Sulphur on 14/11/2024 at 12:22
Luckily, I haven't been able to finish Disco Elysium (yet), so when I play something like Inquisition, my baseline standard for it to achieve is that it's as interesting as any other good RPG. Which it... is not, but it's got the framework for a good RPG somewhere inside it that's wanting to be freed, which counts for something. Veilguard, from what I've seen, is very much like the ME2-ification of Dragon Age in that the combat gameplay is less about min-maxing stats and more about managing cooldowns and detonating combos, while the rest of the game is dialgoue, so a swords'n'conversations type deal. Trading depth for flash isn't too bad a deal sometimes, ME2 worked out fine after all.
Malf on 14/11/2024 at 13:52
That's a fair description.
To be fair to Bioware and EA, I think they internalised all of the Inquisition criticism about it being over-stuffed with MMO-style content, and stripped the concept down to its essentials.
Maps are still quite large, but they're more Metroidvania in nature, and there's none of the "Collect 10 badger arses" bullshit that plagued Inquisition.
There is quite a lot of revisiting of maps, but because areas gradually unlock, it feels more rewarding. And all quests, no matter how large or small, contribute to the story in one way or the other.
It's not Witcher 3 level, where you'd start something that seemed relatively simple only to end up in an incredibly deep and affecting story. But they've certainly drawn inspiration from that game.
I'm not that convinced by the combat though to be honest; it's merely serviceable, and you can still tell that action games aren't really Bioware's forte. Mechanics, while perfectly serviceable, feel unfinished. There are interesting things to unlock, but then the feedback for those things is almost non-existent, so you don't know if you're ever actually successfully pulling off a move.
Having only played Mage so far, I can't say if this is the same for Warrior or Rogue.
And the skill tree, while at first glance looking like something from Path of Exile, does actually suffer from a similar problem to release-day Cyberpunk 2077. There's a lot of boring nodes that you have to go through to get to something interesting that are just "+X% to Y Stat."
Still nowhere near gamebreaking though.
Fantasy ME2 really is the best way to think of the game.
Thirith on 14/11/2024 at 15:42
When it comes to RPGs, I have to admit that I like very little combat - which is also one of the reasons why I love Disco Elysium so much. I'm fine with the kind of combat that the original two Fallout games had, and I'm okay with minimal combat that is over very quickly, but it's about the last thing I'm looking for in an RPG, which is also why I only play about one JRPG per decade. Even with all the Mass Effect games, I only ever *tolerated* the combat, I never *enjoyed* it. If we're talking about immersive sims that have a bunch of RPG qualities, that's fine, I'll just go the stealth route and knock out all the henchmen and shoot the real bad guys in the back of the head, but somehow I never really think of something like Deus Ex as an RPG.
Sulphur on 14/11/2024 at 16:55
I'm ambivalent towards RPG combat unless it's got something really special going on, like Undertale - though the scenarios where it gets interesting are arguably less combat and more slightly lateral thinking or at least doing anything but the default 'whack thing with stick'. Divinity: Original Sin fused systems with its combat for neat solutions like stealing shit from someone after letting loose some fog/smoke in their vicinity so they couldn't see, which I chanced upon by thinking, 'what if...?', and it worked. Always one of the best feelings in games. I think it's fair to say there's emergence and a decent amount of immersive sim-iness there because of its systems interactions. Yes, I know OS2 fucked up the combat a bit, I'll deal with it when I get to it.
I also have to admit I liked Icewind Dale for the 10+ hours I gave it a decade and a half ago, though the fact that it is basically one continuous series of battles from start to finish fatigued me a fair bit into putting it down and moving on, so maybe I kinda do like RPG combat, or at least can tolerate a whole lot of it... some of my favourite RPGs are from Japan, after all.
Coming back to RPGs with less combat - if you ever get around to Sovereign Syndicate, Thirith, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts. It can't possibly live up to Disco Elysium, and what I played of the demo left me less than enthralled, but it seems interesting nonetheless.
Thirith on 15/11/2024 at 10:10
Can't promise when I'll get around to it, but I will have a look at Sovereign Syndicate. It looks interesting, and I'm definitely happy to support small devs trying their hand at this kind of thing.
Renault on 26/11/2024 at 15:58
Man, some good things out right now, I've been clocking some decent hours on a whole bunch of stuff:
Monomyth - I kickstarted this, and it was just released in Early Access. Looking really good, some nice dungeon crawling ala Arx Fatalis. I'm still making my way through the first area, but the engine and the world feel really solid. It's going to be fun to see how this evolves as new areas are added. I usually stay away from EA, but I'd say this is an exception and worth your dollars. The one man dev seems like he really puts his heart into it too.
