sidonh

The character is terrible. Forgetting appearances for a moment, you get the sense that this is a teenager's concept of 'cool' and 'edgy', as if swearing were to somehow push boundaries. It does not, but the game acts as though it is the most witty thing in the world. I would think that by now the whole **** you" ...exchange is infamous enough. The story and background are bizarre enough, as if pushing for some sort of agenda. Much like the aforementioned teenager fashion, you get the idea that you've also stumbled into some sort of sociology class. It felt a bit...rushed however, from a certain point. Gameplay is different and unlike the others of the series, hands out S class so easily, you stop noticing it after a while and there is nothing truly complex about it. That said, the environment is interesting, as are the levels. Most of the enemies are pretty great. If you are barely starting the series and are only interested in the combat, by all means, enjoy although the huge number of cutscenes made this painful for me. To those who liked the old Dante, the dialogue and voice acting will seem immensely jarring. There is no wit or the usual ham, no cleverness or, let's be frank, cheese. There are too few characters like that and too many characters "dark" simply for the sake of being "dark".

Wonderfully dark, cheerfully witty and surprisingly heart-warming is what I expect when talking about a World of Darkness game. Vampire: The Masquerade lives up to it. It's a perfect vampire RPG and while I am disappointed another did not follow, perhaps it wouldn't have lived up to it. Now, at a much later time after the games' release, there are almost no bugs and there is a patch that is still going strong. It's one of those perfectly made games that remains in everyone's memory. I cannot even talk about it without someone saying "**** I have to re-install it". I might just do that right now...

The start is slow, there are some clichés and the ending still makes me want to hunt down Avellone and punch him. So why do I keep returning to this game? It's fun. Its companions are witty and amusing and alive (sometimes). The plot is ...well, Faerun-esque, but enjoyable. I believe everyone is familiar with the trial scene (and if not, you should be), some seemingly dull quests provided much amusement and it's a rich trip down the old Forgotten Realms. It may not be to everyone's tastes but for a D&D enthusiast, this is a classic.

There is nothing I can say that hasn't been already stated. Bad dialogue, clichéd story and, without adding spoilers, an abysmal villain. Bioware returned to its tried and true formula of saving the world without adding too much thought into it. Even the lore has been twisted to ...better suit the story? Add some fluff? I do not know. There are also mechanics missing entirely, such as the healer. The side-quests are MMO style hunt and gather, repetitive and dull. A far cry from their start in Baldur's Gate where you could almost always find a twist or even Dragon Age Origins where at least part of them had enough complications to keep you interested. The controls on the PC are amazingly bad, the UI is almost thoughtless in its design and while the graphics are fine, my modded Skyrim looks better and (somehow) works better. There has been no optimization and seeing as how Bio is bad at it already, I don't expect that to change. If they'd have allowed for a tool set kit, I would have expected the community to fix it (as it happened for Skyrim) but alas... I am giving it a 2 because it squeezed a few laughs out of me, but it's not even mediocre in my eyes. It is not an RPG, not even an action game. It is a high fantasy hiking simulator. I would classify this game as a missed opportunity. For those of you who expected Bioware to redeem itself, I'm very sorry. I'm as disappointed as you are.