Athlon XP 2500 1 Gig RAM ATI Radeon 9700 The game is a three disks installation (if I recall correctly). After installing and launching the game, it begins to explain the occurrences of the previous game through a non-interactive movie, which is the backbone of the storyline. You would be caught off guard by the lack of eye candy and the mediocre performance of the game, but you can optimize the performance by altering the visual settings until you find the setting that is right for you. The actual game starts with a short cut scene, which allows you to ask questions. Through these interactive cut scenes the storyline slowly unfolds and you find out your purpose. After this introduction you’re met with what is probably the worst control scheme you have ever experience in your life. WTF would be ringing out of control either in your head or through your mouth causing you to immediately exit the game in absolute disgust. Well there is good news. The control scheme is actually good. “But you just said it was bad.” Yes it is “bad” but it’s actually good, in fact it’s great. After forcing myself to play the game, I realized that I was trying to hard to control my character. If you do get the game, just go with the flow and use the controls just the way they are. Use the arrow keys or WASD to move (I used the left and right for turning not strafing) and the mouse to softly look around. When you’re in building its best to leave the mouse alone and just use the keyboard. The control aspect of the game is really the breaking point of the game. If you can’t overcome it your will not be able to play the game but its very easy to use once you don’t try to play the game like a typical third person action adventure game. In addition to the overall movement is the combat system. Again I was horrified by what at first seem illogical and annoying but once I understood the working it was quite “easy” to control and win fights. In order to attack you must equip yourself with the weapon or spell, and then use the arrow keys to execute the action. In melee (which would be used the most especially at the start) you use the forward key to strike forward, back key to block, the left key to swing to the left and the right key to swing to the right. At first it’s a bit disorienting but once you understand how it works you wouldn’t run into the control shock that many have undergone. This control scheme while odd works out pretty well in the game and allows you to execute combos accordingly. Another good aspect of the game is that the battles are in real-time. You’ve total control of the character’s timing and timing plays a significant role in battles, especially against stronger opponents. The better you’re timing the better the chances are in counteracting strikes, blocking strikes and striking. The game sports day and night cycles in addition to NPCs reacting to these cycles. So that NPCs go to sleep when night falls and awake when the sunrises but they all have different cycles so some folks may go to sleep or rise earlier or later than others. NPCs eat when they’re hungry, socialize with other NPCs and do daily work. All these additions make the game feel more believable and realistic. These features not just gimmicks but can affect certain aspect in the game depending on your path. Each NPC has voice, so there is no need to read (except questions being asked). There are times where responses are the same using the same voices but this is expected especially when there are so many NPCs. Overall the sound is great, the chirps or birds, grunts of beasts in the bushes, conversations of NPCs, the voice acting and sound of the environment are all well done. There are occasions where the sound is out of sync, this usually occurs in battles. Even though the game is open ended, the storyline is very strong and your decisions play a significant role with your alignment with villagers, farmers, militia etc. Decisions made (especially earlier parts) in the game can lead to rewards, scorn or death, adding to the overall difficulty. Decision making is not black and white, there is a lot of grey areas and this aspect adds a lot of replay value to the game, cause your decision can change your path. The enemies found throughout the world are hard to defeat at lower levels especially non-human creatures. You must learn through trial and error how to pick your fights and when to pick your fights. This is something that must be learnt or else you will die and die a lot. Exploration becomes nerve wrecking at times because of this, cause you’re always uncertain (especially if you’re weak) of what is around the bushes or in the cave, cause death can come very quickly from vicious and deadly creatures that are freely lurking. Graphically the game is acceptable. Even though the terrain is blocky and the overall detail of models are not high, the seamless experience and the detailed textures compensates for these deficiencies. In the end the game looks good and does a great job in bringing the world to life especially with the healthy amoung of foliage found everywhere. With all these attributes and many other features, the game keeps you coming for more and more. I have played the game for about twenty-two hours and I have partially explored the first half of the game. There is a lot to do and a lot to see. Because there isn’t any loading times exploration is easier. With that said, the game is more than worthy of a purchase, especially since its ONLY $9.99 on Amazon.
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