Most underrated RPG ever!
This is a game that starts out ok and the more you play it, the better it gets. If I would have only played this game for 5 hours, my score would be a 6. After 10 hours, it would have been a 7. After 15 hours, an 8. I have about 30 hours in now and this is, IMHO the best RPG released in the last several years. It is hands down better than Skyrim. Yes, I said it, it is better than Skyrim!
The quests and storyline of the game are fun and keep you interested.
There is a little learning curve to the game, but the more you learn the more you want to learn.
The weapon and armor system is well done. There are always lots of weapons and armor to buy or find and doing so and upgrading your weapon sets is very addictive.
The leveling system is very well done and progresses nicely, you need to make choices and those choices affect whether you will choose to use a bow and melee weapons or magic. I haven't experimented with magic much myself yet, but I want to as the system looks awesome. I can see spending a lot of time on getting all of my archery and weaponry skills upgraded to a high level, searching for the best bows, armor, and weapons, and then going back and doing the same with magic. One thing that I like a lot is that you can have 3 pre-defined weapon/amor sets and swith quickly back and forth between them with a pre-set key. So you can have one set for your melee weapons and heavy armor, one for archery, and one for magic. This is great in battle as you can start out attacking with ranged weapons or magic and then quickly switch your weapon set to heavy armor and melee weapons if the enemies get too close to you without pausing the game and manually changing everything.
Combat system is well done, and lots of fun. The mechanics are not outstanding and could use some improvement, but it is more than good enough. There is also awkward mechanics when jumping. Practicing makes this a little better, but it is still awkward. That is probbably the worst con in the game, so it is easy enough to live with for all of the pros.
I truly do not know how any serious RPG fan would not love this game. It is not perfect, no game is, but it is one of the best I have ever played. There is not a game out there that I would give a 10, so a 9.5 for me, that is saying a lot.
The sound track for the game is great, the graphics are very good. Make sure you use the DX10 executable as it makes a huge difference. With DX10, the graphics are beautiful both when just walking around and in combat. I have the game on Xbox 360 also, and there is no comparison to the PC version. Of course that is true with most games. The characters in the game are interesting and there is a lot of humor.
If you love RPGs and have not played this game, do not listen to the negative reviews here. Get this game and give it a minimum of 10 hours, you will not regret it.