How does this stack up with the first one? I kickstarted the original (no pun intended) but couldn’t really get into it. I think it felt a little linear to me? As in, “This is what level I am, this appears to be the only direction that has monsters I can take one right now”. I didn’t play it much at all, though. Just got to the main town at the start and lost interest.
I haven’t played 2 but watched some Let’s Plays when it first came to EA. It very much seemed more of the same, so I wouldn’t expect much of you didn’t like the first one.
They are supposedly leaning even harder into the possible clashing between the party members, which is going to be all the more interesting in co-op. Honestly if you aren’t playing this with someone else you’re missing out on about 80% of what makes the game awesome. It’s not fantastic as a single player RPG (It’s decent) but as a co-op game it’s one of the best.
That’s awesome, Scott. Can you elaborate on the coop fun you had? That’s how I would be playing the game, but I think part of my initial roadblock is that the person I was playing with hates slogging through a bunch of text and as of 1.0 there wasn’t any VO work (I think that changed with the Enhanced Edition?).
The big problem as I had with single player D:OS was it’s kind of a slog to control 4 characters and the various types of crafting as well (like cooking and forging) all resting on your own shoulders is a PITA. Conversely, two people with two characters each let’s one player focus on one aspect of the crafting and the other player another aspect; split the load so to speak.
That goes for everything. In combat you aren’t controlling all four characters, you each have your own and you each have your own chosen NPC to control. This means both players are always engaged in what’s happening, too, as they offer each other ideas to try during combat. This makes an otherwise somewhat cumbersome combat actually one of the most interesting combat systems devised.
The dialog stuff is much more engaging as well, especially if you are both “role playing” I term I do not actually use loosely with this game, because the interaction between your characters can mean something. What if you wanted to join a guild and the other player didn’t? Maybe it’s an anti-wizard guild and your friend is playing a mage and wants to role play how offensive that is! You both pick different dialog, do a little game of rock paper scissors to see whose viewpoint is victorious, and the game progress based on that decision. If you are playing by yourself there isn’t really any of that at all, which is a shame as it’s pretty fun every time it comes up.
Inventory management is kind of a PITA for two characters, I can’t imagine how much of a slog that would be trying to play on your own. Also, you can (on the same map) explore in separate directions, and when combat starts the game is only turn based for one of you, so the other can run your characters over do assist as needed if someone gets into combat by accident.
It’s all just done really well; slick, easy, and fun with two people working on it together. And it’s meaty, like an ongoing DnD game that runs for a satisfyingly long time.
Plus the mechanics, story, dialog, side quests, visuals, and etc. are all top notch on their own, so coupling it with the co-op stuff really makes it something fantastic.
And that’s all for the first game, as I’ve hardly touched D:OS2 and probably won’t until September, and even then not until @ShivaX is ready to get a game going.
Having seen a two player Let’s Play of the first game, it did look like a lot of fun. Otherwise, I think the game is quite fun solo. Everything you mentioned is a fair criticism, I can only say you get used to and find your own ways of dealing with things like inventory management and crafting. Out of everything, I am hoping 2 fixes those two areas specifically.
Your experience is yours, so I’m not going to dispute it, but my experience controlling everything solo was vastly different. Combat was no issue at all for me. It’s all turn-based action point stuff, so if you’ve played Xcom or Jagged Alliance, that gameplay is familiar. Crafting was kind of a PITA, but I feel every crafting mechanism is pretty tedious.
Yeah, I just wanted to pitch in and say that I really enjoyed the game in single player mode. The initial hurdle is pretty much the same for everyone from what I gather, just getting past that first city takes a bit of faith. I feel it really does pay off and rewards you with a fun game. Haven’t gone through the new special edition, but from what I understand they really went beyond the norm and reworked the intro to make it smoother (among other lots and lots of upgrades).
As an aside, the beautiful rotating 3D engine kinda spoiled me and I’m REALLY missing it in the static iso games like Pillars / Torment!
