Trash loot exists for the same reason slot machines don’t hand out jackpots all the time or lose all the time. You get a lot more play if you vary the payouts and include “partial wins” or “near-miss payouts” in a game.
I consider a lot of the fun to be collecting a bunch of neat looking items whether I can use them or not; I like collecting rad-looking and awesomely strong things that my character could use or I could make a killing off of when I sell it.
What hack-and-slash games need is a more intuitive way to go about collecting these things (and, probably, a way to turn the selling of items into an entertaining expedition unto itself). Set a filter for the kinds of times that holding Z can automatically rake into an inventory that can intelligently manage itself into things you can sell nicely, things you can wear, and things that you absolutely want to look at right fucking now because it may be the greatest thing ever.
Amen, brutha.
Skills to me are far more enticing than loot because they actually differentiate how the game plays. In most of these games, loot will adjust a couple of numbers upwards. A new skill might let me hurl a frozen orb that launches sprays of ice needles off it in circles as it flies by, or explode a corpse. Yes, once you get the skill, putting more points into it generally offers mostly numerical improvement, but it’s at least more dramatically noticeable.
Kult, actually, strikes me as a game that has the best of both worlds - the gear both grants you skills and defines which of your previously earned skills will function. There’s no slightly beefing up skills you already have, only customizing your loadout for maximum carnage.
Having an inventory full of stuff (As in World of Warcraft) is nowhere near as annoying as having an inventory that gets full really fast because you decided to pick up 3 spears and a suit of armor that take up all the room.
Other than not knowing what Kult is, I agree with malkav. Skills add more than loot. But that doesn’t mean loot can’t be an interesting part of these kinds of RPGs. TQ, for example, actually added skills through loot (in the expansion, anyway). So it sounds like Kult (heretics?) has the right idea in that regard. I think it could still be integrated loot though, somehow. Maybe after you pick up so many of a certain item, you can trade it in for loot (like those tickets you get playing games at Chucky Cheeze or something).
Record of Lodoss War did this well, actually, except for yelling “A mighty sword!” over and over.
I just tried the demo of Shadowgrounds for comparison, and it’s actually in many ways Space Siege done right. The lack of RPG trappings is made up with much better action game mechanics and the mood the with flashlight and shadow effects is top notch.
And unlike Space Siege, the Shadowgrounds demo actually had a decent amount of game play, so I heartily recommend anyone disappointed in the Space Siege demo to check out the one for Shadowgrounds.
Aye. I believe that’s why Blizzard is taking the one-item-takes-up-one-slot design for Diablo 3. The inventory juggle is an archaic element that has persisted for far too long in hack-and-slash RPGs but I don’t think getting rid of inventories entirely is the way to handle it.
And it’s only $9.99 US on Steam.
That was my point: Space Siege is never justifying a $49.99 US price point with things like Shadowgrounds around.
I just found the Shadowgrounds Pack which includes the original Shadowgrounds and the sequel is 2 tokens on Totalgaming.net. Instant purchase for me at that price.
Shadowgrounds (and S:Survivor) is also on Gametap, just to add to the sources. Alien Shooter: Vengeance (also on Gametap) is similar.
Now those are the reasons I won’t be buying the game.
There may be plenty of things to legitimately criticize the game over, but in its defense, the cybernetics are upgrades over your non-cyber body parts so I’m not sure why people would criticize the lack upgrades of upgrades. There are a few plot-related changes from “human vs. machine,” like a different ending, and certain abilities and weapons require certain cybernetic parts.
I suspect “non-existent plot” has become shorthand for either, “I didn’t like the plot” or “it isn’t constantly shoved into my face throughout the game.” It was a conscious decision to remove as much extraneous plotting and dialogue as possible from the game to keep it from being a blah blah blah fest. Still, there are some twists and turns (and a couple of branches) to the story, a half-dozen characters, historical info about what’s going on, interpersonal conflicts and relationships that change over the course of the game, actual character arcs, PDAs with some humor and random gibberish, etc.
So the plot very much exists. Whether people dig it is another issue entirely.
Any word if this will be hitting any of the digital distribution sights? Steam, Impluse, direct 2 drive?
I have no idea. That’s Sega’s call.
Thanks for answering. I really wish this info was easier to come buy. The game comes out this week and we have no idea if or where it’s going to be available.
Kult was released as “Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition” in America, I think. (I played the European release.) Between the stupid name, the boring box, and the obscurity, I suspect most people that saw it for the brief period it was available in regular stores assumed it was shovelware and ignored it. It’s actually one of the best Diablo-esque games I’ve ever played.
It also managed to install ~2 gigs off one CD, which has to be some sort of record.
Well, it will be available at all the normal retail outlets, we do know that. I’m just not in the loop about Sega’s digital distribution plans, assuming they exist at all.
Who actually did the review for this?
I’m most of the way through now, and I’d say this is fair. There is a story. Maybe not Brothers Karamazov level, but there is one. So saying it’s non-existent is in fact unfair.
Just curious, cuz I don’t have my copy yet: Does PC Gamer say anything about the multiplayer?