Ok, first off before you read any further if you feel that this game is the greatest game ever made in the history of the world and will not be told otherwise LEAVE right now do not read any further. Hit the back button on your browser and go somewhere else. For the unbiased that are left please contine reading.
When first buying this game i, like many was hoping for a ground breaking game that would carry me until halo 2 is released. What i got was a somewhat ground breaking game, that in no way will make it till halo 2's release. Now don't get me wrong i really did enjoy this game, but i was hoping for SO MUCH MORE.
Story-
As many of you have heard already the story in this game is quite lacking. Now that doesn't not mean it is a bad story that just means it is missing certain aspects that make for a good story. My biggest gripe with the story of the game is that the gaps between the continuation of the tale are stupidly long. On top of that it feels that much of the story was cut out in a frantic "at the last minute" sort of hurry. Without giving away to much of the game the story jumps way to much. The player goes from being a child to going to the Guild to being a man end of story. This is a good skeleton for a story, something to build off of BUT in no way is this sufficent by itself. Another problem i felt with the story was there is little charecter building. As a player i was hoping to hear more about the charecters sister and mother and what happened to them after the huge raid (I thought it would have been awsome to get to play as them for a while, maybe play as them after the raid and see what happened to them, or something like that). If the story was longer I feel that this game would be damn near perfect, because with a longer story people play more which means they are going to get many of the lvl ups and intrest will be sustained. Unfortunetly because of the lack of depth in the story after the game is over players do not really want to play any more becuase there is no drive to see what happens next. After the game is over, what use is there in getting the rest of the lvl ups?
Sound-
What can i say about the sound? There is really nothing to complain about. I played the game on a total 5.1 surround sound system and i played the game on a mono T.V. both came out sounding flawless.
Visual-
The visuals in this game are AWSOME! I really enjoyed the graphical aspect of this game. The way the spells looked, the way the charecters looked, the detail in this game, and the subtle tweeks all are brilliant. This is most definetly and eye candy lovers fantasy.
Now even with all its flaws this game is truely an excellent game with a lot of potential to be even greater. The one main thing that i do not like with the game is that your charecters power is so unevenly matched against every single enemy in the game. Durring the "epic" battle with jack i was barely lvl'd up at all and i still beat him without losing more thant 1/4th of my life. Now to most people that is satisfying, but to me I want a challenge. I along with many other RPG lovers want to be challenged with an end boss. On top of that my "ultimate" weapon should not just be given to me, and me be able to use it right off the bat. I should have to earn it, and become stronger before i can use it. Its like being able to use something like Knights of the Round right at the get-go of FF7.
The second thing i do not like about the game is the fact that once it's over, the player has little to no longing to continue lvl'ing up. Once your charecter gets past a certain point he has no trouble dealing with hordes of enemies. As of now i am running around in a pair of shorts with no other armor and i can take out anything in the game with ease. Where is the fun in that?
Now for the good stuff.
Like i said before the depth in this game is quite impressive. It could be better, but what we got is nice. The ability to choose between good and evil and to keep that balance is something new and inovative and for that it deserves huge ammounts of respect. Not only is the choice between the two great, but the consequences it has on the charecter are awsome as well. You want to be evil? Thats fine, but no one will like you. You want to be extremely scary? Cool, but everyone will run from you. The repercussions of your choices in this game are quite excellent. My favorite part of the repercussion aspect of the game is that once you kill someone they are gone. Meaning you kill everyone in one of the fighting rings, they don't come back. Even if you go from ring to ring fighting for prizes or what not.
Overall i give this game somewhere between a 7.75 and an 8.25. Visually the game is a 10. Depth wise the game is a 10, but because of a lack-luster story and the brevity of the game the overall score suffers quite a bit. No doubt this game will be a platinum hit and it is quite deserveing of it, but i feel that this game can and could of been done better. If a fable 2 ever comes out hopefully everyone will earn from their mistakes and make for a perfect 10 game.
I would say this game is a buy for anyone interested in a quick pick up game, but if you don't want to spend the money on a game that packs kick-ass visuals and nothing more than that i would say rent it for sure, and go from there.
Now i have purposely held back a lot of my review, because i am interested in hearing what other people have to say. So please let me know how you feel about this game. <
