Two of the main comments I’ve seen regarding this game are that it’s hard, and that it’s full of bugs. Well, perhaps the earlier versions were, but the only bugs I’ve come across in the Special Edition (with DLC installed) are occasional random freezes… which completely disappeared after adding -force-gfx-direct to the shortcut’s target line. I’m only a little over halfway through the third chapter though, so maybe that will change later.
As for difficulty, yes there are some sidequests that are notably hard (the Dwarf Games and Heart of the Forest quests come to mind). The majority of the main quests up to this point however aren’t particularly difficult so long as you pay attention to the battlefield (always look for interactive objects), don’t neglect buff/debuff spells, and don’t screw up your character(s) builds. That said, it is very easy to screw up a character’s build.
See, the thing about this game is that its statistic system’s a bit overly complicated. There are 8 Attributes and every action except attacking/defending rolls against 3 of them. If any of those rolls fails then the action as a whole fails, and spells in particular rely on all sorts of different attribute combinations. This means that an effective character will tend to only focus on at most 4 attributes and then 3-4 abilities related to those attributes; trying to be a jack of all trades just flat-out does not work here. ‘Dual classing’ (there are no actual classes) is certainly possible though and in fact happens to be a pretty good idea since you don’t get any permanent party members explicitly built for handling archery/traps.
You get two pure mages (the latter of which can be turned into an archer relatively easily) and two pure fighters (the latter of which, again, can be turned into an archer fairly easily). The archer you get toward the end of the first chapter only sticks around until near the end of the second. Why even bother with archery? Because the Triple Shot ability is insanely powerful. Of course, you won’t want more than two archery characters (one for bows and the other for crossbows) as otherwise you risk running out of ammo; merchants have limited inventories and don’t restock. Something else to keep in mind during character creation is that the flashback sequences no longer force you to wield an axe, so the rampant advice to always put some points into axes/maces is no longer valid.
But what about the game itself? Is it fun/interesting? It’s okay. The dialog and quests have been pretty simple so far, but there are hints that the plot might take an interesting turn, many sidequests give you multiple ways to resolve them, and quite a few of the battles have impressively elaborate constructions (the optional and not-so-optional arena battles in particular stand out). While I certainly wouldn’t pay $40 for it, it’s well worth the current $4.49 sale price.