from the very first time you actually engage with a Watcher and hunt a fleeing pack of Striders, you can tell this game is special.

The scariest thing about that quick look is the terrible inventory menus, and the most obvious flaw of this game so far is its amusement park-like feel which other critics have touched on. Considering how dangerous they make the machines out to be its silly how crippled NPCs will jsut continue laying there in an open field because the AI pathways don't go that way.

But the combat itself is so crisp even before you start unlocking the elemental effects and bombs, more unique bows, trapping weapons, etc. That quick look also doesn't do a great job of exposing just how vulnerable you are early on. I'm playing on Hard because I've heard that makes the stealth a little less gamable and the human AI a little less stupid and so far I haven't noticed any annoying player strength nerfs or AI health buffs, but they do hit HARD. My first encounter with a Watcher I died in one direct hit. Doing everything I could possibly do before the first boss and getting a health potion from a random reward, I could still only take about four-five hits from it and barely survived.

There's a tension to every battle that you don't usually get right away from games like this that are far more gun heavy.

I'll be interested to see just how much the Tomb Raider, Far Cry, Witcher 3 crossover grates on me but so far it's brought about more grins than groans.

One thing I'd recommend to people is turning off the quest pathing and leaving the waypoint pathing on. The quest pathing jumps around in a faux GPS style that's hard to follow and holds your hand too much, whereas the waypoint markers just sit where they are and let you find your own path to them.

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"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
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