Feedback
Posted: August 18th, 2010, 11:32 am
I've played Book I and Book II now, several times for Book I and twice for Book II. Overall, I enjoyed both, especially the storyline, which was well-developed and kept my interest. Quests were good... with the exception of the "walk down the street with this message" quest, there weren't any that really didn't make much sense as a quest, as I've seen in some games. Fortunately, the major lag I was seeing with Book I on my old computer is no longer an issue on my shiny new Intel Mac, but unfortunately I'm finding that a lot of the things that really bugged me about the previous book are still present in the new one.
Before I present all these gripes, let me say that I'm not trying to be negative, I'm posting them in hopes that the developer might think about fixing some of them.
First, movement is a major pain. I was constantly wishing for a way to run, so I could travel quickly through previously-explored territory. I eventually ended up cheating myself some magic skills and attributes just so I could use the portal spell... movement bugged me that much! In addition to the slow speed, I don't particularly enjoy exploring dense forest where I can't see anything and can only navigate with the automap, and that with difficulty. I can appreciate having some hidden things here and there, but would prefer not to wade through entire regions of this kind of nonsense! At the opposite end of the spectrum, "painting stripes" on the automap in the big empty regions is no fun at all. I realize that it's more realistic if there's not something interesting around every corner, but nobody here is playing fantasy games because they want reality! This really needs some improvement.
Second, the dearth of skill and attribute points still really bugs me! There are so many skills that it becomes very difficult for a character to get by on only three points per level. Especially when I start having to put points into Cartography just in order to have a basic game feature become useable, and points into Repair to keep my weapons from breaking, and points into Foraging to keep from dying of hunger and thirst as easily, etc, etc. Like I said before, when reviewing Book I, this dearth of points would be acceptable if building characters in a party, where each character can be an extreme specialist... but when the character needs to have a little of everything in order to be a competent adventurer, 3 points just isn't enough!
My other gripes are fairly class-specific. First time I played through Book II, I played as a ranger. The first two things that anyone trying to play as a ranger will notice are 1) arrows are too darn heavy, and 2) there aren't enough of them! I know, I can wait 8 days for the smiths to get more arrows, but even then I'm only getting maybe a couple dozen arrows at a time and they're all gone in a flash, and yet I'm oddly glad when they're gone because then I can actually carry some loot. This is supposed to be fun?! My ranger ended up making less than 10% of his kills with his bow by the end of the game. I don't mind a ranger needing to get into some sword work, as that's my view of the ranger: like Aragorn, good with a bow and good with a sword. But this is too much.
Second time, I played as a rogue, and that's when I really started getting annoyed. In Book I, my rogue was able to sneak up on things and attack them from hiding. In Book II, even after I cheated Hide in Shadows up past 20 (and Move Silently was in the mid-teens), I almost never managed to sneak up on anything. As soon as I got next to an enemy, it would whack me. Next, I was intrigued by the rogue's initial focus in piercing weapons, and assumed there must be some cool new rogue weapons (which were pretty much absent from Book I, IIRC). In the early game, I enjoyed finding better and better daggers and stilettos, but soon I realized that my iron stiletto with a base damage of 4 was going to be as good as it was going to get. I never found anything better. All the decent piercing weapons are spears. Seriously? Spears? A rogue doesn't use a spear! I ultimately ended up giving the poor guy one of the named spears and pretended it wasn't a spear. Why isn't there a good higher-damage stiletto with some extra poison damage at a minimum? Or a skill to seriously multiply the damage of a weak weapon, like backstabbing or increased critical hits? Also, I really felt the pain of the low skill point limits with the rogue, who needed to put points into weapons, moving silently, hiding in shadows, picking locks, skullduggery, spot hidden and the other usual skills. And a rogue who can hide in the dark really isn't any good if he can't see in the dark, but since there's no skill or racial attribute for that, I had to put points in for magic to get Cat's Eye - either that or see my entire income go out in Cat's Eye potions. Oh, and don't get me started about thrown weapons, which ought to be a rogue's province... I'm not sure what use those are to a rogue, who is not usually highly-focused in strength, since they're all heavier than arrows (some a lot heavier than arrows), making them hard to carry in any useful quantity.
