Guess it's time to compare this RPG with some good ones.
Why Decline? Because it's nice but it sucks. It sucks even worse than Skyrim.
First of all, the loot is fucking level scaled. Even if you somehow get higher level loot than you would expect from the region you are currently in, armor has stat requirements which are unachievable until you have enough levels behind you and weapons' use is even directly connected to character level, since you need more action points per hit per level difference between character level and item level.
Second to that, the loot is randomized entirely which is lame and lazy. Furthermore the difference between magical equipment, rare equipment, legendary equipment and unique equipment is often only some random stats and resistances. It's even as bad as diablo 3 was in the beginning when you would get stats for different character builds on the same piece of equipment. For example a legendary amulet will not give you +2, +3, +4 or god forbid even more of the same stat but instead it will give you +1 of different stats like strength and fucking intelligence and then some dexterity to boot.
But enough about loot. Lets talk crafting. It sucks. On one hand it's partly very intuitive like hair + hair = thread, thread + needle = thread and needle. On the other, wtf am I supposed to do with void essence? You get no properties of ingredients like say alchemy in morrowind. You don't even get told if an ingredient is used for crafting or blacksmith. And since loot is random, good luck finding recipes.
The world is incredibly small. It only feels big cause of the slow game pace an it's fucking linear because of level scaled gear and monster level zones. Why??? Why would they make it linear? What is the point of a fucking open world if it's divided in monster level zones??? Yes a boss should be able to kill you if you just started the game but why would they screw with the game's replayability by making each new game follow the same fucking course???? I'll tell you why, because the world is so small, that if you could get a little overpowered you could play the game in a couple of hours and would notice just how small it is. It's the same old shitty nice graphics and small world tradeoff.
That being covered, let's talk quests and quality of quests... I skipped through most of the texts. Why? Because i could. In a linear world you don't need to know what you have to do to advance. So i need to explore the south, the west, the east and the north? Good idea, captain of the guard, if you hadn't told me, what would i have done?...
The game also gives you character housing somewhere at the end of time and it's fucking pointless cause you never go there unless you get told a new portal to some shit has opened and you got some beds to sleep in, even if you don't need to sleep the entire game.
Game mechanics:
Positive:
area effects and status effects
(EDIT) turn based combat
(EDIT) clicking on a bunch of paintings and robbing people. added by @Onholyservicebound (though it is pretty easy)
Negative:
You spend your valuable skill points on lock pick and get told: this door can't be lockpicked and this door can't be damaged and this is not a door so it can't be lockpicked or damaged, but you also can't get through so fuck you for playing this shit.
You spend your valuable skill points on loremaster and get covered in gear that boosts loremaster but no equip that boosts important skills like magic schools or man at arms or scoundrel...
You spend your valuable skill points on sneaking and get covered in gear that boosts sneaking and you don't even need a single point in sneaking to sneak.
You spend your valuable skill points on crafting and blacksmith and the stuff you get is rings of +1 speed. Everything else you get is useless.
Slow spell animations slow the game down.
(EDIT) Detecting traps needs high perception and it's done automatically, there is no skill for it you can increase and you have to consider not getting more speed at level up for action points or investing in the main stat of your class just to be able to spot traps which sucks big time since detecting traps could and should be done by skills.
(EDIT) Character is turned to stone. Duration: 2 Rounds. I'm just gonna pretend that no one ever said anything about old school and RPG in combination with this game because this is just too much...
(EDIT) IMPORTANT SPOILER: DO NOT THROW AWAY OR DESTROY INERT STONES! since you will need them in the endgame even though they look useless. (realized that at about lvl 14 and had to start over after like 2 days of constant playing)
(EDIT) Atmosphere and Aspect: Colors are much too intense, too cheering - it feels like it doesn't take itself seriously. like: "You want another middle ages fantasy role playing game with generic monsters, generic main quest and characters you don't care about at all? Piece of cake, there you go, eat that! And to show you just how much we don't care about it we'll throw in some random fucking loot in a world small enough to script everything in hours."
I'd like to know just how much money went into graphics and parties and bitches.
