As a huge fan of the old Infinite Engine games like Baldur's Gate I had hoped for so much *more* from this game. Whilst it did much to modernise the genre, in many areas it failed to live up to the nostalgia.

Graphics - The game kept true to the art style whilst bringing it forwards into the modern era of gaming, the backdrops were breathtakingly beautiful and it played smoothly without any issues.

Sound/Voice Acting - The sound/voice acting wasn't particularly noteworthy, it wasn't terrible yet it wasnt great either, it didn't really stand out much.

Story-telling/narrative - The story was a bit vague and didn't really have much direction during the first act but it quickly picked up during the second act before slowly tapering off towards the end. There weren't any really exciting revelations or twists that made it wow me. The villain, their motivations and relationship to the protagonist were somewhat interesting but it wasn't anything that stood out. Often at times to convey just how filled out the world and backstory was you're presented with a wall of text which probably wasn't necessary and felt like it detracted from the story at times.

Gameplay Mechanics/Combat - This is probably the most disappointing aspect of the game. The game feels like it's more of a stealth crpg because they limited the experience gained from combat to just the first few initial run ins with each foe type and kept the overall experience gained from combat to a very minimal amount, along with the plethora of items that dropped from enemies being utterly useless, it often felt like the better choice was to sneak/avoid enemy encounters which just slows down the pace of the game. Avoiding combat entirely was also made more desirable by the fact that you were heavily penalised for trying to escape combat or run around or disengage with an enemy during combat which often resulted in the character dying quicker than had you just stayed in place and tried to (but likely fail to do so anyway) tank it.

Spell casting also felt more burdensome and tiring than in the older IE titles because of the resting mechanics of the game whereby you had to carry supplies to rest and were limited to only carry a certain amount of supplies with you, so if you ran out of supplies you were forced to return to a store to purchase more or not rest and not be able to heal, or restore spells for combat.

Itemisation - The difference between a normal, un-enchanted item and a unique item felt lacking. The difference in damage was minimal, I played as a barbarian and would do 80s with normal items and as high as 96 using a unique item of the same type. Another problem with the itemisation is that so many items gave boosts to player stats, but conflicting stat boosts (ie. gloves that give +1 might and boots that give +2 might) would be nullified meant that gearing most slots felt like a waste of time and forced players down the route of jack of all trades, master of none.

Overall I would rate this game as a 6/10, or in terms of similarities to the old IE games it has the combat of Planescape Torment with the story of Icewind Dale, it tries to relive the nostalgia but focuses on the wrong aspects of what made them great games.

As a huge fan of the old Infinite Engine games like Baldur's Gate I had hoped for so much *more* from this game. Whilst it did much to modernise the genre, in many areas it failed to live up to the nostalgia. Graphics - The game kept true to the art style whilst bringing it forwards into the modern era of gaming, the backdrops were breathtakingly beautiful and it played smoothly without any issues. Sound/Voice Acting - The sound/voice acting wasn't particularly noteworthy, it wasn't terrible yet it wasnt great either, it didn't really stand out much. Story-telling/narrative - The story was a bit vague and didn't really have much direction during the first act but it quickly picked up during the second act before slowly tapering off towards the end. There weren't any really exciting revelations or twists that made it wow me. The villain, their motivations and relationship to the protagonist were somewhat interesting but it wasn't anything that stood out. Often at times to convey just how filled out the world and backstory was you're presented with a wall of text which probably wasn't necessary and felt like it detracted from the story at times. Gameplay Mechanics/Combat - This is probably the most disappointing aspect of the game. The game feels like it's more of a stealth crpg because they limited the experience gained from combat to just the first few initial run ins with each foe type and kept the overall experience gained from combat to a very minimal amount, along with the plethora of items that dropped from enemies being utterly useless, it often felt like the better choice was to sneak/avoid enemy encounters which just slows down the pace of the game. Avoiding combat entirely was also made more desirable by the fact that you were heavily penalised for trying to escape combat or run around or disengage with an enemy during combat which often resulted in the character dying quicker than had you just stayed in place and tried to (but likely fail to do so anyway) tank it. Spell casting also felt more burdensome and tiring than in the older IE titles because of the resting mechanics of the game whereby you had to carry supplies to rest and were limited to only carry a certain amount of supplies with you, so if you ran out of supplies you were forced to return to a store to purchase more or not rest and not be able to heal, or restore spells for combat. Itemisation - The difference between a normal, un-enchanted item and a unique item felt lacking. The difference in damage was minimal, I played as a barbarian and would do 80s with normal items and as high as 96 using a unique item of the same type. Another problem with the itemisation is that so many items gave boosts to player stats, but conflicting stat boosts (ie. gloves that give +1 might and boots that give +2 might) would be nullified meant that gearing most slots felt like a waste of time and forced players down the route of jack of all trades, master of none. Overall I would rate this game as a 6/10, or in terms of similarities to the old IE games it has the combat of Planescape Torment with the story of Icewind Dale, it tries to relive the nostalgia but focuses on the wrong aspects of what made them great games.