Since i got Soma for free i had no idea what i was playing here. But when i slowly realized that this was a horror game, i already was too deep into the game and got captured by its atmosphere and storyline, which was enough to keep me going. Even though the gameplay is relatively simplistic, this game is crazy immersive and really managed to suprise me with new and interesting locations that i visited, and gave me an occasional uneasy feeling with some of the plotpoints and new characters. Would definitly have spent something in the 20€ range if i had heard of this game before.
I don't think i ever played a game like this before, a game with such a dense and immersive atmosphere and graphical detail, even for an action adventure/stealth game. I was especially surprised to see how well the Stealth System works without any combat. But often times it is hard to find out what i am supposed to do in order to progress the story; where to find the last item XY or knowing in which order i have to do the quests. This adds to an overall "grindy" experience, but after a bit of searching stuff on the internet it is quite comfortable to play.
This game is my personal favourite of the "old" elder scrolls games wich were released before oblivion, mostly because it has a simple user interface and (unfortunately not very precise) controls. The combat system may appear strange at the beginning, but once you read the manuals, remapped the controls on your keyboard and get a little exercise, it can be fun too. The overall performance of the game is stable for me, there is no lag except after you exit the menu back to the game (just dont move Cyrus for 2 seconds to avoid accidents). The thing that makes this game so special to me, is probably its design, the warm atmosphere of hammerfell and the adventurous soundtrack of the game. Unlike morrowind, daggerfall or arena, all dialogues are fully voiced and you could basically entirely without subtitles. through progression of the story, you will talk a lot to people, until it becomes actually annoying because you cant go forward just because you forgot to discuss a certain topic with an npc. this game also contains the most challenging puzzels in all of the Elder scrolls series, so I had to look for help in Redguards uesp wiki page even after my 3rd playthrough... so overall, if you want to play some more ES classics, but daggerfall seems unplayable to you, buy it. And its cheap too.