Why Decline? Because it's nice but it sucks. It sucks even worse than Skyrim.
First of all, the loot is fucking level scaled. Even if you somehow get higher level loot than you would expect from the region you are currently in, armor has stat requirements which are unachievable until you have enough levels behind you and weapons' use is even directly connected to character level, since you need more action points per hit per level difference between character level and item level.
Second to that, the loot is randomized entirely which is lame and lazy. Furthermore the difference between magical equipment, rare equipment, legendary equipment and unique equipment is often only some random stats and resistances. It's even as bad as diablo 3 was in the beginning when you would get stats for different character builds on the same piece of equipment. For example a legendary amulet will not give you +2, +3, +4 or god forbid even more of the same stat but instead it will give you +1 of different stats like strength and fucking intelligence and then some dexterity to boot.
But enough about loot. Lets talk crafting. It sucks. On one hand it's partly very intuitive like hair + hair = thread, thread + needle = thread and needle. On the other, wtf am I supposed to do with void essence? You get no properties of ingredients like say alchemy in morrowind. You don't even get told if an ingredient is used for crafting or blacksmith. And since loot is random, good luck finding recipes.
The world is incredibly small. It only feels big cause of the slow game pace an it's fucking linear because of level scaled gear and monster level zones. Why??? Why would they make it linear? What is the point of a fucking open world if it's divided in monster level zones??? Yes a boss should be able to kill you if you just started the game but why would they screw with the game's replayability by making each new game follow the same fucking course???? I'll tell you why, because the world is so small, that if you could get a little overpowered you could play the game in a couple of hours and would notice just how small it is. It's the same old shitty nice graphics and small world tradeoff.
That being covered, let's talk quests and quality of quests... I skipped through most of the texts. Why? Because i could. In a linear world you don't need to know what you have to do to advance. So i need to explore the south, the west, the east and the north? Good idea, captain of the guard, if you hadn't told me, what would i have done?...
The game also gives you character housing somewhere at the end of time and it's fucking pointless cause you never go there unless you get told a new portal to some shit has opened and you got some beds to sleep in, even if you don't need to sleep the entire game.
Game mechanics:
Positive:
area effects and status effects
(EDIT) turn based combat
(EDIT) clicking on a bunch of paintings and robbing people. added by @Onholyservicebound (though it is pretty easy)
Negative:
You spend your valuable skill points on lock pick and get told: this door can't be lockpicked and this door can't be damaged and this is not a door so it can't be lockpicked or damaged, but you also can't get through so fuck you for playing this shit.
You spend your valuable skill points on loremaster and get covered in gear that boosts loremaster but no equip that boosts important skills like magic schools or man at arms or scoundrel...
You spend your valuable skill points on sneaking and get covered in gear that boosts sneaking and you don't even need a single point in sneaking to sneak.
You spend your valuable skill points on crafting and blacksmith and the stuff you get is rings of +1 speed. Everything else you get is useless.
Slow spell animations slow the game down.
(EDIT) Detecting traps needs high perception and it's done automatically, there is no skill for it you can increase and you have to consider not getting more speed at level up for action points or investing in the main stat of your class just to be able to spot traps which sucks big time since detecting traps could and should be done by skills.
(EDIT) Character is turned to stone. Duration: 2 Rounds. I'm just gonna pretend that no one ever said anything about old school and RPG in combination with this game because this is just too much...
(EDIT) IMPORTANT SPOILER: DO NOT THROW AWAY OR DESTROY INERT STONES! since you will need them in the endgame even though they look useless. (realized that at about lvl 14 and had to start over after like 2 days of constant playing)
(EDIT) Atmosphere and Aspect: Colors are much too intense, too cheering - it feels like it doesn't take itself seriously. like: "You want another middle ages fantasy role playing game with generic monsters, generic main quest and characters you don't care about at all? Piece of cake, there you go, eat that! And to show you just how much we don't care about it we'll throw in some random fucking loot in a world small enough to script everything in hours."
I'd like to know just how much money went into graphics and parties and bitches.
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