Played this cause some anons rec the 3rd game over Phoenix Point and I remembered I'd been meaning to play this.

8 hours in and it's sorta picking up from. I might actually get past the First Act now (Somewhere around Titan Canyon is were I stopped pre-DC when the DC was announced). It helps I think that they massively retooled the AG Center Quest Line (I don't remember it being this way pre DC but then again I have done Highpool more times so it makes sense I remember that better)

It still feels janky and undercooked but it's sorta getting there. QoL features missing is disappointing Graphics are still bland and uninspired. It kinda feels somehow one step forward but three steps back vs the HB Shadowrun Games (The closest game I like that I can think of. That game had so much style and visual identity and had an actually somewhat active modding community, did they just gave up on the modding kit for this game or did people just didn't care?)

Wish it addressed the following post release

Being able to pause time to set up ambush attacks

Stopping movement when succeeding perception checks so you don't miss shit. ACH I keep forgetting about mines sometimes when backtracking and it takes an alternate route.... yes No Man's Land.

Fast forwarding time.

Being able to set party formations

Being able to preview and rotate where they'll end up like in Tyranny and PoE.

Portraits in general just being recycled all over the place / Or in worst cases just straight up not nice to look at (Pipezi and some of the pregens).... and actually not having any portraits available ay all to the player.

Angela just disappearing when you dismiss her pre-Titan's Canyon... devs just said it's intentional despite not being the case pre-DC nor even giving a warning if you do so... I don't think it's even mentioned in game. Was hoping to keep her for dialogue flavor up to the RSM quest. I tend to switch between party members to keep mixing the interactions but ahhhh their input is no Tyranny or Shadowrun other than Angela they all kinda just give different flavors of "Oooh neat".

TFW had to manually kill Vax after that fucker melted Scotchmo. I mean I reloaded still and this isn't really a complaint but it's just somethjng.

I still do enjoy it. The sheer amount of alternate solutions is cool though the rewards don't really do it justice... 2/3rds of the time the effort and skill required feel incredibly disproportionate to what they're giving.... Like the area in the Mushroom Cave where you can blow up the vines preemptively before you clear the East and West vents that leads to.... nothing just a dig spot with random loot. Then there's 2 High Level Skill requirement checks in the 1st Rail Nomads Map (The gate near the entrance and a safe in the deeper parts of camp) that made me think of how these must have some pretty cool shit... and idk I think it just rolled me some loot from a better than usual loot table I got a generic Weapon Mod in the safe and I think just bullets for behind the gate.

I later learned that some actually unique handplaced items can be found by digging graves which IDK I mean the game even calls out on that being a bad idea... I guess I won't really bother going back for these since I try to keep my team's kleptomania to a minimum.

How much of an improvement is the 3rd game? I might still finish this since I'm halfway to the part where it's new to me but some other stuff to look forward would be nice as well.