(Quick point, the manual is included in game via the menu rather then in the case itself, save the trees and all that jazz).
Good points
- The combat is very flashy, easy to get on with and quite diverse depending on your spec.
- The variation in the specs themselves, the "destinies" and the bonuses they give and the fact you can mix and match almost any talents to suit your taste is great.
- The crafting is simple, and enjoyable.
- Lot's of gear with their own back stories.
- Loads of side quests.
- 4 factions (5 if bought brand new) with individual quest lines and powerful rewards.
- Graphically very nice indeed, especially the forests and water effects.
Bad points (The EA hype machine was in full throttle for this)
- Reviewers claiming "hundreds of ours of play with only the main quests". Lies, on the hardest difficulty, doing all factions, story and most of the side quests you'll be done in 80 easily.
- Difficulty, it doesnt exist, do it on "hard" from the beginning for 100g and its still an absolute walk in the park.
- Sound is terrible, not the acting, thats good, and the actual sounds are kick ass, but whoever deicded that detailed story speech should be cancelled out to never appear again in favour of a random battle cry should be sacked. Also on this note, the music seems to randomly cut out or not bother appearing at all in some areas.
- Bugs are few and far between, but are enough to really take away from the experience, approaching a quest from the wrong direction for example (Headsman, klurikon) bugs the quest out, requiring a reload.
- Story, yup that's right, hype hype hype, the story is weak, the ideas of it are cool and you can tell a lot of imagination went into it, but it's execution leaves a lot to be desired. You never really feel immersed in the story because it's so disjointed.
- No need for a level cap at all, takes away from giving a damn about killing stuff.
It's a good game, but there's too many things that felt rushed to make it a great game. you'll get a happy 70 hours out of it, but after that it'll begin to get tedious quickly for some. But if you can look past the bad things then it's a real gem, and considering we can more then likely expect another in the KoA series, things can only get better.
Check it out for sure, just maybe not for full price.