Volourn
Pretty Princess
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2003
- Messages
- 24,924
WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!!
If you hate fanboys either bitch about it or shut up. Your choice. Either way your whining won't sway me. Without further ado, here goes:
Just finished chapter 1 after about 3 and a half hours. here are my thoughts.
Graphics/Music/Voice Overs: Not to say much here; but it's awesome. No voice is annoying, the music is beautiful, and the graphics are usually awe inspiring. At worst they are no worse than KOTOR's. The music simply fits. My biggest beef here is that I think the made up lanaguage is superficial at best. While the VO is well done; it just sounds like gibberish to me so I simply read the text and skip over it. That pales to the other dialogue where I actually listen. In fact, in this way, it hurts the immersion not help it. Just an opinion there.
Role-playing/Story: Can't say much here; but the role-playing is good. No worse than KOTOR, aagin. I'm intirgue by the stoiry though I must say the story here eerily reminds me of another BIO - though it *is* different and should be treated as such. Situations in the game are nice. I love the husband + wife+ ox sitiuation. Nothing else to be said for fear of spoilin' too much.
Character Creation/Development: First off, if anyone says this is shallow they better go play other RPGs to see what's real shallow. First off, you have three stats (yeah, nothing compared to games with 80k stats). However, these stats are so important and lead to your character being varied. They effect combat, they effect dialogue, they even styles. Heck, let me put it this way, I was gonna focus on Spirit; but then by the end of the chapter I realized that would handicap my playstyle.
Levelling up is not basic either as you have points to spend on both primary stats AND yoru styles. And, it's obvious you won't be even able to come close to master everything...
And, oh, one last thing. One does not have a choice of 6 character types. You have a choice of many character types. You have a chocie of 6 models (or 7 with the LE which i have but didn't upload..). Sweet.
Loot, Inventory, & Collection Industry: People whine about the lack of an inventory and how there'd be nothing to spend their cash on; but this silly. The varies gems you cna buy and find give each character a neat out look. For the record, I've focused on gems tht boost charm.Techniques thata re found or bought also add to characetr avriety. And, though we only had a chocie of a sword or staff style so far the fact you'll be able to buy new weapons to repelace them in the future is good news. There's enough management here to have fun with and not with the silly KOTOR way. While I personally prefer a NWN/BG style of inventory this sure beats KOTOR's inventory and is fun in its own right.
Combat & Controls: WOW! WOW! WOW! Best RT combat I have ever seen. On top of this it absolutely CRUSHES KOTOR, Crushes. It's fun; it's pretty intuitive and that's from someone who before tonight has played maybe 3 hours of x-box, and that was in a NHL 2004 torunament at my EB two years ago.
This is *not* a button smasher. If you just smash buttons you *will* die. Uumping, dodging, blocking, using chi, and switching styles are all important ehre. i'm still not the mosta dept of switching styles on the fly; but I'll learn. Heck, chi is VERY important. Some battles simply werne't tocuhable without it. And, chi heal is also neccesary. I love the fact that your health, chi, and focus don't simply regenerate. It makes it that you simply can't your super attacks for the heck attack. Use wisely. This is a 10+ button combat system; but it's so intuitive you hardly can tell as comes naturally.
Even battles where I won the first try were very, very close which occured most times. 2 battles killed me like 5+ times each alreadt. One was where I had to fight 6 enemies at once solo and they were literlally kicking my butt. In order to (eventually); I had to use a magic style and my kung fu style, use focus, use chi heal, dodge a lot, switch targets, and gobble up what 'power ups' they dropped. WOWSERS!
I'm gonna do some semi spoilers; but I think this will be alright since it's about 2 types of enemies that have been discussed a lot pre release.
1. Ogres. All I gots to say is OWWWWWWWWWWWW! Now, first off, they are slow movers; but when they hit they take off basiclaly all your health. I fought two at once and they basically wiped out my follower right awya (they actually hit him both at the same time with their power attack which they love), and one hit me there. Luckily I wa sable to dodge bakc and forth while healing to eventually finish them off. I didn't die against them; but I should've. Got real lucky there.
