Beat the game. I first played this on a Steam free trial and was immediately impressed. The price was less than $10 so I purchased the game after the trial ended. I opted not to buy any of the DLC because they did not seem all that interesting.
I started as a heavy goliath and kept the basic Rhino gear until shortly after beating the Black Cerberus. I used a Lynx headgear and switched back and forth between that and the Rhino head depending on whether or not the body part I was targeting was armored (for optimal damage). After that I did research online to see what all the armor sets were like and to choose one. I settled on the basic security armor; Gorgon, though both types of Cerberus armor are also interesting. I did make some environmental hazard gear but never bothered to use it because I could just use healing to overcome toxic environments.
After the starter weapon I used the single rigged plasma torch that the enemies were using. It was interesting, but too slow for my tastes. I switched to the one handed vibro blade. It was still a little too slow but I stuck with it and kept upgrading it. I used it until the Firebug boss where I stumbled onto the special way of killing the boss and got the Firebug Throttle 2.0, which I used until the end of the game. I did not bother too much about its special moves, which I eventually learned. I found the attack speed of twin rigged to be just right for me because I like to stay on the defense and do quick attacks when the opportunity presents itself and I slightly regret not using them for the early game too. My secondary weapon was the one handed that boosts health by 10%, which could be used for a small heal if I lost less than 10% health (by swapping weapons). I tried out the other weapon types but single rigged and heavy were too slow, and staves were too flashy (as in dumb swinging it around instead of quick stabs like a spear). I did not rely on blocking because I really did not like how you cannot move and block at the same time; it is just not like using a shield in Dark Souls. Instead I focused on dodging and I loved how dodging speed is independent of armor weight.
I used the ranged attack and shield drone abilities. The ranged attack was very useful for single pulling enemies to me, and I even used it to kill annoyingly powerful enemies before I was strong enough to beat then normally: the arc welder bots (which I could not beat until I switched to twin rigged because I was too slow), the watch dog bots and the smelter bots (why melee an enemy that cannot reach you?). It was a bit of a pain to hit for 2 damage per shot but I set up an automated macro on my keyboard and did something else for a while. The shield I used in tough battles.
For implants I found 1 max stamina boost, multiple health boosts, multiple healing injections and the one that converts energy into health to be most useful. General combat would see me save energy for healing rather than finishers and saving the healing injections unless I really needed it. I made a set of Proteus armor for the passive health regen and made extensive use of that in the late game to heal up between fights; just do something else while waiting. I found it important to only have 2 types of injectables equipped so I could simply press the button to switch between them; with more than 2 I had trouble finding the healing in critical moments when I really needed it. My final implant loadout was:
Vital boost XL 4 (+135 health)
2 X Vital boost 5 (+115 health)
4 X Vital boost 4 (+70 health, making my total health 745)
Medi voltaic injection 5
3 X Vital injection 5 (gives 9 uses of 360 health each)
Endurance enhancer 5 (+50 stamina)
Rig capacitor XL
2 X Rig capacitor (so my energy does not drain below 50%)
Voltaic dynamo 2 (increases energy gain from attacks)
That was my set up for the final boss, though for general play I have 2 that boost scrap gain and 1 that boosts weapon proficiency gain. I used a trick to get a couple million extra scrap. The trick where if you die with a lot of scrap and bring the timer above 5 min you gain far more than you lost (I absolutely hated that damn timer for corpse runs). I did it in the Research exhibit room just outside ops where there were 4 disabled proteus and 1 security guard to farm. Good thing I did it then because bad enemies showed up there later. I ended at core level 121, twin proficiency 18 and had my weapon and armor maxed out to mark 5.
Some parts of the game were quite tough and took a few attempts. I think most of my deaths were from falling or doing something dumb rather than failure at combat. Each boss took 2 or 3 tries. I killed the big sister the special way accidentally after struggling with the 4 laser arms and just saying the hell with them and running past them. Black Cerberus took the most tries because I struggled with the giant robots and it took several tries to figure out how to knock down the robots without the rocket barrage from the first boss. I wrecked the final boss on the first try and got the Claws of Gestalt; I put that down more to the exploiting and cheese I did to excessively over level and max out my stuff rather than skill.
Due to the beginning being like Avatar and the overall similarities to Dead Space, I thought this game took place on a different planet for the longest time. I did not learn my error until late game. Overall a very good game which faithfully follows the Dark Souls formula while refining some bits and adding in its own unique mechanics. Could really have used a map because the world is more confusing than Dark Souls, but the PC controls were excellent.
