Alrighty then, I'm just gonna get straight to the point.
Visuals: GLORIOUS. Honestly, this is what I want when I play a fantasy game. It's bright, beautiful, varied, amazing. The demo does this games visuals zero justice. Some of the places I have been are simply breathtaking. And there is so much variation. Every main area is divided into like 12 sub areas, well at least the first one is, I've put 10 or so hours into the game and haven't even left the first area, except to do a smidgeon of the main quest in the second area. But I'm back in the first now. Every time I come around the corner to enter a sub zone I'm excited to see what visual treat is in store for me. And it rarely disappoints.
Some people are complaining that the characters themselves look poor compared to the environments. But I'll say the gear you get later on significantly improves the appearance of your character. It's like they made the basic armor look horrible because they knew you wouldn't be using it that long so didn't waste time on it. That or they wanted it to feel that much more epic when you geared up. My dude looks like a bad ass now, and as I said I'm only on the starting zone still.
Audio: Wonderful. Some games severely lack what I think is the necessary audio to really immerse you in the beautiful fantasy world. This game does not. Every time you come to a new area I'm excited to hear what music will be playing to match the new area perfectly. The last game I remember that I enjoyed the simple ambient music so much was in Asheron's Call 2, unfortunately I hated everything else about that game. The visuals and the audio in this game are an absolute treat especially considering the massive size and scope of this game.
Combat:: Don't let the demo fool you. Put this on hard and get to some tough groups of baddies and you'll either be exhilarated and feel like you just accomplished something amazing when you pick a few off with your Chakrams, scorpion one to you and mutilate him with your bad ass flaming sword and siphon the remaining baddies into a tight area and earthquake them all to death, which by the way looks incredible. This combat is literally on par if not better than God of War 3, which again is incredible considering the size and general crappy combat of these types of games. Or you'll want to tear your hair out when you got caught off guard and get combo'd a thousand times forcing you to chug half your potions, or die, if you don't have any. And potions really aren't that common, and are pretty pricey too. So you don't have an unlimited supply. The combat in this game is so good that 10 hours in when I see groups of monsters on the map I almost always go off my path to go and kill them in creative ways. It also helps that you can find epics and rares to equip and feel like a totally new badass anywhere in this game... speaking of loot..
Loot: There is a LOT of loot. ALMOST too much, but I love it nevertheless. This is a big seller for me in RPG's. I love purples, and blues, and greens, and seeing those colors when I loot a baddy, or a chest, or a boss. And I think this game also prioritizes loot for what your character uses. I've found two epic long swords and an epic bow so far, and for the majority of the game I've used the bow/longsword combo. I've just recently switched to Longsword primary, Chakram secondary after I found a nice rare pair of Chakrams. And let me tell you the Chakrams feel so bad ass. My only complaint is there is SO much loot you want to pick up, that your bags become full relatively quickly, so you'll find yourself needing to purchase expensive backpacks to increase your loot slots.
Crafting: I haven't done a TON of this so far, but I have crafted a few pieces my guy is using. As usual I avoid alchemy, I do in every game, I think most people do. But I found the way to discover potions very creative. You just mix herbs and whatever else that you have discovered on your travels and try the combo. If you're lucky you'll discover a potion and it will be added to your list. Blacksmithing seems very cool. You keep all the greens, blues, purples you don't need and salvage them to get mats from them. At max blacksmithing levels you can use up to 5 epic level salvaged items to create something bad ass. I just explained that extremely poorly, but hopefully you get the idea. Crafting is unique enough to be interesting from what I've seen so far.
Story: Average. To be honest, but I've never been into Lore in any fantasy game, besides Diablo. I find it all very bland, and this game is no different. I don't pay attention to much of the story anymore except parts of the main quest line so I have an idea as to what I'm doing. It is I think pretty unique to, and has its decent spots, but I can't really be much of a judge in this area.
The world As hinted at in the visuals comments, it's amazing. Sure it isn't "Open world" per say, but it is HUGE, and it is GORGEOUS. There are I believe 12 sub zones in the first zone, and every single one looks different and unique to the last. Every time I head into a new sub zone I'm excited to see what the new area will look like. The zones are simply breathtaking. I'm intentionally trying to slowly enjoy this game and travel from place to place slowly so I can take it all in and enjoy it. This is my favorite part of the entire game. The music visuals and world are breathtaking,. for the 100th time. I'd take a more closed off world like this, than a giant open Skyrim where almost the entirety of the map looks identical, except some parts are snowy, and some are not. It still feels pretty open world to me, you just have to go through a narrow path to get to the next sub zone or continent. It really doesn't take away from anything, and you don't have to wait for load times or anything to do it.
Things I hate...
The god awful menus... My God was this ever an afterthought.. This disappointed me, it's no different than you see in the demo. It looks like they just copy and pasted an RPGs menu from Super Nintendo. It is bad, which I find very disappointing as it DOES kind of slightly sorta take away from the game when you have to open up that terribleness which removes you from the wonderful atmosphere of the game. This to me is something that could EASILY have been improved to look more impressive, but was something they clearly rushed and didn't think was important. It just looks childish and amateur.
Dispelling chests.. I still cannot do this. And that is something I wouldn't normally admit. I tend to be pretty pro at video games, but I have yet to successfully dispel a chest, and always end up cursed, going back to town to have some bitch heal me which costs an arm and a leg. So I don't even bother with them anymore. I hate them so much I might spend skill points in dispelling once I've maxed Blacksmithing, Find hidden and Persuasion just so I can open them easily. It is just a broken and stupid concept. It's not fun at all. There is no rhythm to it because it moves too fast. It's just dumb.
Not being able to jump off ledges.. WTF.
Quests..
Too many of them scattered everywhere. Normally I won't ever play a second time in a single player RPG, but in this one, I think I might just to do all the side quests with a different type of character. I have ignored them and focused mainly on the main quest aside from maybe picking up I'd say 10 side quests. I have probably missed 100's by this point, and this is only in the first zone. I'm level 17 and all the quests would be extremely low level by now so I won't even want to bother with them. If youre going to add 110,000 side quests, at least make leveling slower so you can do them and feel like they're actually worthwhile. It's frustrating for me because I WANT to do every quest, but it just feels too pointless.
Thats it for now...
This game is amazing. I'd probably still stick with a 4/5 like the GR review, despite seeming to be more glowing about it than Nick Tan was, just because there are obvious flaws and it just isn't polished enough to deserve a 4.5/5.
It is DEFINITELY worth 60$.. And like I said earlier, I swear the few people who gave this game like a 50-65% or less never even played anything beyond the demo. Like the G4TV review was just ridiculous and pathetic. This game is going to be seen as a huge hit in two years, I know it.