2. Toad demon. Holy moly! This guy is tough. He's Mister Stretch for sure. I died 5 times against him before winning with just some massive chi strikes, focus, and heal and help from my follower. Owwwwwwww!
Good stuff.
Overall, combat is just plain awesome. Though; it would be fair if your allies and you can hurt eahc other like the enmies can hurt each other. 'Tis unfair; but I can understand why you didn't go that wya. Should add for JE2, I think. I have one other big beef with combat; but I'll explain below. Remember, combat is awesome here.
Dragonfly Minigame: This is fun; but a tad easy so far; but I've only played it twice so far. Not really role-playingy; but fun nontheless and since you cna avoid if you choose after the first one no one should really complain about it all that much.
Major Problems: 1. Load Times - I find them very slow. I find myself playing tiddlywinks when it's loading. that said, areas are pretty pig in size espicially when comapred to KOTOR most of the time so they are rather infrequent. Still; too slow for my tastes.
2. Combat escape Blockage - This sucks for two reasons. first off, I think the PC should be allowed to escape most battle sif he so chooses. Being artificlaly forced to fight to the death is silly. Secondly, it hurts my strategy. I like to dodge and jumpa round a lot as standing still just leads to death yet soemtimes if I dodge too much in oen direction I get stuck on this 'invisible wall' and the enmies just wacka mole on me. This cna be really bad with fighting 4+ oppoents. One on one it's not an issue.
Overall: Quite frankly, this game is awesome. It's better than the OC, SOU, KOTOR, and even HOTU. It *might* even land up being better than BG1 if the story holds up. I doubt BG2 though simply because of the length of it and the inability to run from combat really does annoy me.
Still, an absolutely awesome game. Call me a fanboy all you want; but if saying this game DESTROYS KOTOR makes me a fanboy so be it.
Good suff.
Ask any questions you want.. if you dare..
If you hate fanboys either bitch about it or shut up. Your choice. Either way your whining won't sway me. Without further ado, here goes:
Just finished chapter 1 after about 3 and a half hours. here are my thoughts.
Graphics/Music/Voice Overs: Not to say much here; but it's awesome. No voice is annoying, the music is beautiful, and the graphics are usually awe inspiring. At worst they are no worse than KOTOR's. The music simply fits. My biggest beef here is that I think the made up lanaguage is superficial at best. While the VO is well done; it just sounds like gibberish to me so I simply read the text and skip over it. That pales to the other dialogue where I actually listen. In fact, in this way, it hurts the immersion not help it. Just an opinion there.
Role-playing/Story: Can't say much here; but the role-playing is good. No worse than KOTOR, aagin. I'm intirgue by the stoiry though I must say the story here eerily reminds me of another BIO - though it *is* different and should be treated as such. Situations in the game are nice. I love the husband + wife+ ox sitiuation. Nothing else to be said for fear of spoilin' too much.
Character Creation/Development: First off, if anyone says this is shallow they better go play other RPGs to see what's real shallow. First off, you have three stats (yeah, nothing compared to games with 80k stats). However, these stats are so important and lead to your character being varied. They effect combat, they effect dialogue, they even styles. Heck, let me put it this way, I was gonna focus on Spirit; but then by the end of the chapter I realized that would handicap my playstyle.
Levelling up is not basic either as you have points to spend on both primary stats AND yoru styles. And, it's obvious you won't be even able to come close to master everything...
And, oh, one last thing. One does not have a choice of 6 character types. You have a choice of many character types. You have a chocie of 6 models (or 7 with the LE which i have but didn't upload..). Sweet.
