When enemies have 25 different moves it feels boring, generic and like they're more or less all the same.
Enemies having a lot of abilities and options in combat makes the game feel boring and generic? WTF are you on about, mate?
Now granted I only played for a few hours but I did not see anything that compelled me to go further with the game, quite the contrary actually.
And yet, you found the
story in Numenera compelling
Crocodiles, to me, should not have magic spells. It was almost as if to showcase their AI or have every enemy be "interesting" according to the developers, they had to give them all at least one of every type of attack imaginable. The human thief or whatever I fought had so many abilities it was like fighting a 10th level Wizard in D&D, except here it was at level 1. It was just "too much" and felt like they threw everything plus three kitchen sinks into it all. So I uninstalled it. Even after winning the fights.
The crocodiles were void-corrupted, that's the only reason why they were like that.
As for the thieves, would you rather they be passive "go into stealth, attempt backstab, move out of the way, drink an invisibility potion, attempt backstab again, pelt with arrows until end of combat" IE-likes?
I guess I prefer "low excitement" RPGs, or at least RPGs that ease you into throwing the kitchen sink into things. I'm having more fun playing BG:EET on Hard with all the Sword Coast Strategems content installed with the highest difficulty encounters, because even if you fight a very tough enemy there they have lore and level-appropriate amounts of spells and tactics. They often have one or two "unique" type of traits, rather than just "everything goes!" at all times. And an Ogre Berserker is not going to cast a Magic Missile on me at ranged, then turn invisible, then throw an AoE grenade, shoot a flaming arrow and then become visible again and cleave my party. An Ogre Berserker is tough because they have massive strength and go berserk in melee.
Oh. I guess you would prefer thieves like that :D
My initial hours with D:OS2 felt like every enemy had an indiscernible amount of traits and tactics at their disposal that it felt more like a mishmash than a tightly handcrafted experience.
The beginning is a bit uneven, at least until you properly build up your own arsenal. Then the combat gets a lot more fun.
Like there were no real "classes", more of just "everyone can do a million different things."
Did you miss the part about this game being classless?
Not sure if I'm making it clear but those combats combined with the huge amount of "stuff" to sift through in the inventory just turned me off for now. I didn't think a game could have too much stuff but I may have been proved wrong.
Dude, you don't like the game, fair enough.
Now, there's a lot to criticize about D:OS2's combat - the silly armor system, the HP and damage bloat. But the part about the combat being bad just because the enemy has a lot of options to throw at you is complete and utter BS.
You might have a point if I actually said that, but I didn't. I just found the game boring for my tastes, i.e. my opinion. If you liked combat, cool, good for you.
To further expound on my opinion, it's not just the fact the enemy has a lot to throw at you, it's the way they do it. It felt like the enemies I fought all had "an attack for every situation." Crocodiles too far away from you? They can buff, teleport and cast magic at you. The thief or whoever I fought used so many abilities I couldn't keep track of them all, buffs, debuffs, grenades flying. And this was all level 1 gameplay.
Maybe I'm getting old but the shit was just too much. Too many junk items everywhere, too many items to keep track of in the (terrible) inventory, too much everything. And this is from someone who is currently managing inventory for 6 characters in late-game Baldur's Gate with SCS turned on Hard/Tactical difficulty, i.e. there's a TON of inventory management in that game and it's more necessary to do it all for the tougher fights. It just feels better to do it in BG to me. And BG eased into it, whereas I felt like early game enemies in D:OS2 all had kitchen sinks and more to throw at you, just making it feel inconsistent and not like an old-school, handcrafted RPG (the kind I like most.)
Higher level thieves in BG w/ SCS go invisible, backstab, cast stinking clouds/cloudkill, take out weaker/vulnerable characters like mages, poison you and more. SCS improved the AI quite a bit.
I also wasn't thrilled with D:OS2 because the exploration felt cramped, wasn't interested in the story or characters and the graphics reminded me too much of World of Warcraft. And I had the feeling the whole time that I'd seen this all before, i.e. it was too much like every other party-based RPG I'd played already.
The shit just turned me off. Your mileage may vary.
Almost all the options that the enemies have - you have as well.
So bitching about them buffing, teleporting and casting magic seems a bit odd, especially considering that every type of skill/character you play also has those very same abilities.
And I don't really care about you not liking the game, I'm just defending the fact that, yes, having more options in combat is a good thing, not a bad one.
Well that's a blanket statement. More does not always automatically equal better (although I am more in the camp of quantity over quality in RPGs. Far too many modern RPGs streamline everything when more quantity could be added to make gameplay more interesting, i.e. more party member choices for different party synergies, more class kits and so on. But I digress.)
It's cool that player characters have the same abilities, but it doesn't really address what I posted. I think every enemy having every ability (exaggeration for emphasis) does not make for great combat encounters.
To use the crocodile example, to me, a croc like that should be more along the lines of:
Slow, but armored.
Bite attack that can cause bleeding, possibly short-term poison, maybe long-term disease.
And honestly, that's about it.
But when I see a crocodile, "Source tainted" or otherwise,
A - buffing in various ways at the start of combat
B - teleporting to new locations in combat via magic
C - using ranged magic attack spells
It just gets into territory that I don't really care to explore right now.
The underlying idea behind my opinion is that the enemies, at least the few I remember, *felt* like they had every trick in the book, already, at level 1. It was like "stuff overload". Scrolls, grenades, potions, status effects, etc., even for player characters. If I use the Baldur's Gate example again, early game BG is very slow. Typical low-level stuff, i.e. a single Potion of Strength is a big deal, or finding a scroll or Luck can make a big difference in an encounter. Now some would say early level D&D is too slow and paltry compared to higher level D&D, but for me that's my favorite part of an RPG, the slow, "low excitement" type of start. But I like to start slow and ease into things.
I am a staunch old-school head so maybe it's just me, but D:OS2 just felt like "too much, too soon." 3 hours into the game isn't enough to already be dealing with Inventory Hell in an RPG, IMO. And my other opinions about the graphics, inventory and overall presentation had an effect as well in me not wanting to continue, I'm sure. It honestly just felt like more of the same to me, too.
That said, I enjoyed the first D:OS for 140 hours and completed it, so they must be doing something right with their ideas. But I probably won't re-play it, and my future RPG choices for the moment are going to be old-school flavored CRPGs (Pillars 1 or 2, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, etc..)
I hope more RTWP RPGs get made. I find the turn-based RPGs starting to drag a bit, at least when extensive combat field movement is necessary. Elminage turn-based I still enjoy greatly, but find myself moving further from D:OS's style of turn-based right now. Then again, I'd be up for another ToEE anytime, but that also has the D&D Factor which increases my willingness to play it by at least +5.
That's another thing. I hope more CRPGs get made with real pen and paper rulesets. I find myself getting a bit tired of rulesets that are sort of non-consequential in that they are made for a single game and then either abandoned or changed completely for the sequel. We need more really good rulesets, which is a big reason why I'm still playing D&D RPGs from 10+ years ago in 2018 (and consequently not as excited to play through RPGs like D:OS2, Tyranny or others at the moment.)