You know, I didn't expect a lot from this game. It was very pretty in the previews, but most games are these days. I expected a thumb mashing hack'n'slash, but I am pleasantly surprised.

I've been up since midnight playing and I can't put the bloody thing down. If you guys need an MMO break, and aren't a big fan of the 'big two' (DA2/Witcher 2) like I am, check this game out. It's not button mashy, though people who hate FPS may dislike it. It's not a shooter, but you DO need to think strategically and duck behind walls. It's a co-op fantasy game though if you're single-playering it, the AI takes control of the other character with some direction from you (and they do a good job of it, so far).

What I didn't expect was that I needed to use my head to survive. There's puzzles and riddles, tons of secret passage ways that lead ~far~ off the beaten path. Otherwise the game seems very linear, but you then you start finding secret walls to break through and end up on a side quest you hadn't expected. You don't get notified half the time, it's just a new cooridoor to explore, and suddenly you find yourself up against puzzles and bosses that are completely optional but open up more of the game's lore and uber gear as well.

There's no leveling up, but you do get crystals occaionally which you use to boost your skills directly. It's proven to be a very nice experience for me. It's an RPG that doesn't feel like an RPG. It actually brings me back to the Golden Axe days, and yes I'm dating myself, back in the times when Arcades were a frequent hot spot. Anyway that's my take on it. If you guys need a break and want a new game to try, check it out. It doesn't seem to have much buzz, so I wasn't sure how many people knew of it.

EDIT: I should mention, there's NO inventory. All that gear you pick up degrades, and as you kill things and break objects more gear drops for you to pick up. Your selection is constantly changing as the previous gear is destroyed. At first it worried me, but there's no shortage of things to pick up. Makes the environment and atmosphere seem more interactive. There were a few times I have to make heavy use of roll and cover though, when my shield broke and I couldn't find a new one :P Some people may like those more hectic moments though.

Cool. =)

Ive spent too much money on new games lately so i have to wait on this now. I really want to play it, it looks amazing.

I'm really glad you posted this.  As brink didn't hit the spot for me, I was looking into this and Rage to fill the spot where I hoped Brink would.  

I think I might just go pick it up today.  Thanks Gaean

nice. might have to give it a go :-)

I don't know too much about this game yet,  I've known about it, but haven't payed much attention,  do you create your own characters or are they premade?  Its an Action RPG from what I'm to understand...  but it seems like the characters may be pre-made .. as this is story based?  Ay?  Yes?

Originally posted by maskedweasel

I don't know too much about this game yet,  I've known about it, but haven't payed much attention,  do you create your own characters or are they premade?  Its an Action RPG from what I'm to understand...  but it seems like the characters may be pre-made .. as this is story based?  Ay?  Yes?

Yes it's pre-made characters. Have you ever played those Sega games, like Lost Vikings, where you get a set of characters that can do different things, and they have to work together ot make it through the game? It's like that. Only with gore.

It's very story-based, the story rolling out as you play. The intro gives you an idea of what's happening, but it takes off on its own from there. Lots of dialogue between the two characters a la Bioware games. I'm hoping the game continues with DLC introducing new characters and new storylines, but so far I'm enjoying these two. They're very...I dunno...'cute' together. Elf girl treats warrior dude like he's an old fart even though she's like 3 times his age, and he grumbles a lot and pokes fun at her for running around half naked. They've got a lot of personality.

I'd like to call it an action-RPG, but that brings to mind games like Dynasty Warriors or DA2 and it's not like that. There's a lot more necessity for defense and tactics, otherwise even random weak enemies will kick your ass. And I have it 'Normal'. There are two more harder modes and one easier one.

When you play local co-op is it split creen or do you share a screen?  I want a game that I can play with my wife, but she hates split screens and won't touch em.

i took a look,the only thing i wish is it had a 4 player mode. I have a group of 4 that we have played together now for over 10 years and been looking for something we can play together like this.

probably going to play this with our group when it comes out.http://www.pathofexile.com/

Originally posted by Krellen

When you play local co-op is it split creen or do you share a screen?  I want a game that I can play with my wife, but she hates split screens and won't touch em.

