Incline When I was 9.... DISCUSS!!!11

[Reapa]

Guess it's time to compare this RPG with some good ones.

Why Decline? Because it's nice but it sucks. It sucks even worse than Skyrim.

First of all, the loot is fucking level scaled. Even if you somehow get higher level loot than you would expect from the region you are currently in, armor has stat requirements which are unachievable until you have enough levels behind you and weapons' use is even directly connected to character level, since you need more action points per hit per level difference between character level and item level.

Second to that, the loot is randomized entirely which is lame and lazy. Furthermore the difference between magical equipment, rare equipment, legendary equipment and unique equipment is often only some random stats and resistances. It's even as bad as diablo 3 was in the beginning when you would get stats for different character builds on the same piece of equipment. For example a legendary amulet will not give you +2, +3, +4 or god forbid even more of the same stat but instead it will give you +1 of different stats like strength and fucking intelligence and then some dexterity to boot.

But enough about loot. Lets talk crafting. It sucks. On one hand it's partly very intuitive like hair + hair = thread, thread + needle = thread and needle. On the other, wtf am I supposed to do with void essence? You get no properties of ingredients like say alchemy in morrowind. You don't even get told if an ingredient is used for crafting or blacksmith. And since loot is random, good luck finding recipes.

The world is incredibly small. It only feels big cause of the slow game pace an it's fucking linear because of level scaled gear and monster level zones. Why??? Why would they make it linear? What is the point of a fucking open world if it's divided in monster level zones??? Yes a boss should be able to kill you if you just started the game but why would they screw with the game's replayability by making each new game follow the same fucking course???? I'll tell you why, because the world is so small, that if you could get a little overpowered you could play the game in a couple of hours and would notice just how small it is. It's the same old shitty nice graphics and small world tradeoff.

That being covered, let's talk quests and quality of quests... I skipped through most of the texts. Why? Because i could. In a linear world you don't need to know what you have to do to advance. So i need to explore the south, the west, the east and the north? Good idea, captain of the guard, if you hadn't told me, what would i have done?...

The game also gives you character housing somewhere at the end of time and it's fucking pointless cause you never go there unless you get told a new portal to some shit has opened and you got some beds to sleep in, even if you don't need to sleep the entire game.

Game mechanics:

Positive:
area effects and status effects
(EDIT) turn based combat
(EDIT) clicking on a bunch of paintings and robbing people. added by @Onholyservicebound (though it is pretty easy)

Negative:
You spend your valuable skill points on lock pick and get told: this door can't be lockpicked and this door can't be damaged and this is not a door so it can't be lockpicked or damaged, but you also can't get through so fuck you for playing this shit.
You spend your valuable skill points on loremaster and get covered in gear that boosts loremaster but no equip that boosts important skills like magic schools or man at arms or scoundrel...
You spend your valuable skill points on sneaking and get covered in gear that boosts sneaking and you don't even need a single point in sneaking to sneak.
You spend your valuable skill points on crafting and blacksmith and the stuff you get is rings of +1 speed. Everything else you get is useless.
Slow spell animations slow the game down.
(EDIT) Detecting traps needs high perception and it's done automatically, there is no skill for it you can increase and you have to consider not getting more speed at level up for action points or investing in the main stat of your class just to be able to spot traps which sucks big time since detecting traps could and should be done by skills.
(EDIT) Character is turned to stone. Duration: 2 Rounds. I'm just gonna pretend that no one ever said anything about old school and RPG in combination with this game because this is just too much...

(EDIT) IMPORTANT SPOILER: DO NOT THROW AWAY OR DESTROY INERT STONES! since you will need them in the endgame even though they look useless. (realized that at about lvl 14 and had to start over after like 2 days of constant playing)

(EDIT) Atmosphere and Aspect: Colors are much too intense, too cheering - it feels like it doesn't take itself seriously. like: "You want another middle ages fantasy role playing game with generic monsters, generic main quest and characters you don't care about at all? Piece of cake, there you go, eat that! And to show you just how much we don't care about it we'll throw in some random fucking loot in a world small enough to script everything in hours."

I'd like to know just how much money went into graphics and parties and bitches.

 

[Darth Roxor]

pity post

 

[DakaSha]

inb4 crispy

 

[Excidium]

Will not read because spoilers

 

[Angthoron]

Reviewing the review.

