Teran

You are correct in your speculation that the cyber punk elements become more obvious later in the game, specifically towards the end of the first chapter. This comes in the form of technomancy which is basically the ability to use electricity for a variety of purposes in a form that resembles magic.

Other themes appear as well but technomancy is the most obvious. It's cyberpunk lite.

@jaycrockett: I am sorry for the long delay in response. I am sure you know by now, but just in case you do not...

There are two kinds of synergies in the game:

Weapon synergies only have two levels of bonus and the bonus and only have two bonuses, one for using a single weapon with that synergy, and one for using two weapons with that synergy. I've had a heck of a time finding two weapons with the same synergy that I'd want to equip at the same time so this synergy seems better for someone who basically never wants to switch to their backup weapon.

Mod synergies have four levels of bonus and only apply if a number of mods with the same synergy are installed into the same weapon. These tend to be the more powerful synergies but are incredibly difficult to acquire. I'm nearing EGO rank ~1700 and have only found a few mods with synergies on them. Of course if you like you can buy the random mods with a specific synergy packs from the faction vendors if you like that particular synergy but none seem that good compared to the ones you can find elsewhere.

1. Loot progression in this game exists in two ways (lateral and vertical) and these ways are not apparent to people who are just starting out. Yes, all weapons of a subgroup (like sawed off shotguns) have very similar base stats however one must realize that when you pick up a weapon it is incomplete. Weapons are basically templates that give players a foundation to build upon.

These foundations are all fundamentally similar (at times identical) and a weapon's quality seems to dictate how much variance it can have from other weapons of a subgroup by allowing it to have random properties like rate of fire, weapon damage, clip/mag size, etc. Where most white weapons are identical to others in their subgroups purple weapons will frequently have different bonuses applied to the template which allows players to choose which foundation they want to build their weapon on thus influencing the way the way the weapons vertical progression plays out.

A weapon's vertical progression is is determined by the quality and function of the mods you choose to use. To give an example, my favorite weapon that I have collected in the game so far is one of the hip fire smgs. I like it because the foundation bonus is a boost in rate of fire which is not a stat you can boost through weapon mods. A weapon fully modded with low grade mods will be significantly better than the same weapon with no mods. A weapon with high grade mods on the other hand will be significantly better than the same weapon with low grade mods.

2. I don't understand what your problem is with the real money loot boxes. We are not forced to buy them, in fact we can get them for free by playing the game... additionally we are not deceived into believing the loot boxes are guaranteed to give out upgrades every time we open them. It's called gambling and people do it all the time. It's not a very intelligent way of spending money in my opinion, but it is their money to spend if they so desire. When a person gambles they are not guaranteed a big payout, they are guaranteed a very tiny chance to win a big payout. The same applies to the loot boxes, you are not guaranteed an upgrade but rather the chance of getting an upgrade.

Flawed, but better than I expected.

You could maybe download a save, but considering it's all Origin, I wouldn't count on there being an easy way to fake it.

@maskedarcstrike: Ahh yeah, forgot about the harpoon boss.

It's kind of hard to count the regenerators. There was the one before the tram where you get the scrap bot, then the one(s) during the shuttle launching (which may have been the same one from the tram but was a separate encounter). On the planet I can't remember which mission it was and whether or not that mission was part of the story or side content, but three regenerators get released and come after you at the same time. It's only for a brief period of time though but it can be pretty intense if you're not moving quickly.

@handlas: Oops, sorry about that. I was replying to YummyLee.

As for the boss fights, there was only one really obvious boss fight, but I also count the regenerators that popped up at various as bosses because they are unkillable but must be dealt with somehow while retreating sometimes through hectic situations like a burning hangar.

I think the developers got away (mostly) from the concept of boss fights and went with an encounter based mentality which put players up against a difficult set of circumstances rather than a powerful enemy most of the time. Other possible boss fights may include the segment near the end of the body temperature segment where you have a long distance to go while being swarmed by a lot of enemies, the firefight just before you go underground near the end of the game where you have a lot of missile launcher soldiers and the twitchy necromorphs attacking you at the same time, and (at least for co-op) the segment where one player is solving the puzzle to unlock the tram while the other player has to fight off a horde of necromorphs to cover the puzzle solving player.

Most of those encounters become trivial in newgame+ because you know they are coming and have better equipment but I thought they were relatively well designed the first time I encountered them... especially when comparing to RE6 boss fights.

1. What let down in combat?
2. Over use of monster closets...? Are you joking?
3. Would you like to explain how the game could have been more tense...? Or are you under the hilarious impression that more of what they did in the first two would somehow equate to tension?
4. Carver was fine.
5. You're not completely wrong about the rest of the characters sucking.
6. There was more environmental variety than any of the others had.
7. The entire series only uses jump scares, why complain about it now in the game that used the fewest.
8. The optional missions are the best in the game. Of course stating that the optional missions are 90% filler is just idiotic. They are 100% filler, that's why they are optional. The fact that they told more interesting stories than the rest of the game seems to have gone over your head and undermines the credibility of your opinion.
9. Enemy variety is about the same considering how redundant most of the enemies were in the previous games were. Reskinning a bunch of enemies that fulfill essentially the same function does not equal variety unless you're five years old.

@handlas: I have only played co-op so my experience might be different than yours, but I didn't get the feeling the spawns were infinite during those puzzles. They seem scripted to specific events like on the spinning pillar one matching the first and third pillar in the correct alignment seemed to spawn enemies and tentacles but the second one didn't seem to cause any to spawn. At least they gave you some conveniently placed TK enhancing pads so you didn't have to waste ammo on the enemies.

I think the boss battles in DS3 are brilliant compared to RE6... RE6 was incredibly frustrating because it was impossible to tell the difference between a boss fight boss fight, and a survive for X seconds or until X condition is met boss fight.

New Game+ has better item drops. Weapon parts in the main story part of the game are often replaced with MKII weapon parts. You also start seeing +3/+1 , +3/+2 , and +3/+3 circuits though this isn't much of a bonus if you collected everything your first time through and already have access to the +3/+3 some of those unlock.