Don't let negative reviews discourage you. This immersive RPG has one of the best stories in video game history.
Given my expectations, this game did not disappoint and provided about 30 hours of good and memorable fun. The main strength of this game is definitely the story, as many reviewers have mentioned. It is extremely well-written (for a video game), and provides several unexpected twists and plenty of drama and suspense.
As for gameplay, its combat system is very similar to that of Dragon Age, which I personally really like. You control one or two characters at a time, and have several skills and attacks to use. Each attack consumes energy (which is the equivalent to mana), so there's quite a bit of strategy involved in finding the most efficient way to kill your enemies. Overall I found the combat very satisfying, and it grew on me as I progressed in the game.
Now this is a fairly limited budget game, so don't expect high production values. The graphics are a little dated and the cities sometimes look empty or uninhabited. The voice acting varies quite a bit, and can range from top-notch to rather poor. There are also some annoying issues with the user interface .For example, when I press "m" for a map, I would like to easily go back to the game by pressing "m" a second time, but no - the game forces you to use your mouse and click on "resume", which is both unnecessary and irritating . Finally, I found movement a little bit of a chore as well - as you have to hold the right mouse button in order to control where your character is looking/walking. Message to the developers: if you're going to adopt Dragon Age's combat style, you might as well adopt its character controls!
Should you buy the game? Well here are some points to help you decide:
1. This game is very focused on the story and there is a lot of dialogue. If you find that boring, you will hate this game. Avoid it.
2. This game is realistic, in the sense that there's no magic, no special abilities, nothing like this.
3. Combat is like in Dragon Age or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. It is point and click, or in other words, you order an attack, and you wait for the character to execute it. It requires more strategy than skill
4. This is not an open-world game. There are some side quests, but there's not much exploration to be done. The different cities and locations on the map are not connected. Once again, this is similar to Dragon Age's world, but it's smaller.
Other than that, if you like RPGs and the above four points don't bother you, then ignore the reviews (other than Gamespot's) - you will probably enjoy this game.