That I don't know. I remember it being confirmed there would be split-screen co-op but I haven't tried it so I can't confirm it myself. I would google it, I sort of remember reading about it in one interview or another.

Originally posted by gaeanprayer

Originally posted by Krellen

When you play local co-op is it split creen or do you share a screen?  I want a game that I can play with my wife, but she hates split screens and won't touch em.

That I don't know. I remember it being confirmed there would be split-screen co-op but I haven't tried it so I can't confirm it myself. I would google it, I sort of remember reading about it in one interview or another.

I bought the game earlier today on the 360 and played with a buddy using split screen.  This option is obviously not available on the PC version and we both didn't want to buy the game so this was our best choice.

My impressions are simply,  the game so far is interesting to say the least.  It would be the fantasy equivelant of Gears of War 2/3.  The controls are very similar, minus the melee combat,  but everything else is pretty much the same,  even to the point of somewhat clunky controls in some areas.

Overall though, the game plays well,  the story seems pretty good so far... we just got past the first chapter and are pretty close through the second... and we've done just about every side quest we could find.

More importantly than the strength and style of the weapon you have is knowing how fast your weapon attacks, which is really the major difference between life and death in certain situations as some monsters move very fast and slow weapons make it tough to catch them.  We're playing on the gamer mode which is pretty much in the "medium" difficulty level, and its rare that we die, though sometimes we'll reload if we miss an area.

The only MAJOR gripes I have... the game is too damn dark.  Not dark like, seedy or morbid.. dark like.. I can't see what the hell is going on half the time.  It makes for some interesting combat situations, but it doesn't add to the suspense when you're in near pitch black conditions and your health bar is dropping.  We got around this early on when we were able to choose our special abilities as using fire magic does give you some light, and settingyour bow on fire also lights up an area when necessary,  but being the light giver also keeps you out of minor battles in fear you'll lose the fire and be left sightless.

Everything else is pretty good so far.  I'll definitely be playing this one through to the end.

lame, cliche dialogs.

terribad consolish menus.

extremely repetitive gameplay.

thats Hunted for ya.

Originally posted by sazabi

lame, cliche dialogs.

terribad consolish menus.

extremely repetitive gameplay.

 

thats Hunted for ya.

I didn't find the gameplay repetitive at all,  the puzzles are pretty good, though most of it is just finding the right way to go about things... nothing too far out of standard gaming fare, but it wasn't repetitive.

Neither is the combat.  Speed of weapons changes the flow of melee and ranged combat, but the real kicker is how you use your mana.  You also level up your abilities based on use, and I've used quite a bit of magic which comes in handy.  Mobs aren't too varied through the first chapter, but you see different enemies as you progress and you can't just hack and slash or you'll die very quickly.

The menus are consolish,  but as I'm playing it on a console it doesn't bother me... and furthermore, its not like you have a tremendous amount of options you need to chance or set... so the UI and menus work perfectly fine the way they are.

There is nothing redeeming about this game.  It has nothing new to offer the genre and what it recycles is so poorly executed that it's not worth mentioning.  The game is a C- execution of a fantasy Gears of War in an ugly, buggy, poorly balanced package.  The archer is fairly entertaining until the end of the first level, and whatever unlucky friend you stick with the melee character has every right to never speak with you again.  The game quickly establishes itself as a series of clicking left mouse, shooting whatever is shiny to progress, trying your best not to touch environmental details so you don't get stuck, and avoiding monsters like they're monsters so they don't 2hit murder you.  The commentary is enough to make me want to quit the game (the first level the two PCs spend the entire time obsessing over a barking dog in the background...thats the highlight).

If it were an indie title, I could see this passing as a 10-15$ title, but as a published, full price game touted as being the next big thing?  Not even close.

Anyway, I honestly hate to bash games, but  I can stomach the entire Gothic series despite its glaring flaws and feel this one is a notch below that series' worst.  Do yourself a favor if you just -have- to try this game, and give it a month or so until it drops to $4.99.  I expect it won't be much longer than that.

A buddy and I just spent the last 5ish hours playing through the first 2 chapters online.