Guess it's time to compare this with good reviews.

Why decline? Well it has letters in it but boy oh boy let's get in depth ah fuck it

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

a disgrace to the german people

 

[Reapa]

much buthurt, no counterarguments... yeah, it's the codex.

 

[covr]

"People You Ignore:
Reapa
Learned
Messages:
197
Brofists Received:
75
Kodex Kool Kredits:
44"

Not because he is stupid - there are many dumb people on teh Codex. Ignored him because of his untasteful trolling attempt.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

I like the game, a lot, but whether he's trolling by purposefully ignoring the good parts of the game or not, he makes some good points.
He's right about the scaling, and he's definitely right about the stat and level requirements on equipment. It's stupid, especially the stat requirements, stats are horribly imbalanced from what I can tell. I haven't beat the game yet so I won't say anything further.
He's also right about the content, I was thinking the same thing today.. Thinking about the encounters, the quests, etc. There is less content that it feels like there is, the slow pace makes it feel like you've done a lot more than you have. (Encounters are great though )
Still, the interactiveness of the world makes up for it for me, but I guess not everyone is into clicking on a bunch of paintings and robbing people.

Disagree about linearity, unless it turns out the enemies are scaled in a way that low levels can't beat them, I think an open world with strong enemies is fine. I've beat enemies lvl 5-6 with lvl 3 party before, it was challenging and fun, so I disagree on progression.
Agree on the skill points, but not on the usefulness of the buffs, buffing magic schools and the like is dumb and not necessary.
How would that even work? You take off the boots and lose 2 spells? Which ones? and is it permanent? Is skill book wasted?

 

[Black_Willow]

You're not Black.

 

[Reapa]

I like the game, a lot, but whether he's trolling by purposefully ignoring the good parts of the game or not, he makes some good points.
He's right about the scaling, and he's definitely right about the stat and level requirements on equipment. It's stupid, especially the stat requirements, stats are horribly imbalanced from what I can tell. I haven't beat the game yet so I won't say anything further.
He's also right about the content, I was thinking the same thing today.. Thinking about the encounters, the quests, etc. There is less content that it feels like there is, the slow pace makes it feel like you've done a lot more than you have. (Encounters are great though )
Still, the interactiveness of the world makes up for it for me, but I guess not everyone is into clicking on a bunch of paintings and robbing people.

Disagree about linearity, unless it turns out the enemies are scaled in a way that low levels can't beat them, I think an open world with strong enemies is fine. I've beat enemies lvl 5-6 with lvl 3 party before, it was challenging and fun, so I disagree on progression.
Agree on the skill points, but not on the usefulness of the buffs, buffing magic schools and the like is dumb and not necessary.
How would that even work? You take off the boots and lose 2 spells? Which ones? and is it permanent? Is skill book wasted?

Yeah, it wouldn't work with buffs for magic schools, but if those are so much more important(and they are), why is it that crafting costs the same amount of skill points to raise?
And I'm not trolling. There's really little incline in the game. If i forgot any please add. Also killing lvl 3 mobs at level 1 chars is not impressive and it does not counter my claim that the game is rigged. Even killing a lvl 14 monster wouldn't make the game less linear cause you just can't keep it up since the loot you would get for killing itwould be worthless and the next encounter would have 2 lvl 14 monsters and you would be screwed, onehited, and so on. Yeah, i'm talking about a lvl 14 area where you actually get to kill a one monster group and you can knockdown it till it's dead with whatever lvl you have but that's a total exception. Also i get the feeling that higher lvl monsters are harder to hit like in wow so it's totally not a mater of strategy.
The really sad part is, that you can't kill lvl 14 groups at lvl 10. You just don't do enough damage and you get like onehitted. So you actually have to follow the yellow brick road throughout the game.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

Game's imbalanced, not much else to say about it, I didn't bother with the crafting much to be affected, by I could imagine it would feel like a waste.
Not supposed to be impressive, but hey, I need more time with the game. (I'm playing co-op so progress has been slow.) The actual point was where I've been you aren't really locked off from anywhere.

I had that same suspicion, but most people seem to think it isn't, if CtH is really scaled than this game is gonna be a lot lower on my list of incline too.

 

[Reapa]

Game's imbalanced, not much else to say about it, I didn't bother with the crafting much to be affected, by I could imagine it would feel like a waste.
Not supposed to be impressive, but hey, I need more time with the game. (I'm playing co-op so progress has been slow.) The actual point was where I've been you aren't really locked off from anywhere.

