Yep, you nailed the general feel and pace of things! Add in a fair number of accidental suicides, some of which also happen while fighting and you’ve got it.
The whole thing is a breath of fresh air, even if unforgiving.
Haha, I think my first suicide was the lightswitch... I'm sure you know what I mean...
And then later, I was on an OoP passage and I knew I screwed up right away, so I tried jumping to my death to clean slate it, and it respawned me with one HP! Cheeky bastards.
I'm starting over tonight. I feel like I was just kinda meandering the first time... not fully with it if that makes sense. Now I think I've got a connection to what the game is about and am ready to make a 'legit' run through it. Made some bad calls with the crafting system, so I would have wanted to start over, anyway. Anybody else punish themselves like that? I think of it like... life doesn't have a reset button, as much as we may sometimes wish it did. Games do, though. You can go back and make it so you completed college like you should've
I know with crafting/leveling systems in games, there ware ways to round-robin back to where you want your character but I hate doing that when I know it's gonna hold me back for however long.
Got the RT working, now. Takes pretty low settings to make it work on a 2060, but honestly in this game the settings make such little difference, I wonder why they bothered. Even the SSAO is so subtle that not only is there much of any performance hit, but you barely see it. The biggest headscratcher is the inclusion of MSAA. The game actually doesn't need AA in the first place, let alone such a heavy one. They pulled some tricks with the post processing that mitigates a lot of the aliasing artifacts by happenstance. Even with MSAA off it looks as though it still has AA. You only notice on hair and very particular parts of particular objects at particular angles.
Anybody playing with MSAA on try turning it off? It's really quite interesting how little of a difference it makes. I thought the setting was bugged, but when you look at the hair you realize that 90% of the original render really is just that smooth.
I digress. In a game where literally almost everything is flagged as reflective, the RT reflections make a HUGE difference. It's not just "OH, you can see the objects in this reflection on glass/water/whatever." The appearance of nearly every surface changes drastically. Some even become less reflective and more natural-looking. But the shiny floors and walls are like... oh man. You realize they're just a glittery, pixelated mess without it and it completely takes you out. This is nothing like battlefield. It is more than significant.
The indirect diffuse light casting is very interesting, too... mostly in how it opens the door to shadow reflections... so it actually has a more perceivable impact on shadows than light, though it does give to a subsurface scattering effect on foliage - they take on that semi-transparent glow brought on by them lighing eachother and light from one part shining through other parts that obscure that part. But the real draw is that its effect on shadows creates a plausibility in the scenes that I have never seen in any AO. It's really quite impressive in how much depth it adds to all of the intricate geometry. Consider me a believer! That shit is cool.
The whole RT implementation is just the real deal. Like, when you play the game with it on, it is exceedingly difficult to go back and feel anywhere near the same pull from the visuals. What previously looked about as good as it gets now looks flat and fake to me. I wish for a future where these techniques are the norm and any midrange-and-up card can handle them. I can't even with this. Why must logic and reason prevent me from buying an $800 card to play at 1080/60?
Unfortunately, the DLSS sucks, as it always will with new titles, as it needs time to learn about the images. In 6-8 months, you'll barely know it's scaled. That's how it was with M:E. Blurry, splotchy grossness for months and then suddenly it looks like it's running at native resolution in all but a few places, which you will generally only see if you peep screenshots. And I can say this, as someone who is extremely sensitive to graphics... things a lot of people claim they can't see make me want to scratch my eyes out. It does work. It's just not fast enough. And may never be.
If DLSS is more than a stopgap until they can produce cards that can do this stuff at reasonable performance, it's not gonna go well. DLSS just is not a real solution to weak hardware imo, and every time I play a new RT game, I'm reminded of why. I'm already massively annoyed that I have to wait until half a year after a game is released to play with these interesting new rendering techniques enabled. And then... well... people don't buy top-tier cards and 4k monitors to see up-scaled, doctored visuals. Before, I would probably just say 'screw it' altogether and forget about RT, but more and more I'm starting to think this is something that can't be passed-up... this is something that can really take graphics in games to new levels... and to see the implementation rolled-out so hastily and halfheartedly is kind of a travesty. It's frustrating. More and more it's like they're saying "look at how awesome this
could be!" with these games.
I feel pretty much the same about strip clubs. You spend all of this money, but then you walk out thinking "What did I really get out of that? What am I left with?" And the answer is simple... it's shame and empty dreams of things you can't have
But really, it's like what are this card and these games getting me but a tease?
I'm avoiding it by now by only running regular RT reflections and diffuse casting - no transparent reflections, contact shadows, or debris. Those two make the biggest difference anyway. The reflections on all of the glass in the cubicles are undeniably cool, but not "please take my frames" cool.
Honestly, it really does look great. It is a totally new visual experience. You have to play it to understand... it's not just what you're seeing but how it all looks in motion and the connection you feel to the imagery. There's something to the plausibility factor it adds that's a little extra. As you play and look around, you can just feel it in this positively unmistakable way. It feels significantly less like I'm playing a game... just looking at fake images. The illusion is just that much stronger. If I can play through the game like this at decent frame rates, I'll be happy. But I'm almost certain it will crap out when the destruction physics fully come into play. Even some of the cut scenes start to take it down into the low 50's. :/
At any given point you can think 'Oh, I could use this or that now' and then morph into the class you desire, with a chance to gain one or more of its skills.