Recent reviews by ImagoX

I really REALLY want to love this game. Stunning and creepy visuals! Excellent voice acting! Amazing level and creature design! That's why, despite my frustrations, I'm ranking this as Thumbs Up.

...but

...as a GAME? As a game, Chinese Room, you failed. The gameplay is a a terrible and frustrating experience, entirely because of the amazingly CRAPTASTIC controls.

I came to actively dread the jumping/gripping/climbing puzzles. I'd either not jump and fall off whatever I was leaping from. Or jump, then miss the RClick grab (despite clicking). Or I'd make the grab, hit LClick, then fall anyway.

Seriously Chinese Room... your controls suck. I've been playing games for many, many years, and I'd rank your controller coding as literally some of the worst, vague, and floaty controls I've ever experienced. They're literally doing nothing but getting in the way of my experiencing this lovely piece of art you've made. =(

The game LOOKS amazing! Unfortunately, it's simply not *fun*.

Even after 8 hours of playing I basically have no idea what's happening most of the time, and feel completely overwhelmed - there's 18 bazillion tiny icons all over the place, ships with seventeen tiny abilities buttons (all with wordy AF tooltips and inexplicable reasons why they won't seem to work when you need them to), etc. Basically the devs were like "What should the game do? Well... how about EVERYTHING?"Right from Turn 1.

Couple that with plenty of mission bugs (God help you if you miss a tutorial step in the blizzard of overwhelming information being thrown at you because you'll have no idea why enemy ships are suddenly invincible and/or you can't finish a mission step you seem to be able to finish) and the overall experience is more 'annoying' than anything.

And I'm not even going to mention the fact that YOU CAN'T SAVE THE GAME until you're completely done with the 'Tutorial" Campaign (yes, you read that right... not mission... CAMPAIGN) - that's just so far beyond irritating I almost uninstalled at that point but figured I'd press on and see if things got better.

They didn't. Too bad - it really is pretty. NOT recommended, at least for busy adults who actually want a game they can pick up and play on THEIR schedule (not the developers'), and one that builds in complexity over time.

Visually stunning with *just enough* mechanics, coupled with the fantastic lore of Robert E. Howard. While PvE inside the game world is great, PvP is janky and prone to some serious abuse - if PvP is your thing then proceed with caution. If, however, you're a role player then give this a try ASAP - there are great RP server lists on Reddit and elsewhere to help you find a player community that's perfect for almost everyone.

Good luck, Exile!