Some things I have not seen mentioned:

A) If you go max cold, then you can ultimately max out everything via ingesting Elex (potions). If you want to be balanced or go for being more human, you can't and have to watch the descriptions on your character sheet when using elex potions. This is of course inherently unbalanced, but I also think it is at the core of the game's story: Do you sacrifice your humanity to gain ultimate power, or do you retain it and limit your potential? I think it is very cool compared to most RPGs of this type which tries to balance moral choice. I also felt like the human route was very rewarding and really made me appreciate not min-maxing my character.

B) The game is ridiculously arbitrary in difficulty level. There are small zones with less tough monsters, but even these will suddenly drop monsters that are hard into the 30+ levels. But at the same time there is no scaling. So when you get more powerful, you'll feel more powerful and ultimately you'll get to be a walking incarnation of doom laying waste to everything in sight - if you want to.

C) There are some perks I feel is very under-appreciated which people rarely mention:

- Sixth sense - This is really good and makes it much harder to be suddenly surprised by monsters.

- Friend of beasts - Makes you much less likely to be swarmed by smaller monsters when you're in the middle of a big fight.

- Good eater - Makes it easy to get powerful healing over time... it ain't that necessary in the endgame, but for the 30ish hours it takes to get there, it saves you a ton of money and frustration.

D) Pickpocket. This is often recommended, but if you take animal trophies you don't really need it for money. I didn't take it, since I wanted to play a character who viewed petty crime as fairly pathetic and money really was never an issue.

E) Explore everything. It's good fun, and they have put a lot of love into weird off-the-path locations and minor quests that can crop up.

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