Czech game "Inquisitor" - ever heard of it?

[vazha]

Everything's moddable, you just need to be autistic enuff. Then again, Inquisitor with turn-based combat and some stat tweaking would be a dream.

 

[Fargus]

This game is so underrated. I had great fun running around for hours with a dead whore in my inventory. Not to mention you can torture heretics and abuse your power as a servant of god.

 

[Haba]

The evil choices are pretty funny as well. I mean, usually they just lead to the same outcome as normal "burn heretic!" -choices, 'cept with an alignment shift.

But then you have a quest for releasing an ancient evil where you

Spoiler

have to go to town, get several random townspersons to follow you and bring them to the rapedungeon

It just feels so fukken out of place.

Not to mention that dumb completionists that accept those quests w/o reading the text will accidentally into evil and lose their alignment. r00fles!

 

[Anomander Rake]

What happens if you go evil and lose alignment?

 

[Haba]

Nothing, some spells cost more mana/stamina and some less. Maybe you can't get certain weapons if your alignment doesn't match, at least according to the dialogue.

The ending choice is made within the last few minute of the game.

Another fun fact about the game is that there are no female fighters, priests, knights or anything. You can't make a female character either. You basically never meet a female that has more HP than average civilian. Those days this would already count as misogyny.

 

[Anomander Rake]

Understood, thank you <3

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

It never fails to amaze me how the codex always ends up converting to praising complete train wrecks of games just because of some obscure attitude or dialogue. Codex poll 2027: Inquisitor No.1 "Oh, man, that game had dead whores!"... "but it was otherwise shit, right"... "fuck you, it had dead whores!!!!!" Trolololololololol.

 

[Fargus]

It never fails to amaze me how the codex always ends up converting to praising complete train wrecks of games just because of some obscure attitude or dialogue. Codex poll 2027: Inquisitor No.1 "Oh, man, that game had dead whores!"... "but it was otherwise shit, right"... "fuck you, it had dead whores!!!!!"

Different strokes for different folks, SexshopDevice. Some people here praise tedious shit like Underrail for example. Some people hate Arcanum because "combat in Arcanum sucks" or hate BG2 because of romances. Oh and there are folks who hate on Fallout 2 because of talking deathclaws and pop culture references. And i personally would rather get kicked in the balls with a horseshoe glove than play AoD ever again, and AoD is Codex's beloved game.

Trolololololololol.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

Some people hate Arcanum because "combat in Arcanum sucks"

I fail to see a problem with this line of criticism...

 

[Fargus]

Even if it does suck for some people, there are things other than combat you can enjoy in Arcanum. And same goes for Inquisitor. And yeah i liked carrying a dead whore in my inventory because it was entertaining ... besides it was a quest item.

 

[Herald of Durance]

The thing is, there are some annoying dungeons full of pointless fights in Arcanum. But even the biggest dungeon in Arcanum is like five times smaller than most dungeons in Inquisitor.

I enjoy the game but I never finished it because it's usually 5 hours of great fun and then 5 or more hours of fucking terrible dungeons full of fucking terrible combat. And there's more and more dungeons as you progress. I remember having to talk to some head paladin guy. To do that, I had to go through several levels of his castle, killing hundreds of his men. When I finally got to him, it was like "Hey, glad to meet you. I wanted to talk." Wtf?

The game has great potential. And it's not wasted, the game actually fulfills it in the city parts. It's just that the combat and dungeons were made by insane people. It feels like one part of studio created great adventure game, other part created stupid hack'n'slash and then someone got the bright idea to put those two together.

 

[Raghar]

So, finally got around to completing the game.

Well, these are just few people who wanted to make a game. While I seen few game developers who managed to get to equal level of people with engineering titles by 2 years of self-edcuation in garage game era. Thus I'd not understand how they could be taking so long time. And how they can suck so bad after 7 years. Well they could.

A sane person would simply select easy, and would be happy with result. They were inspired by Diablo combat, and they were not able to understand what made Diablo combat playable and decent. Kult: Heretic Kingdoms was similar. Team made some combat, and wann't able to do what made Diablo or best games similar to Diablo tick.

