Personal RPG blog

[Lord_Potato]

Ooph Risen 2. Three was a step back in a better direction just no one would play it after the second game.

I prefered 2 to 3. It had more charm, more likeable main character, Patty was a love interest, not a character from stepsister porn. Even melee combat was better because every critter did not have this ridiculous leap attack.

 

[Konjad]

Recently I've played Brigand: Oaxaca and Panama.

Here are my impressions about Oaxaca:

Screenshots look like a turd and give impression this game is a low quality indie trash.

But the first impression couldn't be more wrong. This is actually a well developed game akin to some old classics.

Graphics are terrible, so is the audio, but the gameplay is incredible in a way. If you liked Deus Ex sneaking, combat and multiplicity of approaches, this is exactly how it works in Oaxaca. The world is structured as a multiple hubs, and it opens more and more along with the story. The story has multiple branches, you can certainly choose quite early in the game between two factions, perhaps more but I haven't got to that. Quests often have multiple solutions and the world makes you feel you are open to do what you want, not what you should, though there is obviously the main story to follow.

The world in the game is wicked and fascinating. I don't want to say much to take away your own exploration of it, but I did not thing of any aspect of the game world as it was copy-pasted or incompetently done. From factions to monsters, it was all done with dedication and fit the post-apocalyptic primitive setting with some low fantasy.

The player can develop character by appointing points to various skills which in consequence will affect the gameplay a lot. Focusing on stealth, hacking, voodoo, agility, combat and more allows for replays having a different game styles. Limited amount of equipment and the fact that weapons deteriorate and ammunition around is scarce adds to the challenge. Do, however, put some points in range weapons as unfortunately some parts of the game have unavoidable combat and with far away targets, so carrying a rifle to use at least sometimes is probably almost a requirement.

Overall, this is one of the better RPGs released in recent years. I was completely hooked on it, despite that the game can be quite challenging and required multiple attempts, sometimes a lot, to pass some parts of it (and I still haven't finished it at this time). If you like challenge, wish to explore an interesting setting, and enjoy RPGs with gameplay of late 90s/early 2000s, then this is a game specifically for you! Even if it looks extraordinarily ugly and sounds like farts.

Overall, great game. Unfortunately, can't say as much praise for Panama as it was decline all around (and had some frustrating game breaking bug, but apparently the dev fixed it), but it's still alright. Probably worth getting on a sale after you finish Oaxaca, but I won't say you need to play it. Oaxaca is 100% worth recommendation though.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

TESIII Morrowind: Tribunal

It felt pretty good to get explore the sewers killing everything to further my profit raising empire, then getting to the point where there was nothing left to do but tie up loose ends by exterminating my whore of an ex-wife especially since I just got done with Vivec and put his soul into a daedric tower shield with an absorb health on target spell. That bitch had it coming with her betrayal of me in the previous life and deserves justice. Now I have a second tower shield with absorb health on target.

 

[luj1]

Recently I've played Brigand: Oaxaca and Panama.

Here are my impressions about Oaxaca:

Screenshots look like a turd and give impression this game is a low quality indie trash.

But the first impression couldn't be more wrong. This is actually a well developed game akin to some old classics.

Graphics are terrible, so is the audio, but the gameplay is incredible in a way. If you liked Deus Ex sneaking, combat and multiplicity of approaches, this is exactly how it works in Oaxaca. The world is structured as a multiple hubs, and it opens more and more along with the story. The story has multiple branches, you can certainly choose quite early in the game between two factions, perhaps more but I haven't got to that. Quests often have multiple solutions and the world makes you feel you are open to do what you want, not what you should, though there is obviously the main story to follow.

The world in the game is wicked and fascinating. I don't want to say much to take away your own exploration of it, but I did not thing of any aspect of the game world as it was copy-pasted or incompetently done. From factions to monsters, it was all done with dedication and fit the post-apocalyptic primitive setting with some low fantasy.

The player can develop character by appointing points to various skills which in consequence will affect the gameplay a lot. Focusing on stealth, hacking, voodoo, agility, combat and more allows for replays having a different game styles. Limited amount of equipment and the fact that weapons deteriorate and ammunition around is scarce adds to the challenge. Do, however, put some points in range weapons as unfortunately some parts of the game have unavoidable combat and with far away targets, so carrying a rifle to use at least sometimes is probably almost a requirement.

