Huh. Where should I even start with this game. To make things clear, this is not POSITIVE review! This is NEUTRAL review. But given positive, because it is not negative neither (duh). Ok, so, we are talking about the game which was in last year "The Game Awards", candidate for "Best Narrative". From that "Best narrative", I can tell that I've seen none, or at least not much. Game which have won "story-rich" award on Steam in 2019. Game which writter was the same person from Life is Strange 1, multiple award winning game back in 2015. Game that costs 45 euros. With all this being said, it became also "a game with high expectations" in my eyes. What game actually offers?

* Great first impression. At least for me. Game starts in the forest, you can't evade the amazing graphics and atmosphere... and flaws as well. When I first started the game, my FPS got capped on 30, instead of regular 60. As someone who played so many new titles on maximum configuration with flat 60fps, seeing this game launching on 30 already made me wondering whats happening? Optimization problems! I had to lower graphics to medium to get 60fps, and even then, game periodically drops to 30-45fps. Graphics were still good, don't get me wrong, but when your PC fits "recommended requirements" and you can't play it on maximum configuration, then there is some problem.

* Story? Honestly, but honestly, I don't understand whats so fascinating about it. Everything in the game is predictable. Characters are poorly written, without any backstory about them, and by the end of game, I felt no connection to main protagonist Amicia, or Hugo, her younger brother. While on the other hand, I got that feeling in soooo many games that I've previously played. In first 30 minutes of the game, you already know everything what is going to happen. Your dog Lion (or Leon!?) dies, your father dies, your mother dies. And no, this is not a spoiler, because, as said, all of this happened in first 30 minutes of the game or so. I know about the later part with mother
> So basically, you kinda get "immune" to feelings of someones death, because you already got used to it in the very beginning of the game. I seriously don't know if this game was supposed to be sad as well, but for me it didn't. In fact, the saddest thing and literally only thing that was in my head for the time of playing this game was death of your dog... and that happened in like first 5 minutes of the game. Only death with solid animations/cutscene, watching someone in pain before it actually dies. And entire scene was intense until it ends. Father death? *Gets hit* - dies. Mother? *Gets hit* - dies. Everyone else in the game who will later die? AGAIN, they will simply get hitted once and die. Like how do you even expect to "provoke" emotions inside people with that?
> Also, in those first 30 minutes, you figure out that inquisition is looking after your brother Hugo, that he has "something special", which leads up to figure out entire story. No twists, or anything like that. What I also dislike is that you are aimlessly running from place to place, and typical stuff like "Oh I'm finally here", and apparently you won't get there what were you looking for, so you have to check another place, where same thing will happen, and it repeats over and over until you finally get what you need and advance in story, which is already dead and have no story in it at all.
> Also some chapters are 1 hour long, while others are 10 minutes long. Which is stupid in my opinion. And timelapse between some chapters feels like skipping around 2 hours of gameplay. Like you spend 6 chapters to reach destination B from destination A and in next chapter, you are already back to destination A again.

* Mechanics: extremely boring and repetitive. I know that you are helpless little girl, so you can't do much against soldiers, but I'm pretty sure there are even simplier mechancics, that would be more interesting and encouraging (with adding more to the story [like Life is Strange]) than throwing rocks from sling and hide'n'seek over and over again. It was interesting at the beginning, but after very short time it gets super boring and repetitive. Periodically you will have to solve simple puzzles with annoying rats. Also game gets easier and easier as you progress and get new powers. They even included some "boss fights", for whatever reason where you are fighting with guess what? Your rock and sling ofcourse!
> Crafting system is bad, and if we go even deeper with it, upgrading orders are entirely messed up. For example, some upgrades are stronger on Level 1, than on level 3. Or when you get to some Level 3 upgrades, they are completely useless. To upgrade/craft, you need items. They are not hard to get, but what made me laugh so badly that even this part is extremely messed up. With one thing that I hate in all games - RNG. You ask how? Well, you can get items when you kill soldiers. But! If you get killed and repeat the scene, you can get different items from that soldier, maybe ones that you don't need at that point, or third, and worst possible outcome, that dead soldiers won't drop any item at all! I ended up the game with 2 things not being fully upgraded (and I honestly didn't even need them) not because it was hard to find materials, but because you were always at full inventory! Even tho I maximized my material/ammunition equipment first, I'm always full with both of them and can't carry more. So, you can carry up to 22 material of each type [at max level]. Some materials you will have constantly at maximum, and can't hold more, but when you get other materials you need to upgrade your equipment, they will usually cost minimum 15 or more. Including both rare and common materials. And you get stuck. You can't spend them, but when you upgrade, you have none of them. That could be made better and way easier! Like giving less drops, or maybe more upgrading levels, or anything, not to be stuck with full inventory. But whatever. Too much about that.

