The Pros: The story is engrossing and fun without being overly dramatic or overly campy. Its primarily the story that saves this (very long esp with the expansions) game from being burdened by the grindy repetition that takes down other RPGs. The player will regularly find him/herself in lose/lose situations that compel some real thinking. I strongly advise against seeking out an online walkthrough when presented with these choices - there is more fun to be had here in roleplaying and multiple runs as opposed to attempting a "100%" single run. The game itself looks great. There is a reason CD Projekt Red won awards on this game. Even on the lowest detail settings, the backgrounds are incredible to look at, the lighting is great. Its clear a lot of work went into the look of the game. The Cons: As great as this game looks, the *feel* of the game is frequently frustrating. Combat in the game is fun and stays fresh even when fighting the thousandth Water Hag. But just about every movement between combat is grating. You spend a significant amount of time walking and riding a horse between areas and every step of it is a headache. I made the mistake of playing this game back to back with Red Dead Revolver 2. With RDR2, riding a horse is *fun*. Here, the horse will get stuck on unseeable details in the foreground, bringing you to a full stop from a full gallop. You can run at a full gallop into a wall of fence without moving. Everything about it is bad. So bad that I will usually rather walk even long distances than use the horse if I can avoid it. Walking is also annoying. Character clipping is frequent. Everytime you get anywhere close to an NPC, the NPC emits a grunt, groan or complaint, so wherever you run there is a soundtrack of "Ooo" and "Err" that gets extremely old. Adding insult to injury, the game includes occasional platforming sections. Despite the headaches, I've put in dozens of hours into this game and I'm still playing it. Strongly recommend.
