I really want to like this game and I'm on the fence, but as fun as it can be at times it also feels like the devs just want to see you suffer.
Map traversal is a chore. There are fast travel points but they are far apart and the entire map is a shattered plain of deep pits and canyons filled with Fog/Shroud. You will end up running everywhere repeatedly while trying to avoid fog but having to traverse it constantly.
There are random patches of red fog a bit everywhere. It's incredibly easy to wander into it as the boundary is ill-defined, doing so is more or less instant death, especially if you were already in regular fog with your bar half depleted.
NPCs flood you with so many quests that you can't keep track of which is important and what order they should be done in. They also tend to send you to overlevelled areas even if you are several levels lower than the enemies there. In this game, a few levels difference can be huge!
Harvesting resources for construction and certain crafting recipes is So, So grindy!
Crafting is a mess. There are far too many crafting stations, each with a hodge podge of recipes, sometimes they will only have three or so recipes each. Some items need to be built by talking to NPC townspeople instead of using stations. Some crafting stations also need to be built by talking to NPC townspeople, hidden in their crafting list somewhere. Why cant the alchemist just have you build him a workshop and be the central hub for crafting things? Why does every item need a different NPC to upgrade? Why are there glider recipes spread between different stations and NPCs? It is. A. Mess!
Some crafting recipes take real world minutes to craft a single recipe for a component you need in bulk.
The worst part are the dogs. Dogs are bloody everywhere, ruin exploration, and are the least enjoyable part of combat. 4/5 deaths? It was dogs. They spawn in packs and bum rush you. They are too fast to really avoid or kite, and have a leap attack that both does heavy damage and closes the distance. Every time they will just sequentially leap at you, taking out a third to one-half of your HP on EACH HIT.
Just imagine, 6 dogs, all charging like freight trains, just reaching you one after the other in a line, all chunking your health bar. You can't stand and fight, their attacks are too sudden and you will get surrounded if you survive the initial rush. You can't kite, you will get some distance and they will close the 10m gap before you can charge a fireball, now your out of stamina so your really f***ed! You can't take them out with fireballs, they tank 3 of them and don't cluster close enough to all be hit at once. A two-handed weapon works ok if you can manage to fight 2 at once, but you will still get steamrolled by packs most times. You can't block, they will stun you during the initial charge, leaving you out of stamina, and by the time the barrage ends the first is about to leap again. You can't really parry, they are so fast that while you might get one sucessful pary, 5 more are on your ass. You can parry one, maybe 2, but even if they get stunned you will be blocking enough hits to stun you half the time, and you can't punish the one you stunned because the other 5 are winding up for another leap.
And they are EVERYWHERE! Walk through the forest? Wolf Pack. Scavenger camp? Dogs in your face along with a scythe guy and a ranged harasser. Old fort? Wolves. NPC sent you to a crypt as a side quest? Guess what? The Necromancers have packs of undead dogs!
4 deaths out of 5 dogs were involved. I can take out a boss several levels above me by whittling it down, or kite groups humanoids no issue, but dogs? There's no bloody counter! It's F***ing Atrocious!
Maybe the game gets better once you learn more of it's systems and hit the right side of the power curve, but it's so aggresively hostile towards new players that it makes for a very aggravating experience.
