Evil Islands: Curse of the Lost Soul

[Cynicus]

Oh wow. I've not thought about this one in a long time. I liked it, but unfortunately the one thing that I will forever remember about it is the incredibly inane voice acting of the main char. Anyone who played the game in a different language probably doesn't know what I'm talking about, but anyone who played in English surely does. Fruity doesn't even begin to describe it. Other than that, though, I recall liking the game quite a bit.

 

[Zombra]

Yeah. I really liked this game, was disappointed in myself for never finishing it. But it got to a point where there was some djinni or something to fight that I absolutely could not beat, and I had too much pride to turn down the difficulty. I see it's on gog now ... maybe I'll put this on my list to go back and finish after all. Brofist to Fenix for reminding me about this one.

 

[Fenix]

Yeah. I really liked this game, was disappointed in myself for never finishing it. But it got to a point where there was some djinni or something to fight that I absolutely could not beat, and I had too much pride to turn down the difficulty. I see it's on gog now ... maybe I'll put this on my list to go back and finish after all. Brofist to Fenix for reminding me about this one.

Of course it is doubtfully to say so, but if there will be options - play with English subtitles and Russian voices - it is one of the best Russian games in this respect, perfect actors did amazing work, easily AAA.
I'll do complete playthrough when my PC will be fixed.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

Yeah. I really liked this game, was disappointed in myself for never finishing it. But it got to a point where there was some djinni or something to fight that I absolutely could not beat, and I had too much pride to turn down the difficulty.

I don't remember a djinn but there are many fights where you're supposed to sneak around or use a quest item in some way, might have been one of them. On hard difficulty enemies get much higher armor and are resilient to more weapon types too, plus everyone regenerates very fast regardless of difficulty, usually if you can't beat something with the initial backstab and a couple of attacks it means you can't beat it with the current setup. Try to beat the game on "easy" the first time around, easy is still very hard in EI unless you really know what you're doing and where to get the right items and crafting materials.

 

[Fenix]

usually if you can't beat something with the initial backstab and a couple of attacks it means you can't beat it with the current setup.

Well - yes and no at same time.
Usually you can't, but actually you can. You strike and wait when you hit and deal damage. Then save game before enemy start animation of hit. And reload untill you hir with second hit.
All hits are in the head if creature have it.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

Yeah, if you aim for the head and score a crit or two it will work (unless you just can't kill that enemy at all) but it requires excessive save scumming.

 

[Fenix]

That's how you can kill Ogres on first level if you follow the plan Genocide.

 

[Daemongar]

I played until about halfway through, but got sick of the constant reloading. Fun, but agree with the poor voice acting and the "If you get caught sneaking, reload." Yes, interesting concept, but not nearly enough depth. Just too much repetition.

 

[Fenix]

Just too much repetition.

Not too much for my taste, it is constantly compensated with plot development.

 

[Daemongar]

Just too much repetition.

Not too much for my taste, it is constantly compensated with plot development.

Well... I have to say, I gave this game a fair shake. But if you had a game that had as a mechanic that if you are spotted by an enemy that is more powerful than you, you would die, I'd ask that the game:
* Allow for some evasion or loosing of the enemy, or at the minimum some even minuscule escape mechanism
* The game would reward a player for stealthing into foreign areas. Went into spider caves and found what you were looking for? Awesome. Explored the other 95% of the tunnels and didn't find shit? Sucks to be you.

The repetition was no other mechanic than experience to push the character forward. The crafting system was ok, but could have used a few more hours of work.

Again, not saying it is the worst game ever. Hell, I only paid $2 for it, so it was definitely worth the money. However, I think with a few more months it could have been a lot better.

 

[Fenix]

I think this is kind of games where you should apply patience and caution in some amounts, not huge I think. This is how this game meant to be played, and nothing can change this.

* The game would reward a player for stealthing into foreign areas.

There is some reward for this, also given the plot or quest-driven mechnics of game it is more looks like a secrets.
I remember now only about 2 cases of such reward, where first is when you came to a village on Gipath you should take any quests and go for next area immeadiately, there you can stole weapon you can't obtain otherwise.

 

[Daemongar]

There is some reward for this, also given the plot or quest-driven mechnics of game it is more looks like a secrets. I remember now only about 2 cases of such reward, where first is when you came to a village on Gipath you should take any quests and go for next area immeadiately, there you can stole weapon you can't obtain otherwise.

I know what you mean. If there was more of that risk and reward for experimenting, I would have probably finished. The problem was that it was too direct. I'd kill whatever I could for bonus experience points, but I want more to do.

That killed it also: the only place to spend xps was about 5 hours into the game. Then whenever you get xps or find something, you can't even equip until you are back at the city. Just odd choices. I find a dagger or boots, well, you have to go back to the city. It feels like they certainly had an idea in mind when they started developing the game, I just don't think they completed enough to hold my attention. For me, just a couple of small changes would have made the game a lot better.