Enjoyable to say the least.  The menus can piss ya off for sure, and while not the 'cutting edge' graphics it seems are expected these days, there is a lot of fun to have.  Even on the lowest difficulty setting you can find yourself dead of forced back to a previous checkpoint if you're not paying attention.  

The melee combat is decent, shallow'ish, but I guess if there were too many more options of how to swing a weapon it would get annoyingly confusing.  

Loot system is weird in there is no inventory, after awhile you can hold multiple weapons at least, which makes it a little more fun to 'save' your good ones.  Why 'save'?  because epic and fancy magical weapons have a durability to them.  Which means once you've run out of charges on it, throw it away and look for the next one.  It surprisingly isn't as bad as I initially thought it would be.

My initial impressions were kind of a feeling of dread.. like .. "Oh god, I just wasted more money on a shyte game didn't I?"  But after my buddy got online and we started playing co-op, the fun kicked in.  

Overall, is it the best game ever?  Nope.   But it does nicely fill a niche which is sorely lacking in the gaming world these days... a well thought out and fun to play co-op game.  On it's own, solo, or trying to treat it as anything other than a 2 player experience and you'll be disappointed.

And for comments about lack of substance and cheesy dialogue..  My friend and I spent 5ish hours playing just through the first 2 chapters.  (there are 6 total).  Keeping in mind that there's also the custom built dungeons and levels from the developers and other players..  I don't see how there's a lack of content or substance, it is of course what you make of it, but the game itself surely isn't lacking for things to do.

As for the story, it is cliche fantasy blah blah stuff..  But if you play the game, listen to the character dialogue there is a lot of humor and personality to it.  It is quite entertaining to listen to the jokes and banter between the 2 characters in game as you make your way through things.

Overall, I'm glad with my purchase of it and expect to kill a few more nights this week playing.  To those on the fence, I say this.. AS LONG AS YOU HAVE A CO-OP BUDDY - get the game.  If you're intent is to play solo or chance finding some freak on XBL or Steam or whatever..  May want to pass on it.

(BTW, I've been playing it on 360.)

Originally posted by sigurd57

 

Overall, I'm glad with my purchase of it and expect to kill a few more nights this week playing.  To those on the fence, I say this.. AS LONG AS YOU HAVE A CO-OP BUDDY - get the game.  If you're intent is to play solo or chance finding some freak on XBL or Steam or whatever..  May want to pass on it.

 

(BTW, I've been playing it on 360.)

I think thats a major part of it, most of the people complaining are PC players,  but playing on the 360 seems to work just fine,  and honestly I wouldn't play this game through by myself.  If my buddy doesn't come by tonight I'd likely play something else and save this for when he does.

The game has some minor issues but its really not a bad game.  It has challenge, strategy, puzzles, and a decent combat system.  I would have liked to see an expanded character system,  but its still pretty enjoyable.

I'm playing it, and so far I like it. The partener's AI (if you play solo) is most of the time much more efficient than a real player.

Originally posted by maskedweasel

Originally posted by sazabi

lame, cliche dialogs.

terribad consolish menus.

extremely repetitive gameplay.

 

thats Hunted for ya.

I didn't find the gameplay repetitive at all,  the puzzles are pretty good, though most of it is just finding the right way to go about things... nothing too far out of standard gaming fare, but it wasn't repetitive.

 

Neither is the combat.  Speed of weapons changes the flow of melee and ranged combat, but the real kicker is how you use your mana.  You also level up your abilities based on use, and I've used quite a bit of magic which comes in handy.  Mobs aren't too varied through the first chapter, but you see different enemies as you progress and you can't just hack and slash or you'll die very quickly.

 

The menus are consolish,  but as I'm playing it on a console it doesn't bother me... and furthermore, its not like you have a tremendous amount of options you need to chance or set... so the UI and menus work perfectly fine the way they are.

lets see

1. not repetitive? cmon a bunch of enemies come, you spam the wind lift thing, your partner headshots everything with a bow. a completely overpowered combination. zero challenge whatsoever.

occasional cover fight once in awhile which also doesnt feel nearly as responsive as gears of war, mass effect or splinter cell 5.

when you run out of mana you kite a little, kite a bit... meh... action games a few years ago were much more diverse. prince of persia, devil may cry etc.

had 5 or so puzzles. all of them involved either shooting some lamp or the giants eye with fire arrow or pushing some kind of cart.

