finished. final thoughts.

[Ichthyic]

first the bad:

I was a bit hampered in that the tougher combats were even tougher for me because of the way the combat system works. too much fast positioning and clicking needed. hard to even watch the actual combat, because I'm too focused on clicking various items and buttons. Needs hotkeys for spells and attacks to create a more natural rhythm.

or maybe offer a pause on space, so you can select actions for each character, then release the pause. or else offer a turn based option. *gasp*

other than that, the only thing I objected to was far too frequent injuries. really slowed combat down, and made things irritating. now, I don't actually mind the idea of injuries, it's just that it happens WAYYYY too often. remove the ability to cause injury from anything other than heavy hitting monsters, and even then, cut the chance of causing an injury by at least half if not more. basically, I had to hack in extra minor health pots simply to deal with all the injuries (not health, mind you!), and it shouldn't be like that.

Some of the puzzle clues were far far too obscure, which would be ok for optional sidequests and loot, but the one for the cemetery stone? yeah, that really needs work. trying to use real world geography references in a game where you actually have a fictional geography? bad idea. what's more, not all of us live in the same hemisphere, which makes real world geography clues rather relative by direction. Hot desert to the south? uh.... not where I live. there is simply NO way I could have progressed in the game at that point unless someone else had figured it out and posted the answers, which, fortunately, they did. not good.

that's about it for the negatives though, which is saying a lot, really.

The game's level design is excellent, I always felt well immersed in the world, always felt like the world was both large and had good detail of structure in all 3 dimensions.
Puzzles were well done and quite clever for the most part, something for everyone most definitely. Spatial puzzles, logic puzzles, even some cipher puzzles. very good.

graphics were outstanding in design and color. decent on textures; could have used a touch more variety on wall textures in places, and a bit higher resolution textures as well.

creature design was excellent; both a good variety and nicely designed. I rarely felt I was fighting the same thing over and over again... well, aside from the undead.

bugs? what bugs? There were a handful of very minor bugs (like knight shield bonus not working), but I can't recall a recent game where I played the whole thing through without a SINGLE CTD, or any serious bugs whatsoever! kudos on that, as I know that is not an easy thing to accomplish!

Overall, the game brought back some of my best memories of games I had played decades before, but with a much improved design and beautiful graphics.

really worth playing.

8/10.

[2_hype]

*emotes*

Stopped reading there. I rate this review 0/10 you should get a job at IGN.

[Hucast]

*emotes*

Stopped reading there. I rate this review 0/10 you should get a job at IGN.

You're not funny.

[2_hype]

*emotes*

Stopped reading there. I rate this review 0/10 you should get a job at IGN.

You're not funny.

You are though. Funny like a clown.

[Ichthyic]

*emotes*

Stopped reading there. I rate this review 0/10 you should get a job at IGN.

meh, doesn't pay enough.

*grins*

[2_hype]

*emotes*

Stopped reading there. I rate this review 0/10 you should get a job at IGN.

meh, doesn't pay enough.

*grins*

*tips banana*

I do agree with you about the cemetery puzzle though. That one was pretty silly.

[Komag]

Good review, thanks

[sapientCrow]

Agreed on all those points for the most part.
I liked a bunch more stuff that I noticed.

I think they will have to put in quick keys for LOG3 or maybe someone will add it in for this one.
The enemies are indeed quite fast and to get a proper backstab in you pretty much need freeze bombs or a good ice caster. Unless they are slow weak enemies which pose no issue mid to late game.

[Ichthyic]

yeah, I was thinking adding a "pause action" button, like hitting the spacebar, would be good.

you could pause the action, select the next action you want each of your characters to take, then hit the spacebar again to unpause. that way, I have time to fiddle with all the buttons, and can then actually watch the result. Can't recall, but I think one of the other popular RPGS did it like this. Dragon age maybe?

that would seem to be a very easy thing to code, much easier even than adding a hotkey system, or a real turn based option.

pretty much the only time I ever got a backstab in was when it was a first strike and my party was invisible.