I play primarily MP and also SP these days. I did the same with Thea 1.
Thea 1 is a lot more straight forward. The story is interesting because the world they created is interesting. The journey changes a bit based on characters in the group and the god, but by and large the overarching theme remains. This isn’t a bad thing. I “beat” it multiple times and never got bored. It’s like Civ to me, you play it over and over again, enjoying the journey, and that journey can mostly stay fresh due to events and changes. Thea 1 combat is also straight forward which is something some people liked and some hated. It’s basically stacking cards in a way that lets you win and hopefully keeps everyone alive. Thea 1 also works very well for MP; there are just some limitations here, like 2 players, because the game wasn’t designed for it. I have seen many games designed for MP that didn’t get it this right though. It’s a coop experience not some stupid tacked on vs. mode.
Thea 2
Thea 2 is not as straight forward. You feel that immediately with the combat. It’s a large learning curve, probably more so for Thea 1 people going into it that someone fresh of the street. My first response to the combat was way back when they released the demo and I said to my sister, I don’t know what the hell I am doing but somehow I won. Now… I gave my group tips, and in joined battles we learned how each other uses various characters… we often beat the auto resolve results as a result. It’s all about skills, what they can do and also doing it in the right order which often means being ahead of your enemies in turn order… but not for skills like poison. Autoresolve is still used a lot because it saves time and what better way to solve the level 1 rat problem for high-level group than a one click get through it… still want them though because even low level stuff is worth while… for like forever.
The story in Thea 2 is slower, and it seems that way by designed. I haven’t finished any game yet because MP is heck slow and we had a hard reset longer, but my understanding is it’s tied up in these islands, and it takes a while to get to these islands and so on. The story builds on Thea 1, makes more sense if you know Thea 1 but t the same time you can get a summary of Thea 1’s story and do just fine.
Thea 2 events have more chance in it. I am not sure Thea 1 had much of a chance like this at all. I am talking about kids growing up, how events end, just getting a chance at some things. There seems to be improvements in chance for Thea 2 so you are more likely to get a good or the best result but still chance. Thea 1… I played the game so much that I was like I will talk to him, and then do this and then get this outcome and sometimes I would encounter something new entirely because now i have a dwarf or such and such and that was still cool generally I always got that elf at the end if I did it “right”. We’ve tested some events with restarts as have other players… some events are just a 1 in 30 chance in the best scenario. This not a bad thing though. It does make for a different experience, but it’s just umm, it’s different when you can’t rely on this particular encounter producing a great result, so your efforts change.
I think the chance element, even in the best circumstances, might turn some Thea 1 players off because that is not what happened in the first game. They managed to make challenges/encounters exciting while still maintaining some predictability. The predictability isn’t as set in 2.
Long story long, I think both games are great. Thea 1 probably seems like an natural start but only because it’s very different from what it started to be, a no save rogue like game without the hardest part of the game, the Giants DLC.
There are a couple of reasons I would suggest someone skip Thea 1:
Some people really, really hated Thea’s card stacking combat, and it’s different in 2 but also complicated.
Thea 2 just has so much…more. Is it overwhelming, maybe.
They both have demos though. Since I beta’d Thea 2, the only demo I ever played was basically a Kickstarter thing for the combat. I will freely admit, again, I was completely lost over what was going on the first few times. Then it… clicked.
