Hard to be a God

[Digitalos]

Has anyone played this, is it good and/or worth getting?

Short post, I'm just curious.

Cheers!
Digit

 

[Andhaira]

I've heard that its the spiritual successor to Baldurs Gate.

 

[Moggs]

I think it's still some way from being finished?

 

[Andhaira]

Umm no. Its out.

 

[Moggs]

Oh, ok. I read the recent headline at RPGWatch "Hard to be a god revealed" (which suggested to me it was a pre-release press release) and assuming it was still some way off. But apparently not. Well, if it is out, I too would like to hear some opinions from anyone that's played it.

 

[inwoker]

I've heard that its the spiritual successor to Baldurs Gate.

lol

 

[Shoelip]

The demo was very boring. Not sure what that says for the full game.

 

[Brother None]

I've been playing with my review copy for some time now. Still a ways from finishing. In some ways, it's just a hack 'n slash with really wordy but one-sided dialogue folded around it. It seems weak on the choice 'n consequence - even though it promises a lot on this part - but I intend to play it through again. In my second playthrough I'll try to take the opposite decision from the one I made in my first one. We'll see if it matters. I get the impression the game's just throwing mud in your eyes, y'know, the same way BioShock pretends to be more than a mediocre shooter by having a great setting.

I think it's still some way from being finished?

That is correct.

It's out in Russia and maybe other Eastern European countries. The English language release from Ascaton is in early March.

 

[Binary]

Demo doesn't work with Wine...

So what's the game itself like? Party based or not? What type of combat? And magical system?

 

[Brother None]

So what's the game itself like? Party based or not? What type of combat? And magical system?

Single player. You have to talk a lot. Combat is kinda gothic-esque - third person, block a lot, wait and then use a special strike to preferably one-hit kill.

There's no magic, only hi-tech.

See more details of the basics here

 

[nik2008ofs]

I've heard that its the spiritual successor to Baldurs Gate.

Roflol. Sure, if I wanted a Badur's Gate like experience, a non party based, entirely real-time game with fairly clumsy combat controls would be my first choise.

The game isn't bad. It gets much better after the initial quest which they used for the demo, which was fairly boring as Shoelip said.

Haven't finished yet, but some aspects seem interesting.

First impressions (after about 10 hours of gameplay)

The good

The overall "feel" of the cluttered and busy cities ( those that though that Tarant was confusing need not apply).

Quest markers that really help.

The huge majority of your Xp comes from completing quests. Compat Xp is a pittance by comparison, which encourages you to avoid playing it like a Diablo-clone, which it isn't.

The whole deal with the disguises is an actual novel and interesting idea.

You can, and you mostly need, to get bystanders ( guards etc) to help you in your fights.

The Bad.

Some aspects seem shoddily implemented.

Why are Ranged Weapons not a weapon skill but a character attribute;

Why does no one care when you rob them blind before their very eyes?

No fog of war on the minimap. I like fog of war on the minimap, it helps me keep track of where I've been and what I need to still explore.

The Ugly

The usual suspect, voice overs. A couple are good ( Consul Arata) a few are acceptable, but most are below average.

Overall, I like the game for the time being.

 

[Zyrxil]

The Very Bad:

The English localization is fairly horrible. 30% of the time the exposition dialogues make no sense, letters you're supposed to be able to read are empty, though your character makes reference to reading them,

Combat becomes more frequent and required as you progress, and the enemies take much more effort to kill even as you get stronger.

Very few sidequests, maybe 1-3 sidequests per map location (I'd say about 20 locations total), and none of them are meaningful in any way.

The story shits on the setting and philosophical theme of a good Scifi novel.

 

[Digitalos]

Thanks for the comments, I played the demo and thought it looked interesting, was a little disappointed in it being single player only. I think I will keep my eye on it and wait for it's release here in Aus.

Cheers,
Digit

 

[Andhaira]

@brother none: Having a lot of dialogus is fantastic. I takeit you also did not like planescape torment?

 

[nik2008ofs]

@brother none: Having a lot of dialogus is fantastic. I takeit you also did not like planescape torment?

Having lots of meaningful dialogue is fantastic. If volume alone had merit, then you would be the codex's favorite topic starter.

 

[Brother None]

@brother none: Having a lot of dialogus is fantastic. I takeit you also did not like planescape torment?

