So I've downloaded this yesterday, and spent a hour and half playing this morning. And I already want to uninstall this.
Everytime you boot up the game, every single one of your settings (graphical, keyboard bindings, etc) are all reseted.
The movement is just weird. It feels like you don't have any legs and are just floating (which isn't the case because objects bellow your waist move when there's contact). Jumping also feels off, and sometimes it just doesn't seem to work.
Even in the first level, I died 3 times because of collision issues - first time I was suddenly catapulted into the roof; the second I got stuck in the terrain; and the third I got out the level.
I've said in my previous post I do believe that physics based shit is a very good way to have creative and fun gameplay. Afterall it worked wonders for games like BotW and Siege. However it means the levels need to be more carefully and thoughtfully designed to accommodate that aspect, and the game needs to be well optimized.
This certainly isn't the case with UA.
The objects are a bit difficult to work with - smaller objects break easily, and larger objects like a barrel are a chore to move because if turn your camera or walk a bit you have to wait some seconds for the object to accompany your movement (otherwise if you continue to move you'll loose your grip on the object).
One time I was trying to break down a door, and a big chunk of wood fell from it. I picked that wood, put it on top of a fire brazier and the wood just wouldn't be set on fire. Then I picked a small basket (smaller than the plank of wood), put it on the same brazier and after a 3 seconds it was set ablaze. Speaking of fire, I found a wand embedded with a fireball spell. First time I casted it, the fire ball projectile barely moved, and after some 4 seconds it just stoped moving and stood there in the spot floating.
I then proceeded pick up the fireball (yes I picked up a ball of flames - which by the way didn't damage me in any way) and threw it at my enemy. And this seems a consist rule (one of the few in this game), you can pick up objects on fire and don't receive any damage from it.
A more superficial problem I have with the physics is the fact that they pretty much tell you everything about them. There's no mystery, no room for experimentation. Something BotW was quite smart by not telling anything about it.
Another big problem is that
loot found in chests is randomly generated. I tested this quite a few times. Always went for the same chest and everytime I opened it, I got something different - it did came to a point were it started to repeat previous loot, so my guess is that a chest as a list of things it can appear on it and when you open it, the game flips the coin to decide which objects from the list will appear. As far as I can tell the only static loot is that which you find laying throughout the level.
They've also missed a good chance on some resource management. The silver sapling functions as a bonfire. You die you get revived there. You can only plant it at specific points. To do that you need a silver sampling tree seed. However once you get the seeds they're infinite. How can the developers of several of the best PC games not think of this?
The combat. Well it's better than Arx or Morrowind - because the overall feedback (animations, controls) are better - but certainly it isn't as good as Mount & Blade or even Dark Messiah - impacts lack a feeling of weight, and unlike those two this one still plays like Arx (attack an enemy, step back, wait for him to finish his strike on oxygen molecules, and go in for another strike, repeat until enemy is dead). So it lacks the player skill part that every Action game (even Action RPG's) should have to be considered good Action games.
Also the AI is pretty much broken. You can be 1 meter from them and spamming the LMB they won't react, or be out of range and they go on this combo spree. And like in Thief you can throw shit that passes in front of them, or put out fires, or even once when I dropped down a chandelier, that nearly smashed one guy but him and his buddies didn't notice this change in environment or the noise it made.
Despite the artstyle there are places in that first level, where the game looks good and atmospheric. There are also other times if you too closely to some of the assets, it seems like I am looking at a 7 year old plasticine construction.
Finally the Character Development system is weak. It's a Skill Tree, but one quick look and you see that most skills there while not on par with the uselessness and laziness of Skyrim,Fallout 4, Witcher 3 or Diablo clones (as in 5% more damage; etc) is not far off. Right in the beginning of the game your character can lift at least 250lbs=114kg (couldn't they put this as a skill). Then there's how you gain the skill points which are called Memora. You can find some Memora as a static item on the level, but most of it you'll gain trough Feats. Think of Feats as Achievements - you found X secrets; you performed Y action; you killed Z skeletons; etc...
I could go on how you can't swim and that you move just like a buoy in water. Or how completely useless is the save feature. But I would be wasting more time with this.
I don't find this funny anymore. It's just sad...
With another year of polish and improvement this could've been a good game.
But even if they fix it, I doubt I'll ever touch this again. I am done with it...
Nyast,
Max Heap you guys are very patient to still be playing this.
Actually you can do that. I've tested it. Everything else, including setting arrows on fire is missing.