The River of Time is ooooouuuttt!

[MicoSelva]

I was planning on buying the collector's edition when the game was released here, because of some nice squishies, but in the end decided otherwise. I'm waiting for the regular version to cheapen up a bit now.

 

[markec]

I didnt like the first part but I saw lot of potential there with complex character creation and several really great quests.

Gonna try this and if its good then Ill buy it, and hope that it will have good enough sales that Radon Labs will find new investors.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Impressions: so far, not bad. Shitloads of stats, I hope talky skills are actually useful.

Skills find a lot of application:

- need a decent weapon, e.g. a bow, early on? better have bowyer skill
- need decent armor, better be able to craft one
- need potions? better be able to harvest ingredients and make potions
- thieving skills are good to have
- talking skills are used in quests/avoiding combat but afair you need fairly high skills

Here's a list with the highest needed skill values (names of skills might differ, played only german version)

-Concentration: avoid being wounded and disrupted with spells, keep it maxed on everyone

- open locks: at least 10, maybe slightly more

- disarm traps: at least 10, maybe slightly more

-pick pocket: can be a main source of income, keep it maxed, hightest malus on skillcheck: 25

-knowledge of human nature: ~15, often applied in dialogue

- persuade: keep it maxed, highest malus in dialogue: 18

-streetwise: 14 (will for example gain access to additional quests and moneyz iirc)

- animal lore: at least 10

-beguil : at least 10

-keen senses: at least 15

You will also need a higher value of dwarf nose on Forgrimm but I don't remember what value, probably 10+

especially playing as a pure mage is a real pain in the ass

Uh-huh. How so?

 

[Lesifoere]

Thanks, that sounds promising. I plan to play a summoner mage so as to minimize the pain of targeting. That or I can play in pseudo-isometric, I suppose.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

I played in iso, there's not much pain in targeting, unless you insist on AoE spells. I think AoE sucks, because 1) targetting mid-combat is a pain and 2) spells like fireball have such a high casting time (3 or even more combat rounds) that it's literally impossible to aim it properly. I'd stick to buffs/debuffs, summons and lightning/thunderbolt for damage.

 

[Suchy]

Uhm. Yay.

How much less? I want it to be decent. I need something to play, and I just can't be arsed to bother with NV.

Actually do bother with NV. It is a decent game, and I'll dare to say it's a good Fallout, once you look past engine limitations. Unless you're one of the ISO TB IS TEH ONLY WAY crowd. Good writing, characters and quests, great exploration and world design. I'm about halfway through and already there was more content than in the whole Fallout 3. The world also is (or seems) bigger. Sure, it has a few retarded ideas (ghoul quest), but what game doesn't, oiginal Fallout games weren't any better in this regard... I'm enjoying it more than The Witcher.

Back to The River of Time - haven't tried it yet, but I was watching my flatmate playing the Polish version for a while (released a few weeks ago). Seemed to have a fuckload of filler combat and bad camera, but I can't yet say anything about the story, quests nor writing. According to him, the design is better than Drakensang, but overall the game is too short. I'll sure give it a try. After I finish NV that is.

 

[Felix]

How are females characters looks like ?

 

[Suchy]

Yeah, Fallout 3 left some long lasting bad taste, didn't it... Same was in my case. I expected NV to be utter shit, but played for an hour and it sucked me in.
The very beginning is weak though, character creation and the tutorial quest are boring. Gets better once you leave Goodsprings.

Btw. I still haven't played MOTB - because of the engine and camera. And my hatred towards D&D. I'm a storyfag, so eventually I'll get over it, but damn, I need more motivation. First I spent shitload of time levelling my char up to 18, then that fugly dungeon... and the camera. I stopped playing even before I left that dungeon.

 

[Cenobyte]

Anyway, is it just me or is dragon age 2 borrowing the premise of this game i.e. how the game is framed as a story told by a dwarf?

Yeah, the dwarf as a narrator combined with the "replay your past"-aspect of Alpha Protocol. That's Bioware, if they can't copy their usual plot formula, they just copy the plot design of their competitors.

I can recommend the game, it's not the best RPG since Arcanum Mass Effect 2 but a very decent and well-crafted game. Good encounter design, nice dungeon design with puzzles and different environments (no Bioware copy-paste dungeons), really beautiful graphics, a solid skill system and a decent plot. Most characters have some depth and flavour dialogues. The dialogues themselves are pretty good, at least in the German version.

Oh and @ Delirius: Wtf? Bad troll is bad

 

[Zed]

Is it possible to lock the camera? It fucking sucks lots of dick as it is now.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Codex on New Vegas: WTF IS THIS SHIT OBSIDIAN MOAR LIKE FAILBISDIAN AM RITE FUUUU FAILOUT3 ALL OVER AGN!!!!!1

Codex on RoT: Meh, good for what it is, might pick up the special edition.

Am i doing it right?

 

[Ruprekt]

The boobs are bigger than in the first Drakensang.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Anyway, is it just me or is dragon age 2 borrowing the premise of this game i.e. how the game is framed as a story told by a dwarf?

Yeah, the dwarf as a narrator combined with the "replay your past"-aspect of Alpha Protocol. That's Bioware, if they can't copy their usual plot formula, they just copy the plot design of their competitors.

I can recommend the game, it's not the best RPG since Arcanum Mass Effect 2 but a very decent and well-crafted game. Good encounter design, nice dungeon design with puzzles and different environments (no Bioware copy-paste dungeons), really beautiful graphics, a solid skill system and a decent plot. Most characters have some depth and flavour dialogues. The dialogues themselves are pretty good, at least in the German version.

Oh and @ Delirius: Wtf? Bad troll is bad

I have to disagree on encounter design and dungeon design. Both are pretty lacking in quality and effort. Some dungeons are at least OKish (like the dwarven mine towards the endgame), one is pretty good actually : the dungeon with the ancient demon, which also has finally a good & challenging bossfight but in most dungeons there's pretty much nothing of interest except the visuals and 50 identical filler encounters (cue Efferd temple), a thrown in puzzle doesn't save that excercise in tedium.

The boobs are bigger than in the first Drakensang.

Yes, they improved the boobs as well.

 

[Phelot]

The boobs are bigger than in the first Drakensang.

IS THIS TRUE??? I NEED CONFIRMATION! FUCK DOWNLOADING NOW AT WORK!!!

 

[hoochimama]

The original, for comparison purposes.

 

[made]

I can recommend the game, it's not the best RPG since Arcanum Mass Effect 2 but a very decent and well-crafted game. Good encounter design, nice dungeon design with puzzles and different environments (no Bioware copy-paste dungeons), really beautiful graphics, a solid skill system and a decent plot. Most characters have some depth and flavour dialogues. The dialogues themselves are pretty good, at least in the German version.

 

[Phelot]

The original, for comparison purposes.

I can't find any of the new game. Those were nice breasteseses but I need it bigger. Can I get a confirmation??? I nEED INFOS

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Impressions: so far, not bad. Shitloads of stats, I hope talky skills are actually useful. The control scheme is a bit awkward--there's got to be a way to lock onto a target and shoot spells/arrows at it instead of having to click on the target every time, but whatever.

The game's fairly pretty.

I overlooked that. You can queue (sp?) actions, hold the shift key (or was it ctrl?) while inserting an action, the actions will be carried out one after the other, no need to click every round.

 

[Delirius]

especially playing as a pure mage is a real pain in the ass

Uh-huh. How so?

I played in iso, there's not much pain in targeting, unless you insist on AoE spells. I think AoE sucks, because 1) targetting mid-combat is a pain and 2) spells like fireball have such a high casting time (3 or even more combat rounds) that it's literally impossible to aim it properly. I'd stick to buffs/debuffs, summons and lightning/thunderbolt for damage.

AoE is shit, buffs/debuffs are basically useful only for bosses and single target damage spells are useless on low levels and overpowered on high levels. Spamming Thunderbolt is not fun.

I can recommend the game, it's not the best RPG since Arcanum Mass Effect 2 but a very decent and well-crafted game. Good encounter design, nice dungeon design with puzzles and different environments (no Bioware copy-paste dungeons), really beautiful graphics, a solid skill system and a decent plot. Most characters have some depth and flavour dialogues. The dialogues themselves are pretty good, at least in the German version.

Oh and @ Delirius: Wtf? Bad troll is bad

Nazi scum.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

AoE is shit, buffs/debuffs are basically useful only for bosses and single target damage spells are useless on low levels and overpowered on high levels. Spamming Thunderbolt is not fun.

That's all true except buffs/debuffs are always useful, but does it really make playing a mage a pain in the ass? Especially considering that you can't play a pure mage in this game in the first place. It lacks the spell selection, you won't have the mana pool etc. You'll always have a weak fighter with some casting ability to even it out. Still better than playing a fighter type imo.

 

[Cenobyte]

Anyway, is it just me or is dragon age 2 borrowing the premise of this game i.e. how the game is framed as a story told by a dwarf?

Yeah, the dwarf as a narrator combined with the "replay your past"-aspect of Alpha Protocol. That's Bioware, if they can't copy their usual plot formula, they just copy the plot design of their competitors.

