Review RPG Codex Review: Realms of Arkania HD

[Baron Dupek]

And for free if you catch them in GOG promo.

 

[RK47]

No wonder you wanted to play Blood Bowl with me.
I thought it was unusual this potato wants to play the guy who beat him so badly in Codex league.
He must so depressed that poor fool.
I gave him the win at the end to cheer him up..

 

[MicoSelva]

Great review, Darth Roxor. It must truly be a dreadful game to have defeated Your legendary shovelware resistance. I will make sure to stay away from it.

 

[ugralitan]

Never read such a truly biased review. 11 hours playing and putting pictures of old builds and intentionally trying to get yourself stuck in graphical pitfalls and such. Bravo.

I think this review is shittier then the game's current situation. I think what is worse, showelware or showelreview.

And if you stop wearing nostalgia googles for a moment, you will face that the original game was an empty wasteland and this one is not as bad as you try to portray.

But Codex is for hate, isn't it Fart Roxxor.

 

[RK47]

Never read such a truly biased review. 11 hours playing and putting pictures of old builds and intentionally trying to get yourself stuck in graphical pitfalls and such. Bravo.

I think this review is shittier then the game's current situation. I think what is worse, showelware or showelreview.

And if you stop wearing nostalgia googles for a moment, you will face that the original game was an empty wasteland and this one is not as bad as you try to portray.

But Codex is for hate, isn't it Fart Roxxor.

Leave Princess Roxor alone.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

so it was all lies

 

[Infinitron]

But Codex is for hate

Well, duh.

 

[Monty]

Suggested tag for ugralitan?

 

[Crooked Bee]

But Codex is for hate

Well, duh.

As evidenced by our Blackguards preview, written by -- surprise! -- Darth Roxor.

 

[Haba]

Never read such a truly biased review. 11 hours playing and putting pictures of old builds and intentionally trying to get yourself stuck in graphical pitfalls and such. Bravo.

Yes, indeed. It is unfortunate that such a blatantly biased review has been released to tarnish the reputation of this widely acclaimed title...

Shouldn't you still be fixing those bugs? You know, the bugs in the game that you have paying customers (theoretically) suffering through?

 

[RK47]

Haba, come back when you've developed RPGs and released one.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

How do you "intentionally get stuck in graphical pitfalls"? You hug a wall until the game's grip on its own code slips and it shits all over the screen?

 

[Haba]

Haba, come back when you've developed RPGs and released one.

Pffft, even my final programming course demo work at university was a fully fledged cRPG

Shouldn't you be busy writing LundB fan fiction?

 

[hoverdog]

Suggested tag for ugralitan?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Never read such a truly biased review. 11 hours playing and putting pictures of old builds and intentionally trying to get yourself stuck in graphical pitfalls and such. Bravo.

I think this review is shittier then the game's current situation. I think what is worse, showelware or showelreview.

And if you stop wearing nostalgia googles for a moment, you will face that the original game was an empty wasteland and this one is not as bad as you try to portray.

But Codex is for hate, isn't it Fart Roxxor.

Pity brofist

 

[ugralitan]

Ah yeah Metacritic, great authority on RPGs. Which gives Skyrim 94.

Shows the quality of the players here, bending before lame RPGs...I thought you people would not scale to level. I even doubt any of you know the original games, perhaps you just googled everything, found every faulty stuff in the old un-patched version of the games, made some checking differences with the original. I commend you on that.

But why bother even? Spreading the hate? Nobody will remember what you said about the game within a year, anyways.

hoverdog Maybe we should tag you as Simply Stinks? Because your attitude simply stinks.

Clockwork Knight It is quite easy to find graphical mistakes in the games by pushing the boundaries of places. Hence it was so easy to find graphical bugs in old Elder Scrolls Games, you'd just go through a place where you should not go. What kind of idiot walks into wall in broad daylight? If it has the intention of finding holes and reporting bugs, that would be commendable. But if you do to write an extremely biased review, that is pure shit.

Haba: I am a paying customer, so I do not feel any of the suffering you mention. You sound quite narrow-minded, unsure how you were able to program anything in the first place. Copy/paste from your friend and changing the segments, variables to deceive the professor? Or you could just bring the so called cRPG of yours and I'll give it a Darth Roxxor style review :D But you would not want to give us a thing to prove that you are not a programmer? (If so, worst of worst at that?)

I should feel bad. Why I did not met with RPG Codex before, you guys are amusing...some of you are even more brain damaged then some whiny babies in Steam forums.

