Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game

Pretty nice indie RPG, you should try it.

Main strengths of the game are setting and variety of choice on how to solve quests. There are not many games which take place on board of a barely functional generation colony ship and this game does well with crafting a believable picture of how such a setting would look like.

Quests almost always can be resolved multiple ways - combat, stealth, diplomacy or using enviromment (through usage of PC's technical skills). If you want you could play through the whole thing without firing a shot.

Dialogue and characters are reasonably well written but don't expect huge branching dialogue trees - this is a small game.

Downsides of the game are mainly combat and scale.

Combat system is simple and functional but largely uninteresting. It's not bad, it works just fine, but it doesn't bring a whole lot of joy either. That said, there is not that much of it and you really could avoid all of it.

Scale-wise you could really see that this game is made by a small team of developers. It's well made, but there is only so much a small studio could do realistically. Side quests feel front loaded - first half of the game is filled with good volume of locations and content but after you reach the ship's biggest "city" you get a few faction related quest lines and then the game begins tunneling hard on main story with each location getting smaller in terms of content it has. As a result, the main big political struggle of the game doesn't get fleshed out that much. There are multiple endings but most of them are a variation of the same thing where one side just takes over and gets shit done.

This is a great CRPG with not-so-great combat and balancing.
A must play if you're a CRPG fan who's fond of good world-building and story however!

extremely well written, fun and engaging combat, massively rewards exploration and problem solving. a good successor to age of decadence and worth playing if you enjoy isometric squad based RPGs

There are a lot of retro CRPGs on Steam that try to evoke the feeling of classic 90's RPGs like Fallout. Few manage it. Most are trying to hard to emulate those older games that they feel more like rehashes then something fresh.

Colony Ship is different. You can see the influences, but it's not afraid to forge it's own path. The end result feels manages the tricky balance of feeling like part of the lineage but also being it's own thing. Stylish and original world building, challenging and interesting combat, engaging and frequently funny writing. Colony Ship has it all.

Great game! Didn't kick my ass as much as Underail, which I appreciate very much

When a group of bull frogs can wipe out your party of four easily, I can see why the sales of this challenging game are lower than expectations. Just like age of decadence, the difficulty of progressing is not exactly fun. I prefer the shadowrun trilogy over this quite frankly

An excellent crpg. Fun combat. Wish it was longer

Wish there was a neutral recommendation. Reminded me a lot of the Wasteland 2 and 3 games - "a simple click mouse on highlighted things RPG". Not really ANY real replay value unless you wanna go over the same things with different flavours over and over again. Buy only at discount as I doubt it's worth it at full price.

A beautiful independently produced romp through dystopian hard science fiction. Worth the price of admission for replayability alone.

Great RPG, feels very indie but surprisingly high quality some things could be a little smoothed out like skill progression and gear acquiring as when i finally had enough skill points needed to get the best stuff(even though i was focusing hard on getting as high skill levels as possible) when i finally got the good stuff the game was at the end and i didn't have any combats to test my new gear as the hardest combats i had already done and the later parts of the game i was able to finish peacefully.
This doesn't mean i am disappointed that there was no endgame combat for me, on the contrary more RPGs should have the option to resolve things peacefully but maybe allow the player to get the good gear a little earlier to be able to play with it.
Be advised on the underdog difficulty this game is VERY hard with some fights that made me have to spend hours to almost days trying to win, that can be seem as a negative to some but i quite liked the challenge as there almost always was a way to be able to do it, but that required me to squeeze my XP gain as hard as i could to be able to keep up.
The story was simple but very enjoyable with the player's choice changing many things around how it plays a nice and good dystopian sci-fi that didn't overstay it's welcome and leaves you wanting for more.
A sequel would be interesting to see especially if it increased the character creation options, alien, full cyborg, maybe even robot would be very nice to have as a main character.

Decent Game in dire need of a bit more polish. I really enjoyed the intricate character creation, build variety and the vast amount of different weapons & equipment you can find on the ship tho.

