Just played the steam demo thought i'd get somthing down while the experiance is fresh in my mind, in my opinion the game is overall good and certainly worth checking out, the world felt a little underpopulated but there is certainly enough to keep people busy with collectable lore in the form of documents and strangly some audio logs in the form of interactive stones, i did experiance a few graphical bugs, the game seemed to freeze at odd and bad times during combat and the camera was abit wonkey in combat and when talking to certain shopkeepers but it is only a demo and im sure alot of that will get ironed out. I probably wont be buying it, i'll list a few reasons that over all put me off the game then come up with a conclusion for people who like that kind of stuff, so skip to the bottom if you want my verdict.
First: this is the my biggest gripe even if it is a petty reason, the game is obviously a console port and it feels like it too, certain things like the fact that all combat is auto lock on to the nearest target, you dont aim with any of the weapons just mash away at attack untill everything is dead, control of the camera gets taken away from you during combat aswell several times i got hit by an enemy off screen because the cammera seemed busy panning around to show me the nearest enemey, as a side note the block function seemed alittle unresponsive aswell, for example you can dodge and attack happily one after another but block seems to have a delay this may be a deliberate design decision though as a properly timed block results in an almost parry effect(very little seems to have been gained from the mouse and keyboard, in terms of actions a gamepad would not be any worse).
Second: my first impression of the world was that it consisted mostly of a very large set of paths and not a truly open enviroment when you first start to play in the open area its immediatly apparant that someplaces just cannot be accessed, its almost zelda like in its construction though on reflection zelda is a bad example its just the best i can come up with at the time fable is probably a better comparison but i have no personal experiance with fable so i dont wish to use it.
Third: the movment system for starters you can not jump unless at a designated jump down location which basicly acts as a short cut to a lower area rather than running all the way around, you can not run off anything too high as your character just hits an invisible wall at the edge and sprinting seems to have no resource it can be maintained indefinatly so there is no reason to run at normal speed when traveling.
Fourth: The dialog is high fantasy and alittle cheesy in places which will undoubtly put some people off(myself included) while others will find it appealing, the quests which i completed seemed a little lack lustre but its only a demo and realy you dont get the chance to try a huge amount so i reserve judgement on that.
Im not going to go into detail about the leveling system as you can't get much past level 4 in the 45 mins of demo time but it looks promising, the various playstyles to specalise in are ofcourse warrior(might) rogue(finese) and mage(sorceries) as far as i could tell you can mix and match to a good degree, spending enough points in any tree will unlock more options for you very much like a talent tree in world or warcraft.
To get some initial and inevitable comparisons out of the way, open ended gameplay simular but by no means the same as skyrim, loot as an example is honestly more appealing than in skyrim as you can find and make items with random suffix's such as fire dammage or increased health, as opposed to the enchanting system that skyrim offers. Big areas to explore, multiple character paths in the form of the games destiny system(which you dont realy get to play with a great deal in the demo). Combat wise i can understand the god of war comparison but it personaly puts me more in mind of darksiders, left click functioning for your primary and secondary weapon attacks depending on which is selected and right click serves to activate your currently active mana using skill such as lightning bolt or whatever.
Final thoughts the combat and the cammera could use some tweaks for the final release version and my biggest complaint is as stated the console port feel factor, i think the game could have benifited more from the advantages of a mouse over an analog stick but realy a 360 pad on the pc or your xbox and you wouldnt even tell the difference between the two.
To sum up it looks promising and if you crave a more action heavy rpg with an easy to learn combat system of blocking dodging and attacking, combigned with an extensive skills system in a colourful fantasy world then i heartly recomend. Despite my personal opinion and choice not to buy the full product im sure many will enjoy this title upon release, since the demo is available for every platform there is no reason not to try it out and i sugest that after reading this if you've any interest in what i've typed then get downloading now.
i guess i was only going off Wikipedia, it had US and Europe release dates, but no Australian. No need to worry, will try the demo out, but from whats been said it looks like a purchase i will be making!
