Recent reviews by Divinicator

EDIT: I decided to try the game again after the 2.0 update, and in general I think the game is worth recommending now. It's not a perfect game, but it is a fun one.

Performance: There are still performance issues, notably overall high CPU usage and regular frame drops, but not so much that it's ruining the experience. With the same rig as before, I can now reliably attain 60-80 fps at Ultra 3440x1440p with DLSS quality (even at Skyrest, compared to 48 from before). Major spikes do occur still, but after 20 hours of play it happens mostly when loading into, and traveling around, Skyrest. General play is usually stable, with just small dips on area transitions. Frame-limiting helps with this, but use your GPU control panel or something like Rivatuner, as the in-game cap has terrible frame-pacing.

Gameplay: The various improvements made since launch (jump button, toned down umbral on first playthrough, and much better combat feel) have gone a long way to make the game feel less exhausting, but still challenging. The combat improvements were the real reason I returned from my PS5 playthrough, as rolling and attacking finally feel as they should (no more flinging myself off an edge due to attack teleportation). I've also felt like I've found more vestige seeds & weapon upgrades, making those aspects less tedious, but I can't confirm 100%,. Plus, the free friend's pass is a fantastic addition that I would love to see more games adopt.

ORIGINAL NEGATIVE REVIEW:
I have been playing this on PS5, but was disappointed with how much stuttering there was and how bosses tanked fps, so I decided to test & see if it would fare overall better on PC.

TLDR; it's worse.

I played enough to get to Skyrest, beating the Sentinel & Pieta bosses as a baseline. My rig is a 3080, i7-10700k, with 32gb of ram. Playing on Ultra preset, 1440p Ultrawide, no DLSS, I saw an average of 67 FPS from start to finish. This would be ideal, if the reason for the average wasn't so dreadful, with the 0.1% low averaging at only 18 fps. Opening the game saw the FPS go between 140 & 20 as it was making some shader/setting configurations (I assume?). Intro area saw 80+ fps on average, but anything new tanked it to sub 20 (first time seeing the umbral, activating a figurehead, new enemies, etc.). Cutscenes are just as bad, with most textures popping into full resolution about halfway through a scene, just in time for the game to freeze momentarily as the camera changes angles.

Both bosses saw the worst of the fps drops, as both fights went sub 30 from large on-screen effects. This is not to mention the random hitches from Pieta's holy clones spawning, or the arena-wide aoe's she does periodically. Skyrest also saw similar drops, and eventually stablized around 48 fps after the hitching finally stopped.

It's just disappointing. There's no point talking about the game itself, as playing it causes headaches & nausea from the performance inconsistencies. All games have variable framerates, and a 30 frame differential when working with Ultra presets isn't uncommon, but a differential of 60+ within an hour's game-time is just inexcusable. Who can say if the issue lies with the engine's tech, or the developer's expertise, but either is enough of a case to avoid it unless you have a strong stomach for wild framerate changes, or it's on a very deep sale.

200 hours on PS4 since day one. Easily the best of it's kind as it continues to see regular updates, expansions, and improvements.

Really loving it so far! I'm early on, but so far there's lots to love for fans of Bioware-style rpgs.

Also it's beautiful, tons of potential screenshots for wallpaper

Great crafting survival space game with lots of content, and good optimization. The developers are constantly updating it, very aware of responsive to community feedback, and continue to add new content (items and features) regularly. It can take a little bit to get used to Empyrion's systems, but they are well balanced once you do. I recommened doing both the tutorial, and a offline easy world before doing online/harder difficulties.

Lots of fun, and will continue to sink hours into this :)