Overall, I enjoyed the storyline and enjoyed the gameplay (once I had cheated my way around some of the annoyances). But I don't like having to cheat to enjoy a game, and because many of these gripes aren't significantly different from gripes I had with the first Book, I will think very seriously before purchasing Book III when it's available. I'm hoping some of these issues will be addressed by then.
Before I present all these gripes, let me say that I'm not trying to be negative, I'm posting them in hopes that the developer might think about fixing some of them.
First, movement is a major pain. I was constantly wishing for a way to run, so I could travel quickly through previously-explored territory. I eventually ended up cheating myself some magic skills and attributes just so I could use the portal spell... movement bugged me that much! In addition to the slow speed, I don't particularly enjoy exploring dense forest where I can't see anything and can only navigate with the automap, and that with difficulty. I can appreciate having some hidden things here and there, but would prefer not to wade through entire regions of this kind of nonsense! At the opposite end of the spectrum, "painting stripes" on the automap in the big empty regions is no fun at all. I realize that it's more realistic if there's not something interesting around every corner, but nobody here is playing fantasy games because they want reality! This really needs some improvement.
Second, the dearth of skill and attribute points still really bugs me! There are so many skills that it becomes very difficult for a character to get by on only three points per level. Especially when I start having to put points into Cartography just in order to have a basic game feature become useable, and points into Repair to keep my weapons from breaking, and points into Foraging to keep from dying of hunger and thirst as easily, etc, etc. Like I said before, when reviewing Book I, this dearth of points would be acceptable if building characters in a party, where each character can be an extreme specialist... but when the character needs to have a little of everything in order to be a competent adventurer, 3 points just isn't enough!
My other gripes are fairly class-specific. First time I played through Book II, I played as a ranger. The first two things that anyone trying to play as a ranger will notice are 1) arrows are too darn heavy, and 2) there aren't enough of them! I know, I can wait 8 days for the smiths to get more arrows, but even then I'm only getting maybe a couple dozen arrows at a time and they're all gone in a flash, and yet I'm oddly glad when they're gone because then I can actually carry some loot. This is supposed to be fun?! My ranger ended up making less than 10% of his kills with his bow by the end of the game. I don't mind a ranger needing to get into some sword work, as that's my view of the ranger: like Aragorn, good with a bow and good with a sword. But this is too much.
Second time, I played as a rogue, and that's when I really started getting annoyed. In Book I, my rogue was able to sneak up on things and attack them from hiding. In Book II, even after I cheated Hide in Shadows up past 20 (and Move Silently was in the mid-teens), I almost never managed to sneak up on anything. As soon as I got next to an enemy, it would whack me. Next, I was intrigued by the rogue's initial focus in piercing weapons, and assumed there must be some cool new rogue weapons (which were pretty much absent from Book I, IIRC). In the early game, I enjoyed finding better and better daggers and stilettos, but soon I realized that my iron stiletto with a base damage of 4 was going to be as good as it was going to get. I never found anything better. All the decent piercing weapons are spears. Seriously? Spears? A rogue doesn't use a spear! I ultimately ended up giving the poor guy one of the named spears and pretended it wasn't a spear. Why isn't there a good higher-damage stiletto with some extra poison damage at a minimum? Or a skill to seriously multiply the damage of a weak weapon, like backstabbing or increased critical hits? Also, I really felt the pain of the low skill point limits with the rogue, who needed to put points into weapons, moving silently, hiding in shadows, picking locks, skullduggery, spot hidden and the other usual skills. And a rogue who can hide in the dark really isn't any good if he can't see in the dark, but since there's no skill or racial attribute for that, I had to put points in for magic to get Cat's Eye - either that or see my entire income go out in Cat's Eye potions. Oh, and don't get me started about thrown weapons, which ought to be a rogue's province... I'm not sure what use those are to a rogue, who is not usually highly-focused in strength, since they're all heavier than arrows (some a lot heavier than arrows), making them hard to carry in any useful quantity.
Overall, I enjoyed the storyline and enjoyed the gameplay (once I had cheated my way around some of the annoyances). But I don't like having to cheat to enjoy a game, and because many of these gripes aren't significantly different from gripes I had with the first Book, I will think very seriously before purchasing Book III when it's available. I'm hoping some of these issues will be addressed by then.
So I (partially) agree with you on this one. 