It has all the appearances of an RPG, but when you look closer, you see it is all cardboard cutouts without any depth.
Low-stress dungeon crawl hack-n-slash.
The Bad:
No story, really. No depth of character customization. Few weapon/armor choices. Over in a few hours. Way too easy.
-------------------------------------------------------
I read the reviews, I saw the weak descriptions, but thought "OK, but it sounds like my kind of game, a hack n slash gear collecting dungeon crawl", so I bought a copy. In theory, it *is* my kind of game, but about an hour in, and I felt like the sucker I'd become, when I realized just how little this game actually offers.
From the Abyss makes a lot of promises, and on the surface, it delivers on them to some extent. It is a real-time hack n slash, where you start out in a town, with an inn where you can save the game and keep extra gear, a store where you can buy and sell stuff found in the dungeon, some townsfolk to talk to, and so on. Yes, I know, it sounds good so far. The dungeon consists of several worlds, each one consisting of a few (4) levels, with a boss at the end. The dungeons consist of a set of interconnected "areas" which are basically big rooms, mostly with a cave motif happening, which does not contribute to you feeling like you are in an actual place. Nor do you feel like you are in a town when there, since it really consists of a set of menu options to go places, talk to people, and so on. It is like a text adventure, with the odd picture to help your imagination. Again, not much to it.
In fact, the whole game is like a side-scrolling arcade game without the side-scroll. It feels meaningless, with you slashing monster after monster with no real effort, no real goal, other than getting to the end of that level, and no feeling of tension at all, since you are usually stronger than the monsters the whole way. The AI is worthless, with the monsters roaming around aimlessly until you get into range.
There are only about a half dozen different types of each standard weapon (sword, bow, axe), and no way to mod them, upgrade them, nothing. After a little experimentation, you discover that a few of them turn you into a virtual superhero, mowing down the bad guys with too much ease.
The big hook was supposed to be that enemies, when killed, bestow a particular skill on you, but even that is lacklustre. Instead of you getting cool abilities, like turning into the monster or something, most of the skills are the same old boring "add an extra arrow" or "fireball spell", stuff you get for levelling up in other RPGs.
The worst insult is, the game can be finished in under ten hours (well under, in fact, if you level up wisely and use the right gear...I finished it in 5). Afterward, I barely felt like I'd played it at all. The whole thing felt like a demo for a game, without any of the additional stuff added in.
So, don't make the mistake I made, and think that, despite the reviews, you like hack-n-slashes, so you'll like this. The truth is, you will feel ripped off, take my word. Instead, play ANY other recently released RPG for a far more satisfying and long-lasting experience (FFTA, FFIV, Etrian Odyssey, Shiren the Wanderer, and Dragon Quest IV are all far superior to this waste of money).