2. you dont need to change anything? dude... not only the same ability lvl2 occupies another spell slot, but you have a freakin 4 total. there are 6 spells... each of them has 3 levels. id dare to say the choices are limited.

3. yeah UI is great... those 'PRESS E' near every object is like totally not annoying. a simple highlit object + single or two action buttons is all you need.

i almost forgot to mention... every single door in first 2 or so hours of gameplay... was exactly the same with exact same animation. seriously? do games get more and more limited technical capabilities as the time goes?

yes im picky, but even then this game is bellow average.

Originally posted by sazabi

Originally posted by maskedweasel

Originally posted by sazabi

lame, cliche dialogs.

terribad consolish menus.

extremely repetitive gameplay.

 

thats Hunted for ya.

I didn't find the gameplay repetitive at all,  the puzzles are pretty good, though most of it is just finding the right way to go about things... nothing too far out of standard gaming fare, but it wasn't repetitive.

 

Neither is the combat.  Speed of weapons changes the flow of melee and ranged combat, but the real kicker is how you use your mana.  You also level up your abilities based on use, and I've used quite a bit of magic which comes in handy.  Mobs aren't too varied through the first chapter, but you see different enemies as you progress and you can't just hack and slash or you'll die very quickly.

 

The menus are consolish,  but as I'm playing it on a console it doesn't bother me... and furthermore, its not like you have a tremendous amount of options you need to chance or set... so the UI and menus work perfectly fine the way they are.

lets see

1. not repetitive? cmon a bunch of enemies come, you spam the wind lift thing, your partner headshots everything with a bow. a completely overpowered combination. zero challenge whatsoever.

occasional cover fight once in awhile which also doesnt feel nearly as responsive as gears of war, mass effect or splinter cell 5.

when you run out of mana you kite a little, kite a bit... meh... action games a few years ago were much more diverse. prince of persia, devil may cry etc.

had 5 or so puzzles. all of them involved either shooting some lamp or the giants eye with fire arrow or pushing some kind of cart.

2. you dont need to change anything? dude... not only the same ability lvl2 occupies another spell slot, but you have a freakin 4 total. there are 6 spells... each of them has 3 levels. id dare to say the choices are limited.

3. yeah UI is great... those 'PRESS E' near every object is like totally not annoying. a simple highlit object + single or two action buttons is all you need.

 

i almost forgot to mention... every single door in first 2 or so hours of gameplay... was exactly the same with exact same animation. seriously? do games get more and more limited technical capabilities as the time goes?

 

yes im picky, but even then this game is bellow average.

You can't just spam magic all day, and as a character that uses a lot of magic, you run out fairly quickly.  If you are just steamrolling through it you're probably playing on easy mode, unless the PC version is just that much farther removed from the 360 version.

When I use spells I only slot the largest tiered spell I have, and spend most of my points in battle magic which is a lot of fun to play but even with 3 bars of it I run clean out in some fights., and its unlikely that I switch to too many spells during a fight, but they do help.

"Press E"  I can't speak to that as I play on the 360, but I'd bet its akin to "press B"  and if you've ever played GoW 1 - 3 then you'd know its the SAME exact thing.  The only difference in responsiveness between the two games utilizing cover is that you get the occasional terrain glitch which I did get twice in my time playing, and my friend didn't get it once, but I use cover a lot more.

The door animations don't really bother me,  but in the first chapter you did see more kinds of doors had you gone of the beaten path, and we found some areas with fights that were tougher than we imagined.  It was rare for us to both die, but when we reached the cave with all of the treasure the first time, we didn't expect  both ambushes.

All I can say,  playing with a friend made this game very fun for me, and not playing on easy mode gave the combat more challenge.  I like it, and it was worth the purchase.

I'm interested in this one as well, but there's so many games that I still need to play, that came out recently and so many more that are coming out in the near future and I simply don't have the time right now (nor can I spend that much money).

Can you find friends online for the co-op though? I don't have many mates interested in this sort of thing.

Can you go online to play with some random people for co-op?