The display technologxy does not imply grinding, it could all be event based. But it's a complete redesign for sure, you can't bring the story 1:1 to a completely different gameplay environment. Immagine having to walk to school every morning
It will takes ages anyway until they get something presentable. So far it's nothing but a tech demo with some hidden events, the house looks awefully empty.
I managed to play an early release and there was to walk from home to the woods just to find Ellie to be fucked.
You had to walk the town in the right direction to find the woods, then wander in the woods until you find Ellie.
Meanwhile, nothing happened. Just plain boring.
Exploring the environment while walking makes sense for games in which you have to fight with enemies on your path.
Otherwise walking 3 minutes in a 3D environment just to find a character is just boring (and personally it gives me motion sickness with all that motion of the virtual camera).
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Besides I had to decrease the quality a lot to be able to play on a $1000 laptop, because Unreal Engine hardware requirements are quite demanding.
I guess that to play full quality one has to buy either a $1500/$2000 desktop or a $4000 laptop.
This kind of expense can be expected by gamers wanting to play something like Doom, Tomb Raider, Assassins's Creed, GTA, or any game in whick 3D makes actually sense (because it's the point of the game), not by those just looking for an AVN.