Some no life already completed the whole game playing 17 hours a day. Here is his review with no spoilers!
Absolutely breathtaking game.
Game duration:
- Play duration: 144 hours
- Saves count: 1293
- Save counts before joining the guild: 274
Clarification:
Below I'm writing achieved stats with two figures. If you didn't know in this game you can eat consumables increasing stats asap, not hoarding them till endgame, because they don't affect LP price or teacher's maximum. So number before the slash is what I accomplished using learning points and after slash the total value.
Attributes (general):
- Level: 54
- Spare learning points: 20
- Strength: 118/196
- Dexterity: 10/33
- Mana: 15/65
- Hit points: 688/1249
Attributes (Defense):
- Blunt: 163
- Sharp/cut: 170
- Arrows: 158
- Fire: 83
- Magic: 114
Attributes (Offense):
- 1-handed: 76%/93%
- 2-handed: 47%/61%
- Bows: 10%
- Crossbows: 10%/11%
Skills:
- Blacksmith: -
- Archery: -
- Alchemy: -
- Burglary: experienced
- Pickpocket: experienced
- Animal trophies: scholar
- Mining: 100%
- Scroll writing: - Magic: 0
Carrier path:
As you see I decided to go 1 handed melee at Militia guild. This is how I do the first play through of the Gothic/Risen/Elex games. I get familiar with the game mechanics, secrets. In the second play through I usually opt for the magician build.
Replay value:
Absolutely. Game has so many choices, way beyond the guild decision. You make nested choices shortly after starting the game and continuously throughout the game. Those choices can affect outcome of more than current quests. They can affect adjacent quests or the plot later in the game.
Will I play again:
NO! I loved the game, but it simply is too long. I simply don't have time. I thought making a save after completing all available quests before joining the guild will be smart enough to discover all the content but it's far from true. This save was #274 out of #1293. Moreover, as I mentioned you make choices at the very, very beginning which may affect dialogues or outcomes later. If you have time to spare, sure do it! I wish someone created interactive movie - so I can click the choices to see the various outcomes.
Cheating:
I used Marvin mode to press 'K' button to quickly move forward. Never to go through closed doors or skip enemies. Without this game would be significantly longer. Maybe 3 times I revived myself after a fatal hit, but only because I was to courageous and didn't make save recently, but I compensated it after by drinking a few potions.
Bugs:
I experienced a few very serious game breaking bugs. Sometimes I had to reload game to previous save to retrigger some event which was stuck otherwise. Once I had to accompany NPC throughout the whole map - walking, not running, because he didn't spawn where he was supposed to (Kessler in chapter 5). I'm using Steam version on my M1 MacBook Air via Parallels with experimental Windows 11 build that supports the processor's architecture. Also some cutscenes were stuck and retried a few game restarts to correctly play. Those kept happening often at the end of chapter 5 and during 6th. Please save often and use all slots.
Difficulty:
I consider the game very easy. At the beginning there were creatures that I had to avoid but around chapter 3 or 4 I wasn't afraid or anything and killing every creature or hostile NPC with ease.
Boss fights:
Very cool mechanics were introduced. Full screen health bar, closed arena, special tactics.
Pickpocket:
I thought I will need to learn it for additional experience but luckily there is no experience for successful pick-pocket. In previous game you could get as much experience from robbing a farmer as killing the orc... I also don't remember that the skill was essential to complete any quest.
Genocide and crime:
Sadly, yeah I got additional experience from killing every unnamed NPC. I wish CoM could improve the system. Witnesses system has always been flawed. Imagine being last man standing and you are not accused of a crime... I would appreciate if game prevented it, e.g. kill 3 NPC, and the village/city is hostile to you - refuses to talk, run away, sound alarm and there is manhunt. It would break the game, but one deserves it...
Maxing:
I don't see a point in trying to clear all creatures just for extra exp points or eating all apples/black mushrooms etc. The game was easy for me in terms of difficulty, significant quests give thousands of experience points. I would suggest- just enjoy the game, try to do what would you do if you were Marvin. It's not the end of the world if you miss of fail the quest or don't achieve max experience from it.
Time-limited quests, various experience result:
Very interesting approach. Imagine a turnip quests from G2 - you missed a one - Lobart would have give you 190 exp instead of 200 and lower the price by 9 coins not 10. You get the idea. And some quests will fail if you completely ignore them.
Fast travel:
There are many ways to fast travel - with boats, caravans or magic circles, which can be additionaly enhanced for mages. Also during many quests you have an option to immediately visit other NPC (screen fades).
Potions:
Awesome concept of adding interesting potions: e.g. temporary boost of a stat or life/mana regeneration.
Cooking:
Interesting mechanics, but at some point I was overwhelmed with number of choices and what I have already eaten for additional stat boost.
Inventory:
I absolutely hate it. I wish they could categorise it, because it's so difficult to scroll through. I wish there was an easy way to distinguish read documents from unread. I wish If a key is used - lock is permanently unlocked and key is removed from repository. And one button to sell all items such as rusty items...
Ending:
It's a slideshow. But very detailed and I absolutely loved it and it was very touching.
Enjoy the game Marvins!!!