Review Din's Curse & Demon War Review

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Din's Curse

<p>Our own reviewing dude TNO decided to fire up <a href="http://www.soldak.com/Dins-Curse/Overview.html" target="_blank">Soldak Entertainment's</a> <strong>Din's Curse</strong> including the expansion <strong>Demon War</strong> and now bestows judgement upon it.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Din's Curse is unique in how much of the game is procedurally generated, and how it evolves dynamically. In this game, being told that 'bad guys are starting an uprising' will mean bad guys will actually rise up into your town instead of obediently waiting to be stopped in the nick of time like almost every other RPG. It's fantastic: the 'Diablo with dungeons that fight back' moniker is wholly justified. It is not only the bad guys who get up to stuff (besides invasion, they also lay curses which give debuffs until you take the quest to solve it, produce machines to make dungeons harder, block the gates, fight amongst themselves, etc.) the good guys can also head off to do the quests themselves, turn on each other, or betray the town in any number of ways. Occasionally the system unfairly shafts you: once all three of my key NPCs killed each other whilst the last standing survivor turned rogue and left, losing me the map; another time one of nastier monsters was made a boss type, leading to a behemoth with a DPS almost two orders of magnitude higher than mine. Yet these cases are rare - for the other 30 ish hours of playtime, it worked perfectly. Although 'living world' is inaccurate for a game where the NPCs are primarily objects and quest-givers, it is definitely a 'living situation': there's considerable strategy as to how to prioritize the various quests, most of which are on a hidden timer.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Read the whole review here.</p>

 

[thesheeep]

Hmm... sounds good. I have to try the demo as soon as I find the time.

 

[RampantCoyote]

Excellent review. Makes me want to fire up the game again. I think I've put about 30 hours into it and the expansion, and it still feels like I've not really seen most of what the game has to offer.

I'm looking forward to his upcoming space game, too, though what I really would like to see is a new Depths of Peril with the level of dynamic world stuff that Din's Curse has (or more). The additional layer of the competing factions was perhaps too much for many gamers (the game didn't do super-well), but I loved it.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Good review

Been playing it for a while, first I got pissed that I would lose the map becuase NPCs on the surface were beating each other instead of doing something productive, like protecting themselves against that upcoming invasion. But then the invasion started and everyone got wiped by a single monster because they were incompetent fucks. Then I realized that I could just tweak the world's rhythm to my own in the world creation screen, and it's been relatively fun since then.

Problem is, it's like Diablo, and soon you'll be asking yourself what's the point of clikka clikkan your way through hordes of monsters. I think the only reason I put up with Diablo for long back then was the visuals.

Also whoever thought it would be a good idea to give a stunning attack to these horned devils that attack in packs need to have his ass spanked with a cactus

 

[Lightknight]

Do this enough times and Din will release you from your curse, and you win the game

Not true, you dont "win" the game, you just gain a title. There are more titles to get as you play along and save more towns. Game doesnt have an end, actually.

If your tactic doesn't work, there isn't much you can do to improve your chances than burn more consumables.

This approach to design actually makes several classes near unplayable. For example necro-summoner will die alot on most bosses (especially since there is little you can do to distract enemies from attacking you, AND enemies can weave right between your summons effortlessly), and some enemy types will stop your progress dead. One time i had to forsake three towns in a row, because every dungeon had those skeletal mages in it, and eventually the XP debt got too high for me to care.

Problem is, it's like Diablo, and soon you'll be asking yourself what's the point of clikka clikkan your way through hordes of monsters.

Loot. Problem is, Din's Curse doesnt have good loot. Number of "uniques" is also VERY low, you start encountering doubles quickly. Indeed i have about 7 of every low level unique i encountered in my chest.

 

[Stabwound]

I suppose it's cool that they tried to put a twist on the "Diablo" format, but this game is just more turdy garbage. If you want to play an amateurish/bargain bin Diablo or Torchlight, this is the game for you.

 

[Nim]

One time i had to forsake three towns in a row, because every dungeon had those skeletal mages in it, and eventually the XP debt got too high for me to care.

Don't abandon towns, lose them. No XP debt IIRC and the loss in rep doesn't matter because rep is shit anyway, only useful for getting a crappy item every once in a while.

Loot. Problem is, Din's Curse doesnt have good loot. Number of "uniques" is also VERY low, you start encountering doubles quickly. Indeed i have about 7 of every low level unique i encountered in my chest.

Not only is the loot sucky there are also those stupid item usage restrictions. Not being able to use a bow, dagger or shield just because your class combination doesn't allow it ?

Also no real comment on how most skills are at best mediocre but I guess with only 30h playtime TNO didn't experiment with a lot of the classes.

