For starters the game really lacks save points. This can work in missions, take souls games for example they had little bon fires. This game lacks them in the open world areas. You can spend ages killing robots and looting areas just to die and loose everything. There is only auto saving on missions and the open world requires you to access a save station! Why not have a save point as you enter built up areas and then once you complete the "activity" or loot the sought after object it then saves again?
Another issue which drove me mad was the amount of repair bots. I love the idea of having bots come recycle their friends but in some areas they would just come swarming in sometimes over 5 at a time. When I killed them you could see another pack coming in the distance. Basically you get never ending repair bots coming in. Its like this in most encounters aswell. It just makes you not want to bother engaging any enemies because you know there was be endless repair bots bringing them all back and youll waste your limited supplies killing them for no reason. Why can't you switch off the repair bot vending machines? This would atleast balance them.
The game doesn't teach you enough about weaknesses and status effects. For ages I thought enemies were sponging bullets, turns out the cartridges are your best friend for certain enemies. But the game doesn't tell you what all the symbols mean when scanning and how effective cartridge's can be on certain enemies.
During the game you'll see red robots start to appear after you reach them on a story mission (Don't wanna say to much but you'll know the one) and it deals extreme melee damage. These could really be balanced better with the countless repair bots in mind. They are fast moving and normally spawn in packs. How are you supposed to target multiple fast moving enemies which take quite a few shots to kill and they all charge at you dealing extreme damage? But you destroy them just to be repaired again? This is why games make fast, high damage enemies weaker.
Puzzles in this game felt highly repetitive. But they also always add the same puzzles 1 after the other instead of spacing them out the game. So you come across a new puzzle, repeat it 2 or 4 times in different ways and never see it again. Why not have the new versions at different points in the game? Every door has a mini game lock on it which yh is cool if its to unlock a new area but when its just a shortcut door it doesn't really make sense. They begin to get tedious after a while.
Lack of sprint in this game sucks. Its an open world and sprint is basically a must in such a large environment. I know some games don't need a sprint but this game I can't see what difference it would make to the combat implementing it.
All drivable cars were identical. I know the devs wanted cars to stand out to the player so you knew which ones were drivable but they could have just made all the cars that you couldn't drive a bit more run down and then have the drivable ones look a bit more polished and maintained. Or put them in places where they stand out more like in the middle of the road and then other cars more on the side of the road. I just didn't like how every car I drove was an exact replica.
The game can be a bit buggy at times. Updates have improved allot of these but still countless times you get jammed into an object making robots pile on you and killing you. Its extremely unfair and the lack of checkpoints made this more painful. Other then that everything else plays pretty much fine.
Other then that the game can be quite fun. The world look great. I really enjoy robots and sci fi in the games. The story is enjoyable and the puzzles granted were fun I just wish they were spaced out. The combat in this game is awesome when mixing your abilities and weapons together. Mindfish definitely have a talented team and I would keep an eye out for their future games. I just hope they take peoples feedback and iron out the issues in the next game from them.
