Recent reviews by Strange Odyssey Gaming

I purchased this game when it was in early access but didn't play until the 1.0 release. That said...I am so glad I bought it. It reminds me a lot of Oblivion (more so than Skyrim) but with a very clear and original art direction. The gameplay has a little bit of jank, but the jank reminds me more of Bethesda's games than it being a negative. The enemy designs are interesting. The spells are interesting. The armor styles and skill trees are interesting.

If you like RPGs, it is absolutely worth picking up. Also, they are adding mod support in the future, so the game is only going to get better with time.

Update after finishing the game: Act 1 is polished and complete. Act 2 is complete and mostly polished (I didn't run into any bugs but it sounds like others do). Act 3 feels both incomplete and unpolished. I ran into progression-ending bugs for two faction quests. The Act 3 map is less interesting and detailed than the first two areas. Act 3 made me want to just power through the main story and finish out the game. Buy the game but be aware the quality drops off towards the end of the game.

Met a hitchhiker. She inspired me to drink and drive. First time I listened to her, my car broke down and I had to call my parents to bail me out. Luckily my dad showed up and left me with $200. My toxic hitchhiker girlfriend stayed with me. I should have kicked her out. She was a bad influence and started shop lifting. Second time I risked drinking and driving to impress my hitchhiker bae, the cops pulled us over. I ended up in jail. Game over.

10/10 roleplaying game. Don't drink and drive.

I really wanted to like this game as a fan of CRPGs, but it has a lot of design flaws that make it more frustrating than fun to play. Combat in particular has balance issues like the enemy groups having unlimited healing potential while players are limited to a finite number of charges for the ability. Surprise rounds are equally frustrating. You may move your party to an occupied camp site, but it's the campers who get the surprise round on you, not the other way around. I'm sure there are tactical decisions I could be making better, or particularly skills/passives I should be picking over others, but the combat in this game just doesn't feel well balanced, and when that seems to be a significant component of the game, it's tough to recommend.

This is the game every Indy fan has dreamed of. I'm only a few hours in and have been scouring the vatican, and it has captured the *feel* of Indiana Jones so well. The dialogue, exploration, and puzzles all take priority over combat, and that's a positive. It's not to say combat isn't crunchy or a viable option, but much like the movies, Indiana only resorts to fisticuffs or his pistol as a last resort.

I am excited to keep playing, but this is already one of my favorite games of 2024.

After completing my first play through at roughly 67 hours /played, with a small handful of quests that were skipped, here to share some thoughts:
1. The character creator, classes/subclasses, are some of the best of any CRPG I've played (and i have played a lot). You could easily have a different playthrough for each mythic path, and enough of the experience would likely be different that it feels fresh. If you really enjoy tinkering, leveling, gearing, and the role-playing element of CRPGs, this game has that in spades.
2. The crusade management system is poorly balanced. It is very, very easy to have a weak army who can't beat any demon armies, so then your moral drops, which makes it hard to recruit new troops and strengthen your army, which...you get the point. The gameplay loop to build up the crusade is so fragile, if you make a singular mistake it can really ruin any chance you have of success. I highly, highly recommend download the mod that allows you to automatically win/complete crusade battles. Let the CRPG be the star that it is.
3. The balance gets a little unpredictable in Chapter 4 and 5. Enemies with a dozen different permanent buffs, mirror image, etc etc. I only played on normal, so god help the people who decide to tackle the harder difficulties without min/maxing their characters.
4. The actual NPC companions are great. I ended up making decisions that led to a couple of their deaths in the late game, and decided to live with my choices. It made it more impactful instead of loading a save.

TLDR; Fantastic CRPG mechanics, companions, some balance issues, crusade system sucks. Would still recommend at full price.

I've been playing Siege since launch but recently came over from console to PC.
Not too interested in writing a long winded review so here are the bullet points:
Pros:
- No tactical shooter like it on the market
- No two matches are every exactly alike
-Major variability between different operators and their abilities
- Rewards clever gameplay as much as skilled twitch skills

Cons
- Very steep learning curve for new players
- Community can be pretty toxic