So then, yes, it's a very good game.
The save system is shit and annoying and makes no earthly sense, but I can live with it.
I've not done a huge amount, but have done the opening section of the game, got the main map opened up, taken a radio tower and an outpost, done a couple of extra missions and suchlike. The herb gathering and skinning and crafting stuff I'm not entirely sold on, similarly the talent system, does it belong in what's basically a straight FPS game, or are they going for more of an RPG experience along the Borderlands 2 model?
Time will tell on that one. Also, 'you are now leaving the mission area' messages in an open world game is poor. (Especially since as
far as I can tell you're 'on a mission' for a lot of the time without actually doing anything to start one.)
Overall however, early impressions are positive, and I don't hate the characters, which is good.
The save system did fuck me off when I was doing the first outpost, I was trying various approaches to get my head around the stealth side of things, silent takedowns, a straight gunfight etc etc. I just let myself die and have another go several times over, as the checkpoint was just before the outpost, which was fine.
However, on one attempt (which I was almost deliberately fucking up to see how
far the enemy AI would go), my buddies basically finished off the camp for me and I completed the mission, despite the whole thing having been a total fuck-up from my perspective, missing out on a load of kills and so on. Of course, as soon as the outpost was cleared (albeit not by me) it fucking auto-checkpointed again and overwrote my save, so I couldn't have another 'proper' go at it.
TECH BABBLE:
Can't run it ULTRAed out or at the native res of my screen whilst maintaining a solid 60FPS+
With everything maxed out it does look almost unbelievably luscious, but my framerate is generally around 30-45FPS at those settings, which is unacceptable. But seriously, it's like watching an incredibly high quality pre-rendered cutscene when totally maxed out.
Have had to settle for 1920x1200 with VERY HIGH and HIGH across the board, whereby I get a good solid 60FPS+ experience, and it still looks pretty damn fab.