This is XBox One X review. Playing on large 4K monitor.
The game starts with a fairly nice character creator, a little awkward and fiddly with a controller. Lots of options, the game was looking promising. You even had the opportunity to change the 'background' so you can see what your character looks like in different light sources.
Then the game starts. Eugh.
1) I don't think it's fair to criticize the logic of games when they are trying to tell a story, but I just found this quite annoying: You are on a ship, bound for the New World. You've obviously been sailing for a long long time (unless the New World is just down the road). And you are 10 minutes from docking at the island... So of COURSE, this is the time that the passengers all get together and introduce themselves, instead of getting ready to disembark.
2) The first character you meet is supposed to be an "A-list hunter", but is, alas, voiced by a dude-bro. The voice in no way gives you the impression that he is a big bad monster hunter. He sounds like he should be eating pizza, and hanging out with Michelangelo and Raphael in a sewer.
3) Everything goes to hell as we hit an 'object' and this is when my brand new xbox starts throwing up solid walls of color instead of sea-spray and smoke.
4) Finally I see my mute character in some cut scenes... And he vaguely resembles the character I just made. A low-res version, bordering on The Old Republic art style. Also, he's a mouth breather with a botox face. Nothing moves in his face.
5) After an escape from the volcano monster, I realize that I'm actually supposed to be climbing a vertical cliff, and not scrabbling along the ground. My legs are just randomly swimming in the air as I 'climb'
6) Eventually we land on the island, and the super impressive graphics are really seen for the first time... If that first time were 2005. The graphics are strangely bland and washed out, except for the cutscenes, and nothing impressive (i.e. nothing like those screenshots with the perfectly detailed monster hides).
7) You companion has an annoying high pitched perky voice that grated after the first 30 seconds... Can't wait for the rest of the game.
We find the main camp and meet the cliches. They only voice the first words of each sentence, the rest is text. Some just grunt (i.e. no translation needed).9) The inventory section where you choose you weapons from the chest is hideous, and I really hope they didn't pay a designer for this.
10) Ah, the combat tutorial! Clearly this was added at the last minute. A cave with a couple of barrels to hit, and then the whole screen is covered in "Right Right Right HOLD for stunning attack" etc etc. All the moves are just there on the screen the whole time as you jump around the screen, almost unable to see yourself with all the icons and text.
11) Let's go hunt a monster! Oh, they are all running away. I've found their nest, and I'm doing the combos, and my character is just blindly flailing around hitting everything around him.
I just gave up after a few hours and traded the game in.
Imagine the Witcher 3, but with swords the size of VW Beetle, and voiced by the people that make cartoons for 1 year old children "YELLOW, can you say YELLOW? Say YELLOW with me!", and not actually fun to play, and with a UI and inventory that makes Mass Effect Andromeda's look sophisticated.