The following post contains spoilers, especially the last part about the ending of the game. Continue reading on your own risk.
The automap looks monotone and you cannot quite remember the area looking on it. This is because it shows only the least. Having disabled old school mode, I do not really feel the need to indicate the obvious. Moreover, you cannot place different symbols, therefore it would not be well recognizable with one glance.
Crystals, iron Doors, visible switches, teleporters should all have their unique markings. Comments are for riddles, special switches, mechanics or items you could not associate a meaning to yet.
Casting spells is the most meaningful tool in battle but even without energy, you cannot just be completely helpless. I do not quite get why swinging weapons draws energy or those amounts of energy considering the low regen. They are the base option. It also means that the mage is disabled to a great extent using normal weapons, a second penalty to his/her minor physical stats. I would like to give him/her a ranged weapon as gap-closer or when energy is consumed but then, no energy for spells grows back. There should be some non-magical abilities for the other classes, especially since there is no cleric, which would support the other chars. At the moment, when putting a wounded fighter in the back row for example, he/she is rendered completely useless. So why not have some more single target supports like shielding an ally or actively using a shield to block a part of the next incoming attack(s) within 1 second. Some healing ability over time that is maybe banished when taking damage would enable a comeback of hurt chars without fiddling in the inventory too much or prepared stuff and without being too mighty. Getting close to the end of the game, switching the position of characters becomes obsolete. The classes specialize in their tasks, so a mage immediately bursts in the front row.
Apropos fiddling in inventory. Why is there no belt of 2-3 item slots next to each character's combat ui? This would allow the fast use of some necessary flasks or bombs. And please have a weapon swap like in Diablo 2 - Lord of Destruction where a character can have two sets of weapons/shields, they only use one at a time but you can quickly change it with a hotkey/button. That's particularly desirable for your archer rogues because they are melee-ranged-hybrids that often need to switch.
Having chosen hard difficulty, I expected some serious action. This wish was only partly satisfied. It seemed like the attack/defense stats were just heightened or those of the hero party reduced. The enemies lacked abilities and rather created their pressure by being beefy. Everytime only one enemy was left, I danced with it in circles for eternities. In general, each type of foe could be beaten with this move except the lightning-speed wasps and the stationary octopus arms (which you can even easilier come by with, stepping forward and back). The ice lizard caves were pointless. It only caused to run numerous times to the crystal. The highly restricted movement and narrow dungeons combined with the tankyness of enemies lead to game over once you are surrounded. However, getting in this position is kind of random and you do not really have a possibility to see the enemies' movements behind your back. Some more abilities like means of relocation (changing location with that of an enemy or hopping two fields forward for example) could have made a difference. Additionally, at the moment, as soon as an enemy starts to move, it already counts as having the target place occupied, therefore blocking off the player. You should have some split-second to interfere, claiming that position for yourself and nudging back the competitor. The fight against the ogre in level 6 is very boring since he possesses loads of hitpoints, on the other hand does not pose a threat. Distribute more abilities and unique behaviors. The ogre could charge up 1-2 seconds to smash the ground (all 8 fields or more) around him, thereby requiring a change of pace and gaining new chances for his assault attack. Include more field-based, chess-like mechanics and temporary buffs.
I do not like elemental spells that much. Shock and fire were virtually the same except dealing a different damage type. Suchlike classifications turn the combat selective. High difficulty should particularly require the combination and synergy. But seeing the skill trees and later gameplay, I got the feeling that it would have been better to max 1-2 attributes because fights were that simple. Also, poison was useless. You only infected yourself or blocked off paths, limited your view and got less damage out of it + over time, does not stack. Should have inflicted the disease debuff on enemies to have some unique meaning.
Randomity: More than 30% evasion sucks. Especially since the attack cooldowns are rather high and there are more chance-based effects. It does not make fun when your tactics are destroyed by pure randomness and battles are protracted. You still pay the energy. Damage calculation features a large range too. The balancing weakness is well visible on hard difficulty. When fighting against the ogre in level 6 for example, most of the time you deal 0 damage, even critical strikes can do 0 damage but sometimes a normal blow accomplishes around 10 from the same weapon without energy. More than tripling the amount with passive skills is just nonsense.
Equipment flexibility: Currently, you find a new best weapon, shield or piece of cloth once in a while and abandon the old one as it is rendered useless/superfluous. Add something like durability to equipment items in order to force the player to keep a variety, managing where to deplete this resource. It would grant a meaning to those mountains of lances and bulwarks you gain from skeleton soldiers. Make different versions of melee skeletons, carrying different standard weapons. Also place more loot in general. Particularly the early levels lack flexibility in all aspects.
Although the game features some freedom in which order to pass the rooms and merges the paths together, it would have been good to make the player pick a stage once or twice out of two levels optionally and have some longer backtracks by having to revisit old places.
To a big part, the levels are very dark. Would not recommend it to my brother since his eyes are rather bad. There is no internal gamma/lumina/contrasts setting. Even with good vision, it would surely look better with more small light sources. Roots on walls and the herb items could emit some mystical light since they possess special effects and are ingredients of potion brewing. Torches on the ground should burn too and in general, you should be able to see the state of a torch without putting them in a hand, icon and model should not change in inventory/ground. Clicking with a torch on a wall holder should swap an existing torch immediately.
One thing I really miss in this dungeon crawler are speeches and comments of the party. Its less vivid and you do not get impressions of the characters you play. Then again, you do not really have story progress. There are sound issues. The BGM is very subtle, there is no battle theme. Some sounds are sticking out in volume and pattern. At least have different hurt/death sounds for different races and genders. The undead spearmen are too extreme. A single one coveys the impression that a whole group is walking. Light/Shadow spell have no sound/feedback at all.
There are not any cinematics or new scenarios in the game.
More unique keys and artifacts would be appreciated. It is better for writing walkthroughs and does not appeal as lame to have the tenth brass key.
Next to the editor, which is interesting for me, think about implementing simple multiplayer support as it would be an innovative step in this genre. PvP arenas, time race, special coop missions with team puzzles would enable new horizons in and with the chess-like environment. Also add a sandbox dungeon where you can test out all the spells/items/monsters/etc. of the game. Maybe make it available after having beaten the original campaign to prevent spoilers.
More stuff to add:
- destructable walls
- type of hidden switches on the floor/ceiling
- custom death animations for each enemy type and leave a corpse behind or blood
- some unprecise indicator how much life an adversary has left
- more utility in abilities
SpoilerShow
I did not get the ending at all. I was sure that the undying one would be a giant Kraken because of the repetitive earthquakes, the Goromorg disciples and the everywhere spawning arms from beneath gratings. The prisoners could be fed/sacrificed to this monstrosity. I am not angry because this was not the case but I do not see how the portrayed cult or the remaining bestiary relates to the actual conclusion. When you imprison something, especially something as mechanical as this, you would not make a religion out of it nor build solvable puzzles, place keys everywhere etc. Until the end, instead of explaining the issue, you get stubbornly attacked as if your doing was righteous. Furthermore, why did they not just kill the thing themselves (since they had the ability to do it)? Why did the mountain collapse? I have completed the game without finding Toorum's remains, so I still assumed that the telepathic voice would be of him. How did the apparatus whisper anyway? What was the kings motivation now to throw you in these dungeons? The apparatus could not have pulled the strings either to lead the player through because then there would not have been scrolls like "You have proven worthy". Even in the final battle, the Order of Fire rather concentrated on taking the player down than stopping the device they guard. Not a thing was clarified like how you escaped or how you experienced your won freedom.
