I played The Witcher for the first time a couple of years ago and I found it to be highly engaging and enjoyable. Its gritty, low-fantasy setting is a refreshing break from the usual fantasy cliches. The game is really a masterpiece of writing and character development, which where its true strength is. The plot is very well-written and I don't think I have played another RPG that has so many interesting, distinct and memorable characters. As well as the major ones - Geralt, Triss, King Foltest, Azar Javed - which are all amazingly well done, many of the minor characters are also very memorable, such as Jethro, Coleman, Abigail. I see a lot of people ripping on the graphics and combat mechanics. To me, the graphics hold up very well and didn't impair my enjoyment of the game at all. I have thoroughly enjoyed older games that have far worse graphics. Unless you are someone who absolutely has to have cutting-edge graphics to enjoy a game, you will be fine. The combat I also found to be totally fine. It is a bit simple and can get a bit repetitive, but it flows very well and is perfectly adequate to make the game enjoyable. A couple of minor gripes I had were that they re-used some of the character models a bit too much (although all of the major ones are unique). Also, the game is a little long and drags a bit in places. I remember one chapter where there seemed to be a lot of trekking to and fro between the town and the swamp. Also, I found the epilogue to be a bit of an anticlimax. After you beat the real final bosses, you have to go through a fairly long, boring and sloggy level, at the end of which you face a couple of trivial enemies. I guess it represents taking care of 'unfinished business', but it seemed like a bit of a pointless way to drag the game out. However, those are minor points. Overall, the game fully deserves 5 stars. It is an absolute classic that any fan of story-driven action RPGs must play.
I have no problem giving this a 5. For me, this is one of the best in the Monkey Island series, which automatically makes it one of the best graphical adventures of all time. The graphics are perfect; the music and voice acting wonderful; the game is full of quirky, funny characters and great humor. There are a lot of laughs to be had here. In terms of challenge, some of the puzzles are pretty tough, but not impossible. They usually make sense and give a good feeling of achievement once you figure them out. There are a few fun red herrings thrown in there too, which I like - items that are laying around just for the sake of distraction, to try to put you off the scent. I like that, the game does a great job of staying fresh and mostly avoiding the 'usual' point & click cliches. I think my only criticism would be the ending is very short and abrupt, but that doesn't detract enough to pull it down from a 5. Graphic adventure fans shouldn't miss this!
For me, Morrowind is the pinnacle of the ES series and the best open world RPG I have ever played. So much has been said about it and I won't re-iterate, but I will add the following: It always amuses me when I see people criticizing the combat system for relying on 'invisible dice rolls' to determine whether you hit. Sorry, but that is simply *how RPGs work*. Pen and paper RPGs going back to D&D have always relied on dice rolls to hit opponents. If you don't like that, then what you want is not an open world RPG, but an action adventure (not that there's anything wrong with that). The combat dice rolling in MW is not a design flaw - it was a deliberate choice, because that is how this sort of game works. I also have to point out that, although the original game was excellent, there are many great mods that have been developed over the past 20 years that have made it even better. Of course, there are many bug fix mods, but there are also many available that improve the graphics. With increased view distance; improved water shaders and shadows; higher resolutions and groundcover, the visuals can (imo) rival Oblivion. OpenMW is also an excellent open-source recreation of the entire engine, which works great and is much more stable than the original. The Tamriel Rebuilt mod is also essential, which is an enormous mod that aims to complete the rest of Morrowind province. The quality is incredibly high and it adds so much content that you will never see it all in 10 playthroughs. Morrowind is a timeless masterpiece and a captivating journey through one of the most enchanting and unique game worlds ever created. Even after completing the game, as I was strolling triumphantly back down Red Mountain, I still had the same sense of wonder and immersion that I did when I stepped off the boat in Seyda Neen. It is very rare that I can say that about a game. I got bored of Oblivion after about 20 hours, but I can see myself coming back to Morrowind again and again.
First off, I am a big fan of Morrowind, and that probably puts me in the 'MW fanboy' camp. I recently tried Oblivion for the first time. I really wanted to like it, but was disappointed because it seems to have lost too much of what I loved about MW. Regarding graphics: O of course has more advanced graphics technology; however, a game's looks depend on more than just technology - artistic design is also important. To me, MW *looks better*, because the world design is so much more creative and has a far stronger artistic vision than O. In MW, you are exploring an alien world, where the creators have let their imaginations run riot. By comparison, O is very bland. When I first played MW, I totally ignored the main quest; went off in a random direction and had a blast. The first time I played O, I tried to do the same thing and got bored. I had the impression that there just isn't as much to do 'off the beaten track' in O. MW also has a very interesting patchwork of overlapping political factions with competing agendas, which seems to have been scaled back in O. But for me, the worst aspect of O is the balance issues. The enemy level-scaling is atrocious - I hate it. To me, it's flat out the wrong way to design an RPG. The general balance also seems very bad. As an example, I did the paranoia quest for Glarthir in Skingrad. At one point, he told me to kill some lady who lives in the town. So, I found her in her back garden and jumped her - she absolutely DECKED me! I reloaded 3-4 times and she was literally impossible to beat, despite the fact that I had strolled into a ruin a short while earlier and taken out 5 armed bandits single-handedly. For me, that was a WTF moment that totally broke the immersion. Imo, it's a decent attempt that is marred by some pretty serious balance issues. I can understand younger gamers or action adventure fans preferring it, but for those that want to get lost in a beautiful, absorbing RPG, check out Morrowind instead.
Perhaps my expectations were too high for the game, given the level of hype over it and people throwing around 10/10 reviews. I am an experienced RPG player and am a big fan of many of Bioware's other games (BG2, Planescape Torment, Mass Effect). However, for me the game doesn't live up to the hype. One of the biggest issues for me is the lack of player freedom early on and the length of time it takes for the game to open up. Player freedom is highly desirable for me in an RPG and I know this isn't 'open world', but the first two planets you visit felt very linear and railroaded. It takes ~15-20 hours of play before the game starts to open up and allow you to visit other planets, which for me is far too long. Compare with BG2, which opens up beautifully once you get through Irenicus' dungeon (~2-3 hours). I also didn't find the plot very inspiring. Darth Malak seems like a very cliched Vader-clone type of bad guy (as many Star Wars antagonists seem to be). The main plot seems to be a fairly thin version of "you have to collect X widgets from this list of locations". Most of the dialogue is good, although there are some quite cheesy lines in there, as others have noted. Otherwise, I think the graphics hold up pretty well given the game's age. The sound/music are very strong as well, although that is mostly due to them being heavily derivative from the Star Wars movies. The game doesn't seem to make many original musical contributions or have its own theme to distinguish it from other SW offerings. The combat gameplay and character development systems are probably the game's strongest points, given that they are based on the 3rd edition D&D system, which is very well developed and highly regarded. In summary, it's a decent game but doesn't live up to the hype. People who are both SW and RPG fans will enjoy it. However, imo, it isn't Bioware's best, let alone a candidate for best RPG of all time.
