>>720187061
Action-adventure, like a weird sci-fi Indiana Jones. You play as a guy investigating a mysterious a civil-war-torn country with its own fictional history, religions and lore. And strange phenomenons/monsters. You explore modern areas and ancient ruins, discover artifacts and help NPCs in more traditional RPG fashion (small narrative fetch quests).
Main influence is obviously Souls (stamina and lock-on combat, intricate branching level design), but not a straight copy. There are tweaks to formula and it mixes in other influences, especially Resident Evil (or point-and-click/escape room) type of progress gating/light puzzle-solving (bring item to door, matching symbols, odd mechanisms, passwords in documents, etc.), though more open-ended and spread out map-wise.
The world is semi-open (not one big world, you teleport to hub regions) and non-linear, backtrack-heavy, with a mix of larger areas, tighter dungeons and NPC hubs.
Combat is more forgiving than Souls, but also more focused on crowd control and with some novel mechanics (timing-based healing). I find it fun but downside is lack of enemy variety and no bosses, gets repetitive.
Promised slightly less guidance than modern equivalents but doesn't fully commit to the bit. Not challenging by any means unless you're brain-damaged but it's just more rooted in 90's standards than 2020's constant handholding. Expects you to explore thoroughly, pay attention to details, remember unsolved points of interest to backtrack to later, mentally map branching/slightly mazey levels. Light puzzling and dungeon crawling, don't expect deep eureka moments or really getting lost, just perhaps 10 minutes of mild confusion at times. Nothing mind-blowing but organic and satisfying.
Atmosphere, art direction, environmental storytelling, worldbuilding and attention to details all great, but a bit tonally inconsistent. And you can feel it's made on a smaller AA budget. Made by former art director from Deus Ex HR/MD.
