I can comfortably recommend this game during deeper discounts, i would not recommend it at full price. When i was first looking into this game i saw comparisons to the Witcher 3, yes it is a dark RPG and you do investigations, but the similarities end there.
If i had to make a comparison, the gameplay and exploration feels the closest to the new gen God of War games. The controls, level design even combat feel sometimes like a copy even. Then you mix in the dark RPG elements with investigations and you get this game.
I have seen other reviews mention that the game is too dragged out for its own good and i can feel it already 8 hours in. The exploration and level design are not that amazing, it is semi-linear just like GoW, there is backtracking. It does feel more like a chore between the story beats. The combat aint bad but im never looking forward to fights either. The main driving force are just the stories for me.
On the topic of story, you can feel the ruthless dark atmosphere which is great. Im yet to feel any meaning or consequences to my choices, the game is very transparent from the start that your choices will affect the ending, but i would like to see some immediate consequences as well. Right now i have made some pretty messed up choices on purpose and nobody seems to care so far.
This pretty much sums up the game all the way up to defeating the first major boss, i might edit the review upon full completion if anything changes.
EDIT after finishing the game: The first 8 hours did feel slow, but after the game opened up it turned into grocery shopping, meaning you follow a list of tasks and walk a LOT. The stories were interesting but progressing them was a big chore. It felt like every investigation involved 15 minutes of walking and dull repetitive combat. I did all of the investigations and still managed to finish the game fairly quickly in the end, but it was still pretty rough.
As other reviews have mentioned this could have been a solid 10-15hr story focused experience instead of this semi-open world chore checklist. Still i stand by my recommendation, during big discounts this game is worth experiencing, but have your expectations straight.