I can recommend the game, it's not the best RPG since Arcanum Mass Effect 2 but a very decent and well-crafted game. Good encounter design, nice dungeon design with puzzles and different environments (no Bioware copy-paste dungeons), really beautiful graphics, a solid skill system and a decent plot. Most characters have some depth and flavour dialogues. The dialogues themselves are pretty good, at least in the German version.

Oh and @ Delirius: Wtf? Bad troll is bad

I have to disagree on encounter design and dungeon design. Both are pretty lacking in quality and effort. Some dungeons are at least OKish (like the dwarven mine towards the endgame), one is pretty good actually : the dungeon with the ancient demon, which also has finally a good & challenging bossfight but in most dungeons there's pretty much nothing of interest except the visuals and 50 identical filler encounters (cue Efferd temple), a thrown in puzzle doesn't save that excercise in tedium.

Yeah yeah, it's not perfect, I know that. But compared to other recent RPGs it's definitely worth playing. And I usually liked the encounter design, it was rather balanced from easy fights that let you show off your characters and their abilities to some challenging fights that required a little bit of thinking and intelligent positioning. Of course, most fights aren't really that hard and especially in a replay the game becomes terribly easy, but it's still much better than Dragon Age. And Drakensang has much more different enemies, so it's not the same boring Hurlock-Genlock-crap for the 1000st time.
And the dungeon design is easily on of the best for the last 4-5 years. You actually have puzzles, some hidden stuff and some good encounters. That's more than many other recent RPGs have to offer in this regard. Of course, there's still plenty of room for improvements and especially the exploration part is rather weak, but all in all both aspects (dungeons & encounters) are a clear improvement over the first Drakensang and imho better than in Dragon Age.

 

[coldcrow]

All I think about it is: How good would it have been with a proper fixed camera and turnbased combat, which would
a) get rid of the insane clusterfuck
b) make programming a decent AI way easier.

 

[Marquess Cornwallis]

I bought an imported German copy and played it for about 10 to 15 hours. It does have some good parts, especially if you can live with what BN calls "whimsical" setting and characters, but eventually the unwieldy camera and combat (and, especially, camera IN combat) got to me and I moved on to something else.

 

[Delirius]

AoE is shit, buffs/debuffs are basically useful only for bosses and single target damage spells are useless on low levels and overpowered on high levels. Spamming Thunderbolt is not fun.

That's all true except buffs/debuffs are always useful, but does it really make playing a mage a pain in the ass? Especially considering that you can't play a pure mage in this game in the first place. It lacks the spell selection, you won't have the mana pool etc. You'll always have a weak fighter with some casting ability to even it out. Still better than playing a fighter type imo.

Yeah, you can't play a truly pure mage unless you larp (that's moronic btw), that's why I gave mine some melee active skills to use when he was out of mana (which was most of the time). That's one of the reasons why playing mage is pain in the ass, as a pure warrior you at least get what you wanted. And how are debuffs useful when most enemies die in about 10-15 seconds? Buffs/debuffs are useless for filler combat, which would be the main part of the game.

Yeah yeah, it's not perfect, I know that. But compared to other recent RPGs it's definitely worth playing. And I usually liked the encounter design, it was rather balanced from easy fights that let you show off your characters and their abilities to some challenging fights that required a little bit of thinking and intelligent positioning. Of course, most fights aren't really that hard and especially in a replay the game becomes terribly easy, but it's still much better than Dragon Age. And Drakensang has much more different enemies, so it's not the same boring Hurlock-Genlock-crap for the 1000st time.
And the dungeon design is easily on of the best for the last 4-5 years. You actually have puzzles, some hidden stuff and some good encounters. That's more than many other recent RPGs have to offer in this regard. Of course, there's still plenty of room for improvements and especially the exploration part is rather weak, but all in all both aspects (dungeons & encounters) are a clear improvement over the first Drakensang and imho better than in Dragon Age.

Yes, it is better than Dragon Age. But no, it doesn't make it a good game.

You must understand one thing on your way to enlightement - it's shit. It's all shit.

 

[nuclearglow]

I liked it for a playthrough. Actually, a nice game overall. Have the expansion around here somewhere. Not played yet.

Whimsical? yes. Cliché-laden? yes. Turn-based? Go to options, enable automatic pause after every round. it's not the same, but it addresses basic TB needs. also use CTRL-click to queue actions. Difficult? No! It's easy, even on hardest setting. Camera system: crap. enemy targeting difficult. when entering a fight, press CTRL-A (select all PCs) and target an enemy. That way, you fiddle only once.

I like the central-european inspired towns, villages, landscapes. Different from the uninspired, bland, uncultured plastic-worlds known from many US games.

One thing: Dark eye is traditionally a hippiesque must-be-hero setting. That's shit. All dialogue options eventually narrow down to acting the hero anyway. You don't like that, stay away from the game.