One great game with good graphics and a whole lot of side-quests to keep you busy
At the beginning of the game, I felt kinda lost, I wasn`t sure what to do next but after an hour playing it it started sucking me in. The first thing you may notice is the graphics. In my opinion they are very good but to some, not so much. I mean, yes they used too much bloom and other lighting effects but it still looks very impressive to me. The world feels very alive. Some may say that the cities feel like Assassins Creed and that to me isn`t a very bad thing. Assassins Creed had a very good immersion that sucked you in the city you were in. People react to your actions. If you hit them, you will alert the guards. If you push them while running, it will just draw the guards attention but they won`t attack you...unless you do something else that draws attention.
The game is very polished. I haven`t found a bug yet in my 12 hour (maybe more) game play. At lower levels it might be a little hard but as soon as you level up a bit the game will be...well, still a little hard but you will be satisfied after every battle. Skills are MAJOR in this game. If you`re a warrior (for example) you must level up your counter, blocking skill and block breaker skill that basically breaks the enemies block. You have horses in the game but you really won`t ever need to use them as you can just go on foot or use your teleport stone. Plus it takes some time to get used to the horse controls (W/A/S/D steers the horse while pressing the right MB makes the horse move).You can also drive boats.
The side-quests of this game very often feel unique. There are some quests like "get to X kill Y then go to Z and take it back to A" but they try to keep these quests to a minimum. A lot of them also have a good story. I heard somewhere that there are 250 side-quests. I don`t know if its true but I know that I still have a lot of them quests to do.
The main quest is good but nothing special really. I found myself doing more side-quests than doing anything important to the main plot. Also, some of the side-quests have connections to the main plot so you may end up discovering something interesting about it.
The voice acting isn`t something special but it isn`t even that bad. Its just ok.
I really recommend giving these game a chance. If you liked the Gothic series, you`ll like this, even if you hated ArcaniA. In fact, this game is TONS of better than ArcaniA.