Photo courtesy of 38 Studios

Many people might be questioning why they should drop sixty dollars on this game; because it brings some very exciting hands on combat to the table and the character building rewards experimentation. The character stats are made up of a set of ranked skills (in which you devote a single point to each level) and three basic trees which can be mixed as desired; might, sorcery and finesse. Each level you get three points to distribute amongst your trees and you can spend your points however you wish and you will have to actually try hard to mess up your character. You can spend a point each level on each of the trees evenly, pick two trees to focus on or just a single tree. The beauty in this system is that you are rewarded with a sort of class card (that can be swapped any time) when you achieve a certain rank in your tree/trees.

On my first play through I chose to create a finesse/ sorcery hybrid. My character wielded a set of daggers and a staff (that’s right, all characters can use two weapons almost seamlessly). I used myfinesse abilities like my dagger combos, poison and traps to wear down enemies before blasting them with a lightning bolt and finishing with a healing spell. Yes playing a multi-class character is just as fun and rewarding as focusing on a traditional Mage, Thief or Fighter. I was so happy when I reached the second rank of the finesse/sorcery class and was granted a Teleport- infused with poison damage. Each of the class cards grants stat bonuses for different damage types as well as unique abilities specific to that class combination. Have I mentioned that you can re-spec your character at any time provided you have a little coin on you? The skill system further allows you to diversify your character; some skills such as stealth will be essential for thieves as they grant the ability to dish out stealth kills and pickpockets but others such as crafting and persuasion give you the ability to respectively create your own gear and influence other people.

Photo courtesy of 38 Studios

Equipment is handled in a unique way; gear features a statistical requirement relating to the number of points you have placed in your tree i.e. if you want a piece of Mage gear and a piece of Thief gearyour going to need to have some points into both trees.