Did anyone else notice you die a LOT in that game if you aren’t combat orientated? You can’t be a magic user, or even a mostly magic user, the first few battles are almost unwinnable (at least for me) if you do that.
I now have specialized in one weapon fighting, and some divine magic. And I’m JUST barely making it through a lot of these fights, more often than not, I get swarmed, I reload, cast my 5 second (it seems) buffs and run into battle to barely make it fully buffed.
I’m not really impressed so far. I will probably play it a bit more as I’m a HUGE fallout fan, but this realtime is VERY frantic or you reload a lot.
well, one thing to consider is that while the mechanics of combat won’t change to the final game, it’s been said that there is a lot less fighting involved. They made this demo combat heavy just to have some content to slap together.
I’m going to wait for some reviews to trickle out to see how the final game turns out.
I actually found it was easy playing a magic user.
This is the character I made
Sylvant Male
Tag skills - Ice Magic, Evasion, Fortitude Magic
Racial Trait - Frost Ancestry
Traits - Asectic, Studious Tinkerer
ST -2
PE -7(6)
EN -4
CH -7
IN -7
AG -6
LK -8
On my first level up, I put most of my points into ice magic with a few going to evasion, perception and barter. Most monsters from thereafter were killed in 2-4 hits. The only ones that didn’t die from that many hits were ogres, huge skeleton and one other monster I don’t know the name of. It seems in the demo that it is easier to play someone who is great at one skill but crap at most of the others. I’m sure that would be different in the full version since it will be less combat oriented from what I’ve read on the forums anyways.
Maybe I just didn’t go combat magic enough when I tried. But the theory you pose appears to true. Combat heavy in area is a needed to live. I do hope that is not true in the final… What’s the fun of having to specialize when all of those other options exist.
It’s very easy to make a mage who will have a hell of a time getting anywhere in this game. It is possible to make a decent combat mage though.
I had the easiest time with my tank – 10 strength, 10 agility, combat traits, one-handed, evasion, and protection magic. I got as far as my mage did in 3 hours in almost 10 minutes, no joke.
Having a 1 charism has almost NO disadvantages (at least in the demo). You can even still convince the guard to let you out of the cell in the beginning!
Ultimately, I found melee combat more intellectually engaging than spells. With spells it was just click click click, no variety at ALL. With melee combat, you could do targetting, switch styles of weapons as appropriate, and you keep finding cool weapons to try out.
It was mentioned on the official forums that the demo was unusually combat-heavy, but it was also stated that some dungeons in the full version would be just as dense.
Yet another reason to wait for the reviews on this one. :)
For me, the bottom line is that the demo is not the gigantic shipwreck that a lot of people make it out to be. THe combat is bad, and what’s frustrating is that a few tweaks could really improve the experience.
But what little you get of the other aspects of gameplay seem very promising.
The interface is weak, especially the mouse icon… I didn’t mind the colors too much.
This is one I’m going to have to wait for reviews and opinions based on the full game before I think of plunking down any money. I tend to like RPGs where I can pause in combat; KOTOR does a great job, as does virtually every modern PC RPG on the planet that’s worth a damn. So if Lionheart doesn’t let you fight in a pseudo-turnbased fashion, I’ll probably not be interested.
I agree. I’m surprised that they’d even release an RPG without pauseable combat. It’s one thing in an action-oriented game like Diablo, but the Fallout line of games have always been less oriented towards frantic clicking. It’s too bad, because I was looking forward to this game.
I agree. I’m surprised that they’d even release an RPG without pauseable combat. It’s one thing in an action-oriented game like Diablo, but the Fallout line of games have always been less oriented towards frantic clicking. It’s too bad, because I was looking forward to this game.[/quote]
Ditto. If they don’t patch in pausable combat, it’s a no sale for me. Plenty of other fish in the sea.
I agree. I’m surprised that they’d even release an RPG without pauseable combat. It’s one thing in an action-oriented game like Diablo, but the Fallout line of games have always been less oriented towards frantic clicking. It’s too bad, because I was looking forward to this game.[/quote]
Ditto. If they don’t patch in pausable combat, it’s a no sale for me. Plenty of other fish in the sea.[/quote]
Pasuable = Turn Based = Non Diablo = Non Sales… or thats what the suits say? Damn them all.
I think mtkafka is right, unfortunately. And it doesn’t make any sense! Having pausable combat is NOT the same as pure TB because you CAN play it in realtime if you want. I just don’t understand why they wouldn’t give you the option. I thought at one point they were going to have pausable combat. Did that get thrown out or was I misinformed?