 

[sser]

The graphics are on par with the landscapes of Red Baron 3D.

 

[Xor]

What is this guy, one of the developers of the HD remake come here to stick up for his piece of shit game?

 

[Darth Roxor]

What is this guy, one of the developers of the HD remake come here to stick up for his piece of shit game?

He reeks of an alt imo

 

[ugralitan]

Neither a developer, nor an alt. Alright, I'll take a more amiable way then.

Darth Roxor Don't get me wrong, I have read your whole review and there are grains of truth where I relayed in the official forums for people there to fix them which was bothering me as well(such as differing map names, voiceover, intro etc) They are known and discussed many times over. But aside that your review is full of mistakes and annoyances:

1. You started with the main menu of release, rather then a patched build. That is quite unprofessional. Of course maybe you write reviews for fun simply and then you should say so, then people won't take you seriously.

2. The game is in playable and finishable state, and it does not end in 11 hours definitely. To truly understand this kind of game you need to watch closely what happens behind the rolls and skillchecks. Did you ever tried to check F9 and watch what goes wrong when your characters miss, weapons break and why some enemies go down easy while others does not. I can myself end an encounter fairly fast with a good team of heroes, I am sure someone of your "intellect" could do the same. I was getting my weapons break rarely and there is a quality difference between weapons, and there are whetstones.

3. Spell casting ranges depends upon your skill in the corresponding spell. You cannot guide it through 9 paces away if you have just 3 skill in the spell.

4. Spell failure depends on your Cleverness(old Wisdom) and Intuition as well as Arcane Lore. And let me give you an accurate table from roleplaying perspective, in world of DSA:

-5 to 0: You really do not know about that talent but you can give it a shot.
0 to 5: You know the basics and at the beginning of the profession.
5 to 10: You are trained in the talent and you can pull it off easier then a rookie.
15: You are a professional in the business.
17-18+: You are the master of the job.

Same applies to the spells. I would personally prefer Fulminictus to slay enemies since it is a great damager.

5. For the rate of camping...really somebody should be a little perceptive maybe intuitive. I could go from Thorwal to Felsteyn without much bother on camping with some planning. Even then many times camps goes without a fuss. And even an encounter you can't handle comes? You can bolt off.

6. I am not sure by cool fluff descriptions you refer to. All towns have their lore bits on the map. And there is only small stuff missing like you click on Hjalding Mountains on the original. Wrongly named towns have been reported on official forums(I think the only part of your review I find helpful. A grain of truth exists there after all). So there will be no issue there.

7. And nice you mention, that game stutters on maximum settings. It does stutter in Thorwal because it is large enough to cause a performance hog with water reflections, optical effects and so on. And with every new patch more graphical options are added. There is no noticeable issue on other towns.

8. Don't tell me you actually used fast forward button repeatedly. That is for emergencies such as when the hero makes its action but waits like 30 more seconds. It is not intended as fast turn passing. But of course, how could you know...without actually reading anything about the button. Asking won't devalue your charisma, Darthy.

9. And if you did not find humor, perhaps I will give you a tavern example spoiler. Of course, the chance you could encounter this would be only possible if you actually played the game and had spent some time within the taverns. And no, this encounter does not exist in the originals.

Spoiler

Innkeeper’s busty daughter approaches Hyolmar with a gentle smile on her face and bends down slightly to whisper. Letting her breath tickle Hyolmar’s right ear, she says “Hey handsome, I will make you feel like a -true- man, follow me.” in a seductive tone.

1. Follow her
2. Dismiss her

Option 1

Hyolmar stands up from the table with a sly grin and starts to follow the beautiful maid. “My father would not approve this...but...I need you...very much” innkeeper’s daughter says sweetly before holding Hyolmar’s hand and pulls him through the bustling tavern. “We should go down the cellar, quickly!” she says before opening a trapdoor. Without a hesitation Hyolmar moves down with an eager smile pasted on his face.

Hyolmar looks around the cellar till he hears the barely audible “thud” of the trapdoor. Busty maid walks right in front of a wine barrel and gives Hyolmar a beckoning smile. As he approaches closer she puts her hand on his chest and murmurs “Now, as a true man, help the damsel in distress...by carrying these barrels of wine to upstairs.”. Suddenly Hyolmar realizes everything was too good to be true and resigns to his fate. As Hyolmar carries the last barrel, innkeeper’s daughter pats his back and says “My hero!” with a soft giggle before walking away to counter.

Option 2

Innkeeper’s daughter looks at Hyolmar with a baffled expression and then shrugs her shoulders. “It is your loss, I guess...after all I can find another man to sate my....needs.” says with a wink before walking away to another table.

