Recent reviews by Paddy-o-

Cute game that needs a lot more work.
Would refund if I still could.
Right now the base idea is interesting, the execution is poor and thus the game is boring and a chore.

Very cool!

Started playing at v1.5.
I was NOT impressed, when the game crashed within the first hour of playing - during the tutorial no less. (it was the only crash in over 75 hours of playtime).
I was NOT impressed, when the first few NPCs i met looked like weird plastic dolls.
I still am NOT impressed with the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ performance I get out of my RTX 2070 - the game looks nice enough, but has no right running that poorly.

But man... regarding the stories told and the characters met, CD PROJEKT delivered again - big time!
Forget the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ open world, the broken car physics, the messed up police system.
Concentrate on the stories and the characters.
In this game, for the first time in my long gaming life I felt genuinely BAD for turning down an NPC, that was romantically interested in my (female) character, because he came across like just such a nice dude.

This game is definitely worth your time, if you ignore a few janky aspects.

With a bit more polish, this would be a 10/10 masterpiece.
How things stand it is "just" an amazing experience, if you can overlook a few bugs and jank.

It's a HORRIBLE waste of your time. You always think the good parts are around the corner, but they never come...

Great game, satisfying ending! (at least the one I got)
Not too short, not too long - I did all sidemissions.

The Trolls are a bit weird at first, but get very interesting the more you learn about their ways.
Gameplay is solid - If you like the former parts you will like this.

It's ridiculous that a 5 year old game is still as relevant and it's developer is as active as they were on launch day.
Not all DLC are great or needed, but who cares if the base game alone is still a great buy.

This is stupid.
INCREDIBLY stupid.

So I had to buy the supporter pack.

I almost got myself a PlayStation for games like this. So I was hyped when it came to PC, irritated that the port was that bad, but happy going in at patch 1.04 or 1.05. It ran well on my system - no problems here.

Still I am hugely disappointed.
It started with one Twitch streamer saying something like "Nah, I won't play it - it looks just like another FarCry game".
And he was right - most of the mechanics are far from new or exciting. And if you have played some of the FarCrys, it almost kinda boring.
But what the hell, at least the story is great, right?

No.
While the lore and "background story" might be my absolute favorite dystopian sci-fi story of all time, the game's main story is kinda poop.
I LOVED piecing together what happened to the world, finding new voice logs etc. and slowly realizing the horrible events that came before. A thrilling tale - so the main story in comparison was doomed from the start.
Like the main character Aloy, it's all just so BLAND. Aloy has an interesting past, but a non-existent personality. She's just the kind and helpful protagonist that reacts to stuff around her. You can't make any decisions to shape the world, no dialogue options to choose.
Most NPCs are bland as well - I hardly remember any of them.

At least this changed a bit with the Frozen Wilds DLC - it's like a different company made it. Many interesting and fun NPCs you give a damn about. Great voice acting like nowhere in the main game. It's weird. I loved at least this part of the game.

The main story ends with a big fight and then... nothing. In theory it's all high stakes, but I just did not care about most of the people in the world - most of all the main character. You don't even get to explore the world you just saved. It just ends - or you continue from the save point before the last battle.

The world building is a masterpiece, but I REALLY don't get where all the hype for this game came from.
But I still hope that the sequel will make things better, because it's great world with so much potential. :(

Lots of grinding and busy work that DOES NOT pay off at all.