 

[octavius]

Is Elemental Magic useless?
I made a Fireball spell (with double radius), and tested it on wolves and boars, and it does 0 damage.

 

[T. Reich]

You're doing it terribly wrong.

The name of the game is single target damage.
The best two skill types in terms of damage are the "bolt" (because most of the time you'll be tackling enemies 1-by-1) and "wall" (because it deals the most damage per cast).
You stack as many damage increase runes as you can afford to (skill-wise).

After all, if you can't pierce an enemy's armour - why bother?

Everything is at best secondary. You don't need range or radius on your damaging spells.
Extra targets are useless 90% of the time.
Extra duration is ok on "wall" type damaging spells, but only after you've managed to cram enough damage+ runes.

Anyways, starting playthrough as a pure mage is a self-imposed challenge.
You wouln't really be able to afford decent magic until approx midway to 2nd allod.

 

[octavius]

Well, I'm not really playing a Mage, more of a stealthy fighter.
The Fireball was just an experiment just to test it, and how a "double radius" looked. Very unimpressed; small AEO, apparantly the "Effect" of 7 was not even enough to get through the fur wolves and boars that were not fast enough to move of of the AEO.

So I went with Strength as my main utility spell instead, using a Longer Duration rune, which has worked out pretty well. The wand I got from the goblin prisoner is also very nice, casting Weakness on up to three targets, but duration is rather low.

Finally got a better weapon - the Heavy Silicone Hammer from the Brigand second in command. He also had a nice suit of armour, or at least I had one when I re-equipped afterwards.

Most difficult fight so far was against the Orc Seer with all the bodyguards.

 

[T. Reich]

Well, I'm not really playing a Mage, more of a stealthy fighter.
The Fireball was just an experiment just to test it, and how a "double radius" looked. Very unimpressed; small AEO, apparantly the "Effect" of 7 was not even enough to get through the fur wolves and boars that were not fast enough to move of of the AEO.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

What did you expect then?
That's equivalent to investing purely in magic skills and then trying to kill a black boar with the starting weapon and 0 melee skill.
That would go about as well.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

Well, I'm not really playing a Mage, more of a stealthy fighter.

That's the right approach. Although you lose absolutely nothing by also having a bow with you. Magic is more of a support thing and something you put into items, maybe an offensive mage is possible, but I've never tried it, seems very hard to pull off with the limited number of strong runes you get and number of enemies with resistances.

He also had a nice suit of armour, or at least I had one when I re-equipped afterwards.

I don't remember if that's one of these cases, but you'll find armor and weapons that use a blueprint superior to anything you have, but a mediocre material. Often you can dismantle them and make superior versions once you get better materials (on the first island that's obsidian for the hammer, "white" material for armor, you can also get very strong bone material early if you kill a couple of armadillos in the caves, and dragon bones later).

 

[octavius]

Damn, those skeletons sure are ultra alert.
Seems rather silly that you can sneak up on wolves and tigers, while skeletons spot you while lying prone several meters away. And the biggest ones are too tough for me to beat even one on one for the time being.

So I guess I'll go to Sand and hunt som orc. One of the seers there may even have a useful Rune. I still haven't found an Item Rune.

 

[T. Reich]

The undead units (and a couple of other beings) don't rely on sight and hearing for detection - they have the auto-detection radius.
This is spelled out verbatim in conversations IIRC.

 

[Leonard]

There's a spell that you get early that let's you see enemies' field of view. While it's not very useful overall, with it you can see that while most enemies FoV is cone in front of them, for Skeletons it's a perfect circle.

 

[octavius]

Yes, I had forgotten about that spell. Seemed like a waste of money, but evidently it can be useful sometimes.

I found another entrance into the Dead City area, from the north, which was much easier.
Only one of those Veteran Skeleton Warriors in the canyon where the crystal is, and now I managed to defeat it.
So now I'm ready to explore the Observatory.

 

[octavius]

The undead units (and a couple of other beings) don't rely on sight and hearing for detection - they have the auto-detection radius.
This is spelled out verbatim in conversations IIRC.

Ah yes, I now see that it's spelled out in the Golden Valley quest.

 

[Fenix]

Remember that it's possible to create the spell, that could kill weakened queen of bugs in dungeon.
I forgot the details, probably you can get experience for that only if you act along Project Genocide.

 

[fantadomat]

That is some pretty old game,this thread brings back memories.

 

[octavius]

Heh, for me it's a pretty new game, especially since I've hardly ever heard about it before, let alone seen reviews or physical copies of it.
Probably my best "find" on my chronlogical play list since Outlaws, which was a really fresh breath in the FPS genre.