Suchy
Arcane
Still haven't finished, I'm in the Act 2, so I'm judging what I've played through. And so far it's a damn good game.
Good writing; it's been a while since I enjoyed dialogues that much. Finally memorable characters with personality. Great quest design, with multiple ways of solving them and multiple outcomes. No fedex crap and even monster hunting tasks are more than the typical kill x of y. Probably the best implementation of C&C so far, the fact that the entire Act 2 is completely differnet, based on what you did earlier, is quite impressive. The story also stays away from clichés and avoids unnecessary and overdone epicness. I'm a story fag and this game tickles me where I like it.
I like the combat - even though it's entirely arcade, it still manages to be rather tactical (playing on hard). Often requires preparation, use of traps, petards and signs. Definitely not a mindless clickfest.
Voice acting is mostly good, but there are some miscasts. Sometimes it sounds too theatrical and overly dramatic. More suitable to an audiobook reading, not a conversation. Bloodlines did it better. I started in Polish, then switched to English - I'd say it's basically on the same level. After all I'm playing back in Polish, but my second playthrough will be fully in English.
The game has some weak sides too. The prologue was a typical nextgen linear crap with completely unnecessary QTE's. Why the fuck do I need to click repeatedly to open a gate or load a ballista? It doesn't add anything and is just annoying. Fortunatly QTE's during the cutscenes can be disabled (except the clicking crap).
There are also some technical glitches lke sometimes unresponsive controls and bad targetting during combat. The game areas are pretty huge and simply beg for more freedom of movement, like jumping and climbing a'la Gothic, but still a small fence is an obstacle that requires you to find a way around. Oh, and I hate that the bodies disappear after a few seconds. Why the hell do I need to spam 'z', just to find a tiny lootbag completely invisible in the foliage?
I haven't noticed any bugs worth mentioning, just some small things like an NPC getting stuck for a moment or a misplaced sound, nothing game breaking nor annoying. No crashes so far. QA really did their job this time, especially when compared to pretty much any other moderately recent game.
Overall it's a solid 4/5 for me. I can look past the annoyances and simply enjoy the good game it is. Fortunately the linear prologue was short enough not to put me off. I'd put it right next to Bloodlines nd Gothic 2, or maybe even above. There's no other action RPG I'd rate higher than 4, according to my scale.
EDIT:
By 'one of the best in the genre' option I mean action RPGs - this seemed confusing.
Good writing; it's been a while since I enjoyed dialogues that much. Finally memorable characters with personality. Great quest design, with multiple ways of solving them and multiple outcomes. No fedex crap and even monster hunting tasks are more than the typical kill x of y. Probably the best implementation of C&C so far, the fact that the entire Act 2 is completely differnet, based on what you did earlier, is quite impressive. The story also stays away from clichés and avoids unnecessary and overdone epicness. I'm a story fag and this game tickles me where I like it.
I like the combat - even though it's entirely arcade, it still manages to be rather tactical (playing on hard). Often requires preparation, use of traps, petards and signs. Definitely not a mindless clickfest.
Voice acting is mostly good, but there are some miscasts. Sometimes it sounds too theatrical and overly dramatic. More suitable to an audiobook reading, not a conversation. Bloodlines did it better. I started in Polish, then switched to English - I'd say it's basically on the same level. After all I'm playing back in Polish, but my second playthrough will be fully in English.
The game has some weak sides too. The prologue was a typical nextgen linear crap with completely unnecessary QTE's. Why the fuck do I need to click repeatedly to open a gate or load a ballista? It doesn't add anything and is just annoying. Fortunatly QTE's during the cutscenes can be disabled (except the clicking crap).
There are also some technical glitches lke sometimes unresponsive controls and bad targetting during combat. The game areas are pretty huge and simply beg for more freedom of movement, like jumping and climbing a'la Gothic, but still a small fence is an obstacle that requires you to find a way around. Oh, and I hate that the bodies disappear after a few seconds. Why the hell do I need to spam 'z', just to find a tiny lootbag completely invisible in the foliage?
I haven't noticed any bugs worth mentioning, just some small things like an NPC getting stuck for a moment or a misplaced sound, nothing game breaking nor annoying. No crashes so far. QA really did their job this time, especially when compared to pretty much any other moderately recent game.
Overall it's a solid 4/5 for me. I can look past the annoyances and simply enjoy the good game it is. Fortunately the linear prologue was short enough not to put me off. I'd put it right next to Bloodlines nd Gothic 2, or maybe even above. There's no other action RPG I'd rate higher than 4, according to my scale.
EDIT:
By 'one of the best in the genre' option I mean action RPGs - this seemed confusing.
