This is an *extremely* good game for its time period and genre. I really enjoyed it, and put in a lot of hours just messing around. I got it during the Chinese New Year festival sales, and I feel like I got every last dime of my money's worth from it.

I give it 9/10 stars and would highly recommend.

Pros: If you like a story-based quest progression game in a swords&sorcery genre, then this fits the bill. It's not mind-numbingly expansive like Skyrim or Witcher3, and it's not truly open-world (areas are restricted until you progress the main quest), but it's loads of fun and decent exploration. I searched through every last nook and cranny of the game world, finding hidden treasures or the occasional easter egg.

The game is relatively easy to learn, and the combat is pretty simple if you're into combat. It's nowhere near Dark Souls difficulty, and you could probably run this game on a well rigged potato. Having said that, you WILL want to download the community "patch" (Arx Liberatis) to make the game playable on modern systems (it was almost entirely unplayable until I did so because modern mouse sensitivity kinda destroys the magic system and you *must* have *some* magic on your character to make the game work...ish).

In 136 hours, I had no lag or stutter, and not a single crash or "have to reload" bug....not one. I only dropped through the world geometry requiring a reload (I never enabled the console) *once*, and I was really trying very hard to get somewhere players were clearly not meant to go at the time. ;)

The economy is great (I never struggled for cash, but you have to manage some resources like torches mid-to-end game), and most of the loot makes sense (you get a couple pieces a wee tad too late for my tastes, but I'm greedy). I only did a very minimum amount of savescum grinding out of a personal desire to max out my character for kicks and theft.

You're not buying this for sandboxing or jaw dropping graphics, you're buying this to tell/reveal/experience a single main story and save the world. Again...this isn't Skyrim and you can't "live" in this world long-term. Think of it more like decent-length digital one-shot solo D&D campaign.

My one complaint is that the absolute end scenes after *everything* was done and/or defeated felt a wee bit . . . underwhelming. I guess I wanted accolades of some sort. I'd love to see the company revisit and reboot this title someday...expand some side quests, add some content (I really wanna be able to talk to the king about a certain letter I found....). Still, I've loved everything I've ever played from Arkane, and this is another great title.

ultragem