Grabbing a moment to come up for air. Over 60hrs into my proper playthrough (just now getting into Act 2, there's a total of 3) This is by far and away the greatest RPG I have ever played and will play for a very long time, and I've played so many. From all the countless JRPGs with zero choices and the generic RPG standards upheld by Ubisoft, to the trendsetting titans by CDPR, Bioware and Bethesda and the down & dirty hardcore classics by Black Isles, Obsidian and the like. This is it, if the other big boy devs can keep up, then this is the new standard. My interest in Starfield has truly been gobbled up by it and I'm really questioning if Bethesda can even match this, time will tell soon.... but probably not.
I'm struggling to put this game down, it's so damn addictive and is constantly rewarding for every single action I take. This game is super easy to get into, especially for casuals. It's not overly complicated, but at the same time can be extremely deep and complex. Much like the actual tabletop DnD setup, you can do just about anything you want in this game. The level of freedom and consequence is nuts. On the spectrum of being good to evil and everything in between, it doesn't hold any punches for what you can do. While I'm currently playing a goody two-shoes Paladin right now, you can also be abhorrently and deplorably evil in this game.... I'm talking all the damn way with this. You can kill and torture every single character in this game if you want to, including very important story characters (in very creative ways), from the harmless elderly and innocent animals all the way down to children and the unborn. There's even an Origin to build your character on called the Dark Urge that allows you to properly roleplay as a serial killer (complete with a full storyline). You can run around butterball naked throughout the entire game with your genitals on full display (some characters even have things to say about it). This game ain't for children godammit lol.
The writing, the characters, the dialogue options, quest design, romance, choices, and so on. It's all done so incredibly well and being so memorable and deep. It's damn enthralling with all its dense content, but the best part is that it never feels like my time is being wasted like it does in a Ubisoft game. Everything you put time into you get rewarded for it, including your own character build as every race, sub-race, class, and subclass has their own reactivity in the game. If you play as a Drow, Tiefling or Githyanki for example, you're gonna face a lot of racism with radically different interactions and outcomes. It's insane.
As a bonus, here are some creative ways on disposing or dealing with any character in the game, including your own companions and love interests. Simply because you can freely:
- Casting a spell that puts someone into a controlling fit of laughter, then using another spell to banish them into another dimension, and leaving them there.
- Casting a spell that holds them into place with astral chains, then pulling out a slave whip and whipping them until you've had enough... or until they die.
- Bashing someone over the head with a chair, then stuffing their corpse into a barrel, fill the barrel with rotten eggs, then proceeding to throw said barrel off of a cliff/building with them inside.
- Use a command spell/scroll to command someone to bend the knee towards you... then throw food in their face, use another command spell to order them to then walk off a cliff. Alternatively, you can order them to walk into a pit of fire and watch them burn alive, screaming.
I'm really just scratching the surface of the iceberg here, the possibilities are honestly up to your imagination. I often ask myself before doing something in this game "Can I do this?" "If I did this, would it work?" 90% of the time, the answer is yes. The only time something didn't work was basically due to videogame limitations. There is no one way, nor wrong way to do something. There's always a solution, even if you have to create your own. I love it.
There's so much more I wanna say about this game, but I don't want this wall of text to get too long. But man, this game is so so good, so damn good. I genuinely can't remember the last time a game has made me feel this way... maybe Disco Elysium... maybe, but otherwise it's been decades. This was the easiest and also safest full-priced game purchase I've made since Skyrim back in 2011. The reviews coming out (lot of 9s and 10s), reaching the highest metascore of the year (beating Tears of the Kingdom), the utterly insane playercount for a game like this, countless others losing sleep because they can't put the game down is unbelievable but also super cool & surreal.
TLDR: Best RPG ever made, 10 out of 10. ****in' hell.
The term "Masterpiece" is being thrown around by critics and players alike repeatedly, but I have to agree with them on this. This game is an absolute masterpiece and a masterclass display of roleplaying freedom, storytelling and consequences.
Anyway, I'm gonna go dive back in now.
