I'm nearing the end of my first playthrough but I had to write a review because this game is has me in a chokehold and its definitely a strong contender for my GOTY! Sure it's got a few bugs here and there but nothing that cant be patched up and in my time playing there was nothing game breaking.
I also want to get one thing clear before I get into the meat of my review to anyone who is considering buying it but may be worried about the 30 day time limit - It really isn't as punishing as you'd think. Yes, you wont be able to do every single quest in one playthrough, but I can say now I've explored nearly the entire map and gotten through a decent chunk of the quests. The game isn't designed to be completed in a single run, which in my opinion is a good thing! It just means you'll get to play it again and I know I'm not going to complain about that. Now to my actual review:
[b] THE PROS [/b]
This game is like a love letter to the Witcher 3, so if you enjoyed that game this will certainly scratch that itch. The storyline is beautifully written, and you really grow to care about Coen and other characters that you meet along the way. No quest is completely the same and at no point did I find myself bored or stuck with what to do next. The world of Vale Sangora is stunning and there were times when I genuinely just stood there for a moment and just took it all in. [b] Photo mode when? [/b]
The combat is [i] really [/i] fun. It took me a little getting used to but once you have the muscle memory down it becomes a lot less daunting. Landing perfect blocks on an enemy is super satisfying but it felt challenging enough that I didn't find myself just sitting back spamming my attack button. You need to lock in and really pay attention to what your enemies are doing which means it rarely feels stale and some fights had me on the edge of my seat in full goblin mode fighting for my life...it was GREAT!
Massive replayability! You can really decide how you want to play Coen and the choices you make bring different outcomes, I'm already planning on doing another run where I'm going full evil bloodthirsty vampire mode and I'm excited for it.
[b] THE CONS [/b]
Im a sucker for romances, so far I have done two of them and while I found them both sweet it felt like there could've had a bit more to them. I know that these aren't the main focus of the story, so it makes sense that they aren't given a huge amount of time in the spotlight. But even just being able to go visit them and give them a hug or kiss would've been nice!
The UI especially in the journal was hard for me to navigate. Partially due to some bugginess with the controller constantly snapping me back to the top of the quest menu when I tried to scroll down, but also because all the text is the same colour and font. So I often found myself struggling to find quests and ended up with my face pressed against my monitor combing through it several times until I found the one I was looking for. A bit more space between each quest, some more fixes to the controller and making the quest titles bold and a bit bigger would fix all of that for me.
My only gripe with the use of time was using it to level up my abilities. I found that I wasn't as precious about it the further I got in, but it added a bit of frustration and reluctancy to spend my points nearly as much as I probably should have. I personally would've preferred that not use up my time or at least have it so it didn't cost 1 time segment per ability. But on the other hand I also understand the reasons why they did and again the 30 day time limit is not quite as terrifying as it sounds so Im willing to let it fly.
[b] So to wrap this up - if you enjoy games with rich storytelling, choices that matter, memorable characters and gothic medieval vibes you're gonna love it! [/b]
