I *really* wanted to like this game. I've been a big fan of DWBradley games in the past and was hoping that by having full control over the design of this game, it would be one of the best RPGs in a long time.
Unfortunately, this might end up being the first game I've returned in a *long* time. It's the small details that make a great game. And I'm afraid this one is even missing the big details. Here are some of the things that have especially annoyed me during my 15 hours of playing:
1) Leveling, instead of being something to look forward to, is something to dread. How many times do I need to reload my game after getting only 1hp and 1skill for going up a level. And this is with Int12 and 15Fortitude. With 15 Fortitude, I've seen hp scores from 1 to 16. But it seems that 90% of the time you get the dreaded 1hp 1skill increase. Now, I'm normally not a "maxer", but I just can't live with a 1hp increase for my front-line fighter. I literally spent 30 minutes reloading my game over and over just to get something higher than 1hp. This is a *basic* part of classic RPGs that has sadly been totally messed up.
2) I've seen several other posts on quest bugs, and I'll add my own. In the first wizard quest, you are told to go find Scabban. Well, I had already returned from the Crypt and had already talked to him. But the Wizard Guild did not recognize this. So, I trudged back into the Crypt, and talked with him again. Then back to town. Still says I haven't talked to him. So I go back to the Crypt and kill Scabban, then go back to town. Still nothing. So, now my Wizard cannot advance at all since it does not flag the quest as completed. This is a *basic* quest flaw that should have been caught in any reasonable beta testing. Obviously, little testing was done.
3) And how about the user interface? Trying to move containers around is a pain. Sometimes you click on an item and the character says "On my way" and you are treated to the whirling dervish dance as the party tries to get close to the item. When you try jumping on items, half the time you just end up pushing the crate aside. When you identify items, all items of the same type are also identified (a handy gold saver, but still reeks as a bug), except for the same items on another player, which are still unidentified. If a rogue steals an item (like a potion), then you kill the rogue and pick up your item, it is unidentified again. And don't even think of trying to Alt-Tab out of W&W to get to Windows. W&W will crash/hang in the background. And enough has probably been said about the problems with the D3D support. Any way you look at it, a patch is desperately needed. DWB should have spent more time testing this instead of releasing it at the same time as BG2. I'm afraid sales will be so low that Activision won't approve doing a patch (and of course, the patch probably will require me to start over again to reset the Wizard quest anyway, which would just be too frustrating to even think about).
4) And did someone actually say they thought the voice acting was good? The voice acting is terrible. And it repeats the same clips over and over again. In one case, you get the highlighted words "Gypsy" and "Gypsies", with the exact same results. Or, "Stout Mine" and "Stout Mines". Same problem. In fact, it seems that about half the "keywords" that you get are just repeats of existing text. And since there is no way to skip over text you have already heard, you end up having to suffer through the same "Yes Yes Yes" over and over again. This is the most tedious NPC interaction I have seen in a long, long time.
I'm afraid I was duped by a lot of reviewers who were either looking at a preview copy (back in March, mostly), or reviewers who didn't actually play the game and were just reviewing DWB's reputation. Next time, I'm going to try harder to avoid the hype and wait until enough people have actually played the game to have a real opinion. Everyone will probably flame me for being so negative about this game. But the fact is, I've played most every RPG ever written. I normally *like* the traditional RPG (Wiz, M&M, Dungeon Master, EoB, etc.) I'm no kid and I am in the software development business myself. I know a rushed and unfinished product when I see one.
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