Overall, this is one of the better RPGs released in recent years. I was completely hooked on it, despite that the game can be quite challenging and required multiple attempts, sometimes a lot, to pass some parts of it (and I still haven't finished it at this time). If you like challenge, wish to explore an interesting setting, and enjoy RPGs with gameplay of late 90s/early 2000s, then this is a game specifically for you! Even if it looks extraordinarily ugly and sounds like farts.

Overall, great game. Unfortunately, can't say as much praise for Panama as it was decline all around (and had some frustrating game breaking bug, but apparently the dev fixed it), but it's still alright. Probably worth getting on a sale after you finish Oaxaca, but I won't say you need to play it. Oaxaca is 100% worth recommendation though.

Brigand is amazing. It is like a baby of Morrowind and Deus Ex. Made by one guy too, and set in an incredibly original world.

 

[Arbiter]

Diablo II

Why Diablo 2 but not Diablo 1?

 

[whydoibother]

Unfortunately, can't say as much praise for Panama as it was decline all around

Eh? Its a smaller, more concentrated version of the same game. Like Deus Ex Human Revolution vs Deus Ex Mankind Divided.

 

[Konjad]

Recently completed ArcaniA: Fall of Setarrif, here are my thoughts about it: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/arcania-fall-of-setarrif.53167/#post-8469948

Currently giving Drakensang a try. Later I might play Daemonsgate or Divine Divinity, but I'll see.

 

[Konjad]

Added Baldur's Gate III. Very flawed but great game!

I got extremely bored with Drakensang. I tried and tried but this game is like designed by AI as "generate generic RPG"

Played Daemonsgate for a while, but I must say it's meh as well, got bored after a few hours. It's very dated as well, and gameplay doesn't balance it out.

 

[Konjad]

Tried Starfield for a few hours, but it's an unfixable, uninspired and boring garbage. The worst Bethesda game up to date. Abandoned.

Next on my RPG list are two games I received as gifts: NWN EE from just (I'll play modules, not OC ofc) and Memoirs of a Battle Brothel from jaekl

 

[Lord_Potato]

Tried Starfield for a few hours, but it's an unfixable, uninspired and boring garbage. The worst Bethesda game up to date. Abandoned.

Next on my RPG list are two games I received as gifts: NWN EE from just (I'll play modules, not OC ofc) and Memoirs of a Battle Brothel from jaekl

Memoirs are pretty good. Tyranicon pushed the rpgmaker to the limits to make a game that provides actual C&C and reactivity.

 

[MerchantKing]

Will the /fit/ tag fit into any of your blog entries?

 

[Jaesun]

Playing Caves of Lore. It's just really fun. Can tell the guy who did this put a lot of time and love into the game.

 

[OndrejSc]

There was a thread for listing CRPGs codexers have beaten, I keep a post I update there. Turns out I haven't beaten a new CRPG since 2012.

I haven't beaten a CRPG ever. The closest I got was EOB1 - I quit on the 3rd floor.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

I have trouble finishing games even when they make me lose sleep in the beginning. Once the interest slips away, I can't keep going. There are games where I've started +30 characters and couldn't finish with any of them.

 

[OndrejSc]

Finishing is better than starting. (Ecclesiastes 7:8)

 

[Konjad]

Added Colony Ship to the list of completed RPGs. Just finished it. Decent game, albeit much shorter than I thought it would be.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

Mass Effect

When ME2 and ME3?

 

[Konjad]

Mass Effect

When ME2 and ME3?

Never.

 

[Konjad]

I just realized I forgot to add The You Testament 2D! That was a fun game, took me only 2.5h to finish but well worth 1€ price I paid.

 

[Konjad]

I've just finished Two Worlds II - Pirates of the Flying Fortress. For the first half it seemed really decent, akin to the first Two Worlds, but the second half it turned into the standard Two Worlds II linear fetch quest garbage. Such a shame. I don't know how to rate it, because overall it feels like two different games but in the end it disappointed so I'd say do not bother unless for some reason you enjoyed the second Two Worlds game.

 

[Shaki]

I've just finished Two Worlds II - Pirates of the Flying Fortress. For the first half it seemed really decent, akin to the first Two Worlds, but the second half it turned into the standard Two Worlds II linear fetch quest garbage. Such a shame. I don't know how to rate it, because overall it feels like two different games but in the end it disappointed so I'd say do not bother unless for some reason you enjoyed the second Two Worlds game.

Is first Two Worlds actually decent? It always looked like poor man's Oblivion to me, so I never bothered to play it

 

[Konjad]

I've just finished Two Worlds II - Pirates of the Flying Fortress. For the first half it seemed really decent, akin to the first Two Worlds, but the second half it turned into the standard Two Worlds II linear fetch quest garbage. Such a shame. I don't know how to rate it, because overall it feels like two different games but in the end it disappointed so I'd say do not bother unless for some reason you enjoyed the second Two Worlds game.

