PAMELA

so, id like to start this off by saying i had refunded this game when i first played it. i thought it was unfinished and poorly done. silly me though, as i've made this mistake numerous times though i did repurchase it through gog and i have to say i was very wrong in my initial thought's. this game is well polished. graphically beautiful, the horror is on point, from the shadows to the skulking enemies that appear around corners out of nowhere, to hearing their warped voices beam out from the dark. its terrifying.
the base building is simple, and can be a bit of a grind but what they have given us is extremely satisfying.
my only wish is that the developers would have kept factions in the game and added their olympus section of the map before releasing it. or at the very least, give us a sequel. what they've done here is absolutely unique and blended so well together.
i do hope the dev's decide to do another project. they are truly talented.

This game scratches an itch for me like no other. It is set in a beautiful futuristic setting where a zombie apocalypse took place and really grasps the idea of being in a place that used to be the pinnacle of a utopia but slowly devolved once the infection took place. The storytelling is rich, the atmosphere is amazing, the gameplay is simple and addicting (kinda reminds me of 7 Days to Die), and the combat is not half bad. I've played this game since the early betas and remember how the crafting took shape from standalone parts, to harvesting furniture, to full release with just plain old scavenging. I have my gripes, but seeing as I finally 100%'ed the game. Here's my honest take:
This game is for someone who wants to be alone, has patients, and likes to explore an abandoned world to scavenge. It is abandoned both in its setting but also by the developer. It is beautiful, but unfinished. The world is gorgeous and I need to find other games with this aesthetic. But it ends abruptly, and I long for more. Gameplay and menu's are nicely diegetic, the base building is simple but complete, and the upgrades are surprisingly varied. Give this game a shot when it's on sale, but be prepared to have your computer turn into a space heater and it is crucial to close and re-open the game once every 1-2 hours, especially once the audio starts to fail.
||--Spoilers--||
Pros/Cons
Story
Pro > The setting: again I love this futuristic abandoned utopia turned dystopia
Pro > The echo and they're simple, but spread apart story: Reason to go and find these pieces to delve into the mind of the main supporting character and why you're here
Con > There are less echo logs than there are echo points. So while each echo point can only be used once to gain a log, it doesn't matter for completions sake. While it is nice to not have to worry about them after a point. I do miss that the exploration that was enhanced by the small story snippets falls flat after exploring 2/3rds of the world.
Pro > Notes to find: Information regarding the everyday life and notices for the residents
Cons > The main storyline is pretty short, nothing crazy, it was definitely more of an afterthought
Weapons/Armor
Pro > Weapon systems and their 7 Deadly Sins counterparts: All weapons are varied and significantly change how to fight enemies with fun alternate attacks and specializations. With the 7 variants of the weapons having fun, but, significant, differences that spice up gameplay
Con > The 7 Deadly Sin variants are harder to find as it is RNG. But some are just way more powerful than others. The crossbow that can 1-tap all enemies except 3 is def one of the best especially for energy conservation and the "Pride" variant of the Warden weapon is the best for movement tech
Con > The only armor you're going to use is the hazmat suit
Upgrades
Pro > Multiple independent upgrade paths: most follow a simple Common -> Rare -> Legendary (CRL)
Pro >> Weapon & Utility Upgrades: Use upgrade modules (CRL) to unlock the abilities of most
Con >> The utilities only having 1 straight path was a bit sad, also the Sonar Pulse which seems like the best in early game does not work most of the time and the last node in the upgrade path flat out does not work
Pro >> Leveling upgrades: Made using more costly utilities worth it and had impactful changes. The Chrondrial Converter became the best source of energy in the game and made the Cyano Reprossesor obsolete
Pro >> Bio-augment upgrade slots: Only 4 but powerful, made 1-shot head shot a breeze, enabled early health regen outside of leveling, and had fun ideas
Con >> Finding the augment keys to unlock each perk is RNG again and is a slog. Good luck getting those you want since they're not sold in stores, if they are I haven't seen one
Pro >> Inventory upgrades: One track mind, and once you unlock the whole inventory space they're great for lux recycling
