where Greeze (the little four armed alien pilot from the first game) has set up a Saloon. It's not all peaceful though, as a criminal syndicate known as the Bedlam Raiders rules the planet with an iron grip thanks to raiding the military supplies of a crashed Clone Wars era battleship (and repairing the droid army it housed). Soon it's learned that Koboh might hold the answers to finding a route to a nigh impossible to reach planet (a perfect place to hide from the Empire), but it's a race as the Bedlam Raiders want to find it for their own purposes & of course the growing threat of the Empire ever looms in the distance.
• It's not as thrill a minute as Fallen Order (and I'm probably in the minority when I say I preferred the former game's brisker runtime), but it definitely has it's moments. It wasn't that bloated either, despite being longer (I completed every world at 100% other than Koboh & Jedha, and even those are at over 97%, so I did most notable content, optional included & still only hit about 45 hours). Back to the main story though, & THAT moment on Jedha (you'll know what I'm talking about if you've played it) was absolutely exhilarating and the game never quite reaches those heights again (I almost don't know what they were thinking, there's no way the final boss could have ever lived up to what came before, lol).
• I also liked checking in on the residents of Rambler's Reach (most of which congregate inside of Greeze's "Pyloon Saloon") from time to time as you can hear more of their backstories as you progress & revitalize the town. Sometimes they'll give you "Rumors" to check out as well (these are sort of like side quests, but you don't need to speak to anyone to access them, they're just a helpful reminder that "hey, you can check out this area you couldn't before" from the game. Cal will usually even have a different response if you've already checked things out by the time someone gives you the rumor). By far the best side character is Skoova Stev though, a crusty old little alien fisherman who you'll often find by bodies of water who'll nab new fish for the Saloon's fish tank if you talk to him when you see him (plus get more of his wild fish tale backstory). Unfortunately his tale is left unfinished as I never figured out where the last fish is.

Conclusion:

• It still has some technical issues to work out (if they'll ever be fully rectified I don't know), but otherwise it's a worthy followup to the previous game with a lot of nods that'll please long standing fans of the franchise.
  

@RR529 I've never really understood the Western side of the industry's obsession with photorealism, either. It feels like a waste to toil tirelessly away in a medium where literally any vision is possible to try and approximate the look of real life as much as possible. So much time and money is sunk into chasing this particular dragon. And for what? To achieve an effect inferior to what you'd get by turning on a cheap camcorder.

Which isn't to say I think everything should look like a cartoon, either. I happen to really like the Japanese approach of stylized realism in big-budget games.

Performance and image quality issues seem to be pretty universal across all of the platforms this game is on, unfortunately. Hopefully the Steam version is less unplayable now.

Really nice, detailed review. Your screenshots are, as usually, very apt, and help those of us without experience of the game to get a sense of what it looks like.

@RR529 Great and very complete thoughts on the game. Surely helps me to make the decision if I will or won't get the game (don't have an answer yet).

On the topic of people looking ultra realistic, that's also something I don't completely get. I think Yakuza is a great example how you can blend realistic environments with very stylized characters, that still are plenty expressive. In general I find that Western developers struggle with facial expressions, only few succeed (Naughty Dog). Just look at the characters in Starfield, their faces don't convey any emotion, especially compared to a game like Final Fantasy.
That being said, I love stuff like the freckles. I think it's rather unfortunate that these so called "imperfect" features are often hidden on TV. Many Japanese games have characters with scars for instance, it gives them something memorable (and maybe relatable to some too). Interesting subject by the way.

@Ralizah, @Kidfried, thanks!

Yeah, I definitely don't think all games should have cartoon/anime art styles or anything, and agree that more realistic looking games from Japanese developers do a better job of having their characters fit that style while still looking generally aesthetically pleasing (FFVIIR, Yakuza/LAD, Fatal Frame, & the upcoming Stellar Blade).

@RR529 Yep. Generally agree games like FFVIIR and Fatal Frame are the gold standard for me when it comes to that balance. They're realistic enough that it doesn't feel cartoonish, but stylized enough that it avoids the problems that come from attempts at photorealism.