Is first Two Worlds actually decent? It always looked like poor man's Oblivion to me, so I never bothered to play it

I've written about it on 'dex, but in short: it's like Oblivion but without level scalling (and with horse combat!)

 

[Baron Dupek]

I remember two major uproars caused by Two Worlds 2.
One - they blocked access to ~75% of the world map if you played singleplayer. Like you [dev] really expected to be a major success in sales and multiplayer?
Two - new version changes nothing and brings microtransactions.
Also it breaks mods like Worldmerge which opens the whole world map. Sadly it's not developed anymore so you can't gain access to DLCs in one go.
If anyone wants to play Worldmerge get the GOG version and downgrade it to required version and install the mod - there's also some setup in the game with mute NPCs explaining new features. Enemies are also more challenging and those werejackals (Varns?) have generals specialized in spellcasting. Death walking on two legs.
I hope you'll be playing only this thing, until you complete it, because once you take a longer break - you'll forget almost everything.

 

[Konjad]

Or might as well skip TW2 if you're not an RPG junkie like me. The first TW is decent, but second one is just trash and so far every expansion I have played. Fuck me, I have silly addiction.

 

[Konjad]

Two Worlds 2: Shattered Embrace is such a piece of broken trash, I'm abandoning it in act III, constant game breaking bugs and frustrating issues despite it being basically railroaded linear crap. They even but a boat in front of the deck, which starts moving forward the moment you sit on it so it always gets stuck. Even after managing to unstuck it, it dog damn disappeared next time I came back to it. I'm not gonna finish this one, nor am I ever going to give Echoes of the Dark Past a try, from Steam reviews and posts it seems even bigger turd (and it's multiplayer only, why did they even release mp map for a game that's been dead for years is a mystery).

 

[Konjad]

Well, perhaps I should say, one thing I liked about Shattered Embrace was dungeon design.

 

[Konjad]

Finished Deus Ex Invisible War yesterday, and as I wrote in another topic, it's a decent game:

I finished it today and what I think is that it's a decent game despite being a poor Deus Ex sequel.

UI is terrible, and the beginning of the game is not much better with a rather silly early dialogues. Ammunition is universal for all guns, despite it making no sense, and you can already get the best melee weapon in the first hub. Worst of all, however, are levels which are so tiny it sometimes takes just stepping a few meters over less than 5 seconds to move to another one. Wait, perhaps that's not the worst thing, but the fact that it is completely irrelevant if you blast everyone - including civillians - to pieces, or try to do a pacifist run. Opposite to Deus Ex which gameplay-wise did not care, but other NPCs made it clear you're a psycho for murdering kids on the street. Here you can shoot a school and one level later nobody cares. Additionally, the game is extremely easy on 'normal', I should've played on the hardest level probably.

Yet, deep inside it still feels like Deus Ex, just stupidified. You still get multiple ways to approach the goal, but instead of multiple meaning many, here it usually means two. The writing improves after the first hub, and despite the story overall being a bit of a mess due to creators trying to merge multiple Deus Ex endings, you still get that DE atmosphere and conspiracy theories. Quests are usually interesting and get better with time, vibe is there, sometimes quite Blade Runner-like - especially with the holo-AI dialogues. The music is pretty good as well, though it misses to be as memorable as the original's. Invisible War manages to be way better than many modern "sci-fi" games, but it was made at the time when sci-fi was in much better condition, combined with the original game being one of the best it let to huge disappointments and a lot of criticism, but the fact is that it's not a bad game, and compared to many modern ones it should earn even more respect.

Compared to other parts of the series it's obviously vastly inferior to Deus Ex, and Mankind Divinded is much better as it learned from the issues of its prequel. Nonetheless, I'd rate it even with Human Revolution although both games have completely different strengths and weaknesses.

In the end I have enjoyed Invisible War aplenty, but everybody prepared me to it being a garbage whereas I've got a decent action-RPG. It is just not on a Deus Ex level, but it is a pleasant game if you forget of what series it's a part of. Ultimately, I do recommend it as a fair and adequate game, especially if you otherwise played the series. It's far from being remarkable, but it's good enough to have fun and spend about 15h. I might not replay it multiple times like the original DE, but I appreciate I gave it an honest try despite so many negative opinions as it turned out to be pleasant.