Pro >> Crafting upgrades: A basic CWL system, but with the sigils it makes such a difference. Like 50% off with the legendary commerce sigil that stacks with leveling discounts. Or 20% increased movement speed with the legendary movement sigil. Even the stealth sigil made me near invisible to enemies.
Pros >> Pamela upgrades: They make the power management worth investing in for free healing, better damage potential, and more
Cons >> Pamela upgrades that should work, such as the one that allows you to use defensive abilities even when the power is turned off, do not function properly. It also doesn't help that the lighting ability is useless when not exploring unless it's your first time in an area as all areas slowly lose power and eventually shut off
Enemies
Pro > Enemies are varied with significant abilities that make it fun to fight them
Cons > There are only like 11 enemies in the game and 2 are a 1-time fight final boss so it gets repetitive, the final boss is a good boss. I wish I could fight it more than once. The fights are also like Skyrim stealth archer rules so unless its an extended fight most abilities don't do anything. Not to mention the ability of the neutral robots which are the flying droid and the concierge bots is to call security, which does not work, security never comes. Especially for the concierge because they're not targeted by enemies so the ability would only activate for the player since you need to kill an entity to get the notes on it, so the flying droids are free loot most if you stand back and let it die to a zombie.
Performance
Pros > The graphics are great
Cons > This game stutters at times. Its not intrusive but it is noticeable and does die down eventually
Cons > The audio slowly dies after 1-2 hours. You'll notice that white noise is gone or the noise to ready your weapons stops working. So you have to reset the game to get it back
Cons > Exiting the game/going to menu is just it crashing, but you'll have mostly likely saved before leaving to menu or exiting
Cons > There can be significant disjunction in the diegetic maps and animations at times, especially for hacking or cutscene holograms
Shops
Pro > The balance of loot dropping is fair. There is plenty of food, drink, ammo, and building materials. While you cannot directly find most of it, there are distinct loot pools for containers so you can hope for some items. The stuff you do not need you can turn into cash at recycling centers which you can use at shops. Going around the only thing you'll be searching for is the distinct items for spawn locations, repairs, and upgrades
Con > The containers that do have loot follow a clustering RNG pattern. So if there's a lone container it'll be random if it has anything in it. But if there's a bunch of containers it'll guarantee some will be filled, but it is random which one's will be filled. So if you see a weapons crate next to a bunch of trash cans it'll be likely the weapons crate will be empty which sucks as that would've had much better loot.
Pro > Shops are distinct and help take the RNG out of things. They are color coded, red -> medical, blue -> construction, seafoam green (looks a lot like blue) -> groceries/general, black/yellow -> upgrades
Cons > The shops do not sell everything and are balanced by amount. Mostly annoyed at the yellow shop for not occasionally selling augment keys for completions sake
Map
Cons > Areas during early development are more finished than others. You can really tell once you get to Nirvana that it was completed in a hurry. Many areas that were on the map are inaccessible even though they appear to have paths that could've been accessible, a prime example is the maintenance area on the 1st floor of the Arcadia that has lootable lockers but no way to get there.
Pro > You can get Out of Bounds (OOB) pretty easy and its fairly forgiving. Used to be more that way but the dev put invisible walls more and more. I still find it fun to OOB every now and then, after I save.

In a lot of ways this game reminded me of Prey, a favorite of mine, although less polished by a good margin. I got it during a sale for $8.09, and can say it was really worth it. It's one of the few games were I got into the story, which is funny since some other reviews said there wasn't much of a story!
I liked the progression as far as equipment and character abilities.
In regards to performance, I had no issues with a 4070, i7-13700k, and more than 16GB RAM.
In regards to bugs, I saw them about 10 times, but they were all resolved by saving and reloading so nothing too bad or breaking.
Tips:
You can use the flashlight before getting the attachment, the game is entirely different if you don't use the flashlight!
Turn off the power when not using it
There are weapon variants that are better, so it might make sense to not upgrade the base ones.
Build a base earlier so you can craft most of the stuff you find equipment wise.

this game is DAYUM AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!