* Music: mediocre! Not bad at all, but from this genre, I've heard better OST in almost any other game.

Aaand good things.
* VA of all characters. Especially Amicia. French accent while speaking english was amazing. Through entire game. And other characters voice actors were great as well! It was all well packed up!

* Graphics, they are stunning. Not much as characters, as surronding world is! All the places you come across, nature and weather, they all look fascinating.

Aaaand thats it. Yep. Those were only things I've actually enjoyed while playing this game. I could also add tons of other stuff I didn't liked, like how Nicholas can't die, even when you throw stones at him and hordes of rats multiple times, but he (ofcourse) kills Arthur in one hit, and many, many other things that make no sense. But as said, I will leave this review on positive side because, as usual, I highly support small developers and their hard work!

If there will be sequel of this game, would I play it? Most likely, but definitely with less expectations!
Is game worth 45 euros? Not at all! I paid it around 18e (60% off), and still feel robbed.
Would I recommend this game to others? If you like this type of games, then sure. But just don't expect too much from it!
Is there anything unique about this game? Nothing much that you haven't seen in any other game up to day.

Huh. Where should I even start with this game. To make things clear, this is not POSITIVE review! This is NEUTRAL review. But given positive, because it is not negative neither (duh). Ok, so, we are talking about the game which was in last year "The Game Awards", candidate for "Best Narrative". From that "Best narrative", I can tell that I've seen none, or at least not much. Game which have won "story-rich" award on Steam in 2019. Game which writter was the same person from Life is Strange 1, multiple award winning game back in 2015. Game that costs 45 euros. With all this being said, it became also "a game with high expectations" in my eyes. What game actually offers? * Great first impression. At least for me. Game starts in the forest, you can't evade the amazing graphics and atmosphere... and flaws as well. When I first started the game, my FPS got capped on 30, instead of regular 60. As someone who played so many new titles on maximum configuration with flat 60fps, seeing this game launching on 30 already made me wondering whats happening? Optimization problems! I had to lower graphics to medium to get 60fps, and even then, game periodically drops to 30-45fps. Graphics were still good, don't get me wrong, but when your PC fits "recommended requirements" and you can't play it on maximum configuration, then there is some problem. * Story? Honestly, but honestly, I don't understand whats so fascinating about it. Everything in the game is predictable. Characters are poorly written, without any backstory about them, and by the end of game, I felt no connection to main protagonist Amicia, or Hugo, her younger brother. While on the other hand, I got that feeling in soooo many games that I've previously played. In first 30 minutes of the game, you already know everything what is going to happen. Your dog Lion (or Leon!?) dies, your father dies, your mother dies. And no, this is not a spoiler, because, as said, all of this happened in first 30 minutes of the game or so. [spoiler]I know about the later part with mother[/spoiler] > So basically, you kinda get "immune" to feelings of someones death, because you already got used to it in the very beginning of the game. I seriously don't know if this game was supposed to be sad as well, but for me it didn't. In fact, the saddest thing and literally only thing that was in my head for the time of playing this game was death of your dog... and that happened in like first 5 minutes of the game. Only death with solid animations/cutscene, watching someone in pain before it actually dies. And entire scene was intense until it ends. Father death? *Gets hit* - dies. Mother? *Gets hit* - dies. Everyone else in the game who will later die? AGAIN, they will simply get hitted once and die. Like how do you even expect to "provoke" emotions inside people with that? > Also, in those first 30 minutes, you figure out that inquisition is looking after your brother Hugo, that he has "something special", which leads up to figure out entire story. No twists, or anything like that. What