Beat the game. 20 hours according to Steam. Really enjoyed it despite the flaws.
What it did right:
- Feel of the combat. Everything had heft and purpose and when your weapon made contact with an enemy it was satisfying. Definitely a step up from Dark Souls.
- A decent variety of loot.
- A well laid out menu system that was easy to navigate
- The Warrior class was fun and I ended up being a walking Death God by the end so that was satisfying.
- Graphics are simply amazing. Overall the best looking game this year (although The Vanishing of Ethan Carter has a better aesthetic) and easily the best lighting engine I've ever seen. Bloodborne's going to have to do something special to top LotF graphic wise although it will be better from an art direction point of view.
- Sound design and music. High quality audio effects and music helped with the atmosphere.
- Playing in effectively one big are that over the course of the game you unlock short cuts was really neat and remined me of Dark Souls but...
What needs improvement::
- ... A much wider variety of locations would have really helped to make the game more interesting.
- Stability. This game was a mess at launch and would crash over and over again. Turning off Nvidia Turbulence and the subsequent patches definitely fixed most of that for me thankfully.
- Story. The overall idea was decent but the execution was ham-fisted and the overall story beats too vague.
- The magic system in this game was far too under-cooked. Needed more variety both mechanically and aesthetically.
- Camera and lock-on. Whoo boy, did this drive me batty. Lock on would only really work if there was only one enemy in the near vicinity and even then my attacks sometimes wouldn't register despite clearly making contact. There was even occasions I would do a leaping finishing blow that would slow-down time and still not register! To make matters worse, enemy attacks would hit me despite being out of the way at times. Dark Souls 2 had this problem as well.
- Voice acting ranged from decent to bad and the very poor facial animation didn't help things at all.
- Audio placement issues with some sounds being crammed in the rear channels (an enemies death scream for example)
Overall, a game with a solid foundation that could easily be improved on with a sequel. I really hope the game sells well enough not only for a follow-up but one with a bigger budget allowing for more scope and grandeur.
In my top 3 for Games of the Year, behind The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and Dark Souls 2.
For a second I wondered if I had created a drunk alt account that I didn't remember and typed all of this. I had the same exact impressions of the game.