the New Vegas-style dialogue options alone already had me sold. Looks perfect

hey this is out

haven't had TOO much time to play it yet (and a good chunk of my time so far was going over like 10 character iterations on the creation screen) but ppp good so far. Definitely FEELS like a spiritual successor to New Vegas between the dialogue tone and karma system. I'm excited to play more

It does seem to be more linear but I'm okay with it so far

glad I gave this another shot over my xmas break, definitely enjoying it more the second go around. Or maybe it's just because I left Edgewater which I found a bit dull. The missions on Groundbreaker have been a lot more fun (haven't gone anywhere else yet)

For the first big decision, I rerouted the power to the Botanical Lab after literally stopping to think about it for like a full couple minutes (weirdly, since Parvati was just about the only character I was invested in at that point). I didn't like Adelaide much but Parv's warning about hurting the cannery actually is what spurred me to go through with it, to force her to break FREE from her corporate bonds. I'm sure the game would've had her accompany you to the Unreliable either way but from a story perspective I like this a lot more

The Junlei stuff after that is cute but wtf, this is Veronica all over again. NOOOO!

Helping Vicar Max out for now because his mission intrigues me enough. Told Felix to fuck right off tho

as always, Obsidian's dialogue writing is so good. Even though I rarely choose the asshole dialogue options they're always p great. And I made my character super low intelligence so I unlocked the Dumb perk, which I definitely take advantage of almost every time one of those options comes up

KC you have a Pro right? How are the loading times on there? That's the main thing that makes me kinda wish I got this on PC instead, it's p annoying having to wait like 20 seconds whenever I want to enter/exit my ship. I know Obsidian's a much smaller publisher than the likes of Rockstar but it's still crazy how much more optimized RDR2 was for a standard PS4

Made it to Byzantium, which I assume is approaching the endgame? But idk, like most similar games I pretty much plow through every sidequest I can before moving on with the main so it's possible I haven't even progressed that far

Every location has been so much more interesting than Edgewater tbh, the only good thing to come out of that part was Parvati (who's by far the best companion, Ashly Burch is just so likable)

Spoiler

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Monarch was cool, had some SOLID worldbuilding. I ended up brokering a peace between MSI and the Iconclasts, although I did kill Graham and let Zora take over. tbh I'm playing this game a lot like New Vegas where I'm not really picking a SIDE necessarily (which is why I ended up with Yes Man in that game), I'm just doing what feels right in the moment. Which GENERALLY means the moral or logical choice, but sometimes it's just what's most interesting story-wise. Probably because I don't plan on playing through this again so I don't wanna force myself to adhere TOO strongly to a single faction, even though your way of playing does sound fun KC Parvati/Junlei finally got their date and that storyline was pretty much the cutest thing ever. I finished that, Ayoka(?), and Vicar Max's quests (hoping there's still more to do with them but it seemed to imply that was it?) so I finally relented and took Felix on board. Is his character MEANT to be the most boring, generic person ever? Cuz they nailed it in that case (: I'm tempted to just kick him off the ship as soon as he feels comfortable, but I'm also somewhat curious WHAT exactly they have planned for him

if nothing else I'm happy that I can use all the asshole replies towards him and not feel bad about it

And that's weird, I got a companion quest for him as soon as I let him on board. Maybe it's because I was neutral (at best) with the Board? But yeah, it's some kind of hackneyed revolution plot he wants to do. It seems like I'll be rid of him if I complete it so I'll probably do it

done

fully backed Phineas in the end, was it really just a choice between that and backing the Board? Haven't read anything about it but kinda disappointing if that's the case. I kept waiting for ADA to become a wild card option at the end

Thought the Tartarus prison break was too easy tbh. All I really had to do was just sprint past most of it, only time I actually had to fight was when my shroud dropped while I was talking to Rockwell (so I awkwardly had to kill him just after I struck a deal to have him help me (: ). And the power creep was crazy in this game, even moreso than my experience with the Fallout games. As soon as I decked out my Plasma Rifle nothing was really a challenge anymore (this was in Normal difficulty, but still), even mantiqueens weren't really threatening once I had a certain set of guns

I did manage to pawn Felix off before the end, hooray! Even got to tell him I never liked him anyway as my parting words which was hilarious

The ending montage was good (and long), could've used even MORE tbh! There were some loose ends that I thought would be addressed, like the Board scientist I spared and sent to help Phineas wasn't mentioned. Definitely thought that'd become something bigger considering what she was working on. Also was surprised nothing came of me switching the "intruders" definition at the Edgewater plant? I accepted Akande's mission to wipe out Edgewater because I figured there'd be something like this, where you could go and subvert her plan. Which SEEMED to be the case when it let me do that but nothing ever came of it, maybe I just missed something?

The dumb perk came in perfectly one last time, when

ending w/ Phineas	+
Phineas asked me if I would be willing to lead the colonists after they're unfrozen, to which I replied I wasn't listening because I was thinking of ice cream. And that was the Captain's final line of the game (: Perfect

New Vegas was definitely better but this was still good, glad I picked it back up

so I completely missed Ellie somehow, only companion I didn't get. Weird cuz I definitely did some side quests in the Medical Bay

hmmm I'll have to go back and try out her missions sometime

I found the companions fairly lacking tbh, after Parv there's a big drop-off. I pretty much just took Parv and Ayoka everywhere simply cuz the others were so boring

I really wish Phineas' contact on Byzantium became a companion, I forget what her name was. That little codenames scene was fun and I was kinda sad there's nothing to do with her after the mission is given

Hell even the fashion lady on Byzantium coulda been kinda fun

Spoiler	+
SADDEST DEATH IN THE GAME! I was legit shocked when I walked in on her getting shot Could've had her running away from the Board with you when she made her illegal design. I guess that only would've worked if you were anti-Board tho

Peril On Gorgon DLC was p gr8 @KC

DLC ending

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ended up siding with Minnie and pushed Olivia into the reactor (: Not even sure why tbh!! I guess after choosing the "good" ending in the main game I wanted to do something more nefarious (plus, I just liked Minnie more). Which is kinda funny in the chronology considering this takes place BEFORE I free Phineas so literally my character goes from helping to create more drugs for Spacer's Choice to taking down the Board straight afterwards. What a WILD CARD! They even gave you the dialogue option to tell Minnie that this was your next plan to which she doesn't give a shit and applauds your spontaneity also I never bring SAM anywhere (partially because he's OP and makes fights even easier than they already are, but mostly cuz he's just not interesting) but I do wish I would've brought him on the mission where he could've met PAM. I bet there was some fun dialogue I missed there

oh and I met up with Ellie while I was at it, her companion quest was fun. Fun character in general, I'd instantly rank her as 2nd best companion (after Parv ofc)

just finished Murder on Eridanos, which is the final DLC. p great! Gorgon was fun but this was easily the better of the two. It still had that irreverent Obsidian writing but wove it in with a genuinely engaging WHODUNNIT. I was INVESTED!

Spoiler

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I mean the killer became a bit OBVIOUS by the end but that was fine since it still had that Ruth/Belinda twist on top of it. I wish she could've been there for the final showdown tho?? Was definitely a bit weird that she'd stay behind for that I think it actually could've been cool if they had you lock in your guess for the killer and that was IT, that person gets arrested even if you're wrong (and then you somehow find out the real answer). Ofc I chose the DUMB perk option and named myself the killer so that would've ended v badly! (: But also would've been a fitting sendoff to my Captain Some good new characters introduced in this but Kincannon was probably my favorite, in a love to hate kind of way. That smug bastard. I wish you got more dialogue with him at the end before you board the ship