I had that same suspicion, but most people seem to think it isn't, if CtH is really scaled than this game is gonna be a lot lower on my list of incline too.

I wouldn't call it imbalanced, rather overbalanced. Like every encounter has to be just doable. Used to save after each one just so i wouldn't have to reload after getting killed by the next and risk losing against the first after i had already won once. Also because of the slow pace. The encounters can be strategic the first few times but once you get the hang of it you basically do the same things again and again. Like starting with a summon spider or elemental as tank and then stunning every monster you can and then trying to finish them off.

 

[Arkeus]

I like the game, a lot, but whether he's trolling by purposefully ignoring the good parts of the game or not, he makes some good points.

No, he is flat out lying about everything.

He's right about the scaling, and he's definitely right about the stat and level requirements on equipment.

But he isn't- stat requirment on equipment is not hard to get with a character 4/5 levels under the equipment. Sure, a dex-based guy can't wear a high-level robe, but that's true in pretty much every rpg.

It's stupid, especially the stat requirements, stats are horribly imbalanced from what I can tell.[/QUTE]
They...Aren't? Unless you are playing an hybrid, and in which case, /yes/, you are playing a character with more versatility so of course it won't have the same ability of high-end stuff. That's called balance.

He's also right about the content, I was thinking the same thing today.. Thinking about the encounters, the quests, etc. There is less content that it feels like there is, the slow pace makes it feel like you've done a lot more than you have.

There is a shit-ton of content, lots and lots of quests that are easy to miss, and lots and lots of quests that have 3/4 completely different ways to be solved. That he skipps the dialog just means he doesn't notice it. His fault.

Disagree about linearity, unless it turns out the enemies are scaled in a way that low levels can't beat them, I think an open world with strong enemies is fine. I've beat enemies lvl 5-6 with lvl 3 party before, it was challenging and fun, so I disagree on progression.

Yeah, thre is no hard linearity whatsoever, just difficulty checks.

[QOTE]Agree on the skill points

Why the heck do you agree on skill points? Skill points in sneaking/lockpikcing/loremaster are still important for specific playthroughs (sneak increase speed of sneaking which is crucial if you play a rogue with guerilla, loremaster makes it easier to know exactly how strong enemies are, lockpicking is /very/ useful and it being common on gear doesn't detract from it as the lockpicking checks are actually higher than usual, etc).

but not on the usefulness of the buffs, buffing magic schools and the like is dumb and not necessary.

This game is all about player freedom. Buffing magic makes hybrid classes much more powerful. It actually exist, too- i have found a couple items with mens-at-arms buff, for example.

I am pretty sure.

How would that even work? You take off the boots and lose 2 spells? Which ones? and is it permanent? Is skill book wasted?

Skill books being wasted would be logical, given how respec works. It also makes it much more dangerous to use such gear :D

 

[Angelo85]

I'm 31 hours in, first time playing and just barely began exploring the second area. Thus far at least for me personally the positives outweigh the negatives by far.
Blackguards was good for what it is, MMX was awesome, DOS is faptastic.


Randomized, scaled loot that has stat and/or level requirements:
I absolutely loathe the Diablo style, totally random loot drop system, this game is no exception. And the equipment requirements were obviously put into place for balance reasons. Kinda blows but a necessary evil in my opinion seeing how for instance a weapon just 1 or 2 levels above your character level can absolutely murder the opposition, even with the additional AP required to wield it. It's just how the combat system is balanced tied together with the power curve of player and enemy characters.


Crafting:
I really enjoy the crafting system, the concept of it is rather simplistic (W + X = Y) but brilliant at the same time because it's intuitive, invites you to experiment, has a ton of variety and to top it off it's even bound by stats.
I also enjoy the assembly line style where you have to craft Y in order to be able to craft Z out of it, instead of being able to go straight to Z via the push of a button just as long as you have all the necessary ingredients.


World is small and linear:
Like I mentioned in the beginning, I just barely entered the second area. Though from what I've seen in the DOS world so far, there's plenty of both quality and quantity. Turnbased combat naturally lets you progress at a slower pace than real time or RTwP.