Trouble reading much? I said "one-sided dialogue".

Hard to be a God has many badly translated expositions in which all the player input consists of pressing enter every now and again to pick the one option they have. In about 90% of the dialogue you have only one option the choose from, so all you do is press enter.

That's not dialogue, that's fake dialogue. It completely ignores the nature of computer games to instead bring you some kind of failed novelist's take on a classic. Bad.

 

[Binary]

@brother none: Having a lot of dialogus is fantastic. I takeit you also did not like planescape torment?

Having lots of meaningful dialogue is fantastic. If volume alone had merit, then you would be the codex's favorite topic starter.

If volume alone had merit, PS:T would be the codex's favorite RPG

...oh, wait!

 

[Texas Red]

Sounds damn good. If it wouldn't be from Russia it would probably be expected. I know Russian so I won't have to deal with localization issues, har.

 

[Brother None]

I wish I had the Russian version instead of the English one.

The Russian one is fully voiced (in the English version the PC isn't voiced except in cutscenes), and if the demo's trick applies then you can switch the text to English.

What would you prefer? Shitty English voice-overs or full Russian voicing with English subtitles (my Russian isn't good enough to just play it without subtitles)?

 

[nik2008ofs]

What would you prefer? Shitty English voice-overs or full Russian voicing with English subtitles (my Russian isn't good enough to just play it without subtitles)?

I'd take the original russian voice overs with subtitles without any hesitation. On this day and age, where most games are shipped in a half-empty DVD, I don't understand why they do not at least include both voice overs and let us choose.

 

[Gnidrologist]

What would you prefer? Shitty English voice-overs or full Russian voicing with English subtitles (my Russian isn't good enough to just play it without subtitles)?

Hey, i though you were a student in some kind of all-commie-analyzing univeristy of some sorts. And you tend to use cyrillic wording at times. Tovarisch Lenin would not be proud of you.

Anyway, i played russian version of demo and the voice acting seemed of good quality if a bit atifficial. A bit sterila. I wonder how baron Pampa sounds. He was my favorite character in the novel. If his voice sucks, the whole game does.

 

[Brother None]

Hey, i though you were a student in some kind of all-commie-analyzing univeristy of some sorts. And you tend to use cyrillic wording at times. Tovarisch Lenin would not be proud of you.

Heh, no. I'm doing a dual Bachelor program in the University of Leiden in Russian Studies and History. I study Russian Economics, History, Political Science and Law, mostly focused on the 20th century and the now, as well as older Russian history, 19th century Western history, and when I can other things (US political science, for instance).

I generally try to use literal "PolSci" transcriptions of Cyrillic. I wish the Russians had made an official system at some point, like the Japanese (I think) did, because the variations are enormous. Especially in German transcriptions. They write the в as w and щ as tschtsch. Seriously. Tschtsch. "Tovaritschtsch"?

But I'm really terrible at learning a new language. I know enough Russian to get by in normal conversation, to some extent, but my grammar sucks. For my university courses, I stick to just reading Russian, but it takes a lot of effort, energy and dictionary usage to do so, and I prefer not to do it in a video game.

I wonder how baron Pampa sounds.

Pampa is fairly fun in the game. His voicing was ok, by my estimate, but I'd disagree with the assessment that the voicing in the game outright sucks. It's mediocre for the most part, but not a lot are really teeth-grindingly annoying or anything.

 

[Texas Red]

So is the final verdict that this game is worth the price and will offer a good number of enjoyable hours? Does the overall *quality* match Western games or does it have that distinctive sucktitude attributed to Eastern Euro games? For example HoMM 5 had good gameplay but the cutscenes and dialog were amateurish at best(yet that could have been localization again).

 

[Brother None]

I have no final verdict yet. When I do, you'll see it in the GameBanshee review.

It does suffer from some localization suckitude, and especially long speeches can become a bit hard to follow when some sentences are translated oddly. It's just...odd translating, it is. Not incredibly wrong, just incredibly odd.

But I'm fascinated by the story and the world-building in the game. It's a very charming game. I'll have to play it through twice to give a final verdict, but I'm thinking it won't be an easy call to make.

 

[Texas Red]

Cool. Never though I'd be looking forward to a review.