And there are many inside jokes exists...but I would rather not give spoilers to those who did not play the games at all.

10. Useless spells have been removed from the game. Attributo spell has been reduced from 6 to one making you choose a stat...so for example instead 6 entries there is one entry for Attributo which works like 6 spells. There is only Heptagon, Blood and Furor to be implemented to complete the things. And do not worry about challenge, it is definitely not hard to ramp up difficulty and I am positive developers can whip you fair and square. Original games were equally easy, and one thing is for sure that they listen to player requests to make the game better then the original was.

And most of the issues you brought out as annoyances, has been discussed and partly fixed, and getting fixed right now. I really really hoped that you would find some gamebreaking things here. But mostly it is your ineptitude to play the game and known bugs which is to be ironed out in future patches. (And many people finished the game, possibly you forgot something in the Temple of Nameless or you could pray to Unicorn )

Conclusion: I am not telling that you are completely wrong, the game is superb and everything is as good as a pink unicorn which has a rainbow colored tail and shoots laser from its horn. No, there are bugs, issues, balancing to be done. But there is also an improvement throughout the patches, no one can deny. Kill a warrior, but do not treat his corpse unfairly. Your review is no more valuable then a mere shitstorm on a Steam page, which does not make anything better at all. A review should bring constructive criticism without being insultive. It should inform people with professional subjectivity with a degree of technical objectivity, not mislead or turn into a hostile campaign. While I admit, your review is a good laugh, it does not carry the quality of a true review. Like a tasty meal which is hazardous to your health.

 

[RK47]

The less attention given to this remake the better.

 

[Crichton]

I am also a "paying customer". I pre-ordered this thing because 1) I'm a fan, 2) it was a mere $15 and 3) I'm an optimist. But I haven't found the courage to even install this mutated travesty. Based on the patch logs, the game's on a slow trajectory from completely non-functional to simply shit. And that's a shame because if they'd made a straight remake with semi-modern graphics, less inventory bullshit and a decent interface, it would have made a fortune. That also should have been easier to do than designing these freeform 3D towns and making pointless changes to the dungeon layouts. Somewhere very early on, this entire endeavor was completely misconceived.

 

[ugralitan]

ugralitan strikes me as someone who would probably fit in here (fan of the originals, kodp, aod) if we wore kid gloves. he seems to believe that crafty will eventually fix the game if enough positive thinking, faith, and of course money is sent their way in advance, and the critics are sabotaging that possibility.

Actually, there is a small difference between wearing kid gloves and being constructive. For example, if the same release mistake was made by the guys at Age of Decadence I would show similar support and constructive criticism for them. That does not void their intentions or the potential of the project.

About crowdfunding for 2D images (though I would suggest you to check the German part of poll since English part is not half active as it is), it was an idea which was hard to coordinate. Hence it was a poll in the form of crowdfunding to see how much people would be interested in 2D images to get incorporated. It brought attention to 3D models (pending for the next patch) because 2D pictures at this point would be unfeasible:

1. A major delay due to needed amount of images. You can no longer copy/paste same image with a small difference to every temple and get away with it.
2. Major events, wilderness encounters etc need 2D images as well as first encounter with Hetman (or finding Grimring etc)
3. It takes at minimum 3 days to fully incorporate one 2D image unless you have an artist team (which might be expensive)

But this kind of criticism from several players led to Crafty Studios to work on modding tools which will give the necessary 2D infrastructure, which is a positive improvement if not completely satisfactory.

I do not believe if enough positive thinking, faith and money sent towards someone will make things fixed. (Otherwise every well-funded Kickstarter project would be a damn good classic game if I was such a believer) But I believe, when criticism is done right with a proper manner, it will lead to improvement. Don't mix constructive approaches with kid gloves or being a superfan. I can thrash-talk about games as efficient as an average Roxor , but that would be not very productive or amount to anything other then giggles.

 

[Minttunator]

ugralitan strikes me as someone who would probably fit in here (fan of the originals, kodp, aod) if we wore kid gloves. he seems to believe that crafty will eventually fix the game if enough positive thinking, faith, and of course money is sent their way in advance, and the critics are sabotaging that possibility.

I'm not so sure - I think there is another forum that would probably suit him better.

 

[Infinitron]

ugralitan One does offer constructive criticism to scammers and con artists. You're suffering from a kind of Stockholm Syndrome. If you want to be a raving fanboy, at least do it for a company that deserves it.