The game has a "fast" mode which basically speeds up the whole game to make it easier to traverse areas. Its a disappointment they didn't rethink that situation and use fast travel options to prevent you shuttling back and forth between locations and NPCs.
That's one bit of fidelity to the genre that I didn't really need.
One of the major snags to recreating a game in this style is the whole issue of resting and the importance it has to playing the game. The storylines need to take this in account. I've now spent about four days since I heard about some disappearances investigating another disappearance.
I'm sure that when I eventually rock up following the other plot line that I will be just in time.
It is a challenge to the atmosphere when you're at the doors to the villain's citadel and you have to camp out for eight hours because you are out of spells and your non-regeneratable health is too low to survive another encounter.
The camps are also much less enjoyable than the one's in Dragon Age. They are essentially a little movie that plays, while most times you are just camping to recovering certain kinds of game resource it would be nice if they had more atmosphere and things like talking to companions, romance and discovering backstory happened during the camp phase. That would make it like a little mini-game in its own right.
The new Reputations system is starting to come into play more now. An NPC called me on a sarcastic response due to my character's reputation for being clever.
The principle of no bad choices seems to have been applied as well, which is refreshing compared to the original games. All reputations take effect rather than oscillating around a poorly understood alignment system. You can be passionate or aggressive from time to time if you like the option text without it resetting your rational and benevolent scores.
The whole Hollowborn theme running through the game along with the various parents that are presented in the various sub-quests are quite dark and depressing.
"Hey! Glad I was able to help overthrow your mad cousin and put you on his throne. But one thing I need to tell you... due to circumstances you have a friendly necromancer in your cellar who is pretty convinced that her former employer is still alive.
So you might want to deal with that at some point"
I wanted to try and sneak my way into Raederic's castle and avoid killing if I had to. I managed to find the route but not understand the puzzles, even when I had the priestly password I wasn't wearing robes so I ended up killing every last acolyte.
Then when I had the key that allowed me to sneak into Raederic's throne room I managed to take a wrong turn (mistaking the throne for a staircase) and killed all the mercenaries I was meant to be avoiding including all of those I had snuck past in the courtyard at the start of the mission.
My character clearly has no sense of topography.
I felt bad about killing Raederic, even though he was a brutal murderer. Therefore I want to build prison cells to see if you get more options about taking surrender.
Still it does seem strange that pretty much the first thing I build in my stronghold is a prison block.
Perception seems to be an important stat as not only is it driving conversation options but it also seems to be used by the soul magic your character has.
I now have a lovely restored house to live in but I can't find the interaction that allows me to sleep in it... #virtualworldproblems
I am really struggling to find Sweynour in the Against the Grain quest. Googling didn't help, it would seem that he should be somewhere obvious, maybe the tavern...
I fell down a big hole... there was a dragon at the bottom.
After seven reloads I went back to an earlier save.
My first party wipe was due to an unfortunate click that lead to the party happily trundling over a bunch of traps that they had already detected.
My bad, their bad and a pet peave. I guess you have to allow them to be walked over to allow voluntary triggering if you can't disarm them, but still...
Wow. Gilded Vale really is a shithole.
Interesting that the game seems determined to give your choices consequences right from the start. Having to pick between your companions early on is nice but then it is all undermined by having them all dead by the end of the prologue.
Ah! At last chance to play in story mode! I've decided to plump for Easy mode. No need to get fancy here.
The game is extremely faithful to the Infinity Engine experience but now I see it realised is that fidelity really what I want from a game?
So far in the beta the story and the quests seem very disjoint. I feel like I'm wandering aimlessly around discovering things with no context to make me care and unable to find things that I'm looking for.
The story elements (where you cut away from the isometric game to a more text-based selection of options) seem a great idea to add depth without requiring a lot of programming an art effort.
Been playing the beta, the combat is a bit of shock after things like Diablo and Torchlight. You have to really use the pause feature and micromanage your skills and character abilities.