 

[TNO]

This approach to design actually makes several classes near unplayable. For example necro-summoner will die alot on most bosses (especially since there is little you can do to distract enemies from attacking you, AND enemies can weave right between your summons effortlessly), and some enemy types will stop your progress dead. One time i had to forsake three towns in a row, because every dungeon had those skeletal mages in it, and eventually the XP debt got too high for me to care.

That's interesting - in my experience, the necro-summoner gyrated from UP to OP depending on the creature mix. The ability to raise (un-named) elite monsters often meant you could run around with a couple of mini-bosses on side. The enemy monsters didn't seem to avoid my summons, but I agree there isn't a huge amount most classes can do besides kite like hell.

I also never had a problem with undead mages, but there may well be higher level ones I didn't encounter.

Also no real comment on how most skills are at best mediocre but I guess with only 30h playtime TNO didn't experiment with a lot of the classes.

Probably a bit closer to 40h (I didn't time), but you're right. I played through with two main characters where I picked classes at random, as well as a few of others for a few levels each. From that sample, the skills and classes looked good to me. I don't think I could have gotten a comprehensive view of balance without hundreds of hours of play time, so I hope 30h or so doesn't seem too unreasonable.

 

[Nim]

Just remembered what I hated most about Dins, those fkn cooldowns. Buffs that stay for 5 mins and then you have to wait 5 mins to use them again, skills that can be used 20-30 secs per 2 mins etc. Who had this bright idea that every game now needs cooldowns ?

 

[Eyeball]

I also never saw what the big fuss was about DC. Ugly, basic gameplay, camera zoomed in too far, disinteresting hack-and-slash in an utterly generic dungeon crawling world in very boring looking dungeons.

Best thing it did for me was encourage me to re-install Diablo 2.

 

[spectre]

I recall, I really wanted to like Din's Curse, the premise, all the features I kept reading about... yet when I actually tried it, it felt really generic and boring. Skills, enemies, it all felt just meh.

 

[Metro]

Agreed with the last two posts. While the procedural generation is interesting the game just feels really generic.

 

[JarlFrank]

The premise is pretty cool, but ugly graphics (that are also a little too far zoomed-in) and clunky gameplay, which is a big no-no for a game about hacking and slashing your way through hordes of monsters, kinda ruin it for me.

It's cool to add a twist to the classic Diablo formula but if you can't manage to make the combat feel fluid instead of clunky, it's not going to help much.

 

[MicoSelva]

Good review.
I wish I was younger and still had time (and interest) for H&S games. I still tend to fire up Diablo 2 every year or so, but after a couple of days I remember why I ceased playing it the last time and quit. Ok, getting new loot is great fun, but only when there is still some point to it. Otherwise it's, well, pointless.

 

[DwarvenFood]

So,

I read the review and I'm intrigued about the "living" world. Also not much time to play games, so now I'm choosing between Din's Curse and one of the Divinity games.

How does it compare, I do not really care for combat challenge. A fun setting and interesting world is what I find enjoyable. Which of the two would be recommended ?

 

[Metro]

Divine Divinity is far superior.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I played the demo some time ago. After a hour of playing I began asking myself "why am I playing this" and uninstalled it.

 

[Lightknight]

The ability to raise (un-named) elite monsters often meant you could run around with a couple of mini-bosses on side.

Well, no, it doesnt really help.
1. Many monsters get highly reduced rate of attack when you resurrect them. Its true ! For example, bats take like 4 seconds between attacks.
2. Resurrected mobs are few in number, AND they will be only world-level, whereas you could create many skeletons higher-than-world-level.
3. Elite monsters arent really all that, with few exceptions, and still, you have to pray that you actually encounter them. Only worthy monsters to resurrect i found to be scavengers.
and 4. The game has a bug, where your entire team will sometimes (often) get scared, and run away. Mostly from dealing with fire. And there's alot of fire in the game...

No, no, summoners are just not viable.

 

[Lhynn]

So sad that codexers generally ignored this game, it did a lot of things right, and its worth playing if only for the novelty factor. True, it looks awful and feels a bit clunky, but that hasnt stopped any codexer worth its salt from playing worse games than this.

That is why i believe i should necro this.

 

[Metro]

I don't think anyone ignored this game -- Diablo clones aren't exceedingly popular on the Codex and this one got lost in the shuffle as there are a dozen or so that came out during the same time frame. Like all of Soldak's games it's solid but doesn't do anything exceptionally well.

 

[Lhynn]

Unno, i guess i believe it has huge potential, not the diablo clone part, but every other feature in the game, monsters planning to invade the town, having their own agendas, growing. the townsfolk having their own opinions and ambitions, you being forced to plan ahead, knowing that you have limited time and resources to stop somethng much bigger than yourself.

I was never as invested playing any other action rpg, not even the divinity games.