Just finished it: here's my feedback
Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2016 3:04 am
Wow. First off, I'd like to congratulate the modders for a great game. I remember looking round the web years ago for mods for Fallout and always being disappointed that so many projects had died off. Is it true it took ten years to make? That's insane. But thank you, it was a pleasure to play a whole new Fallout adventure. I always thought I'd just have to keep replaying the first two with ever dwindling surprises.
When I read that it had been translated from Czech I feared that the dialogue would be passable at best, but it's actually pretty good. There are some stilted sentences every now and then, but on the whole the text was handled well. For some reason most of the more dubious writing occurred in the very first village and towards the end of the game, especially during the longer expositions. That said, the majority of the mid-game read well and kept things going nicely (I tended to skip the holodisk data dumps).
I have to say I enjoyed the first half of the game more than the latter part. The Rathole story was great; Sedit and Corath were classic Fallout environments, and Albuquerque had some of the darkest subplots I've ever seen in a game (a good thing). Sophie's departure was actually quite moving, especially given what proceeded it.
My main gripe is that the difficulty seemed to notch up drastically at places, particularly during the big scripted battles. I played the first half of the game on the hardest setting, which was just right for me, but I found myself forced to go into easy mode for the imperial coup, the mutant trap and the final base. I'm not one for grinding (not excessively, anyway), so maybe I was far below what min-max players could handle in those battles. I found the final location somewhat frustrating: there seemed to be lots of hints I that should be able to make my through it using science and sneak, but in the end it came down to a big old fight.
My favourite bits were the investigation in Rathole, the guy with the burns in Corath, the gunshop story in Albuquerque and the sneaky Sheriff mission in Sedit. I never found a solution I was happy with in Corath; I wanted to help the miners' strike, but I left it when I realised it would lead to a massacre (same thing happened in Arcanum) so I never got an end screen for the town. I really like how you never quite know who's telling the truth - at several points I was having to make judgements calls on who to follow or support, based on information that could well be a lie.
In terms of bugs, it was actually less choppy than I remember the original games. Here's some points off the top of my head:
1. When you mouse-over certain caravaners in Corath and Albuquerque the text display says 'error'. When you click on them, their overhead dialogue also says 'error'.
2. Many of the locked containers are bugged. Often the text display told me I had earned xp before the container was actually unlocked. I was usually doing it via the lockpick set in my hand, rather than the skilldex.
3. I ordered Keri to change from robes to her leather armour on the bottom floor of the base. The screen went black, combat mode initiated and the game froze for a while.
4. In the base, taking the elevator down to a new floor for the first time seemed to initiate combat even when I'd given a valid name. I spent ages looking for an alternative solution, until frustration forced me to try it again - and lo and behold it worked giving the same name!
5. While fighting on the bottom floor, my followers decided to run into the (locked) reactor room. Luckily, they didn't die a horrible radioactive death, but they had me worried. A similar thing happened in the shootout outside the imperial town hall - an enemy got knocked back inside the building and ran away, prompting one of the friendly allied soldiers to chase him. They had a punch up inside while I was unable to open the door to help.
Some things that aren't exactly bugs, but I thought could be improved:
6. I didn't find a single special encounter, despite ploughing my way through stacks of Ms Stapleton's scout books.
7. When the mutant hunters invaded the vault, I went to their base to see if they had anything to say both before and after the mission. Nope, business as usual. (On a side note: who in their right mind would keep those guys as hired mercenaries after they had attacked the vault?)
8. I kept checking if the new emperor had anything to say about developments regarding the final two bases, but he didn't.
9. I dug up the note before I'd done anything else towards solving the Rathole murder mystery, but George wasn't interested. I'd been trying to wave it in his face, but he didn't acknowledge it until much later.
Thanks again for making this. It's been a good year for old-school post-apocalyptic isometric turn-based RPGS.
When I read that it had been translated from Czech I feared that the dialogue would be passable at best, but it's actually pretty good. There are some stilted sentences every now and then, but on the whole the text was handled well. For some reason most of the more dubious writing occurred in the very first village and towards the end of the game, especially during the longer expositions. That said, the majority of the mid-game read well and kept things going nicely (I tended to skip the holodisk data dumps).
I have to say I enjoyed the first half of the game more than the latter part. The Rathole story was great; Sedit and Corath were classic Fallout environments, and Albuquerque had some of the darkest subplots I've ever seen in a game (a good thing). Sophie's departure was actually quite moving, especially given what proceeded it.
My main gripe is that the difficulty seemed to notch up drastically at places, particularly during the big scripted battles. I played the first half of the game on the hardest setting, which was just right for me, but I found myself forced to go into easy mode for the imperial coup, the mutant trap and the final base. I'm not one for grinding (not excessively, anyway), so maybe I was far below what min-max players could handle in those battles. I found the final location somewhat frustrating: there seemed to be lots of hints I that should be able to make my through it using science and sneak, but in the end it came down to a big old fight.
My favourite bits were the investigation in Rathole, the guy with the burns in Corath, the gunshop story in Albuquerque and the sneaky Sheriff mission in Sedit. I never found a solution I was happy with in Corath; I wanted to help the miners' strike, but I left it when I realised it would lead to a massacre (same thing happened in Arcanum) so I never got an end screen for the town. I really like how you never quite know who's telling the truth - at several points I was having to make judgements calls on who to follow or support, based on information that could well be a lie.
In terms of bugs, it was actually less choppy than I remember the original games. Here's some points off the top of my head:
1. When you mouse-over certain caravaners in Corath and Albuquerque the text display says 'error'. When you click on them, their overhead dialogue also says 'error'.
2. Many of the locked containers are bugged. Often the text display told me I had earned xp before the container was actually unlocked. I was usually doing it via the lockpick set in my hand, rather than the skilldex.
3. I ordered Keri to change from robes to her leather armour on the bottom floor of the base. The screen went black, combat mode initiated and the game froze for a while.
4. In the base, taking the elevator down to a new floor for the first time seemed to initiate combat even when I'd given a valid name. I spent ages looking for an alternative solution, until frustration forced me to try it again - and lo and behold it worked giving the same name!
5. While fighting on the bottom floor, my followers decided to run into the (locked) reactor room. Luckily, they didn't die a horrible radioactive death, but they had me worried. A similar thing happened in the shootout outside the imperial town hall - an enemy got knocked back inside the building and ran away, prompting one of the friendly allied soldiers to chase him. They had a punch up inside while I was unable to open the door to help.
Some things that aren't exactly bugs, but I thought could be improved:
6. I didn't find a single special encounter, despite ploughing my way through stacks of Ms Stapleton's scout books.
7. When the mutant hunters invaded the vault, I went to their base to see if they had anything to say both before and after the mission. Nope, business as usual. (On a side note: who in their right mind would keep those guys as hired mercenaries after they had attacked the vault?)
8. I kept checking if the new emperor had anything to say about developments regarding the final two bases, but he didn't.
9. I dug up the note before I'd done anything else towards solving the Rathole murder mystery, but George wasn't interested. I'd been trying to wave it in his face, but he didn't acknowledge it until much later.
Thanks again for making this. It's been a good year for old-school post-apocalyptic isometric turn-based RPGS.