So I made a post a week ago about not being able to get into this game despite trying several times, and after reading some comments, as well as ditching the controller, it finally clicked and I beat story mode! I had played before and got as far as doing Ayahuasca and searching for the climbing rope, but I kept getting lost and feeling like I didn't have much direction aside from the road. While playing this time my buddy was watching and googled where climbing rope was, but after that I pretty much figured out everything on my own. I kind of felt the flow of the game got pretty linear after that, just find place to make Ayahuasca, find new item to unlock new area, rinse and repeat until the end. I then YouTubed the good ending and did that in my own game. Aside from a few native encounters and some big cats sneaking up on me, it was pretty easy once you figure out how all the mechanics work.

After this I noticed there was a prequel DLC, so I started that up. Man is this different, but idk how much of it is for the good. It feels like the devs listened to everyone complain that the first game was too easy and linear, so they just threw that model out the window and have you aimlessly wander the jungle. My biggest complaint so far is not being able to find the map after a few hours of trial and error, and eventually got frustrated and googled it. HOW THE FUCK was I supposed to find it in the bottom right corner on top of the ship?? Even after I got there I had to watch a YouTube video to see what crate it was in. My question is, is there anything in the game that suggests you go here or nudges you in this direction? I am really enjoying the increased difficulty with more native camps and a brand new map, but I'm really not liking the lack of direction in this one. At least finding the road in the first one gave you something to follow but without a map and no direction to go, how do they expect you to figure it out without just looking it up? The whole point of these games is "the fun is figuring it out on your own" so this just defeats the purpose