As an old-school gamer, I kind of feel the modern game market has passed me by to cater to some kind of mass market. I haven't turned on my console for many months and I barely buy any new games as I find little enjoyment in looking down iron sights. I'm an oldschool RPG gamer and also love dungeon crawlers and strategy games. So I find my pickings slim since most RPG's started changing to try and entice mainstream gamers.
Thus far I am loving the game. My thoughts thus far:
The good.
1, I really love the diverse racial selection (not an elf/dwarf in sight! I am seriously loving this, especially since my 2 favorite fantasy races are Lizardfolk and Minotaurs, and I rarely get to play them since most settings just make them bad guys.)
2, I like the spellcasting method! It provides a challenge to work in combat and 'feels' magical. A lot more than selecting fireball over and over.
3, the initial feeling of desperation as you scavenge for equipment was really awesome. The graphics are very immersive and the lightning is wonderful. I actually feel like i'm playing a D&D game on my computer. Awesome.
4, The skill system is really great, I hope to see expansions to it with more skills in DLC's etc! No more playing musical weapons as you just find a sword that is better tha your mace. if you trained in maces it makes sense you will still be better at using your rusty iron mace over that honed steel swod.
The bad.
1, There isn't enough portraits. I also didn't like at least half of what was on offer. 3/4 of the lizardmen seemed to look a bit too human. I am very much hoping we will see some DLC portrait packs and also user submissions. Feels like a minor niggle since they don't effect gameplay but in a game like this you spend half the time looking at your characters to select their items etc and it helps with immersion. I wanted more than one lizardman in my party but I didn't like the portraits enough to use more than one.
2, I felt the lack of a priest / healing mage class keenly. I wanted to roll up the classic fantasy quartet: fighter, rogue, wizard, cleric. But with cleric gone I ended up having to double up on fighters. Maybe add a cleric/shaman in a dlc? Anyway this leads me on to #3
3, Maybe its just where I am, but the poison use in a certain level was insane. You have a limited amount of antidotes and an unlimited amount of poisoning chances coming at you. With the party lacking in antidotes I ended up having to reload so much my immersion was just utterly broken. I like challenge a lot, but random number generator on a bite wasn't challenge so much as luck of the draw.I had been having a blast until that point. A cleric/healer class could solve this issue easily as they can regenerate mana and cast an antidote spell etc. Would fit the genre and would fill what feels like a hole i the class lineup without being unbalanced if the mana cost on antidote was high, wheras if you get an unlucky bite and are out of antidote it just felt like reloading was the only option.
4, I love all the ideas behind finding hidden buttons but they were all too obvious and in the same spot. Would be nice to see some alternate hidden switch locations. (Unless there are more and I just am not far enough in yet) to add more challenge..
Anyway, more to come as I play, just wanted to share my feedback thus far.