God knows I wanted to like this game... I really did... but it's just too damn bland. Rather then rant and rave, let me just make a nice little list:
1. Atmosphere: It's bland. It's boring. I wanted to like it, but I just couldn't. It had some nice details like the little leaves floating down rivers, leaves and little seeds flying in the breeze, but otherwise it was terribly generic. The trees look like crap. They have bunches of leaves that aren't connected to anything. They picked the safest, and most boring set of trees possible. Why must everything be set in summer? You can only enter certain buildings and when you do, it seems to be the same thing over and over again. Boring Germanic tudor homes (sorry Germany) and bloom effect designed to blind us all. We've seen this all before.
2. Characters: Some were nice enough, but most were bland. Where is the variety? Why can't we have someone interesting rather then the absent minded wizard, the lone woodsmen, the stalwart paladin, nature loving elves. BORING. NO. Don't do it anymore. When making a game, this should be the perfect opportunity to express yourself. Make something interesting! Don't be bound by what other game settings use. Who the fuck cares what Tolkein's elves are like!
3. Lore: TDE may be good and deep and all, but this game sure ain't. I barely got any worthwhile info about this game's setting. A few loading screens explained some crap, but that's about it. What's supposedly so great about this world?
4. Combat: It sucks. Having rats run through your tanks to get to your mages and all is lame. No excuse.
5. Stats: Actually, I liked this. They did good. I thought even the social skills got used a fair amount... though they could have expanded a little bit more and made combat NOT so necessary.
So, that's my expert opinion. If anyone has any comments, I'll be in my observatory. THANKS!