The Story is alright, but the decision you have to make in Act 2 felt a bit forced and boring. Should have been able to found the independent stationstate of Cargonia down in the Pit instead (or just destroy the Machine).

In conclusion: Not quite as good as Age of Decadence and a bit expensive after the full release. I would recommend waiting on a sale for this one.

If you like complex and immersive RPG's and don't mind getting your ass kicked, this is the game for you

Game and story began to bore me so much that I stopped playing the game.

The game has a pretty good story. You have to think a little more about how you decide to resolve conflicts with the NPC's. Combat isn't always the answer. Gear doesn't seem to really improve your chances as much as in other games. Damage is unpredictable and erratic. The percentage chance to hit is inconsistent when neither you or the target has moved and the percentages drop from high end 70 to 90 down to 15. The easy mode isn't really easy and the hard is really much more difficult on the impossible side. Early on you end up with no good choices. You fight NPC's and loose party members or you fight the mutant creatures and die. I would give this a 2/5 and will recommend it to only those who want a serious challenge.

It's hard to start, hard to understand, and easy to excel at when you do understand. Good game for players who enjoy more unforgiving storytelling.

Im enjoying part of the game, the history is something meh, good characters and a lot of missions, but only few of them really seems like part of an story.
But, enough to recommend it.
Then why not?
Just have a lot of combat mechanics not well explained, or just dumb (6 hour in game and I can not rescue a down character?¿?), some enemies just have the most ridiculous mechanics, and you are not prepared for it, and you have no fucking clue about what its happening, of course, you can go outside the game, search in discussions, reddit, and then prepare a team and combat equipment, wait a few levels and comeback... that just horrendous game mechanics, all red flags together, pls game devs, stop that nonsense, your game is not "cool" cause its difficult to the point you need to spend hours outside the game investigating, or just scum loading dozens of times, that's idiotic, and mostly people hate it, you will scare most of the players or make them stop playing.

I will keep playing it, but really, when a game made me pause and put a bad review, due to Im mad cause stupid game decisions or ego or whatever the reason behind that nonsense, and Im enjoying part of the game, and hate the other part, maybe game dev need to think twice, if its just cause he like that in their games, then I can tell you, run from this game, you will stop playing at some point, and then think about those hours lost in a stupid nonsense.

The game makes no fun. This is not even a game: developers made a framework but forgot to add a gameplay.
Moreover, the developers have ignored all the legacy of modern culture: Sci-fi literature, most of RPG games experience, etc.
I'm a fan of "Generation ship" genre of Sci-fi. My favorite book is the "Ballad of the Beta-2". Unfortunately this game has nothing in common with sci-fi...

Great game for those that enjoy a challenging RPG style with choices that matter. Great story and factions to join, these guys make great games and this is right up there with AoD which I also loved

Has Fallout Vibes
with Less Clutter, More Visual Candy
Good Story
Combat is intense, very hard to be OP
Maybe 20-30 solid hours of game play, more if you are completionist.

Colony Ship and it's older brother, Age of Decadence, are certainly not the type of "RPG" pushed out by modern AAA studios, which lets be honest, are really nothing more than action games with a thin veneer of "role playing mechanics" haphazardly smeared on top. Iron Tower Studios two games though? No. They're reminiscent of the golden age of CRPG's, standing alongside the likes of Fallout 1 and 2, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Lionheart (christ I bet that shows my age if anyone actually recalls such an obscure title released right before the death of Black Isle Studios and Interplay) Arcanum, and a host of other CRPG's that some of us were lucky enough to be alive when they released, are joined by Iron Tower Studio's additions to the grand hall of CRPG classics. While it's clear that Iron Tower Studio is a lower budget small studio, they're still able to make games that are easily AA quality when it comes to asthetics while blowing most "modern" RPG's out of the water with their writing and settings. That's not even getting into the difficulty of gameplay, which doesn't hold your hand or make you some kind of demigod able to tank your way through thousands of opponents. Instead, you're just a man (or woman), trying your best to survive in the rather bleak settings of the games and working your way up and forward through hard work and grit, not godlike abilities to take punishment and deal out death. Even though my stats say I only have 1.4 hours on record with Colony Ship, I actually have easily over a hundred hours playing offline, thanks to Metronet going down for almost a week and me starting up a game of Colony Ship and getting sucked into the setting and world building.

