I bought this in 2002, now, nearly 12 years later, I still have not got past chapter two, because this is like playing an epic novel. It's the War & Peace of D&D (or to old schoolers like myself, AD&D!) If you want true D&D hardcore ruleset roleplaying, (3rd Edn), this is it. Like Temple of Elemental Evil, The Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series it feels the closest to playing 'proper' D&D (Including encumbrance), even displaying a scroll list of all dice rolls). There's fun character creation, lush scenery, full orchestral stirring soundtrack and effects (try through a full hi-fi Dolby Surround rig), an immersive plot, superb voice acting, humour, tragedy, revenge, evil baddies, haunted houses, heroes, anti-heroes, villains, in-jokes, innocents, social issues, pirates, race politics, infighting, busybodies, turncoats, betrayal... this is your choice. And this is even BEFORE you get around to creating your own scenarios for others to play online or in your own network or community. I'm sick of the usual "move with keyboard and aim with the mouse bang-bang-bang!" nonsense that seems the fashion today, this suits the more thoughtful player and is not the type that needs reflexes of a fly... you won't get killed in the first ten seconds of starting a game, you can relax and explore this world and many of its remarkable, complex and flawed characters. It's live action yet everything can be played or accessed with mouse clicks and you can pause at any time to plan your next move or attack. It runs great on just about any laptop or PC today, and will look lovely using a powerful PC. The visuals obviously are not going to be in xbox 360 territory, but who cares with this sort of immmersive gameplay? Playability matters over graphics any day, as evinced by the secxond best strategy game for the Sinclair Spectrum ever made, the grand daddy (but not great, great grand daddy) of them all, 'Rebelstar': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebelstar_(series)#Rebelstar What a supportive and thriving fan community it is. Recommended without hesitation
