Why might you NOT like it? 1. This game is a TEXT BASED ADVENTURE. 95% of this game is reading dialog text. 2. You won't succeed at all choice points. There is no "best min/max character design". No matter how you develop your character, you will fail at least 30% or more of all skill check challenges. 3. There is no CRAFTING SYSTEM. You are not going to find the awesome "Laminar Half Seeing Cloak of the Rabid Armadillo". Though items play a significant role in giving you an edge, and for best gameplay you will absolutely want to pay attention to (equipped items), (drinking/smoking/sex/performance and mood enhancing drugs (if you are inclined to take your character this route)), and your character's (base/modified stats), there is no grinding through millions of variations of stuff for those Legendary and Epic finds, and you aren't going to make one for yourself either. 4. There is no COMBAT in this game. Aside from one special encounter I know of, and possibly a few decision choices here or there for some fisticuffs, there is no fighting in this game and no combat system. You act through your conversations and suffer health/moral hits via dialog choices. Even the few fighting moments are this way. So... If you get bored real quick from reading sometimes page high dialog boxes; if the idea of a missed opportunity drives you to scum save/load because failing a skill check goes up your arse sideways; if grinding and crafting your way to great armor and weapon super abilities gives you a boner; if you excel at discovering how to min/max your way to a DPS killing machine; then this game may be everything you hate and nothing you like. Why then will you like this game? Besides being an AGING, OVERWEIGHT, BALDING, ALCOHOLIC, DISCO LOVING, DETECTIVE; what else are you? And how will you progress your virtues and vices in order to solve the mystery that is your job to solve. Great art work. Voice acting everywhere. Lots of chioce. We game for this.
There are some unique and interesting aspects to this game. 1) Unlike some, I like all the reading. Some great story telling going on. The text falters in some places with speach is just a little too "current" but if you can get past that it is nice to see a game features text so well. 2) The idea of the Inquisition sounds at least on the surface, real cool. I am looking forward to my first trial and "co-erced confession". Thinking of using the Rack for that one. This to me seems like a great game direction. Though it could be controversial to some, the idea of being able to torture somebody in order to get a confession to bolster the proof othe Heretic deeds sounds way cool to me. Especially when it comes with what appears to be some accurate history on the Inquisition and its rules of how this was done etc. 3) I love the idea of the little green boxes and the genie. Indeed I used this guy to get me out of a tough scrape neat the end of Act 1. I let him do all the fighting and the impossible became easy. 4) I also love the detective nature of the game where it is necessary to figure out who the Heretics are. 5) Some cheats are available if you don' want to grind and instead want to work the other aspects of the game. To me this turned out to be a very big help. But there are serious problems. 1) graphics are kludgy. The animations are dull. The resolution does work but some maps are not ported to the higher resolutions (found two so far) so you have to stop the game reset and 1920x1080 and restart. 2) balancing is way off. The game is real hard at the beginning, even on easy. Thank goodness for the people on gog who are providing information via the community or I would have been lost (read cheats). 3) It really needs a thorough walkthrough with details on significant events. For example, there is a book called the HERBERIUM that I need to find but I don't see it, and the advice from the GOG community is too vague. I need to know exactly where it is dropped or found because I don't see it where I was told it should be. Still don't know if this means I am stuck. 4) Bugs. There is at least one big bug. You can sell quest items. Once sold they are not retrievable, i.e. the vendor you sold it too does not put it in inventory for you to get it back, so you cannot do the related quest. If it is a main quest then I imagine you are done and your only solution is to find a savegame before you sold the time. So is it worth the time and energy needed to play it? Well... I am going to keep playing at least until I have sent my first Heretic through an Inquisition. Maybe I'll try the Iron Maiden instead of the Rack. Hail Flavius!