This team knows how to make an RPG. Setting, storytelling and background lore is always on point. They enjoy creating the game that is in a sense more realistic - That is going in guns blazing, swords slashing into every encounter is likely to make you dead fast. It was this way in Age of Decadence and it is so in Colony Ship.
While that is true the game still allows you to feel powerful, it just gives you a suite of options to round out your character in a way that you enjoy that can handle situations in different ways.

I think they handle the psychology pretty well too, if a little optimistic. Being on a generational ship in cramped quarters with what is likely all that's left of humanity is and would be nothing short of a powder keg. The differing political, ethical, and moral ideals would create such striation that I don't personally think this mission could ever be a success in the reality.

It's a compelling tale and I think they tell it well. If you've needed a good story with high stakes, do yourself a favor and pick it up. Hopefully they can make Colony Ship 2 so that we can see what happens in the next bit of the story.

Colony Ship is a wild story of a uniform culture gathering together and reaching their goals, then falling apart generations later where you come in. You're a scavanger in post apocaliptic situation on a ship that's going to another star system. You'll never see the sun. Any sun really and never walk on grass.

The question is, are they going to tell good stories about you when you're gone?

If you're into classic Computer Role Playing Games this is one you need for your library.

Fantastic CRPG in an original setting with choices more challenging than its combat.
I love the atmosphere of this game, the story and all the characters who are just drudging through the misery and rust of their setting.
It's an rpg where your build really does matter, which I always appreciate, and where if you build correctly and really think about your dialogue choices, you can go the whole game without experiencing actual combat, which speaks to just how much depth and confidence Iron Tower place into their games, they give you the ability to skip entire mechanics, so long as you can master other ones.

Colony Ship has a compelling story coupled with a skill based and/or guns-ho approach.
The world is plausible and draws you in and you can make multiple runs to see all the game has to offer, so it is well worth a shot.

They finally released it, and thankfully added a little custom difficulty slider. Without that the game plays more like a puzzle where you need a guidebook - "which sequence of quests or battles do i take to get my persuasion to X, so I can do Y in chapter Z"? Or which sequence of doors do I need to click to get lockpick to 9 to unlock a box in ABC?

Do yourself a favor and set the custom skill gain to +50%, maybe limit the enemy crit to 5% and you are all set to finish the game, *without* it being a puzzle game.

I feel the real test for a game is how many hours you are willing to play it.
Let's face it, everyone has competing priorities in life.

Any game that can hold my attention for 40+ hours is a great success in my book.

Love the atmosphere, the neo-Christianity setting, the combat, the multiple paths one can take.
Yes, I did restart 3 times, but found it still enjoyable as I was learning from my mistakes.

Thanks Iron Tower Studios!

The game is amazing, enjoyed every bit of it. Love the story, characters, combat and the setting. Highly recommend. Loved Age of Decadence, too, so give that one a shot as well.

In this world of gaming, it can be hard to find PRGs that provide a rich story, challenging play and enough variance to make me want to replay a game more than once or twice. This is especially true for games developed from smaller companies. Every once in a while you find a diamond in the rough and Colony Ship, to me, is that diamond. To say I enjoy this game is an understatement. At this point I have completed the game three times using different character builds and honestly, I am planning on playing another run through soon. If you prefer a strategic leveling and equipment system, without the constant grinding, then you will find this game to be an enjoyable use of your gaming time. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys fun and challenging RPG experience. Looking forward to future projects from this team.

I would absolutely not recommend this for any fan of casual or "fair" tactical games.

This game is like Shadowrun Returns with the combat difficulty of X-Com... except your characters are not random soldiers, they're actual NPCs with personalities and backgrounds, so losing them is more than just losing a soldier. And unless you min/max every aspect of the game, from your stats to how you use your weapons and skills and rely on consummables a lot, you -will- lose them.
If you play on Underdog difficulty, that is.

