Yeah sorry not your typical post here, I hope that's OK!
I'm thinking of getting this for my (14)nephew and my brother to play together. He used to play DND in the 80s and this game really sounds like it tries to honor a lot of the culture and whatnot of the games.
But... I haven't played anything like either of those and my brother is extremely busy with little free time and my nephew doesn't have as much free time as the average kid.
Is this a game that could still be enjoyable in small doses? Does it get overwhelming or stressful fast for most people who don't play games nearly as long or as intense as this? For context they play a lot of match style games but my brother loved the original assasians creed.
And if not or for some reason you have another suggestion I'd love to hear it because at the very least this game sounds good to me and I'm interested in what other games it's fans like that I could also check out. :)
It can be fun in small doses except when it wants you to watch a bunch of cutscenes instead of doing stuff. The biggest drawback is just the length of the game. If you played 5 hours per week it might take upwards of half a year to finish a playthrough.
That being said, it's probably one of the best RPGs I've ever played and the best D&D computer game I've ever played. I'm fifty so that encompasses a lot of games. The range of morality and meaningful choices is extremely high. To the point where I want to experience making different choices but it's hard because it's such a time commitment to do a whole playthrough just to see what unique dialog options you get for playing a Tiefling or a Druid.
The romances and dialogs can be a little spicy, and it runs the gamut of adult language. I think nudity can be turned off and romance is optional, but you'd have to judge whether that would be a problem for their family. Even the full on sex scenes imply more than they show, but I'd be uncomfortable if I was surprised by one while playing with my kid. This is definitely a judgment call on your part.
It's a great game and I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from buying/playing it, but I'd be remiss to not mention some of the reasons it might not be for everyone. I'm hopeful it might lead to introducing my kids to tabletop play. But I'm not overly concerned with language or adult themes in an appropriate context.
That's actually my brother's age range. And yeah I guess I was so drawn to this because it's potential for a common interest and shared experience! But I think based on all this it would be best if I played it first and wait until next year to consider it as a gift when I have full context of adult themes.
But damn I gotta say the responses to this post are all so wonderful and it just makes me want to play this game even more because the community is so helpful!