Whereas the
Bioware Infinity Engine games offer clear feedback concerning where a particular character is headed, or who they are attacking,
Gorasul provides bits and pieces in various places, but doesn't clearly inform the user. If you care to find out who Roszondas, the main character, is attacking, you first have to click on his portrait. Between the marker indicating where he is headed, and reading the comments in the text window, you can pretty much figure it out.
Much of the user interface is overly complex, or just plain frustrating to work with. The map and inventory, as well as one or two others, display as popup windows, with no clear way to dismiss them. With some, you just press the ESCAPE key and they go away, but for others, you have to click on their icon again in order to hide them.
Other windows, such as the character's, or those used to set options, take up the full screen, have duplicated items, and are difficult to decipher. It would help greatly if the manual was thorough, but it's not. Two different books comes with the game, but they both provide only basic information, as well as a list of the spells the game offers.
Gorasul does offer some nice features, like popup information windows, so before you enter a building or cast a spell, you can get detailed information in a scrolling window. The screens used to buy and sell items also offer lots of useful information, and are generally easy to use.
Saving games is a major sore point, as the process is confusing and convoluted. To load or save a game, you have to scroll through a screen that presents the dates, times, and screen shots, but doesn't allow you to scroll very quickly. Saved game names have to be very short, which means you cannot be very descriptive when naming.
Overall Gorasul is a major disappointment. Maybe if it had been properly translated to English then its shortcomings wouldn't seem so severe. Maybe its story would be easier to understand, and it would make more sense. If the manual included more and better information, then maybe the user interface would be easier to get used to. And maybe if the developer had spent more time tweaking the UI, and had left out the mini-games, then the game play would feel more fleshed out, and the game could compete more squarely with the established players. Unfortunately, that's a whole lot of maybes, and in the end, those maybes just don't matter. Gorasul just doesn't have what it takes to compete with those other games.