If you play on Hero difficulty, the game is just too easy.

And the Custom Options don't allow for much in-between.

Colony Ship has many aspects that make it an amazing game and I can say that it is one of my favorite games. The concept of the story is awesome, the fact that there are multiple generations of people living on a space ship is kind of scary and interesting. The soundtrack for the game is good too, as well as the creators other games too (Dungeon Rats, Age of Decadence).

Another fun part of the game I enjoy is the combat system, and the many difference item options and combinations there are. Each weapon in the game has different sound effects too, and a cool description to come with it.

Overall I love the work that was put into this game, I never have seen so many small patches for a game like this and for the cost too. The small updates they did, like adding in extra quests, and areas to explore show that the creators love their games and I think that's really cool.

This game, is a great tactical squad based RPG game. if you enjoy games like pillars of eternity, baldur's gate, divinity of sins. etc etc all these great games. you will absolutely enjoy this game. this game does have multiple different endings and your choices do impact what happens. I've only seen one, and I will one day see the others.

bottom line, TRY THIS GAME! you wont be disappointed if you like the games like the ones I mentioned. its a hidden gem, that shouldnt be a hidden gem!

A game for those that enjoy table top rpg style mechanics, isometric old school crpg party based games, and strategy combat, all bundled together with a reasonably well written sci-fi dystopian story.

Overall. 4/5. I would put this game as a solid contender in the genre that does a good deal to get the job done and satisfy you. Some failure points, but this is a solid game you would put enough hours into to get your money back.

Combat. Very in-depth mechanics. This is probably what you are initially coming to the game for. You will need to experiment and problem solve a bit to figure them out, but afterwards, it will provide some recurring satisfaction and rewards for your understanding.

Gameplay Difficulty. Can be changed up, but really, if you put the time into understanding the combat mechanics, LOOK at what the enemies are doing AND LOOK at what/where they have items equipped, you won't have a problem on any difficulty. As a player, you just have to be observant and problem solve a bit.

Writing. Has some failure points, sure, but overall is much better quality then you will find in similar, or larger games.

Party/Companions. Varied enough to care about and be interesting. Each have there own related quests.

Lone Wolf Play Through. it is challenging, but most of my time playing the game was figuring out how to do this and the executing.

Choices Matter. They do matter at the level you would expect with a tighter story with a couple of factions to choose from and the game being from a smaller studio. Endings are more varied then, "you get a different colored explosion", so you will feel like the story path you choice actually made a difference in the end.

After hearing that this studio has not made enough from this game to pursue an ambitious sequel, i've decided to leave a review to increase visibility. I'm not the most articulate, so I just want to express that both this game, and Iron Towers' previous game, Age of Decadence, are incredibly underrated RPGs. Mechanically complex, sometimes unforgiving, but rewarding both in combat and story and roleplaying. Iron Tower are the kind of studio that RPG players should want to keep thriving into the future, pushing the envelope and exploring new settings. More people should be able to experience what they have to offer.

I'm a Brotherhood of Liberty guy btw.

Colony Ship is an all around excellent RPG! It has a little of everything that makes games like BG2, Fallout, and Wastelands great and totally replayable. I really wish that some of this could have been voice acted (I'm really asking a lot for a small indie developer), but that just speaks to how well designed and written the game is.

Set on "easy" that game is fairly simple to navigate. On hard... man, you better save OFTEN! All in all, this is a love letter to the genre and does it proud!

