Ditto here. I didn't like the introduction part. Without spoiling too much of it, I felt it sounded… contrieved and soulless.
Do YOU often respond to anonymous invitations (to meet someone? to what purpose?), miles away from your home, at a dark spot inside a mine that is rumored to be swamped by monsters ? I don't think so, but okay, I can
pretend that I would. After all, I've seen worse… whistleCallOfCthulhuwhistle.
However, if a particular someone got me in trouble because of their invitation, effectively leaving me stranded to fend off for my life for a good whole while, looking for an exit to the surface, and then magically appeared out of thin air shortly before I found it, I am positive I couldn't repress the urge to thrust whatever pointy bit (or rusty axe, at the time) I was holding in my hand through this neck, rather than to listen to his pseudo-justifications and accept his proposal to join his super secret (like, everyone knows of it?) confrerie (yawn, you're kidding, right?).
Anyway, I am mostly fine with linear story progression, but not so if it's forced down upon the player in such an artifical fashion.
It is a shame, because the initial premises seemed rather promising (surviving against all odds), the visuals enticing, and the atmosphere of the places I got to visit a good league ahead of standard Oblivion's in matters of
wow, this is cool! factor.
Nehrim isn't quite up to what I expect from a "good" RPG. Still, overall it's a pretty satisfying experience of the Oblivion engine, contrary to the one I had with Bethesda's original game, for example, and I can see why some people would praise it largely, especially if one had enjoyed Gothic/Two Worlds before (which I didn't).
Hmmm, without getting too spoilery: There is a character that has godlike powers that you're in charge of freeing and aiding once free. I couldn't stand that guy and I would not support his vision for the future. There was no second option, so that ended the game for me. If I could have just killed him myself, that would have been fun. I was effectively more powerful than he was anyway.