Dawn of Magic - The Considerate Being's Hack-and-Slash. Dawn of Magic has taken a lot of hits in some gaming circles. Some stated the interface is too complicated and that the game is just not a good return for the time invested. Maybe it's just me - I have a tendency to like games that are somewhat different from most mainstream fare, and I prize originality. The fact is, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. Now there is some truth to what other reviewers on other sites have posted. Having played the game through a time or two, I KNOW there are certain areas where there are unexplainable performance slowdowns (I saw 2 or three, but my machine is quite over the recommended requirements). Terrain is lush, and even though this is an over-the-shoulder game. If you don't run through the game with your thumb on the ALT (default enemy highlight) key, you're going to wonder where the wild things are (that are hitting you). Of course, real spear-throwing goblins would probably not be dressed in hunter's orange to stand out, so to me this kind of makes sense anyway. The action is fast, and there are some places where you will face being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of Amazons, zombies, goblins, and other nasties of the world. So why do I like DOM? I mentioned I enjoy originality, and any game where the magic you study affects the character to change their appearance (with additional benefits and drawbacks) adds an element to the game that I have not seen other games capture. Every spell learned or studied affects the character's ultimate ability to resist fire, radiation, physical impact, and other types of damage hurled at the character in the course of the game. But that's only the starters. DOM is a game about choices. The game is linear ONLY in the major plot line - everything else is up for grabs. Four main character archetypes, 3 alignments, determining whether the player is Immortal (can respawn when killed) or not (can't - Death means a new game.) You can even put off completing Chapter I side quests until the very end of the game if you like. The character growth is slow, so you will want to think some before plucking the points accrued during a level-up. But I mentioned choices... The player can pursue 12 schools of magic, from Bone to Blessing to Blood to Elemental. None are exclusive of any others. Each spell level researched literally shapes the character. :) As part of level advancement, you get some points to furhter develop magic ability, but there is also a separate skill path. Should you concentrate on enchanting (adding more powerful runes to items) or crafting (adding metals with magical properties to items)? THEN there are the item combinations. Players hunt for runes which can be added to items individually or combined to form rune words that give additional benefits. Or the player can instead concentrate on building up various armor sets of specialized armor piec