- The combat is really bad and awkward
- non charisma builds are non viable
- it's hard to gauge the difficulty of each sidequest, hope you like save & loading a lot
- some quests are unclear
- bad ui design/interactions
- bad pathing

I had this game on my wishlist for a long time before buying it (waiting for a sale) and feel a bit guilty about that after reading news from the developer. That bit explained that though sales were good (for an indie game), it wasn't enough to pay for a subsequent project as large/ambitious as they'd prefer. Well, I'll do my part to help change that:

I absolutely loved this game and only neglected to write a review because I played it so long after launch that I figured everything had already been said that needed to be said by other players. This is just to say the story, writing, atmosphere, setting, game-play, combat, all of it, was extraordinarily good. I played to completion and was disappointed things were over... after 70 hours of playtime. This game is well worth the full price. If you are worried by previous Iron Tower hard core games, this one has options to reduce the brutality. The game has plenty to give in other departments: I did not miss it.

A really well-made tactical Sci-Fi RPG with hardcore combat that can actually be beaten without any combat at all (there's even an achievement for that). If you're an experienced gamer, this alone should tell you a lot. For a triple-A product made with a huge budget, I'd probably find a thing or two to complain about. For an indie product? This is a masterpiece.

Buy it if you:
1. Like good old-school RPGs that actually let you role-play your character (choose to be a hero, a psychopath, a mercenary, a religious fanatic or something in between; no holding your hand, no preferences for being a 'good guy' aside from your own conscience).
2. Enjoy a challenge (the combat is turn-based, yet unforgiving, you'd need to use your brain and prepare; that said, a smart and charismatic character can talk his way out of ANY situation).
3. Don't want RPGs to look like Dragon Age Veilguard and are willing to support talented people, thus allowing them to create good games for us to enjoy.

Recommended without a doubt.

This feels exactly like something that came out next to icewind dale and baldur's gate, but had much better writing.

It's not that old though, it just came out recently. It's a modern classic, in the classic style for CRPGs. If you liked those games or those style of games, you'll like this. Especially if you played those games as a teenager and you're an adult now, the tone is... Appropriate.

Good turn based combat, excellent writing, and a great sci-fi world setting pick it up if your a fan of older turn based rpgs.

First and foremost the 395 hours is a lie. When I play through A game and find it tough to continue I leave it open all day and night until I finish it. While I likely spent at least 20 to 30 hours on this project the rest can be seen as a rough approximation of the number of days I procrastinated finishing it once I decided I would.

Second I can say I have beaten the game and gotten 4 endings, So I am pretty sure I am not missing anything mechanically in my review.

First and foremost if the game started half way through act 1 or even at the beginning of act 2 I would approve of this game despite its flaws. But The one thing that keeps me from recommending this game is that I find the whole things difficulty too tight. It plays like fallout 1, but without the random encounters. Rather than grinding out a few levels/skill points early on when I hit a wall, the game has a bad habit of either forcing you to choose a more pacifist playthrough that strangles you of the combat experience necessary to engage with the game in any way other than as a whipping boy. Especially if I built a failure of a combat character. A problem that seems to disappear if you make it to act 2 with a decent amount of combat experience.

To put it to a point I ended up making 9 different characters in act 1 before I managed to make a character that didn't get hard stuck in such a way that they wouldn't be to terrible to claw a way to the end game. Not just because of combat experience, but similarly with espionage skills, technical skills, and social skills. The game has very tight skill level up paths and if you miss a couple of them you will suddenly find yourself behind on equipment, money, unable to convince someone of not blowing your knee caps in should you not be able to get past the combat wall, or the like.

Additionally if you move to get assistance for falling behind in some way, the only real advice I have seen on the forum is a build recommendation, which I find especially problematic, because building characters Is half the point of a character builder rpg. Net decking your build so you can experience the game is a sign of a poor learning curve. (Side note there is one amazing Guide by Huggybear who will effectively play the game for you giving you the best way to move forward if you do get stuck I used it personally as a way to keep track of when I have done all the quests in the area, although the game is actually good at telling you when you missed a quest before progressing..)

