cioran: BP's not as bad as the reviews state (it has a steep learning curve and the first hour is terrible which is where most reveiwers stopped playing), but otherwise they're mostly accurate. It actually does open-ended modern RPG pretty well (IMO, the game kind of plays like an archer in Elder Scrolls except not as deep and with vehicles). It doesn't do shooter as well. It is bugged to hell too. Personally, I like it (and from a design standpoint, conceptually it's brilliant in its integration of FPS, FPRPG, and GTA-style sandbox games), but I can only make a highly qualified recommendation based on the amount of issues the game has. Save early, save often.
You may still want to buy it. I wouldn't spend more than $10 though. 50/50 you might hate it. I don't know anyone who loves it, either. Its main problem was that it was a game that lacked the graphical technology to adequately support it on PCs when it was released (e.g. Nocturne, Vampire the Masquerade:Bloodlines). It wasn't coded particularly well, either and poor sales led to a lack of updates (a la Temple of Elemental Evil, Anachronox, the already mentioned VtM:B, Arcanum, Daggerfall). It may fare better today if some dedicated fans updated the patches on their own. I doubt it though. It never had a rabid fanbase. It did have a really cool theme song, though.
Have you played Vampire:the Masquerade Bloodlines? That's a great FP CRPG set in the modern era (now that's it's all patched up and PCs are faster). You can play it using firearms, too if you want.
I just did some research, saw some Youtube videos. The game doesn't look too shabby in the FPS department. What cons are there to the game? I can ignore bugs and what-not if they don't break the immersion completely.
The game just crashes out of nowhere, sound locks up frequently, occasionally bizarre game breaking things happen. You'll probably have to tweak the driving controls, too. Oh, the story isn't very good either. Also, AI problems.
It has major audio problems, that was the main thing for me. It took me hours to fix that. I wound up editing game configuration files using a text editor to do so, and the audio was still somewhat delayed and occasionally still crapped out. This was after the first major patch. Like I said, this was a while ago, so maybe it's better now, but try your luck. Like I said, a coin toss. I enjoyed it, but it was buggy as hell, so I feel it's only fair to mention it.
It had a RAM leak, too so you have to reboot your machine every few hours. It had to do with the game not using zones, or something like that. The way it loads info was really odd for when it came out. I think it loaded on the fly, but don't really remember.
Really, the only thing I've played that came close in terms of bugs (and this was AFTER the first patch of BP, so God knows how BP played out of the box) was Vampire:the Masquerade Bloodlines out of the box. That was a great game, but it shipped completely broken. Ugggh, I remember that boat bug in the game's main quest at the Society of Leopold or whatever. I was sooooo P.O.d. Troika - gotta love/hate them. Every game they did was great, but they were all sooooooo buggy. Difference is, BP would have been a slightly above average game sans bugs so you're less likely to suffer through it by virtue of its greatness, like you do the troika games.
Anyway, like I said, coin toss. Don't spend more than $10 on it because it may not even work. If it works, you may like it (I do, despite its massive flaws because it's like an RPG version of a Schwarzenegger movie), but it may be such a pain to set up, that you may just toss it. If it looks good to you though and you've played everything else, and aren't deterred by what I said, give it a shot. Even if you do like it, you'll probably be disappointed on some level. The game has a great premise (probably one of the best since Breakdown), but a deeply flawed execution.
