It's a great game, but about 30 hours in and I can't help but feel that it's not really all that it's cracked up to be in many of the reviews getting around. I mean I'm loving it, more than worth the money I paid for it, and I'll certainly be finishing it, but:
- The world is so linear. It's a bunch of snaking narrow pathways, in some areas branching out briefly only to join back up around the corner. Where are the open forests and plains of Ultima VII, where you'd truly explore, randomly discovering strange areas in the middle of nowhere and challenging enemies you were often forced to run away from? Am I looking at the past through rose tinted glasses, or are these modern Unity based rpgs severely lacking in this respect? In OS you go to an area, follow the path, or two paths if you're lucky, and 'complete it', never to come back. You always know where you're going because there's only ever one or two ways you can go. "Exploration bonuses" trigger when you follow an obvious path to the only place it goes, which is fortunate, because without them I don't really have any fulfilling sense of exploring anything.
- It's very easy. Having said that, I started on normal and changed to hard about 10 hours in. Maybe I'm just overlevelled as a result. I've also only just got to silverglen, so maybe the difficulty will pick up. The cool down system (for all its benefits) adds to this difficulty problem, it means you never really have to be discriminate about what spells you cast, which means you end up with a formula that plays out pretty much the same in every battle. Summon, summon, rain, freeze, buff, melee, win, heal, heal, etc - with the only variation really coming in what elements you choose based on enemy type.
- Weapon degradation is essentially pointless, since even a single level in blacksmithing and you can repair any piece of damaged equipment immediately with a single hammer that has limitless uses. It's just an annoying thing 'you have to do' at that point, it doesn't add to the game whatsoever, which means it detracts from it since it's not optional.
- They didn't quite get that 'living, breathing, city" feel and it's not just due to a lack of NPC schedules, it's partly because it's abundantly clear who the 'quest' characters are and who the window dressing is just by hovering over them and seeing if they have a name. There's just not enough NPCs to make it exciting exploring for interesting characters, which again means it becomes pretty routine.
- Stealth, pickpocketing, theft are all in the game and yet I haven't yet found anywhere or anyone I want to steal from or sneak past. There's no interesting loot anywhere that I haven't already come across and sold or equipped already. Again, maybe it's this early stage of the game.
I love the game, I could list far more things it does well (as well as a few more it doesn't), and I'm only 30 hours in so my points are tentatively made, but so far it doesn't seem like the 'classic' that some are making it out to be. I think it's more that this is the closest we have seen it come for a long time.
