Recent reviews by The Normal Rat

Extremely tedious game, but surprisingly satisfying.
however i felt myself unable to fully immerse myself into the world. might check it out again after the character creation is implemented... TBH let this one cook for a bit longer. at least until character creation.

very much enjoyed this game, however if you're a rich boy like me running 3440x1440 you'll have to run this game exclusively in windowed mode. disappointing this game does not have widescreen support. otherwise very okay game.

this game feels very jank.

animations feel very slow, UI is lackluster, questing and story progression feels very unsatisfying, i cant quite explain it but it all feels very casual. IMO it doesn't feel like a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game. this game more resembles if Bethesda instead of making fallout 4, attempted S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

save your money until its on sale. better yet, wait for GAMMA heart of chernobyl

good game, very volkswagon golf

PROS:

1) landscapes are gorgeous
2) 95 new Weapons, 45 new Armour sets, 39 new Talismans, and 45+ spells to try out
3) hours of additional game play
4) hundreds of new build combinations
5) almost 75 new challenging bosses

CONS:

1) Damage scaling is broken (everything hits like my dad after losing the TV remote)
2) The level scaling is jankey (searching across the map for Scadutree Fragments to scale up your players damage, and Revered Spirit Ashes which scale summons)
3) ALL enemies have 1-2 shot capabilities.
4) I MEAN ALL ENEMIES... i was 2 shot by a sheep.
5) base game slapped the player on the wrist for missing a dodge against end game bosses... Shadow of the Erdtree pins the player down, ties their hands behind their back, slaps a ball gag in their mouth and tells them if they scream they wont make it out alive, after accidentally swinging on a golden sheep,
6) loot pools are also slightly broken. after 10 or so hours i found 2 and a half sets of armour, 5 weapons (3 of which were duplicate axes), 20 ashes of war, and 500 smithing stone 5s

PSA:

For new players: if the base game is challenging for you, prepare for hundreds of attempts at the first 2 bosses...
For casual DS players: ...prepare for hundreds of attempts at the first 2 bosses...
For seasoned DS players: no one cares that it took you 6 hours to beat the game, quit commenting "skill issue" under every post about the DLC being difficult. THE DLC IS DIFFICULT FOR THE SAKE OF BEING DIFFICULT. no one is impressed by you.

all in all, if you're on the fence about dropping 45$ after tax, i'd recommend waiting for a sale.


EDIT:

Just beat majority of the story bosses and got enough Scadutree Fragments for +10... its 100% a skill issue.. get better NOOBS

I didn't hear fortunate son once.

first of all. I have thousands of hours on fallout 3, NV, and 4. I'm not new to buggy Bethesda worlds. however, usually the bugginess starts a few hours into the playthrough, not right out of the into sequence.

I waited 2 hours to this game to download... booted it up... intro played with no problem... dropped into the menu, NO audio. started the game, NO audio, Shot my gun, NO audio. created custom .INI, NO audio. closed every other application, NO audio.

finally i contacted Bethesda support... "your system is the issue, you must have out of date drivers"

checked drivers. NO audio

"you don't have the correct audio device enabled in your settings"

confirmed my headset is the only enabled audio device. NO audio

"yeah you're gonna need to upgrade your system, there's nothing we can do."

*cried in 4070 ti, Ryzen 9 7900X3D* ...


p.s. Still NO Audio

I drived, and then I drived

“60 FPS is a speed the brain and the eye can catch up with and understand,”.

I respect the idea of 60 fps being payable.. but the reality is i cant squeeze more than 25 fps out of my 4070 ti on medium/low setting..

be back in a few months when the optimization patches roll in and fix this disaster.

I had a computer virus and i got scared that i had the virus...
and when i was getting out of my chair my pants were slipping and i was pulling them up and getting back on the chair!
i got scared and--
and my pants slipped down a little and i was pulling them up!
then all of the sudden octavia walks in and the chair gave way and she caught me becuase i fell out of the chair.
then the fan turned on and blew my pants off!
MOM IM SERIOUS!!