I’m playing through it now but I’m not enjoying it as much as the first one. I’m not sure if it’s my fault for not being able to give it the time and attention it requires.
You need the next piece of equipment, so you go to where the robot says it is. “Oh no we need a different piece of equipment to get there first. I’ve marked it on your map”. Cool ok. “Looks like to get that piece of equipment we need to craft this new piece first”. OK. “Looks like we need a special material so let’s go-”
At a certain point you forget what you wanted to do in the first place and just start following the next marker.
I love the world and the wackiness of it all, but I’m not enjoying the actual gameplay loop nearly as much as I did the first one.
I’m now 10 hours in and i’m not so sure if the gameplay loop really differs that much from the first one. The world is whacky, exploration works well, as does the movement, and character progress also feels good. What it might miss for me is the element of surprise. I know exactly what to expect, it’s not such a big revelation as the first one and that’s obviously something a second part can’t repeat. What i don’t like so much are the new videos and the third person perspective feels a bit off. Overall i like it though, it’s more of the same without huge surprise and that’s fine with me.
I have not checked, but I hope and trust there are difficulty options. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to play MMX at or near the level in that video.
The main idea is that Styx is smaller than humans, so direct combat is never an option. Stealth takedowns, traps and such are the tools here. The enemies are delightfully stupid: sure, once you’ve been spotted they give you a chase and smack you about, but they also go back to their patrols if you manage to escape and hide for a bit. The usual “huh, must have been the wind” thing.
Gameplay can be a bit quicksave/quickload if that’s how you want to play it. Levels are generally huge, but end up somewhat being obstacle courses with few routes which zigzag around the direct path through them.
The games are a bit “eurojank”, sure, but imo, very enjoyable. But I am the kind of gamer who takes hours per level just so they can knock out EVERYBODY in the level, without raising alarms, just because that’s fun to me, so I might be a bit biased. :P
All in all, since you already got them, give them a whirl? The first levels tell you pretty fast if you like the gameplay or not.
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