To start this off, I'll say this: It's not as good as Risen. It's likely the worst game PB's ever done. But that's like saying the room made out of solid gold lost a single gold brick. It's still a friggin' room of gold. Nearly everything you'd expect from a good PB game, and from a good European RPG is here. It's got an amazing art style that the technical side can't match up to. It's got a phenomenally fun hand-crafted world to explore, but the mechanics involved in everything that goes on in the world are a bit clumsy. The characters are interested, but are shoddily animated and their models aren't very good. It's everything you expect from a good ERPG. The problem with NAmerican RPGs and that they're frequently more polished and cling to certain norms of the industry. This keeps them from having a lot of character and they lose sort of the indie charm that their lower-budget, European counterparts have in spades. The combat system that many complain about isn't actually awful. It's serviceable, and I didn't think it any better or worse than RIsen's system. It's just different. Have a companion with you at all times, as it was intended, and it's fine. Still difficult, but not unfair. And all your companions are memorable, particularly Patty and the gnome, the foul-mouthed gnome that learned to speak English from pirates. It's very clear, however, that PB wanted to do a pirate-themed game, and they reinvented the game world of Risen to do so. Risen 1 was more of a 'one size fits all' fantasy setting, though the change is actually explained pretty damned well, though, save for the fact that shields have apparently disappeared entirely... Just to add as a small thing... you can't interact with things as much as you could in previous PB games. No chair sitting, no going through the process to create a sword. Stuff like that. It took me about 30 hours to beat this game, doing most of the content. If you want a good time and know what you're getting, have at it.
I was one of the beta testers for this game, and Jeff Vogel just astonished me. The first beta release was already more stable than most release-state games these days. There were few versions of the beta that we tested, which is a fantastic testament to how well he makes his games that even in a huge RPG, bugs are extremely hard to come by. As for the rest of the game, it's what you expect from Spiderweb Software. If you liked the previous incarnations of the Exile/Avernum games, you're sure to like this, especially if you were fond of Avernum: Escape from the Pit, as this plays identically. The game's combat mechanics are sound and simple to understand. While visually unimpressive, and it tends to favor dual-wielding warriors not too far past the halfway mark, you can really make ANY build work if you don't fuck it up. It reminds me of the first Final Fantasy in that regard. Technically any kind of party will work, though with differing levels of effectiveness. The game, as you can see in the screenshots above, isn't exactly a looker, and it doesn't sound amazing either. But that's fine, considering Jeff Vogel's budget and what he does with it. Instead of smaller worlds that immerse you visually and audio-wise, he makes larger worlds just as immersive through the game's huge amount of text describing pretty much everything: sight, smell, sound, feeling... and it's phenomenally written, as always. Every character is unique and has their own fully-explained job, motivations, ideas, etc. The world contains everything an environment needs to survive with farmers, soldiers, blacksmiths, alchemists, etc. which is something larger developers and publishers neglect to the detriment to the world's believability. The story, too, is excellent and doesn't require you to have played the previous game. It's long, and compelling, as are even the many side quests. The game is full of content and any old-school RPG fan NEEDS to play this. Now I'm about out of characters, so...