Finally the arena's are in many cases designed poorly for tactical combat. Many of them are tight rooms with few squares and little cover leading to me usually boxing an enemy in with my tank characters before shooting them in the head with my squishys a not very engaging tactic that can quickly just being everyone standing around each other emptying lead into each other heads. But small arena's isn't the worst of it. many times the game will have a combat option that seems straight forward only for it to teleport you multiple rooms away surrounded where all of your opponents start either behind or right next to cover. Only for a different option to start combat give you initiative bonus and give you choke point. Not because any of your characters an ounce of stealth but just because you had the foreknowledge not to pick the fight button (and you might get more xp for it) The most notable example being any fight that takes place right outside the armory. There is also one really janky stealth section in which your party auto loses the fallout fight, if you fail to sneak through an area in a forced failure state that the game just tells you, you lose on and sends you to the next chapter even though your characters might even just be capable enough to win the head on assault by themselves (likely to stop players from getting both combat and stealth exp a horrid crime even though at the 1000 and 2000 skill point mark there is no way that the little bump matters)

Finally when it comes to money the game is super stingy. In many ways consumables in the game are the ultimate savior against some scenerios especially if you don't know the best combos and abilities, yet some consumables can cost your entire life savings to get a single one of and while there may be only 3-4 fights that you really want some of these for someone going on their first time experience it is pretty likely that you wont have one when you need one losing large scale quest rewards and cool narrative moments like when you get your own personally robot up and running

THAT BEING SAID THIS ISN'T A BAD GAME

After you understand what the game wants from you it has really interesting ideas, cool enemy designs in the fungoid creatures and an interesting story of humanity struggling after a war fought by their forefathers. The fight between authoritarianism and freedom and how one can shift from one to another. The level up system is interesting and the complexity by which the game calls upon all your skills is pretty great. I even think many of this games scenerios and battles are really interesting and creative like the heart battle, or end of act 1 siege and the battle against the cyber monks while transporting the goods. I just think in heroic mode they should have shifted the skill difficulty for all skills by 1 point or giving every character an additional feat. Something to make the game more forgiving for a first play through without just making combat easier and nothing else. Notably I beat the game on underdog so none of these would have quelled my own frustrations, but I would also just be an old man yelling at clouds.

tldr: This game would be amazing if it was just a touch more forgiving in all ways. It gets easier once you have an optimized character once act 2 opens up, but that is the exact opposite of what would make me recommend it to someone. Games should start simple and get complicated, not start complicated and get "easy" (the difficulty mostly falls out at the begining of act 3 when your crew becomes a murder machine barring 1 or 2 hard fights or if your character got completly walled and the game refuses to admit it hard locked you.)

Old school rpg with modern graphics and QoL.

Good oldschool RPG with sci-fi lore, nice OST, replayability. Allows for several viable builds, both violence and diplomacy/tech wise. Solo or in party, some stealth, exploration here and there. You have to read and think, plan your resources ahead, read quests and dialogues.

Plays like Fallout2 to me, definetly worth a shot. Try it!

Great game, enjoyed the story and the gameplay.

A great indie RPG. Good variety of choices of factions to join, and ways to accomplish tasks. Combat is mechanically deep, and plenty to do for a stealth-focused or charisma-focused character as well.

One of the most interesting and compelling stories I've experienced in a video game. All throughout the game I was itching to move the story forward to see what happens next, or what lore I might be able to find through exploration. Very much looking forward to jumping back in and playing a different character through one of the other quest lines.

Really enjoy these games!

The stories are fun to work through, and the lore is fun to think through.

My biggest problem with this game is that I expected a step forward in comparison with the studio’s previous game (Age of Decadence).
Unfortunately, game failed badly in this aspect. What I see is 1 step forward in some areas/mechanics, which is immediately hampered by 3 or more steps backwards to accidentally avoid delivering a better production.
I’m disappointed. AoD already proved their ability to deliver a hard but fair RPG in a unique setting. So I don't quite understand, how they managed to fail so badly here.

✅

• One-of-the kind type of setting. You’re on generational ship flying towards Proxima Centauri.
  
  
• Worldbuilding. They left Earth to build their own paradise, but with them came human flaws.
  
  
• Story is decent. Some hidden facts about our ships mission adds additional layer to our quests.
  
  
• Notes providing lore, history etc.
  
