I spent a few hours with the game tonight. Stopped because the game froze my 360 completely and made me lose an hour of progress. Overall I'm feeling pretty mixed.
Had been looking forward to the game after hearing how deep it was, and how stuffed the world was with things to see and do. I had also heard it was a bit on the janky side, but I thought - perhaps incorrectly - that I would be able to deal with some obvious low budget issues if the good shone through. And I love me some hack and slash action RPGs, so I'll try any one I can get my hands on.
But the combat controls and animations are so distractingly awkward. My character randomly levitates stiffly off the ground, jitters around in the air and comes back down, often times on the opposite side of the enemy I was attacking. Sometimes enemies will get stuck inside my character and just spin around and flail while trying to target me. There seems to be frames of animation missing from everyone's combat moves. The sound effects are tinny and lack power. It's all very low budget. Which, like I said, I thought I was prepared for. But it ends up removing me from the game every time. It's frustrating.
Between encounters, though, the world is very nice. Every character is unique and has amusing or interesting things to talk to you about. There are multiple ways to solve quests, many of which are either surprising or hilarious.
It's fun as hell to discover a hidden key or an out of the way trap door, though sometimes the purpose isn't exactly clear. I found a key in a cellar near the farm that didn't go to the only gate located in the same room, so I have no idea what it's for. The game has been praised for the lack of "hand holding", but at least a mild indication of purpose would be nice. There's other annoyances, like having to go into the menu to read some books but being able to read others right when you interact with them. Also, if the sun or the rays emanating from it are being rendered anywhere within your FOV, the graphics get blurry as hell. It's doubly annoying because the graphics are pretty sharp otherwise.
But, when all is said and done, I do look forward to resuming the game tomorrow. There's an infectious allure to it, and definite charm. I just feel my heart sink a little whenever I think about the flaily, badly animated combat and wish it was more polished.
