God, the game might have wondrous story, but I wouldn't call the gameplay and general useability of the game as "old school", more like "obsolete". How did the dev team not use a proper designer to help them with the UX of the game, is beyond me. I don't care much about cool awesome graphics, I still think Deus Ex is uncomparably superior to Deus Ex Mankind Divided; but these graphics are worse than Baldur's Gate 1, and the animations are so stiff that take out of any immersion the game might have had. The transition between different parts of the quests are a horrible idea, just a fade to black and you appear in another place, two lines of dialogs, another fade to black, then in another place; no continuity whatsoever. The combat, while I understand is not the focus of the game, is atrocious, no other way to put it. A lot of people seem to really love this game, but I couldn't, for the life of me.
I like this game, it's in great part responsible for the revival of the genre. However, I found it tries to be like Baldur's Gate, while trying to make its own thing (own world, own combat rules, etc), but never quite accomplishes what BG did. I found the combat tedious and somehow less strategic than BG, I am really not fond of the combat mechanics and resting limitations. The story is fine, it's interesting, but I was never really gripped in the same way that, for example, Torment Tides of Numenera did when it was released. I just didn't find the world compelling, or half the characters (where's a Minsc when you need him?), or the story arc. It's definitely not a bad game, but in the end it just made me want to replay BG instead. I am more than happy that this game exists, but mostly because of its part in the RPG revival.
This game is a masterpiece of the genre. The quests are interesting and actually meaningful, the dev team proved that even a small reward quest can be fun and engaging. The visuals are, in my opinion, unparalleled: stunning sunsets, wind moves trees and grass in a natural fashion, light rays pierce tree cups, it's simply amazing. The sounds and music are incredibly fitting, voice acting is superb for all NPCs. Battles are fun and challenging, this is not Assassin's Creed where you're invincible no matter how many attackers, you can be easily killed if careless. The potion and alchemy system in this game are an innovation (at least haven't seen it before myself in previous AAA RPGs), you brew the potions and get to use them over and over, they are auto replenished after resting provided you have some ingredients, so it's less of a hassle and is not like in other games where you keep saving your potions for that last boss. Gathering ingredients for crafting is thankfully not as annoying as in other games, though you're still forced to get down from your horse (which is a bummer), but alchemy ingredients spawn seemingly randomly all over the place, not exactly fun, but decent system (I still hate crafting, unfortunately they did not manage to make it fun, but it's not required). There is some hand holding, which is my main nuisance, you keep getting quests where you need to use your witcher senses, but you're prompted to do so, so it's completely pointless! other than that, it's tough enough and the hand holding is just a little patronizing and annoying, but can be easily ignored because of the overall quality of everything else. Huge world, epic storyline, awesome characters, great music, immersive world, this game has it all. Could live without the stupid crossbow and bombs, they serve no purpose and Geralt never used them, goes against the character. Oh, and the Triss Merigold alternative outfit is incredibly ill conceived, pure and pointless fan service.
A terrible sequel and unworthy of the title Master of Orion. If a game requires fan-made mods to make it good, then it's simply not a good game by itself. Boring and extremely disappointing. It has some good ideas but really poor execution.
