Before I start saying anything about this game: The title is stupid. Almost makes me think of a mass equivalent of to earths raised to the exponent of 2..... no matter, this game is much better that the title.
First impression:
You are a dude.... you can customize him, but restricted to male and you get saved from a prison by orcs. Now this is where I had a few WTF moments. First of all I have never seen neither in movies, cartoons or games that orcs operate so stealthy, weild the bow as grecefully as elves and wield the swords as if they all knew Chinese swordsmanship tecniques. Oh, and the orc chick that saved me.... she is hot.
Gameplay:
Ok, time for me to finish the tutorial and head out to the real world by myself. First, we have the three very old and well known combat disciplines that are present in 99% of RPGs out there: Melee, archery, mage. That would be boring, but developers we good enough to make those actually interesting. First of all you can mix up the combat types as you want, no reason not to wield a two handed sword and be a mage, personally I am an archer who can also fight with blades. It's all about how many points you want to put into them.
Melee looks actually very good animation wise and makes me almost think that some moves were inspired by games like Dynasty Warriors. Anyway the combat looks great and you have some cool moves which variate depending on your weapon(s). Archery is pretty cool too. When I am in manual aim mode, I can draw up to 5 arrows, mark 5 targets and shoot them all at once. Or just let a boss come point blank to me before I release all arrows into him for a quick kill. And with some points invested you can shoot elemental arrows and poison one. Pretty fun.
Mages are also a class they got creative with: you make a spell and customize it. Haven't seen a system like that before, but obviously to make a spell you need to apply effect and carrier and then optionally you can add modifiers like duration, casting time, area of effect etc... So technically you build the spells right to your liking.
Aside that you have crafting skills which are a bit dissapointing as it all boils down to salvaging weapons and armour you don't need to have parts and junk that you use to upgrade your weapon or armour that you use. You can do that in the field too, no forge or ambolt needed. Ah well nothing is perfect.
The conversations is this are amusing though. My character seems to be annoyed every time someone asks him to do something for them and those times when people tried to make him do a second quest before reward were threatened to get their throat slit. Also this guy has so snide remarks, it really feels like you are playing a badass with self respect and not a saint that does everything to the letter, nor are you a bastard who is evil beyond all reason (read: typical good/bad choice guy in rpg).
The world is huge and there is a lot of stuff to do, I must praise this game for a really good design, the world feels authentic and not just like some picturesque disney world *cough*Oblivion*cough*. I would love to tell more of the beautiful world they made, but I think it's something you should see for yourself.
Graphics:
It's awesome, graphics are just great, combine that with physics engine and a good real time light engine and you got this game. It all looks great, the graphics are just awesome.
Release:
Why is this game not in the shop? you ask. If you are from USA, then you will not see it this year. Believe it or not the publisher company that distributes in US decided that it will be a better strategy to postpone the release to avoid competition with other popular games. Developers did not agree with that and released the game now in Europe where they have publishing rights. This almost invites Americans to pirate the game, but if you want to suppord the developers, get the game online
hereSo long story short I really recommend this to those that want to play a good RPG
oh found a pic of that hot orc chick:
