IndigoAK wrote:
The core gameplay of crawling and fighting is fun for the most part, but it's really hampered by inventory management - especially if you're using the default thief. Managing her thrown and missile weapons is a headache, especially in the heat of battle and having to juggle all of her stuff forces you to take damage while you switch out her gear after she's thrown all of her daggers or shot all of her arrows.
Dickin around with your inventory and weapons = get attacked in the meantime. Makes sense to me.
the inability to have a translucent automap up on the screen while moving around (making it like FarCry 2 or Minecraft where you can move around, but the map partially obscures the screen because it's in the game world would be awesome and useful at the same time).
Draw your own map on paper. Tape it to your monitor. Problem solved.
IndigoAK wrote:
The core gameplay of crawling and fighting is fun for the most part, but it's really hampered by inventory management - especially if you're using the default thief. Managing her thrown and missile weapons is a headache, especially in the heat of battle and having to juggle all of her stuff forces you to take damage while you switch out her gear after she's thrown all of her daggers or shot all of her arrows.
Dickin around with your inventory and weapons = get attacked in the meantime. Makes sense to me.
the inability to have a translucent automap up on the screen while moving around (making it like FarCry 2 or Minecraft where you can move around, but the map partially obscures the screen because it's in the game world would be awesome and useful at the same time).
Draw your own map on paper. Tape it to your monitor. Problem solved.
This is why I made the second suggestion of having it work like Farcry 2 or Minecraft. In FarCry 2, the character brings up a physical map that he holds into the game world. You can move around and use it to navigate at the same time, with the disadvantage that you can't use your weapons while you're running around with the map and it takes up a good portion of your field of view. This actually makes sense in the game world. I mean, maybe you should have to find a piece of magic paper first or something, but once you do it makes sense that your party would map the dungeon on to it and use it to navigate. It's certainly not a suggestion outside the bounds of the lore.
All I can say till now - I´m in level 5 - is that the game utterly rocks! Those terrific moments with the spiders and those things coming from the grates gave me extra chills. The only little thing I could complain on is, there are too many puzzles to my personal taste. like exploring a bit, puzzle, exploring a bit, puzzle, etc... By that, and athmosphere-wise I feel strongly thrown back into times of Black Crypt. the same lonely, creepy, ever-tensioning atmosphere. Very, very solid, for now a 9/10.
Eleven Hours in (Just finished Dungeon Floor 7 and think I got all the secrets) with a Level 11 Party, and I have to say, its absolutely fantastic so-far.
The main thing that grated me so far was torch micro-management (is this one dimmer than this one?). Could have done with 'time remaining' until burnout on the status. Even if it would unrealistic for the characters to know that. The Light Spell helps, but there is also little to no warning about that dimming. I have to say, getting the Orb of Radiance for my mage to hold has saved so much time; so at least theres that; but I'm not sure everyone will crack that puzzle.
Also, mages can really get behind early on; since its plausible they won't be able to contribute to combat until you give them a spear; and I didn't even realise they were losing out on XP initially. Even then, they may not always be able to cast in every given combat and spears soon become obsolete. Again, this gets fixed with the +25% XP amulet, so its ok, I guess. Just a bit surprising.
Everything else is quality. Its spooky; theres real puzzles the likes of which rarely make their way into RPGs these days, the combat is surprisingly sound, rune casting is cool (though it could do with more spells), and in general, everything feels well designed.
"If the world's a stage, and the people actors, then who the f**k has my script?!?" http://detarame.wordpress.com/ <= My games, anime and weirdness blog
