OK, first, I have hardly played this game, just getting started, but I am already quite taken with it, so I thought I'd add a quick review/comment. As others have said, the graphics are superb. This is a beautiful game world and the characters are well rendered as well. I thought the voice acting was fine (so far, anyway). I purchased the game and without reading the manual at all, just jumped in to "test it out." I found it fairly easy to figure out -- that's good. If I can play straight off, that's a pretty good interface. And figuring it out is half the fun.
The combat isn't bad, I'm OK with it. The quests, NPC's, general game play, all seem pretty much par for the course (in a good way). If you like RPG's, then I think you'll be very satisfied. It reminds me of Sacred Gold, Gothic, Assassins Creed, and so on. Did I mention the beautiful game world? The atmosphere is great and it feels right. The test went so well, I've just continued playing.
I got a real kick out of the way they handled the Horse and riding. I note some have mentioned 'hard to control', etc. To them I say "Have you ever ridden a horse?" When I got the horse and mounted up, I had a real laugh as I rode around the corral trying to control the horse and ride out. I had to laugh. It reminded me very much of my first attempt to ride a real horse. I thought that was pretty cool. Now remember, I have not even glanced at the manual at this point. Even so, it only took me a few minutes to figure it out and get the hang of it. And I still find it fun. (I've played other games where you ride a horse and you just "click here" and the horse goes there obediently. That's fine, but it gives no sense of really riding a horse.) So I say kudos to the game's creators!
The skills, inventory, etc. seem fairly routine. I have not learned much magic yet. I did figure out how to "cook a potion" (Alchemy) from easily found ingredients. A nice touch. There's a great "save game" system, easily customized settings and keyboard controls, and everything installed and runs fine on the modest Vista laptop I used for this (Nvidia 8600m card, 2 GHz CPU).
I find the game very enjoyable, so far, and it's easy to play, quit, come back and resume, etc. Now, I'm focused mainly on having fun, not being nit-picky about every little thing. That said, I find this to be well worth the modest price and say once more "Thank you, GOG!" for DRM-free gaming goodness.
