Question for actual game owners

[Sirius Black]

Is buying this with a 15% discount a good deal, or should I wait for a bigger one? I'm not homophobic, and I liked Dontnod's previous games.

My only concern is the technical side of the game.

Are there any frustrating, game-breaking bugs? Is the optimization good? I don't mind using upscaling or Frame Generation if it helps the game run better. I just want a smooth, playable experience.

I've read some Steam reviews that mention major FPS drops. Is that really an issue, or is it just an occasional drop for a few seconds before stabilizing?

[herbstwerk]

From my limited time with the game, stopped after 90 minutes because that was enough to decide against a refund, and I didn't want to have a cliffhanger until April / more stuff (I usually am in the middle of 2-3 books and 1-2 series... that's enough to keep track off ;)) to remember, I can't call out anything that stood out negatively to me.

- It's UE5, so if you can run Stalker 2 you should be good. It's not open world and the asset load is a lot less taxing. It ran perfectly well for me, but my system specs are absolutely above average or what's recommended by the store page.

- I didn't really see any micro-stuttering when playing it, iirc there were a few instances of LOD popping... but nothing too jarring, certainly not as bad as Stalker 2.

- There seems to be a known bug with one of the memories (stuff you can film and thus "collect"), might even affect an achievement if I understand it correctly. Not sure if that hasn't been fixed already... the current culture war infection on this discussion board might be keeping people at arms length so there's not much actual stuff actually concerning the game discussed here currently. Can't blame them. ;)

[Sirius Black]

Originally posted by herbstwerk:

From my limited time with the game, stopped after 90 minutes because that was enough to decide against a refund, and I didn't want to have a cliffhanger until April / more stuff (I usually am in the middle of 2-3 books and 1-2 series... that's enough to keep track off ;)) to remember, I can't call out anything that stood out negatively to me.

- It's UE5, so if you can run Stalker 2 you should be good. It's not open world and the asset load is a lot less taxing. It ran perfectly well for me, but my system specs are absolutely above average or what's recommended by the store page.

- I didn't really see any micro-stuttering when playing it, iirc there were a few instances of LOD popping... but nothing too jarring, certainly not as bad as Stalker 2.

- There seems to be a known bug with one of the memories (stuff you can film and thus "collect"), might even affect an achievement if I understand it correctly. Not sure if that hasn't been fixed already... the current culture war infection on this discussion board might be keeping people at arms length so there's not much actual stuff actually concerning the game discussed here currently. Can't blame them. ;)

Thanks a lot for such a detailed response! You've convinced me to buy the game :))

[ViccyQ]

Originally posted by Sirius Black:

Is buying this with a 15% discount a good deal, or should I wait for a bigger one? I'm not homophobic, and I liked Dontnod's previous games.

My only concern is the technical side of the game.

Are there any frustrating, game-breaking bugs? Is the optimization good? I don't mind using upscaling or Frame Generation if it helps the game run better. I just want a smooth, playable experience.

I've read some Steam reviews that mention major FPS drops. Is that really an issue, or is it just an occasional drop for a few seconds before stabilizing?

I'm on a 1070 and like a 5 year old CPU.
The game ran great for me on launch day.

I did not experience any of the bugs people have reported but there has been 3 updates since launch.

I personally feel since im on a older machine it attributed to less issues.

I was worried about scaling for performance but literately 1 tick in the options gave me great performance after tweaking settings. Would also imagine come the 18th there will be another update addressing Tape 2 and the rest of the game.

Seeing that you decided to purchase the game, I'm sure you will have a great time performance wise.

[tel_me]

It is a very slow-paced game with a lot of small details, and it should be played that way—two or three scenes a day (one to two hours). There are a lot of little details to miss if you rush through it, as many, if not most, people do. None of the "record chasers" who finished the game in about 6–7 hours could answer why one of the characters was reluctant to cut in its finger, even though there was a very good reason for it. Some dialog options appear at the last second, when the others are almost timed out... Take your time with it.

Tape 1 is an overture—it gives you a chance to get to know the characters really well. People often complain that they don't get enough time to get to know the characters in many other games, and this game lets you get to know them really well. The characters are well written and interesting, and there are many objects containing memories of people, places, and events. Chatting with some of the side characters also has some very interesting details waiting to be discovered… Character design is light years ahead of that in LIS and LIS2.

On the technical side, the game is on the heavier side because, unlike most other games, this one has a lot of simultaneous read and write operations—because there is a lot of in-game video recording. However, not all of these recordings are necessary to progress in the game. There is a missable achievement, and scenes 6 & 7 must be played in one session. A very fast SSD is essential for good game performance. There were a few bugs, most of which have been fixed, and the last one should be fixed when Tape 2 is released.

[exeuntomnes]

Originally posted by tel_me:

It is a very slow-paced game with a lot of small details, and it should be played that way—two or three scenes a day (one to two hours). There are a lot of little details to miss if you rush through it, as many, if not most, people do. None of the "record chasers" who finished the game in about 6–7 hours could answer why one of the characters was reluctant to cut in its finger, even though there was a very good reason for it. Some dialog options appear at the last second, when the others are almost timed out... Take your time with it.

Tape 1 is an overture—it gives you a chance to get to know the characters really well. People often complain that they don't get enough time to get to know the characters in many other games, and this game lets you get to know them really well. The characters are well written and interesting, and there are many objects containing memories of people, places, and events. Chatting with some of the side characters also has some very interesting details waiting to be discovered… Character design is light years ahead of that in LIS and LIS2.

On the technical side, the game is on the heavier side because, unlike most other games, this one has a lot of simultaneous read and write operations—because there is a lot of in-game video recording. However, not all of these recordings are necessary to progress in the game. There is a missable achievement, and scenes 6 & 7 must be played in one session. A very fast SSD is essential for good game performance. There were a few bugs, most of which have been fixed, and the last one should be fixed when Tape 2 is released.

+1

[herbstwerk]

Originally posted by tel_me:

A very fast SSD is essential for good game performance.

Honestly... this should be a default by now. I'd rather have a two or three generation old system with a solid and fast NVMe, than a current rig with a crappy one or, even worse, a SATA SSD. It's about as much overall performance boost you can get for your money if you aren't running one already.

[Heather🌺]

totally wait for bigger or watch it on YT. i regret i didnt refund it lmao cause i had 4 hours or so when i understood that there's nothing besides good atmosphere :C

[Csupasz Pisztoly]

I played it under Linux, with proton. The FPS was constant, I had zero problems.