Part of it is the game just being so huge. Most people aren't even going to hit Act 3 until 50-60 hours in which is already much longer than most other games. So you've already formed your opinion of the game by the time you hit the less polished part.

And to be fair, those first 50-60 hours are pretty great. (Minus some gripes with things like pathing and inventory management) If the game just straight up ended with Act 2 I would be completely satisfied. I didn't even mention this because I wanted to focus on the bugs but even narrative, pacing, and quest design in Act 3 is just so rough compared to the other two. It almost feels like a different game or a different developer. The quality drop is that drastic IMO.

I am worried that other studios might look at this and realize they can just front-load the best content and all the polish in the first section and neglect the rest to fix later. It sets a bad precedent.

[–] all-knight-party@kbin.run 2 points 1 year ago

Indeed, that's the worry. It sometimes seems like AAA game development is learning just how far you can push the average gamer and still get good word of mouth online by way of leaving choice aspects incomplete and compromised

[–] Kbin_space_program@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Worry now about front loading?

MMOs have been front loading the best content since at least Conan. Remember that one, the first zone had amazing quests and voice acting that the rest of the game didn't.