Loot, Inventory, & Collection Industry: People whine about the lack of an inventory and how there'd be nothing to spend their cash on; but this silly. The varies gems you cna buy and find give each character a neat out look. For the record, I've focused on gems tht boost charm.Techniques thata re found or bought also add to characetr avriety. And, though we only had a chocie of a sword or staff style so far the fact you'll be able to buy new weapons to repelace them in the future is good news. There's enough management here to have fun with and not with the silly KOTOR way. While I personally prefer a NWN/BG style of inventory this sure beats KOTOR's inventory and is fun in its own right.
Combat & Controls: WOW! WOW! WOW! Best RT combat I have ever seen. On top of this it absolutely CRUSHES KOTOR, Crushes. It's fun; it's pretty intuitive and that's from someone who before tonight has played maybe 3 hours of x-box, and that was in a NHL 2004 torunament at my EB two years ago.
This is *not* a button smasher. If you just smash buttons you *will* die. Uumping, dodging, blocking, using chi, and switching styles are all important ehre. i'm still not the mosta dept of switching styles on the fly; but I'll learn. Heck, chi is VERY important. Some battles simply werne't tocuhable without it. And, chi heal is also neccesary. I love the fact that your health, chi, and focus don't simply regenerate. It makes it that you simply can't your super attacks for the heck attack. Use wisely. This is a 10+ button combat system; but it's so intuitive you hardly can tell as comes naturally.
Even battles where I won the first try were very, very close which occured most times. 2 battles killed me like 5+ times each alreadt. One was where I had to fight 6 enemies at once solo and they were literlally kicking my butt. In order to (eventually); I had to use a magic style and my kung fu style, use focus, use chi heal, dodge a lot, switch targets, and gobble up what 'power ups' they dropped. WOWSERS!
I'm gonna do some semi spoilers; but I think this will be alright since it's about 2 types of enemies that have been discussed a lot pre release.
1. Ogres. All I gots to say is OWWWWWWWWWWWW! Now, first off, they are slow movers; but when they hit they take off basiclaly all your health. I fought two at once and they basically wiped out my follower right awya (they actually hit him both at the same time with their power attack which they love), and one hit me there. Luckily I wa sable to dodge bakc and forth while healing to eventually finish them off. I didn't die against them; but I should've. Got real lucky there.
2. Toad demon. Holy moly! This guy is tough. He's Mister Stretch for sure. I died 5 times against him before winning with just some massive chi strikes, focus, and heal and help from my follower. Owwwwwwww!
Good stuff.
Overall, combat is just plain awesome. Though; it would be fair if your allies and you can hurt eahc other like the enmies can hurt each other. 'Tis unfair; but I can understand why you didn't go that wya. Should add for JE2, I think. I have one other big beef with combat; but I'll explain below. Remember, combat is awesome here.
Dragonfly Minigame: This is fun; but a tad easy so far; but I've only played it twice so far. Not really role-playingy; but fun nontheless and since you cna avoid if you choose after the first one no one should really complain about it all that much.
Major Problems: 1. Load Times - I find them very slow. I find myself playing tiddlywinks when it's loading. that said, areas are pretty pig in size espicially when comapred to KOTOR most of the time so they are rather infrequent. Still; too slow for my tastes.
2. Combat escape Blockage - This sucks for two reasons. first off, I think the PC should be allowed to escape most battle sif he so chooses. Being artificlaly forced to fight to the death is silly. Secondly, it hurts my strategy. I like to dodge and jumpa round a lot as standing still just leads to death yet soemtimes if I dodge too much in oen direction I get stuck on this 'invisible wall' and the enmies just wacka mole on me. This cna be really bad with fighting 4+ oppoents. One on one it's not an issue.
Overall: Quite frankly, this game is awesome. It's better than the OC, SOU, KOTOR, and even HOTU. It *might* even land up being better than BG1 if the story holds up. I doubt BG2 though simply because of the length of it and the inability to run from combat really does annoy me.
Still, an absolutely awesome game. Call me a fanboy all you want; but if saying this game DESTROYS KOTOR makes me a fanboy so be it.
Good suff.
Ask any questions you want.. if you dare..
).