But from what I experienced in the first area - while the area was divided into "level recommended zones" if you will - there were no arbitrary, invisible walls stopping me from venturing forth into any direction I pleased. Yes there were "zones" that housed higher-than-party-level enemies, but that just meant it was more of a (fun, to me) challenge to progress through them, no linearity or walls to be found there stopping me from going in any direction really.

As for the slow pace of progression, well don't know what to tell you but that's turn based combat for you. Even though the fights are over in a couple of turns tops, naturally it will feel slower than hacking and slashing your way through floor after floor in Diablo/Torchlight/whatever and ending even bigger fights in a matter of seconds.

And as for the mirage of size, the world seems pretty dang huge to me and there's plenty of interesting locations to explore. I think "small" is a subjective term and quite debatable in this context.
I mean there's all kinds of games in terms of "size". Some games have you spent 30 hours adventuring through a single location (like say a single main location + surroundings) and on the other hand there's games that take you on an adventure for 30 hours spanning a whole continent.
People come into it with different mindsets and certain expectations in regards to "size" I guess. I think that In the end, it's a matter of personal opinion and expectations really.


Quality of quests:
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that you feel the need to skip through most of the texts not because you have an issue with the way the quests are presented in this particular game, but it might be just how you approach RPGs in general.
Not judging or saying that there's anything wrong/right with it, I'm just saying that it might not be the fault of the game if you don't feel engaged by the texts after all.
I say this because I'm a story fag myself and I can tell you for a fact that there's waaaaaaay worse quest writing out there than what we have in DOS. And once again, to me the writing is more than just a pointer to the next awesome button so I take it more "serious" than other groups of CRPGers like for instance the combat or the exploration fags.

The main quest of the first area intrigued me and the side quests ranged from interesting to funny. Yes, you have many of your bog standard RPG tropes like the ominous fetch quest or even the main quest being one with it's

Spoiler

murder mystery plot

packaged into different wrappings, but still I enjoyed the quality of the writing, the way DOS put their own mark on them, how their contexts fit into the world etc.. And to be fair at the end of the day there's only so many types of different quest types out there that you can pack into your RPG. And so far the quests felt far from being tedious, boring or repeating same old same old patterns to me.

Spoiler

End of time

Player Housing / pointless:
I don't think it's meant as player housing / base of operations per se, but with me having just entered the second area and not having opened up too much of that content I can't speak too much about it as off yet. So I choose to refrain from speculating wildly about this particular point.

 

[Perkel]

I imagine this is not game for completionists that want to fap to every recipe they know and every single quest in game they did.

Point of playing RPG is to roleplay. Sure crafting system is robust and not really detailed in books but that is the point of crafting system. To get you to try to figure out different combinations.

Like for example large health potion. I was trying to add two stacks of small potions and WHOAA large potions ! Getting all the recipes lied down to you before you even start creating stuff is bad design.

 

[Roguey]

But he isn't- stat requirment on equipment is not hard to get with a character 4/5 levels under the equipment. Sure, a dex-based guy can't wear a high-level robe, but that's true in pretty much every rpg.

Most non-multiplayer RPGs don't use hard threshold requirements.

DKS correctly removed it from Div2 (while replacing it with hard level requirements which is comparably bad) but they just had to go back.

 

[Arkeus]

Most non-multiplayer RPGs don't use hard threshold requirements.
DKS correctly removed it from Div2 (while replacing it with hard level requirements which is comparably bad) but they just had to go back.

I guess "most non-multiplayer RPGs" doesn't include any IE games, DA:O/DA2, Might&Magic games......

I wonder /what/ they include.

 

[Cadmus]

not reading this shit until after Ive played the game
did you copy it from some retarded forum as well?

 

[Raghar]

There is nothing wrong with stat requirenments. You can't use computer with low int, and I can't use shovel because of low dex.

 

[Reapa]

I like the game, a lot, but whether he's trolling by purposefully ignoring the good parts of the game or not, he makes some good points.

No, he is flat out lying about everything.

He's right about the scaling, and he's definitely right about the stat and level requirements on equipment.

But he isn't- stat requirment on equipment is not hard to get with a character 4/5 levels under the equipment. Sure, a dex-based guy can't wear a high-level robe, but that's true in pretty much every rpg.

It's stupid, especially the stat requirements, stats are horribly imbalanced from what I can tell.[/QUTE]
They...Aren't? Unless you are playing an hybrid, and in which case, /yes/, you are playing a character with more versatility so of course it won't have the same ability of high-end stuff. That's called balance.