The roleplaying elements seemed like they would be lots of fun, but I just don’t have anyone that I could count on to play a 100 hr game with me (life / free time / scheduling making it impossible on such a time sink).
To be fair, I played co-op first and found single player a bit much after, so that could be part of it.
Thank goodness, I thought I was the only one. I loathe “crafting” as a mechanic in games, but some games are otherwise good enough (like Original Sin or Mass Effect: Andromeda) that I’ll deal with it if I absolutely have to.
I didn’t think the first game’s crafting system was good enough. The contrary. Obscure recipes that I had to look up online and make print outs of. To me a good crafting system gives me findable recipes and an in game crafting guide where I can just click a button. OS’s system, combined with an awful inventory system, was a pain to use. Plus, outside of some basic weapon improvements, most of the stuff was worthless.
Same here. I don’t think I’ve ever ‘crafted’ anything in a game. If you want me to play a blacksmith, you have to have that that system be as interesting as the moving and shooting in an fps, or the strategies in a strategy title. Collecting N stuff and choosing an option from a menu seems like a bizarre non-game.
I wrote that the game was “otherwise good enough”, with “otherwise” being the operative word. I hate the crafting system in the game, precisely for the reasons you cite. My point was that the rest of Original Sin is enjoyable enough to push past that.
That sums it up exactly. I don’t understand what people find fun about “crafting” mechanics.
The only thing I crafted (regularly) was the spiked shoes to prevent you from slipping on ice. Other than that, I completely ignored it.
I also felt single player was fun, but I do agree with Scott that the dialogues and subsequent choices/ rock-paper-scissors are somewhat lame in single player. I would have loved to try that co-op, but unfortunately my daughter (who watched me play most of the time) isn’t able to read English yet. She will be in a few years time, so who knows, maybe then!
News:
- PC controller and splitscreen support at release
- Skill Crafting
- Rune Crafting
- Ragdoll physics for deaths.
Just started playing this.
Got to Fort Joy and accidentally killed a black cat that kept following me.
Got hustled by a group of conmen inside the fort, so I launched a water arrow at them, got them wet, used a lightning scroll, stunned them, threw a rock that made a poison area, then incinerated them.
And no-one attacked me. Strange.
So far quite fun.
With my 2 characters, got ganked by 3 other characters, all of whom were stronger and had more hp than I did. Died.
Whats the current state of the build? Release is 4 weeks away, I’m getting impatient!
Has there been any info if the save game from this version will carry over into the final release?
I thought it was 2 weeks away!?
Anyway, at first the movement and combat felt clunky, and I felt a bit overwhelmed by the character set up choices.
3 odd hrs in and I have a full party so feeling more confident. The game doesn’t do very much hand holding so it’s possible to go into areas you really shouldn’t early on, like a cavern with oversized angry frogs, or parts of the fort with powerful enemies.
Trial and error here which will frustrate new/casual players.
I took a ladder into the fort, I. E. Not the front door, killed 3 people and got attacked by a Magister, for the crime of murder, despite him watching the fight as it happened (immersion breaker)
Reload.
Killed by frogs.
Reload.
Killed by a bounty Hunter who wanted my lizard friend ex King dead.
Reload.
Accidentally killed a black cat following me around.
Tempted to reload.
Chatted to a dog and fed him someone’s burnt leg, which annoyed him “I DON’T. EAT.PEOPLE! !” so he attacked me.
Was tempted to reload to see what else could have happened. Thing is, he never stood a chance. Ought not to have attacked me.
Basically you *can * go off the obvious, signposted track, but be prepared to die.
Magic and physical armour need getting used to. Some skills are blocked by one or the other. Fire, shock etc are resisted by magic armour. Turning someone into a chicken by physical armour.
That last can be great fun but it seems to almost never work. 😯. Maybe polymorph was not a good first choice.
Despite all of that, am having fun.
Lizards get to breathe fire, always fun.
Elves can eat flesh, unlocking clues and sometimes new skills. This is pure awesome.
Did you play the 1st one? Your description makes it sound similar.