I also dislike is that you are aimlessly running from place to place, and typical stuff like "Oh I'm finally here", and apparently you won't get there what were you looking for, so you have to check another place, where same thing will happen, and it repeats over and over until you finally get what you need and advance in story, which is already dead and have no story in it at all. > Also some chapters are 1 hour long, while others are 10 minutes long. Which is stupid in my opinion. And timelapse between some chapters feels like skipping around 2 hours of gameplay. Like you spend 6 chapters to reach destination B from destination A and in next chapter, you are already back to destination A again. * Mechanics: extremely boring and repetitive. I know that you are helpless little girl, so you can't do much against soldiers, but I'm pretty sure there are even simplier mechancics, that would be more interesting and encouraging (with adding more to the story [like Life is Strange]) than throwing rocks from sling and hide'n'seek over and over again. It was interesting at the beginning, but after very short time it gets super boring and repetitive. Periodically you will have to solve simple puzzles with annoying rats. Also game gets easier and easier as you progress and get new powers. They even included some "boss fights", for whatever reason where you are fighting with guess what? Your rock and sling ofcourse! > Crafting system is bad, and if we go even deeper with it, upgrading orders are entirely messed up. For example, some upgrades are stronger on Level 1, than on level 3. Or when you get to some Level 3 upgrades, they are completely useless. To upgrade/craft, you need items. They are not hard to get, but what made me laugh so badly that even this part is extremely messed up. With one thing that I hate in all games - RNG. You ask how? Well, you can get items when you kill soldiers. But! If you get killed and repeat the scene, you can get different items from that soldier, maybe ones that you don't need at that point, or third, and worst possible outcome, that dead soldiers won't drop any item at all! I ended up the game with 2 things not being fully upgraded (and I honestly didn't even need them) not because it was hard to find materials, but because you were always at full inventory! Even tho I maximized my material/ammunition equipment first, I'm always full with both of them and can't carry more. So, you can carry up to 22 material of each type [at max level]. Some materials you will have constantly at maximum, and can't hold more, but when you get other materials you need to upgrade your equipment, they will usually cost minimum 15 or more. Including both rare and common materials. And you get stuck. You can't spend them, but when you upgrade, you have none of them. That could be made better and way easier! Like giving less drops, or maybe more upgrading levels, or anything, not to be stuck with full inventory. But whatever. Too much about that. * Music: mediocre! Not bad at all, but from this genre, I've heard better OST in almost any other game. [b]Aaand good things.[/b] * VA of all characters. Especially Amicia. French accent while speaking english was amazing. Through entire game. And other characters voice actors were great as well! It was all well packed up! * Graphics, they are stunning. Not much as characters, as surronding world is! All the places you come across, nature and weather, they all look fascinating. Aaaand thats it. Yep. Those were only things I've actually enjoyed while playing this game. I could also add tons of other stuff I didn't liked, like how [spoiler]Nicholas can't die, even when you throw stones at him and hordes of rats multiple times, but he (ofcourse) kills Arthur in one hit[/spoiler], and many, many other things that make no sense. But as said, I will leave this review on positive side because, as usual, I highly support small developers and their hard work! [b]If there will be sequel of this game, would I play it?[/b] Most likely, but definitely with less expectations! [b]Is game worth 45 euros?[/b] Not at all! I paid it around 18e (60% off), and still feel robbed. [b]Would I recommend this game to others?[/b] If you like this type of games, then sure. But just don't expect too much from it! [b]Is there anything unique about this game?[/b] Nothing much that you haven't seen in any other game up to day.