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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great game, but unfinished, October 1, 2003
We got this game almost the day it came out, as we were very excited about it. I LOVE the game itself, as it is extraordinary many ways - I will have a hard time going back to anything which does not have this turn-based style of combat.The combat interface incorporates pen and paper turn-based style, with full/half/free actions, and an initiative order! While the game occasionally gets a bit confused (I have had five foot step free actions interpreted as full actions, annoying to say the least) overall it works the way its supposed to and makes combat better than any crpg I have seen to date: really exciting from a strategy standpoint. The radial menu available to all characters is a bit unwieldy in that mousing slows down (particularly in big battles) and is difficult to "catch" the option you want to choose for your mouse wavering all over the place. You can work around this, however, and once you learn how to implement the various options (it took me forever how to figure out how to unlock doors, for example) It becomes easier and faster to use. However, the truth remains that it is an unfinished game, and it should never have been released as such. There is little to no "finishing touches" ie. no item descriptions, and obviously temporarily named objects which remained in the game. The bugs are numerous, and some of them are game-stoppers or quest-breakers. Many of them are obvious, so I don't think anyone did any quality testing. I am having to read up on what does and doesn't work in the game, and play my game based not on what I want to do, but on what isn't bugged. That's just not right - Atari shows (IMO) poor business ethics by charging unsuspecting customers $50 for an unfinished beta version of what WILL be the best crpg ever when it is finished.
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