He's also right about the content, I was thinking the same thing today.. Thinking about the encounters, the quests, etc. There is less content that it feels like there is, the slow pace makes it feel like you've done a lot more than you have.

There is a shit-ton of content, lots and lots of quests that are easy to miss, and lots and lots of quests that have 3/4 completely different ways to be solved. That he skipps the dialog just means he doesn't notice it. His fault.

Disagree about linearity, unless it turns out the enemies are scaled in a way that low levels can't beat them, I think an open world with strong enemies is fine. I've beat enemies lvl 5-6 with lvl 3 party before, it was challenging and fun, so I disagree on progression.

Yeah, thre is no hard linearity whatsoever, just difficulty checks.

[QOTE]Agree on the skill points

Why the heck do you agree on skill points? Skill points in sneaking/lockpikcing/loremaster are still important for specific playthroughs (sneak increase speed of sneaking which is crucial if you play a rogue with guerilla, loremaster makes it easier to know exactly how strong enemies are, lockpicking is /very/ useful and it being common on gear doesn't detract from it as the lockpicking checks are actually higher than usual, etc).

but not on the usefulness of the buffs, buffing magic schools and the like is dumb and not necessary.

This game is all about player freedom. Buffing magic makes hybrid classes much more powerful. It actually exist, too- i have found a couple items with mens-at-arms buff, for example.

I am pretty sure.

How would that even work? You take off the boots and lose 2 spells? Which ones? and is it permanent? Is skill book wasted?

Skill books being wasted would be logical, given how respec works. It also makes it much more dangerous to use such gear :D

bullshit
it seems you didn't understand my claims.
1. lvl 6 helmet needs 10 str. you don't have 10 str even with warrior up to about lvl 6 unless you really gave your warrior only str from the beginning, ignoring speed, constitution and of course perception. you get 1 point at lvl 2, one at lvl 4, one at lvl 6. keep in mind that you only get 1 AP for each 2 speed points. you make a worrior without constitution and you made him for nothing since he's supposed to be tank. so wtf are you talking about no restraints or loot scaling???
2. you have your warrior without speed because you wanted to wear that helmet at low level and you want to use a weapon 3 lvls above you (not much but even so) you might onehit mobs of the same lvl as you but fuck you if you think you can kill any monsters 3-4-5-6 levels above you with only one hit every turn. also your warrior has no perception/constitution and is gonna get killed by traps at every step.
3. there are quests but not lots and lots. arcanum has lots and lots, this shit has a few and i've done all of them, because even if i skipped a lot of text I talked to everybody and it's not hard to use the journal. also i don't skip blindly, i skip boring explanations or stuff like "who are you" which doesn't serve any purpose and isn't written by yeats.
4. what 3/4 ways of solving? you can give the mayors staff back in 3-4 ways? you can find work for the sailors in 3/4 ways??? what a load of crap.
5. difficulty checks? this is where it gets funny because like i said, you can't kill lvl 14 spiders with lvl 10 grp on normal. they just hit you for 100 poison dmg/turn even if you have resistance and there's like 5-6 of them supported by mages. also your life seems to double like every 4 levels. so if you do attack them at lvl 10 you do that at half the life you're supposed to have. and the whole argument is based on a level difference of only 4 levels. wtf do you do with a lvl 10 grp against lvl 20 mobs? where does scaling stop and difficulty check begin? just calling it something else doesn't change shit. the game would be linear even if you could run through it in every direction solely by the fact that there are level zones. whether you metagame your way through or you save/reload a hundred times till you get lucky doesn't change the game design.
6. saying you are pretty sure means you are not sure at all. i haven't found any "major skill" buffs on any equipment and i even spent hours reloading at lvl 20 chests with 1-2 legendaries/load + rares.
7. sneaking is major skill for rogue. what else is he gonna invest in? lore, crafting, lockpicking aren't even close to the importance of "major skills" and since you get that from gear you basically have no option but to skill major skills and wait for gear. so wtf are you talking about freedom?
8. would be logical??? so you never actually had that problem? i thought you were pretty sure you found man-at-arms buff.

 

[Black]

MOTHERFUCKER

 

[Reapa]

MOTHERFUCKER

'sup?

