Finally got this game and I'm so glad I did.

[12thKnight]

Was interested in WITN since before it was released but was discouraged from buying by the reports of game-ending bugs (mainly associated with the save system), and also the apparent linearity of the game. However it stayed on my list of 'games that I'd really like to try', so when it appeared on Steam sale last week I bought it.

At first I thought I'd made a bad decision as the game seemed to cause a hard shutdown on my laptop within minutes (have never ever had this happen with any other game before). Figured this might be due to overheating so tuned down the graphics a bit, fiddled with the Nvidia settings (vsynch turned off etc) and airdusted the fan etc - fortunately this fixed the problem (there is no way I'd risk cooking my laptop for any game so the alternative would have been an uninstall).

Apart from the above problem, first impressions of the game were superb. The combat was a lot more fun and satisfying than the impression I got from gameplay videos, for me rating well above the last 2 rpg games I've played (Skyrim, no surprise, but also KOA). Also found the locations were beautifully realised - the ruins of Fornost seemed much more impressive than I'd gathered from the videos and was quite enraptured when I first arrived at Rivendell (also loved the Barrow Downs and Ettenmoors). The loot system had an addictive quality from the start thanks to the variety of styles of gear (especially after coming from KOA).

Although I generally don't like linear games, in WITN the ability to revisit previous locations and still find enemies and loot there somewhat mitigates the linear structure of the game for me - especially since the combat, loot and locations are so nicely done. I'd personally prefer it if you weren't forced straight into a new game on completion of the campaign, but I suppose there wouldn't be much to do then apart from the challenge missions.

My initial worries about being stuck with corrupted saves haven't materialised, but have made multiple manual backups just in case. After seeing how easy it is to manually back up multiple saves on the PC (the files are tiny and uniquely named), am slightly surprised that some kind of automatic save backup/rollback feature wasn't built into the game.

Overall have had much more enjoyment from WITN than any recent rpg-type game I can think of. Would love to see some DLC/expansion content, though I understand that this is now rather unlikely.

[hammerhorde]

I like the game alot too and was impressed by alot of features they added. After putting 200 hours into skyrim and then turning and playing this, I don`t think I ever had as much fun in skyrim as I did with this game. If these guys ever made an open world game and kept the attention to detail they have now, it would really be something to see.

I think it does kind of suck that after you beat the game you have to restart the campaign also. But I think with the way you have to progress through the game. If you were to complete the game you would not be able to accept any more quests for items anymore. So restarting I think is needed as crappy as it is. I`d love to be able to beat the game on legendary and on the next playthrough have all the checkpoints unlocked kind of like how they did it in diablo 2. But that again would probably screw up the game progression and cause bugs.

I have found a handful of bugs playing the game too that I wasn`t happy with. For the most part though on pc it has been minimal and game works pretty good. I back up my saves like a fiend though! But I can understand bugs slipping through the cracks into the released game. Not too many games today are released without them and it`s even harder trying to track a bug down and find it`s cause and fix it. For the most part though after playing through legendary mode about 5x, every bug I have encountered from my first playthrough has not reappeared. So for me the game has been pretty solid in that aspect.

I mentioned this game to some friends and they never even heard of it. I didn`t even know the game existed until I opened up steam to play something and an add for this came up. I never saw a commercial for the game but I do remember the skyrim commercial being on every 15 minutes before it was released on television. Some more aggresive advertising could have made the title more popular and given us a better chance at future dlc. In the end I am glad I got the game. I am still having fun with it and would like to see more added to it.

[12thKnight]

Yes, the narrative-driven nature of the game is probably the reason for forcing you to a new game+ if you want to continue levelling your characters. Now that I see how much better the loot is on Heroic, can see it would be rather pointless hanging around Normal to farm better gear.

Still I love the feature of being able to revisit areas to farm loot and wish they'd respawn more enemies than they do currently, particularly the cooler ones like the wights in the Barrow Downs. Would also be nice to have the option to replay some of the cutscenes too (some of them are really good imo).