I'm enjoying it so far (360 version). It certainly brings back a lot of BioWare memories of conversation branches and deep backstory and plot. I don't know if it is a step back or not, but there seems to be less of a cut and dry moral selection in conversations. In Mass Effect you could really tell which what your character was leaning in choices, either evil or good, yet here there seems to be some real shades of gray - which is actually giving me a tougher time deciding what to say, since I still haven't determined what kind of person my female Elf protaganist is. Though through the bent of the storyline so far I do see myself turning rather mean - just because of events going on that I won't spoil. But BioWare does seem to be crafting a rich tale here.
Graphically the game is alright, but I can see what reviewers are talking about when getting down on the 360. Some of the textures are muddied, and some look just plain flat. This definitely isn't the best looking 360 game of this year, that is for sure. It's pretty, just in a workman's kinda way - if that makes sense. I've already hit a bug or two in my 5 hours so far - a couple instances of voices not loading up - so the subtitles are up, but no voice at all. Nothing major, but an annoyance I guess if one was playing with subtitles off. I haven't seen texture pop-in yet, but with the low-res of some of them I don't think that's going to be an issue like it was in Mass Effect. Another odd quibble I have is sometimes the music doesn't quite match up with the action on the screen. I mean I'm sitting there talking with a Grey Warden friend about how he misses his wife - and in the background the music is playing like we're Sam and Frodo about to drop the ring into Mount Doom. The music quality is great, along with the voice-work, just it seems out of place at times - mis-qued almost.
General combat is something I think will take some getting used to - in my five hours of play I think 1 hour of that has been actual combat (yes it IS a BioWare game - prepare for story!!). The 360 gamepad isn't so bad for the action - the A button pretty much starts off the combat with your basic attacks and then you can have more tactical strikes mapped to the X, Y, and B buttons - up to 6 mapped when you have the RT toggle. It plays sort of like a version of World Of Warcraft - hit the attack and that is all you really have to do as your character will go up and start wailing on the enemy, and if you want to add some other attacks just use your mapped buttons. You don't have to hit a button in time with every attack. The only problem I've encountered, and it is sort of frustrating, is that my character will not automatically move on to the next enemy after defeating the first. I actually have to hit the attack button again to get them to attack. It just seems odd that while surrounded by monsters the character will go up and kill one - and then just stand there if I don't input another command - even to the extent of getting attacked themselves. Oh all the other NPCs will move on to other targets, just not the one I am controlling. I got used to it, but at the same time it seems like something I shouldn't have to get used to.
I know there are some FF12 like tactics that I can program into my party - to get them to attack and heal and all that as needed, but as of yet I haven't really gotten into that portion of the game, hell I don't even think I've met an actual member of my traveling party yet. But I can't wait to get into programing the Mages to heal and buff, while having the Rogues go in for silent kills.
All in all I've liked what I've played so far. There is a ton of history in this world and lots for people to see. Sure there are some complicated aspects (the inventory is still something I'm trying to figure out), but there is also some pretty simple mechanics behind some of the gameplay. I don't think I would recommend it to someone who doesn't already love these sort of games, but that isn't really a surprise. As of now I think I'd give the nod to Mass Effect for a better story and presentation - but like I said I'm just starting out here, and I LOVE Mass Effect.
And even though I'm not a PC gamer AT ALL - I almost wish I had picked this one up for the PC. Oh well - thems the brakes.
I'm a bit skeptical of the time estimates that BioWare are floating around out there - They've said that the game is 60-70 hours minimum - with 6 different "origin" stories that last up to 4 hours for each race you choose. Well I got through my "origin" story in about 65 minutes... no where NEAR the 4 hours the developers where harping on.
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