I agree. I’m surprised that they’d even release an RPG without pauseable combat. It’s one thing in an action-oriented game like Diablo, but the Fallout line of games have always been less oriented towards frantic clicking. It’s too bad, because I was looking forward to this game.[/quote]
I cant believe you cant target stuff while paused either…it doesnt make sense given the mechanics they are supposedly using to determine hits and misses. Why use the SPECIAL system if your game is reduced to whack-a-mole?
Tried the demo, but haven’t completed it yet. Very, very combat heavy, and the non-pausable combat is a giant pain in the ass. Unfortunately I think I’m going to give it a miss because of the combat, unless I hear that things are drastically different in the final version. :? The monsters move around like they’re hopped up on speed, and it’s hard to keep a bead on what’s actually going on.
The graphics are really quite attractive for a 2D game, though…better than the Infinity Engine games IMO.
Is my demo broken? I can’t seem to add to skills. I have 27 skill points after leaving the first prison area and I open the skills panel andclick on them and nothing happens. If I click on a spell it goes into my ready spell area. However, I can’t seem to cast spells either. I have a damage spell, but when I right click on people nothing happens. NOTHING. Does that mean it failed? Shouldn’t I get a notice at least?
had trouble with that too. There’s a little plus sign in the corner of the pictures for each skill. Put the mouse over that and a border will appear around it to let you know it’s a button. click to add points, but be sure cause you can’t take them back if you screw up.
OK, I gave the game a second chance today, and I have to say it isn’t as bad as I first thought. I’d like to thank Brad for helping me out a bit with the skill thing. I saw those plusses, but I didn’t know they were buttons. I could have sworn I clicked on them, as I clicked everywhere to try to raise my skills, but apparently, it has to highlight first. There should be an option to undo those things too. My spell problem was just not reading it. It was the tribal spell that allows me to drain life from corpses. I saw drain life, and I guess I assumed it was used on LIVING beings…silly me.
Here are my more recent thoughts: 1. the combat isn’t really that fast. It has a Diablo feel to it, which I think detracts from the tactics that the SPECIAL system has the potential of allowing. But the combat is certainly managable.
There needs to be a hotkey for switching targets because when they clump up it’s hard to select the enemy you want to fight…the cursor is too big when you go over a bad guy, which makes this even harder.
There aren’t enough skills. The SPECIAL system allows for deep character development, but the skills are just too limited. There should be specializations within skills, such as mace, sword, etc. within one handed and two handed styles. You should have to buy spells, instead of just choosing from what is basically 12 spell groups. The 12 groups makes it sound like there are a lot of spells, but in practice, they all feel pretty similar. The thief and warrior options are just paltry. There is no flavor to either.
The demo is combat heavy, but even if it weren’t I don’t see a lot to do besides killing things in this game. In Fallout (which I use because of the SPECIAL system) there were puzzles and there were other skills that were useful besides just killing, selling things, and picking locks. Why not have building skills, repair skills, inventions (fits the time period), etc.? The game seems to lack depth.
The graphics are subpar. I can’t see anything, and I can’t distinguish trees from paths in many areas. I can’t tell where I can and can’t go without moving a cursor over everything. The graphics seem worse the IWD 2 to me…blurrier. I can’t tell what a monster looks like. The only way I know what I am fighting is from the combat messages that tell me what I just hit.
The music and acting seem decent.
I like the idea for the setting and main character, but at least in the demo you can’t tell any of it. It looks like any other fantasy setting. Isn’t this supposed to be Europe in the late Middle Ages or early Renaissance? It should have a different feel from the Baldur’s Gate games, but it doesn’t…at least not in the demo.
The interface is not very good. It’s hard to remember the hotkeys and the buttons are unintuitive. It also takes up large parts of the screen for no obvious reason.
Targetting is a neat idea, but I didn’t see any benefits from using it. Did you? Are there penalties and bonuses for locations? Why hit someone in the legs when you seem to need to either kill or just talk to everything? Maybe the demo isn’t indicative of how usefull targeting will be in the final game.
In the final analysis, I may play this game someday. But I don’t think I am willing to pay $50 for it. I’m still planning to take back my bonus disk and transfer my preorder to something else (Gladius perhaps…I liked its demo a lot more). I am disappointed with how this game turned out as it had a lot of potential. The combat system just seems utterly generic, and since it seems to be a combat heavy game, that makes it uninteresting.
