Posted March 16, 2014
high rated
Since I keep bumping up against the character limit in the reviews, I decided to post my review here. I intended to link back to this from the gamecard review page, only to discover that GOG doesn't allow URLs in a review, even back to themselves.
Seriously, GOG, we deserve a better system for posting reviews.
Anyway, here it is.
=========================
This RPG is rewarding in a way that few RPGs are. Specifically, it makes you grateful for each and every piece of loot you pick up. Gone are the days of selling a pile of Excalibur-level swords because you've found an even-more-legendary one along the way. Here, when you find a dagger or a piece of leather armor, you are genuinely excited, because it means your party has that slightly better chance of survival.
And survival is tough here. Almost every fight has the chance of wiping out a party member, or even the entire party. You will probably develop some clever ways of coping with this (no spoilers here), or you will get very frustrated and quit.
Frustration, yes, there will be quite a bit of that. For one thing, the movement system takes some getting used to. I find when holding down the move key that my party will often overshoot the mark, slamming into a wall or down a pit. So you'll want to move deliberately. But at the same time there will be timing puzzles where you will need to move perfectly.
Likewise in combat, where sometimes you will need to be able to dodge around enemies before securing an advantageous position. And since there is very little peripheral vision in the view field, you will have to rely on spatial memory to get these moves right.
Coming back to the realistic aspect, this is what really sells the game for me. Every battle is a real battle, no matter how far along you get. This is a real improvement over games where once you hit a certain level you can wipe out squads of liches without breaking a sweat. Here a giant spider remains a troublesome foe from game start to finish. And in spite of having to sometimes make hard choices on what to carry, I actually like that your characters weren't able to carry three full suits of armor and enough weapons for a garrison at once.
On the plus side I enjoyed the preciousness of the loot, and was able to relax when I discovered food wouldn't be quite the problem I feared it might. The character level-ups and skills are well done, and the different races play out effectively. The game was addictive enough that I played all the way to the end, in spite of several tempting places to quit.
On the minus side, the combat is brutal, and some of the puzzles may seem unintuitive (but none ultimately seemed truly unfair). And the game is somewhat short, especially if you were hoping to really develop your characters up. The final battle and ending, well, you'll have to decide how that makes you feel, but I was hoping for something more.
I'm giving this three stars because that's what I give a good game. It's a refreshing RPG that breaks away from the current loot-mad template, but also a short and at-times difficult one. Prepare for some lateral thinking to get through this dungeon.
Seriously, GOG, we deserve a better system for posting reviews.
Anyway, here it is.
=========================
This RPG is rewarding in a way that few RPGs are. Specifically, it makes you grateful for each and every piece of loot you pick up. Gone are the days of selling a pile of Excalibur-level swords because you've found an even-more-legendary one along the way. Here, when you find a dagger or a piece of leather armor, you are genuinely excited, because it means your party has that slightly better chance of survival.
And survival is tough here. Almost every fight has the chance of wiping out a party member, or even the entire party. You will probably develop some clever ways of coping with this (no spoilers here), or you will get very frustrated and quit.
Frustration, yes, there will be quite a bit of that. For one thing, the movement system takes some getting used to. I find when holding down the move key that my party will often overshoot the mark, slamming into a wall or down a pit. So you'll want to move deliberately. But at the same time there will be timing puzzles where you will need to move perfectly.
Likewise in combat, where sometimes you will need to be able to dodge around enemies before securing an advantageous position. And since there is very little peripheral vision in the view field, you will have to rely on spatial memory to get these moves right.
Coming back to the realistic aspect, this is what really sells the game for me. Every battle is a real battle, no matter how far along you get. This is a real improvement over games where once you hit a certain level you can wipe out squads of liches without breaking a sweat. Here a giant spider remains a troublesome foe from game start to finish. And in spite of having to sometimes make hard choices on what to carry, I actually like that your characters weren't able to carry three full suits of armor and enough weapons for a garrison at once.
On the plus side I enjoyed the preciousness of the loot, and was able to relax when I discovered food wouldn't be quite the problem I feared it might. The character level-ups and skills are well done, and the different races play out effectively. The game was addictive enough that I played all the way to the end, in spite of several tempting places to quit.
On the minus side, the combat is brutal, and some of the puzzles may seem unintuitive (but none ultimately seemed truly unfair). And the game is somewhat short, especially if you were hoping to really develop your characters up. The final battle and ending, well, you'll have to decide how that makes you feel, but I was hoping for something more.
I'm giving this three stars because that's what I give a good game. It's a refreshing RPG that breaks away from the current loot-mad template, but also a short and at-times difficult one. Prepare for some lateral thinking to get through this dungeon.
Post edited March 16, 2014 by IAmSinistar
