RyaReisender: Never heard of this game before but I like exploration. Can't really find any good reviews on this. Can someone give me some bullet points on what to expect from this?
Lots of replay value with different builds. Melee, ranged and magic builds are all equally viable and fun.
You can find companions and have up to two join you at any time to complement your current character. For example, if I was going for a magic focused character, then I'd add melee and ranged companions to complement my skills. Your companions handle their own skill levelling but you still manage their equipped items.
Decent sized inventory so you don't need to run back and forth too much. You can also fast travel to a town at any time to sell extra stuff but you can't warp back to where you were before. Still, a one way trip is better than a two way trip. You also have a stash at town to store extra loot, often while you're waiting to get to a high enough level to make use of it.
Vendors actually sell stuff you want to buy so you definitely want to check out their wares whenever passing by.
When you complete the game, you can choose to replay with the same character at a higher difficulty level, giving you more time to play with skills that are only available to high level characters.
The start of the game may seem a little tough, but there are a couple of quests in the first camp that will make things easier once you complete them.
When you die, you teleport back to the last town you were at, minus your precious gear. You have a couple of options to get it back though.
The map is much bigger than the areas you can access, so don't get disappointed when you get to the end of the game and wonder why you haven't visited most of the map. However, this is still a decent sized game so you can easily spend dozens of hours on it, especially if trying different builds.
Enemies respawn each time you start the game, so you never run out of enemies to boost your experience. You can quit the game any time, but when you reload you'll begin again at the last town you were at. However, you can warp to any other town in the game that you've already passed through, and some dungeon entrances too. This is useful as some quests need you to do a little backtracking.
I didn't find the user interface awkward. The expansion vastly improved the control scheme of the base game and the base game can be played with the expansion's improvements.
At the current price, this game is a steal.
