Bit late to the party, but still playing through this at the moment.
Entry 1
Started this at the weekend and put in about 2-3 hours, I'm up to the end of Chapter 3.
It's really bloody good isn't it? It started off a bit slow and I wasn't quite sure on it at the beginning, it just seemed a little too linear if that makes sense. But once I was halfway through Chapter 1, the camaraderie of the crew started to set in, all the little in jokes and them taking the piss out of one another, fantastic writing and just an awesome bunch of characters to be around.
It's not really let up so far in terms of action and story pacing. Things just seem to be continually getting worse and worse for the group, being torn from one bad situation to the next, which is quite funny and makes it feel like a bit of a rollercoaster ride. The relentless pace and the camaraderie of the crew makes this feel like a Sci-Fi Uncharted most of the time, which is no bad thing.
Really like how varied each planet (station?) has felt so far, the first filled with all that weird red goo everywhere, the second meeting a cool kid and being guided through the bowels of a ship and the third this really weird yellow planet with an equally crazy jungle filled with all sorts of zany sci-fi weirdness to encounter.
The only thing I'm not 100% sure on so far is the combat really. It's fun enough and has kept me engaged but I can't help but feel it's very basic so far but then I'm early in to the game and hopefully more stuff gets added to it as time goes on, when you pull of all your specials and the team help each other out to defeat a boss or something it's a nice satisfying feeling though. I will say that the DualSense trigger implementation in this when you have to active reload your blasters is really cool too.
It's a really pretty game as well, one of the best visually so far this generation, some of the bits on the opening planet were absolutely bonkers, just so damn gorgeous.
So yeah, so far so good, can't wait to play some more on Friday night. I don't think it's a long game from what I've heard so will hopefully clock it this weekend.
Entry 2
Not sure how many hours into this I am now but I've just reached Chapter 12 if that's any indication, I'd guess about 12-15.
Unfortunately, my enjoyment of it has taken a massive nosedive since about Chapter 9/10 where I thought the game should've ended. Everything afterwards just feels a bit like filler really, not a fan or the religious zealot enemies either, just a bit trite in this day and age really, nothing particularly special or unique about them in my view.
The map design is also starting to grate a bit too, I don't mind linear cinematic experiences (I love them in fact) but something about this is rubbing me the wrong way now, all the gaps you've got to squeeze through, ledges you have to squeeze past and doors/bridges you have to open or make which all mask the loading screens just make me roll my eyes a bit. Every planet is incredibly colourful and varied still at least but something about it just isn't resonating with me anymore and I'm not sure why.
The combat is starting to grate a bit too now, I've tried slowing it down via the accessibility options and stuff but I've just kind of seen everything its going to do at this point and am just along for the ride, I will say the Huddles are annoying me too (I'll have to see if I can turn the cutscene off in the settings). It's still cool when combos work together line stunning a group of enemies with Groot and then blasting them all with Rocket, the spectacle is still good and its serviceable enough but it just isn't landing with me now like it was at the beginning, which is a shame.
The characters are all excellent and the story is still good (despite feeling like it should've ended already) so I'll definitely see it to the end, but it's just a real shame its lagged a bit behind in my estimations these last few chapters.
I will say as well that I turned it to Quality Mode after unwittingly having it in Performance Mode for the first 7 or Chapters and graphically it has got even better, just an absolutely stunning game to look at, cannot stop taking screenshots!
I need to get it finished before Friday for DL2 which is also weighing on my mind and may be affecting my view on this so we'll see where it ends up.