 

[Reapa]

not reading this shit until after Ive played the game
did you copy it from some retarded forum as well?

you have been warned.

 

[Reapa]

I'm 31 hours in, first time playing and just barely began exploring the second area. Thus far at least for me personally the positives outweigh the negatives by far.
Blackguards was good for what it is, MMX was awesome, DOS is faptastic.


Randomized, scaled loot that has stat and/or level requirements:
I absolutely loathe the Diablo style, totally random loot drop system, this game is no exception. And the equipment requirements were obviously put into place for balance reasons. Kinda blows but a necessary evil in my opinion seeing how for instance a weapon just 1 or 2 levels above your character level can absolutely murder the opposition, even with the additional AP required to wield it. It's just how the combat system is balanced tied together with the power curve of player and enemy characters.


Crafting:
I really enjoy the crafting system, the concept of it is rather simplistic (W + X = Y) but brilliant at the same time because it's intuitive, invites you to experiment, has a ton of variety and to top it off it's even bound by stats.
I also enjoy the assembly line style where you have to craft Y in order to be able to craft Z out of it, instead of being able to go straight to Z via the push of a button just as long as you have all the necessary ingredients.


World is small and linear:
Like I mentioned in the beginning, I just barely entered the second area. Though from what I've seen in the DOS world so far, there's plenty of both quality and quantity. Turnbased combat naturally lets you progress at a slower pace than real time or RTwP.

But from what I experienced in the first area - while the area was divided into "level recommended zones" if you will - there were no arbitrary, invisible walls stopping me from venturing forth into any direction I pleased. Yes there were "zones" that housed higher-than-party-level enemies, but that just meant it was more of a (fun, to me) challenge to progress through them, no linearity or walls to be found there stopping me from going in any direction really.

As for the slow pace of progression, well don't know what to tell you but that's turn based combat for you. Even though the fights are over in a couple of turns tops, naturally it will feel slower than hacking and slashing your way through floor after floor in Diablo/Torchlight/whatever and ending even bigger fights in a matter of seconds.

And as for the mirage of size, the world seems pretty dang huge to me and there's plenty of interesting locations to explore. I think "small" is a subjective term and quite debatable in this context.
I mean there's all kinds of games in terms of "size". Some games have you spent 30 hours adventuring through a single location (like say a single main location + surroundings) and on the other hand there's games that take you on an adventure for 30 hours spanning a whole continent.
People come into it with different mindsets and certain expectations in regards to "size" I guess. I think that In the end, it's a matter of personal opinion and expectations really.


Quality of quests:
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that you feel the need to skip through most of the texts not because you have an issue with the way the quests are presented in this particular game, but it might be just how you approach RPGs in general.
Not judging or saying that there's anything wrong/right with it, I'm just saying that it might not be the fault of the game if you don't feel engaged by the texts after all.
I say this because I'm a story fag myself and I can tell you for a fact that there's waaaaaaay worse quest writing out there than what we have in DOS. And once again, to me the writing is more than just a pointer to the next awesome button so I take it more "serious" than other groups of CRPGers like for instance the combat or the exploration fags.

The main quest of the first area intrigued me and the side quests ranged from interesting to funny. Yes, you have many of your bog standard RPG tropes like the ominous fetch quest or even the main quest being one with it's

Spoiler

murder mystery plot

packaged into different wrappings, but still I enjoyed the quality of the writing, the way DOS put their own mark on them, how their contexts fit into the world etc.. And to be fair at the end of the day there's only so many types of different quest types out there that you can pack into your RPG. And so far the quests felt far from being tedious, boring or repeating same old same old patterns to me.

Spoiler

End of time

Player Housing / pointless:
I don't think it's meant as player housing / base of operations per se, but with me having just entered the second area and not having opened up too much of that content I can't speak too much about it as off yet. So I choose to refrain from speculating wildly about this particular point.

Heroes 3 lets you speed up combat animations.
Arcanum crafting was better because of the more useful stuff. also it had like 16 schools of magic? and 8 crafting? so how the fuck is this supposed to be incline? if anything it's just less decline than usual. also arcanum gave you the choice between real time combat and turn based. turn based is lovely but not always necessary unless you feel the need to make each and every encounter challenging cause of small world. arcanum also had a+b=c c+d=e and rare schematics. the writing was at least in my oppinion also better and more interesting most of the time. even inquisitor was better even though it was mostly linear.