Some folks claim this is a casual game. I suppose to an extent this is true. I am greatly enjoying this game. Solid puzzles. Strong narrative. Well-meshed graphics. It's fun, and appealing. If you're looking for a "americanized norse pantheon" product, this is not it. The game is not about empowerment and simplistic badassery. The game is action oriented, with a strong interactive puzzle orientation. THe combat is decently rounded, and tough if you are not experienced. The story drives the narrative, and while it has the nordic pantheon, it's focus is not on the nordic pantheon. Love the game. Beautiful piece.
Amazing graphics. Good variety on equipment. Solid variety on merchant work. Decent travel mechanics. Impressive fight mechanics - it feels real. You need to be very careful about positioning and the feield when you start a fight. Do it well, you can take on things outside your weightclass. Do it poorly and.. well. Ow. Pisspoor job on quests. I've had so many quests break in the middle because the engine is fickle. It's why I am quitting the game and why it does not get 5 stars. Characters, voice acting, everythign is fun and flavorful until you're trying to work on a quest. It's more fun to randomly fly around and engage bad guys than advance the storyline.
Tutorial: Decent. Auto-Aim and Auto-Pilot need work. Don't give me a ship and then tell me I have to drive straight into things to shoot them effectively. Steering with the mouse and aiming with the mouse simultaneusly is a foolish thing. Either allow me some tactical autopilot, or give me a tac computer to handle some aiming within a certain margin. This is the worst of both worlds. Computer voice - decent. My characters' voice? I sound like I am not very bright, and just jacked a car. Lastly, the game froze up on me, tried to tab out and bring up taskmanager to kill the game. Spent 10 minutes trying to wrestle it into submission, then had to jsut reboot. This game looks like it's headed in the right direction, but it's not worth your money right now.
See http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewthread/13604/P0/ for the controversy regarding how doublefine handled the Bloodline Backer stuffs.
This game is abominable. Makes me appreciate the crappy newer games more. I had no idea the interface in these old games was this crappy. Don't buy it unless you are nostalgic and can forgive the abysmal shortcomings. Bad AI. Bad Interface. Die Often. And yeah - this was WITH the mods people say you need to hunt down and use to enjoy the game.
Witcher 1 was a beautiful game. Multiple playthroughs, so many branches. Easily have sunk 200 hours into it. 4.5 play throughs. Witcher 2 however, has.. been horrible. the storyline is shoehorned in many places, cutting you off from the variety of choices that where available in witcher 1. Difficulty is scaled poorly. Easy is too easy. Normal is,.. difficult. And many, many spots where you have no choice but to simply die and reload. Amnesia can only account for so much - you spent a large amount of time in witcher 1 getting yourself up to speed and learning. In witcher 2, you're back to being a weak rookie. The only moments of 'cool' are when a cutscene intervenes - not when you've just taken down somethign difficult yourself. An incredible dissapointment, almost dissapointing enough to demand my money and time played back. The witcher franchise is not Mass Effect. This was a woeful attempt to make Witcher 2 in the same manner as Mass Effect 2. Seneschul
