Questions and comments

[Aeroprism]

See, most of you are proving my point.

The first ogre was exciting.

The second ogre, well, now you knew his pattern, but still fun.

What if there had been 50 ogres on a single floor?


I'm not saying the combat is boring, it's great actually. I'm not saying there are no 2x2 spaces to fight the ice lizards, there are, a few.

I'm saying after the 20th ice lizard in a row in the same set of halls with no new puzzle, no new event, after seeing the 50th flaming armor on floor 8, I was fed up.

[Kailos]

So I'm a very slow player, being a new parent and all, I don't play as much as I used to. I also like to take my sweet time and explore everything before moving on.

This brings me to halfway through level 9 so far. I know saying this won't make me the most popular person on this forum but I gather that if we all go "This game is flawless" to the devs, they'll never feel we're being honest with them.

It's been said a thousand times so far, amazing game for the most part. The mood was very properly set. I have yet to find one single bug. The puzzles were fun and original without being annoying or frustrating. So far, a very solid game. I wouldn't have made the stat/leveling system quite like this, but it still works well enough. In short, I wouldn't feel cheated had I paid $40 for it.

All that said, I'm still having a hard time finding the motivation to go on. What is slowly, inexorably getting to me is the constant, endless stream of encounters. And I'm not talking about the infamous level 3, that was easy, spiders died fast. (I play on normal). In levels 7-8 however I have been finding myself constantly harassed by those flaming flying armors and now, level 9, I am stuck at the temple entrance (where you can read a warning on the wall) and all I see is Ice lizards after ice lizards. Most are encountered in straight hallways so, no 2x2 dancing there. they hit like trucks too so, fighting head on = no.

My party is very range-centric with two mages (one specced in ice, very fun for ice lizards, fortunately I used the

SpoilerShow

fire book

on her), one front line archer and a warrior who misses half the time with his axe.

What was a nice, fun exploration game has turned into a routine of hiding behind a door, pour all my mana at Ice Lizard #41, rest, rinse, repeat. Encounters are thrilling if they happen once in a while, while you to not expect them. They become a chore if they happen every minute.

Is this what I am to expect with level 10-13 as well?

Yes, the dinos can break you in half but this is the only spot where they respawn. What to do here is save, and go running through the maze crying and hope one doesn't spawn in an inconvenient location. Oh and piece of advice, make sure to grab the lightning bolt scroll. Even if you burn it for light, just pick it up.

[Aeroprism]

Well, 10th floor. The flying mages who use all four elements can (and do) virtually wipe my party in two seconds and won't die because of miss miss miss miss. That and unloading two mages worth of mana on them does sweet nothing.

I can't decide if this is a game designed for puzzle/exploration that ended up with way too much combat or if I simply fail at playing.

I'll choose the latter to be safe.


Was fun, until it got too annoyingly hard. I might re-try on easy. This is all opinions of course, not in the least a statement of truth. I can perfectly understand that for some people, this is a great balance of battle/exploration.

To all of you who found it the right fit to your needs: I envy you. The core of the game is absolutely delightful, my hat remains tipped to the devs. It's how the dungeon was made that I don't agree with. That said, player-made content is something I look forward to.

[Merethif]

Well, 10th floor. The flying mages who use all four elements can (and do) virtually wipe my party in two seconds and won't die because of miss miss miss miss. That and unloading two mages worth of mana on them does sweet nothing.

I can't decide if this is a game designed for puzzle/exploration that ended up with way too much combat or if I simply fail at playing.

I'll choose the latter to be safe.


Was fun, until it got too annoyingly hard. I might re-try on easy. This is all opinions of course, not in the least a statement of truth. I can perfectly understand that for some people, this is a great balance of battle/exploration.

To all of you who found it the right fit to your needs: I envy you. The core of the game is absolutely delightful, my hat remains tipped to the devs. It's how the dungeon was made that I don't agree with. That said, player-made content is something I look forward to.

Sorry to hear that. Those guys are called Goromorgs and I admit they are pretty though. Fortunately in my case it was hard to the point of being positively challenging, but without becoming annoyingly hard. I really hope you will find some strategy to deal with them without the need to restart whole game.

I can only suggest to get a ranged rogue next time. In my first party (3 Rogues and a Mage) there was a Minotaur axe thrower who, by the time I get to 10th floor, became almost exclusive damage dealer. With some helpful freezing provided by Mage he could destroy any Goromorg almost single-handed. I've heard crossbow is even better then throwing axes but I don't have first-hand experience with it versus Goromorgs just yet.

Personally I wouldn't also advice party with two Mages for a first play. I know it's tempting to master all those spells, but Mages doesn't seem very versatile and having two of them doesn't provide many new options. I got the feeling that maximum diversity of members makes party more efficient on later levels because it allows better distribution of end-game gear - two Mages may "argue over" things like Conjurer's Hat or Diviner's Cloak

[Aeroprism]

Very nice post with advice to go by, thank you!

And seeing as I am way more interested in puzzle solving and dungeon exploring than I am with monster bashing, restarting on easy really isn't a big issue for me.

[Greco]

What was a nice, fun exploration game has turned into a routine of hiding behind a door, pour all my mana at Ice Lizard #41, rest, rinse, repeat. Encounters are thrilling if they happen once in a while, while you to not expect them. They become a chore if they happen every minute.

Is this what I am to expect with level 10-13 as well?

Well, I haven't reached the point you are mentioning (I am a slow player too, due to family bligations as well), but I guess that in a 13 level game, who self claims to be old school and difficult, we must be reluctant to have a single point with an "impossible" combat. After all, I am pretty sure that the devs have taken care to allow different means of superceeding such difficulties. I remember in EOB 2 also something similar with an endless respawning in some level. But where you can't fight eveyrthing just avoid them, in other words RUN...

Regarding the OGRE case, I should remind everybody that fighting beholders waw also very boring in EOB2, not only because you had also to dance around all the time to avoid their death spells, which killed your party instantly, but also because, most of the times you had to reload again and again before you win. EOB2, however was for me a flawless game