Dread Delusion - Ah, where to start? This is my kind of jam. Fairly large open fantasy world, where exploration/discovery and questing are primary, and combat is a distant 2nd. Kind of an RPG lite with good systems but they're not very deep. Done in a beautiful (IMO) art style similar to Morrowind, with lots of variation. The story is really good too. Complete time suckage for me, its the type of game where I want to go everywhere and find everything and do everything the game has to offer.
Lorelei and The Laser Eyes - I'm not very good at puzzle game, but the presentation here is sublime and its laid out as a kind of an intriguing murder mystery. It really draws you in, I'm gonna stick with it as long as possible without looking up a guide (but eventually I'll break down, I'm sure).
Metro Awakening - I'm only a few hours in, but Metro is really fantastic in VR. Seems like the perfect medium for it. Scary, tense, claustrophobic, etc, and dark. I can already tell it's going to be one of my all time VR faves. It's pretty nerve wracking having to holster your weapon in a dark tunnel just so you can manually/physically crank your up your headlamp. Yikes.
Stalker 2 - Given the circumstances, it's amazing that this game is out and is as playable as it is. But it's going to need some work before I commit to putting dozens of hours into it.
Tomi on 26/11/2024 at 16:19
I am, or was playing Kona. It's a very short game, and if I hadn't just wandered around searching for things that didn't exist or that I didn't need, I suppose it'd be possible to finish the game in like two hours. I absolutely loved the first half of the game; the atmosphere was fantastic and solving the mystery was really exciting. I felt like a proper private detective, trying to put together pieces of the puzzle and figuring out what's going on. I could almost feel the cold wind while playing Kona, so it would have been nice to see some more survival stuff in the game. Now I never felt that I was in any danger, as there's plenty of food, firewood and campfires (etc) all over the place.
Towards the end the game unfortunately turns into a poor man's Alan Wake. Things turn a bit too weird for me, and the way how the plot gets wrapped up in the end just feels so rushed. I was expecting the game to last a few more hours (at my slow pace) but suddenly it just... ends.
It's still an okay game though despite the disappointing ending. The sequel seems to be on XBox Game Pass so I guess I'll give that a try soon.
Tomi on 26/11/2024 at 16:34
Quote Posted by Renault
Monomyth - I kickstarted this, and it was just released in Early Access. Looking really good, some nice dungeon crawling ala Arx Fatalis. I'm still making my way through the first area, but the engine and the world feel really solid. It's going to be fun to see how this evolves as new areas are added. I usually stay away from EA, but I'd say this is an exception and worth your dollars. The one man dev seems like he really puts his heart into it too.
I had almost forgotten that I also kickstarted Monomyth. I followed its development quite closely (never played any of the alpha or beta releases though) and even played it once when it was released, but somehow forgot all about it already... :o It seemed decent, but it still definitely needs some more polish. It's really impressive work for a solo dev though.
I would kind of like to play Monomyth
now, but what's the point really if it doesn't even have all the areas available yet? My gaming habits are weird though and I never have any problem waiting a year or two to play a game that I'm "really excited" about. The fact that some people are willing to pay extra money just to play some game before its official launch feels a bit strange to me.
Renault on 26/11/2024 at 16:48
I'm kind of treating Monomyth the same as Stalker 2 (which I initially forgot to mention above). It's fun to go into the game and check some things out and see how everything is currently working. But given that the real, finished game won't be available for a while, I won't put too much effort into trying to complete anything. It's somewhat different because Monomyth's content is being released in chunks, while Stalker 2's content is all readily available but just needs refining. But IMO it's the same basic concept.
Tomi on 27/11/2024 at 17:09
Games (other than Kona and EA WRC) that I've been playing this month:
Inkulinati: an interesting turn-based strategy game that looks like a medieval manuscript. It was a fun surprise to see Andreas from Pentiment as one of the playable characters. There's more depth in this game than you'd think at first, but it's a bit too slow-paced for me. Completed the story once and I think that's enough for me.
Sifu: 3rd person action game that is heavy on melee combat. I thought that I'd love this game, but it failed to hold my interest. The combat somehow feels a bit clumsy and awkward to me, and while I'm fairly sure that it'd feel great if I only got better at it, I don't think that I can be bothered to make an effort.
Rollerdrome: it's supposed to be a futuristic "sports" game. I was expecting it to feel like an actual fictional sport, you know like Speedball or something, but Rollerdrome is just silly. You skate around shooting endless hordes of boring enemies while performing all sorts of more or less cool tricks to score more points. Sounds fun, but I guess it just isn't for me.
Nine Sols: looks so much like Hollow Knight in an Eastern fantasy/cyberpunk setting. I've only just started playing it, but it seems quite promising so far. It doesn't feel as good as Hollow Knight yet, but then again HK also felt quite bad until you got some special moves and the map started opening up.
