I may write up a full review later but for now I'll just say a few things. 1. Definitely not for casuals. I'm playing on easy and when I got to my first boss fight I assumed because I was on easy I wouldn't have to worry to much about the boss. Wrong! My ass got handed to me and I had to actually load a save from 30 minutes back so I could read about the monster and make potions to fight that bastard. 2. From just 5 hours of game time this game has screamed Game of Thrones from every corner. I love how these decisions are not Good versus Evil but their more convoluted and knowing the right thing to do isn't obvious. 3. Loving the lore so far. I'm actually considering picking up the books for this one. The best part is that the game is based off the books so I shouldn't be seeing complete tosh from a writer who is trying to work with existing ideas ( Looking at you Halo, Gears of War, & every other book based off a video game)

How is the actual gameplay, though? Are the controls tight and intuitive? I don't care much for the difficulty. I've heard plenty of praise for its story, and your post definitely helps, but I've heard negative things about the actual gameplay, and from a few Souls veterans.

For the first one it's about what you would expect from a fantasy game released in 2007. It's not terrible but it's definitely dated. It's more of a timed point and click for general combat. right click can throw signs (they're really dragon shouts). Positioning is very important and a double click of the directional keys will allow you dodge attacks or jump over enemies to get a better position. I haven't played the second one yet.