 

[Electryon]

I only ever completed Act 1, which alone took me about 30 hours or so. I mean, the game has many things going for it, namely the aesthetic and the music. It is actually what the name implies. it's a game where you play an Inquisitor for the church. The base of the spell system is interesting. It has interesting mysteries to solve much like Ultima VII or Divinity: Original Sin......

And yet, imagine how much better this game could have been with balanced turn-based combat. Instead, you get such a poor implementation of ARPG combat mechanics that it almost defies belief. And when people compare it to Diablo, they are comparing it to Diablo 1. But then it also adds a Stamina meter that cripples you if you run out. For 90% of the combat in this game, you are engaging in what is essentially a potion-chugging simulator. If you are playing a Paladin, you better have alot of Seals on hand. It's also worth noting that the best loot in the game can potentially be bought from vendors very early on, and.....frankly, the entire thing is just a mess, even if it is a very interesting mess. I recommend it. It's definitely "hardcore", but if you plan on playing it on anything above Easy, I suggest picking a Priest right off the bat.

 

[Haba]

It is odd how the same game can have so many brilliant design choices while having so many absolutely bat-shit insane ones. I'd definitely love to read the "making of" -story for Inquisitor. It is like there were two separate teams building two separate games that were forced to merge the two games systems into one.

Would definitely love to meet masochist who did combat balancing for the game. If he wasn't incarcerated in a maximum security facility, that is.

 

[Serus]

As mentioned already several times - the game could use 80% or more reduction to the numbers of enemies you have to fight. And have turn-based combat but that's a given almost every time.
What Haba mentioned in his "review" but is worth repeating is one of the most strange things about the otherwise cool and interesting setting where you are playing as an "inquisition" to some quasi-Catholic/Christian Church organisation. The game world is full of actual, "real", non-human, demonic beings and full of magical forces in the open. This fact puts the whole "looking for devil's work where it's hidden" angle a bit weird and out of place. Also there seems to be rarely any doubt about guilt (unless you go out of your way to find innocent people to accuse). In my opinion the whole thing would really work a lot better and make a lot more sense in a low-magic, slightly realistic-ish setting. But still with "real" magic, just rare. And more actual doubts and choices to make. Possibly even a system borrowed from that old Blade Runner adventure game where who is the Replicant is randomly assigned at the start of the game. Make it so that you'd never be certain 100% until after the fact. That would be cool.
Having said that I only finished the first part of the game, started the second but then in middle of second city I've read that the second and third parts are even longer and have more combat grind than the first so I've lost all hope. This game even without any changes other than removal of 3/4 of trash mobs would be so much better.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

Sounds to me like another example of someone making an adventure game and then trying to slap some kind of RPG combat and systems on top rather than someone designing cool RPG systems and combat and then weaving in a cool setting and a bit of story.

 

[Haba]

I am pretty certain that the trash mobs were a late addition.

In the first map there is some hasty explanation on how the orcs arrived there, but that's pretty much it. The orcs, lizardmen and werewolves are all supposed to be major threats, yet they have very little connection to the core game itself. They just don't fit in at all. The undead in comparison have much stronger link to the heretics.

Hell, the ending itself contradicts the existence of supernatural boogaloos

Spoiler

"Lul, I just used science! to play with the foolish supersitions of ignorant peasantry"

A classic case of a suit somewhere getting very worried and wanting "more action" be put in the game?

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

Nah, blaming a suit is beyond a joke when it's applied to every single game that fucks up. Sure, no doubt some shit decisions can be made by suits, but the core problem is always the core rules if you'll excuse the pun.

The problem is developers thinking about the narrative and setting before the systems and combat. Always. Until people realise that an RPG is entirely dependent on its systems and that everything else is secondary those people will always and continuously deliver complete fuck ups & it doesn't matter how cool or original that setting or narrative is.

This is why "easy difficulty" or "story difficulty" simply don't exist as an RPG genre setting. As soon as you convert your game to either of those setting you're basically saying it's either not an RPG or it's a crap RPG that has no place on any charts, objectively.

