I just finished the post game content and a first run of BBI. I adored the game as a whole, and I'm kicking myself for not having played it sooner. Here are my thoughts on a few aspects of the game:
The combat system is probably my favorite in ARPGs. Even the typically straightforward melee classes require some getting used to (especially when playing a warrior), and the magic and ranged combat mechanics are also similarly well thought out, requiring aiming or charged up attacks as a tradeoff. The way the AI behaves in combat puts most other similar games to shame. Thanks to the AI, the game frequently pulls off dynamic action scenes that would have been relegated to QTE or cutscenes in most other games.
I got strong Morrowind and Gothic 2 vibes while running around the game world and dungeons. Even though the dungeon design can be disappointingly linear, I liked how the game often hid loot in plain sight by using lighting tricks and other objects to cover the loot. There was rarely an instance when I felt I was wasting my time in the dungeons or while out exploring the world.
The most surprising aspect of the game to me was the dialog and the overall story. I never expected anything other than laughably bad dialogue and voice acting given that it was presumably translated from another language, and also given the
developer. Instead, the carefully worded dialogue and voice acting benefited the game's atmosphere greatly. The end result was dialogue that is far more consistent in its tone and authenticity than anything Bioware or Bethesda has written in years -- quite a sobering thought, that. Regarding the main plot, I initially felt underwhelmed before starting Everfall. There were many smaller plot threads that were intriguing, yet the important plot thread felt underbaked, and I was left wondering about the antagonist's motivations and actions. On finishing the post game content, I thought the entire story fit in a clever way that made me look at the entire game in a new light. It was a risky move, but well executed.
There are a few things that could have been better though:
The quest design was frustrating. There were far too many escort quests, and most of the notice board quests were those straight out of MMOs. The meatier side quests were far better, which made the relatively small number of them a real pity. The game's also very punishing of moving the main story forward too much initially, leading to canceled side quests. I spent far too much time fretting over getting all the available side quests -- it was the most challenging aspect of the game the first time around if not for BBI.
The difficulty of the game takes a dip during large parts of the middle. BBI was refreshingly difficult, as was the Ur Dragon (but that was mostly down to my attempts at aiming with a controller). The encounter design is also quite repetitive during these middle sections, and the game could have clearly done with the variety on display during the end and the BBI sections of the game.
The performance issues were far too severe during the second half of the game. My fight with the Ur Dragon was literally a slide show, leading to high levels of input lag, which in turn made the combat less responsive and frustrating. It's criminal that a PC port seems unlikely.
My complaints aside, this game was a real gem.