  
• Several interesting concepts.
  
  
• Soundtrack is good and fits well the overall theme.
  
  
• Interesting concept of learning some skills via uploading them directly into the brain on special (rare) stations. Very sci-fi and quite original.
  

• Location size. Starting maps are decently complex and provide opportunities for exploration. Unfortunately the further you go, the smaller maps get. Habitat (which should be the biggest “city” in the game) is one massive disappointment.
  
  
• You’re aboard massive generation ship, yet you can’t explore it freely. Only go from point A to B via C.
  
  
• You can’t reset your build. Either restart or use external guides.
  
  
• No dialogue history, so you can’t take longer break from game – otherwise you simply won’t remember who-is-who and where to go.
  
  
• In terms of possible gameplay options, game seems to be a clear step back in comparison to its indirect predecessor. After the initial delight comes disappointment at the artificial limitation of available options.
  
  
• Charisma-based build is viable for most of the game. When it stops becoming viable you hit wall or follow that one path provided by game devs where your build is still possible. Is it against your in-game choices etc.? Yes, it is but it’s also your only option without restarting the game.
  
  
• Main factions looks way too similar to each other. It’s really like different shades of same viewpoint instead of different ideologies.
  
  
• Some game locations auto-teleports you out, when you finish their associated quest. No further exploration possible.
  
  
• Combat is boring and badly designed. Way too much RNG, without taking stats into account.
  
  
• In 9 cases out of 10, the enemies have better fighting positions and you really can't prepare in advance. You can't hide one character under a cloak or throw a grenade in advance.
  
  
• Enemies are combat oriented sock-puppets. Exists solely for their combat encounter and nothing else.
  
  
• No matter how good your build will be, there is always at least 1 enemy which will have higher initiative than you/your party. Going by their equipment, it’s obvious that AI has different rules than you.
  
  
• Stealth mechanics is plain weird. Good concept but quality left much to be desired.
  
  
[*] Psionics is basically uncounterable mechanic. The only way to counter it effectively is with drugs.
So where does the problem lie? Well drugs lasts only 2 in-game rounds and give you a significant combat debuff ( -2 to perception so your hit rate lowers) when it expires. In some fights, you have to take multiple doses to keep the team sane.

I was really looking for that old-school Fallout feel with this game. While it gets someway there it just feels like an inferior version but 30 years later.

A lot of it feels like a puzzle game more than an RPG and while it plays at being open world, you are forced into somewhat of a linear progression because you will get limited by your skill levels, until you train them up somewhere else. The combat is also pretty basic with not much really interesting going on here.

While I think part of my issue with games is that I'm not really jiving with RPGs anymore (Couldn't even finish Baldurs Gate 3) I was hoping this would rekindle those feelings I had playing Fallout, Arcanum, Wizardry, etc, but it falls well short of those.

This game came straight from a parallel dimension in which Bethesda (or the remnants of Obsidian) finally took their heads out of their butts (or never put them there). This game is very serious, though. Almost no campy humour, shenanigans or whacky moments. Yet, it is not taking itself too seriously or desparately trying to be "cool" in a cringeworthy way. Hitting that sweet spot is an achievent in itself. Story is great. Character progression feels satisfying. Atmosphere is on point. Can't ask for a better game in that genre. Sci-Fi is my most hated genre and I still enjoyed every moment. Thanks.

I remember when I first started playing and said to myself, "it's difficult to figure out where things are and to see things on the map". That never gets better and you never get used to it. The quests are generally fairly linear and boring. After the first half hour, the rate at which you get useful items really drops off. You can never use the energy weapons because there aren't even enough reloads to last one fight in the entire first six levels I've played (20 hours). The fights TAKE FOREVER. I guess that's part of it being turn based, but this seems worse than other turn based combat systems I've played.

I guess I got my money's worth in terms of dollars spent to number of hours played, but I can't recommend this game unless you like needing to quick save every 2 minutes and seeing how much frustration you can take.

NOTE: runs fine on Linux via Proton.