 

[Abu Antar]

I've resumed my Paladin playthrough. Combat is kinda shit and there is so incredibly much to read. I have probably not had to read this much in any game ever. 2 hours in, and this game probably has more text than some other rpgs. Shieeeet.

I'll keep going, because I like the setting.

Got Head stomped by some stranger. His attacks bombarded my stamina and my health melted like butter. Not as easy as the bats.

 

[Ranarama]

It's not even the best game called "Inquisitor"

http://www.mobygames.com/game/cpc/inquisitor-shade-of-swords

 

[Commissar Draco]

Paladin even with hacked stats is very not fun to play... you come to town buy 200 health potions and you use them all cause all enemies respawn super fast. Noble/rouge is easier with his bow and has nice manage your town side story line and priest can nuke entire map with one spell later on but poor Paladin got shit combat and is forced by story line to slaughter hole keep of not corrupted brethren Paladins cause... You need to give letter to one of Paladins inside; no way to pull your rank or demand audience nope... just three levels of senseless slaughter cause game force you to be mailman. It broke my immersion so much I hit uninstall.exe. Game would be so better if Pal had companions to heal his holy ass.

 

[the_shadow]

'Inquisitor' is probably in the top 3 of most difficult games I have ever played, and I played the Priest class, which is supposedly the easiest. I started off being unable to hit anything with spells, so I got an early hireling that could tank pretty much anything for the first half of Act 1. By the time he started to burn through healing potions my spells started to connect and I was somewhat proficient at killing things if I supplemented my abilities with seals. Then comes Act 2 and there is a *massive* difficulty spike that is more pronounced than the one you get in Wasteland 2 when you leave Arizona and go to California. It's like hitting a brick wall where you encounter archers that kill your PC in two hits (and your hireling in one), and your spells have a 50% chance of even hitting.

It's a shame, since I loved the setting, story, and even the idea of the spell system, but the gameplay is hardcore.

I also love the old gothic music:

 

[thesheeep]

'Inquisitor' is probably in the top 3 of most difficult games I have ever played, and I played the Priest class, which is supposedly the easiest. I started off being unable to hit anything with spells, so I got an early hireling that could tank pretty much anything for the first half of Act 1. By the time he started to burn through healing potions my spells started to connect and I was somewhat proficient at killing things if I supplemented my abilities with seals. Then comes Act 2 and there is a *massive* difficulty spike that is more pronounced than the one you get in Wasteland 2 when you leave Arizona and go to California. It's like hitting a brick wall where you encounter archers that kill your PC in two hits (and your hireling in one), and your spells have a 50% chance of even hitting.

It's a shame, since I loved the setting, story, and even the idea of the spell system, but the gameplay is hardcore.

I wouldn't even say the game is difficult.
It is ... obnoxious.

I don't really see the difficulty in going somewhere, killing a handful of monsters, then needing to go back to town to refresh and repeat that routine a hundred times to proceed.
This isn't hard to do, it just costs incredible amounts of time, which is why probably 99% of players stop after hitting the mines

 

[Baron Dupek]

Priest is a way to go but you should notice something important - his proficiency in Ranged Combat.
Worse than Thief/Noble but better than Paladin.
Use it until you get better spells and/or hoard enough magic seals to kill the mobs.
I used them in dungeons because there is not much space for ranged fight, plus various traps and respawning enemies behind you.

Tried to cast spells at the begining, it was painful and fruitless. Tried my first offensive spells and they just fizzle or don't do anything. Had to spend more time with bows and boost casting and magic penetration to see any results.

Yeah, there is no balance. Either you suck with spells (for 3/4 of the game) or clean up the rooms (other 1/4 of the game).

 

[Abu Antar]

45+ hours in. The game has done its best to destroy me mentally, but I shall persevere. I've pumped up everything related to melee and defense. Got a dog and another bro with me. I have very few spells and I can finally fix most of my own gear thanks to smithing skill. If it wasn't for the backtracking, I'd rate this much higher. The walls of text were annoying at first, but I've kinda taken a liking to the game world. Game looks solid and sounds good. As I said before, best ever level up sound.

It's a shame that the game doesn't respect the player's time, because this is something that I actually seldom complain about.