Overall, this is one of the best adventure games to come out lately, and if you can appreciate a well-written story and
Though the game isn't very long, you will want to keep playing to find out what happens to these characters.
The majority of the game is puzzle solving, but very few of the puzzles are inventory based, and I was a bit disappointed because of this. Most of your items are simply removed as you progress because they are no longer required. The puzzles were a little too easy, with the exception of a few, and some require you to run back and forth several times which got to be annoying. Most of the puzzles involve a sort of matching game were the pieces you are trying to match move around, and you have a limited time to complete them, or you must try again. The other main puzzle is three rotating circles where again you must play a matching game by aligning the correct symbols. I didn't find anything wrong with these, I just preferred the inventory style puzzles compared to the myst style ones.
Now, puzzles make sense in the context of an adventure game, but for some odd reason, probably to gain more players, the developers included a simplified combat system. Simplified is an understatement, as you will simply slash and block in some extremely easy fights. You can die in these fights; but there's no need to worry about whether or not you saved because the game will autosave your progress and take you back before you died, which is definitely a plus. However, the most annoying thing about the combat was that as soon as an enemy approaches, your character enters a combat animation that no matter how far from the enemy you are, you cannot get out of that animation. So essentially you cannot run away. It seems as if they just threw in the combat at the last minute. But enough about gameplay, or lack thereof. Let's talk aesthetics.
Though there were complaints about this game looking too console-ish due to the fact that it was originally designed for Xbox, these claims are unwarranted. The graphics are simply incredible, on the highest settings of course. The character models, though detailed, could have used some work. Other than that the graphics were great.
The soundtrack is simply wonderful, rivaling the best Hollywood soundtracks. It really gets you in the mood the narrative sets. Sound effects are equally as good; you'll hear flowing water where there's a river, chattering when you're in a marketplace. But the best part of the game's sound is the voice acting. This is some of the best voice acting you'll hear in any game, peroid. There's a variety of accents, all of which give real personality to the characters.
Overall, this is one of the best adventure games to come out lately, and if you can appreciate a well-written story and are willing to forgive some of the gameplay faults, you have an excellent game.