MY BG: DA final thoughts

(posted this on the official forum as well)



Welp here it goes and I\'ll try to be to the point and brief

When I first started playing the game I was in a state of Euphoria. The graphics we\'re awesome and I was anticiapting all the cool things I would find and see along the way.

The hack and slash gameplay was fun  in the beginning but gave way to monotonous frustration by the end. There really seemed to be a huge lack of challenging gameplay as the game went on.

By the time I got 1/2 way thorugh act II I was pretty much invincible. I had a level 3 spell that was pretty much all I needed and with the insane amounts of available health and rejuv potions I never had to fret anything.

On top of all the potions finding gold and weapons with the easy ability of recalling and selling all that I found and then being able to easily upgrade my weapons was too much and took away alot of the challenge
Furthermore the amount of magicval items in the game where to easy to come by and the thrill of finding anything was lost by the time I got to Act III


No boss in this entire game gave me much trouble and only 2 bosses the Dark Elven sourceress and the final boss where the only ones that took me more then 1 try. The Dark Eleven Sourceress was the hardeest for me and the most enjoyable to fight.
How is it I could beat the snot out of a Dragon by simply movine left and right and casting my 3rd level lightning spell over and over again. These boss fights needed much more variety in the ways you we\'re challenged and longevity.


The over head camera is actually a hinderance on the game. My neck is stiff from constantly straining to see what was going to pop into the top of my TV screen. I know the game would not look as luscious with a behind the character camera, but I have to admit I prefer that type od camera, and with no zoom the lovely details of the game get lost somewhat.



I still enjoyed the game and will probably try the Co-op mode with my step-son sometime in the future when he visits us. The graphics in this game we\'re fantastic, and I really enjoyed Act I the best of the 3 areas.

but the game could have and should have been tremendously deeper in the gameplay , strategy, and challenge department

I would prefer less constant hack and slash for many more areas of strategy and challenge. How this could be implemented I\'m not entirely sure but great games find away, and after finishing
BG: DA I can only say it was a good game not great

Knowing that Snowblind has this engine working well and lots of PS2 experience the (if there will be) sequel should benefit from less time working on the enguine and more time working on the gameplay and camera



This is only my opinion and without flaming me for having this opinion please feel free to discuss your likes and dislikes compared to mine

I\'d score the game an 8.6

Jeez... after reading this... I\'m not so sure I want it.... I mean the thought of just "hack and slash" through the whole game sounds dull... and only 2 boss fights... wow...

And the camera is something I can deal with.. I think..

There\'s more then 2 boss fights

There are 2 in each Act so there are 6 and there is one area I found to be intriguing beyond the normal proceed 10 feet kill a few enemies and then proceed a few more feet and kill some more

Only 2 bosses, but actually 3  of the 6 now that I recall gave me a little trouble, but they we\'re very unchallenging looking back

Originally posted by ddaryl
There\'s more then 2 boss fights

There are 2 in each Act so there are 6 and there is one area I found to be intriguing beyond the normal proceed 10 feet kill a few enemies and then proceed a few more feet and kill some more

Only 2 bosses, but actually 3  of the 6 now that I recall gave me a little trouble, but they we\'re very unchallenging looking back

ahh... I read through that fast I guess....

Don\'t you have Jak & Daxter? I bought that game instead of Baulder\'s.. I dunno why... But I really love that game... fun fun fun.... Only a few challenging parts that make me wanna throw my controller and scream... (Like the part where you drive the airplane thingy... and you have to hop and hop to little cliff things just to get that Power Cell...) stuff like that.. but I really enjoy it...

ddaryl - Do you like Baulder\'s better than Jak and Dax?

What dificulty are you on? I found that in the later of act 3 that most of my spells became piontless. They didn\'t do enough damage.

Normal difficulty and I only spent time building up my "Lightning Spell" (forgot the official name of it) which I got to level 5 and would take out any enemy in 2 or 3 shots. I did this cause it was powerful and when your in any game you always go for the powerful stuff. I always saved extra upgrade points instead of placing them on lesser spells, and the game never made it necessary for me to have to have other spells.

I also had my mana rejuv rate maxxed at the end too and with the amount of potions available in the game especially in the final levels of Act III I actually found myself leaving 70% of them behind

I was the elven mage by the way.

I haven\'t played the other 2 characters the Dwarf or human archer. Maybe the magic avaialable to elven mage was toopowerful for the balance of the game. Never the less walking room to room killing similiar enemies over and over again breeds monotony.

After Act I , I was stoked for more assuming the game would heat up and get creative but it never did, it just held sted fast to the same concept of the 1st Act just with different enviroments and stronger enemies, but I was much stronger as well.

Even if I choose to not build up that one "Lightning Spell" to the max and elected to choose a handful of lesser spelss to learn for varietyand more challenge, I would have been even more frustrated by the monotony of the room to room hack and slash that never had any good solid strategy or change in mentality gameplay to give me a fresh flavor and keep me interested. Making the game harder would have probably made it even less fun do to the lack of different things to do

In Act III I honestly got to the point I to where I couldn\'t wait for it to end

I was thinking about getting this game next Friday but after hearing that ddaryl I think Ill give it a miss.  To be honest I did wonder if it may get a tad repetative..... cheers for the info, mi thinks Ive just saved £40!

Forgive me for butting in as I haven\'t played it yet, though surely will as dungeon crawlers are tied for #1 on my list of favorites. I caught a thread over at IGN along the same lines and it was shared by a couple of players the highest difficulty setting was the way to play if you\'re looking for a challenge. Learning to block consistently well becomes a must and with added monsters the action can get downright hairy. Also it was stated that there was a zoom feature, I forget what button, maybe you could check the manual and get back to us on that?  

As an aside, in any game with a difficulty setting I\'ll usually start off on a lower setting to get the feel and start over as soon as it  seems too easy, wanting the most challenge a game has to offer. For example, seems ages ago that I never got very far on the nightmare setting in the Doom series but managed the next highest setting just fine first time through, though I died plenty often. Just rambling, sorry.

BTW, for any of you PS2 players who aren\'t put off by weak PSX grafix, DarkStone offers a solid PC dungeon crawler experience. Full 360 camera and zoom(eventually), decent set of puzzles. But I doubt it with so many greats games out at moment unless you need a low budget fix. For $10 its almost free

So daryll, in your opinion... is it worth buying? or is a good rent?

Ok, I stumbled upon this game hidden, so I know I\'m getting it for christmas, so once I get it what difficutly should I start on since you guys say its easy

Well its still a cool game in alot fo ways and playing at higher difficulty might be the answer.

Starting the game at a high level would prove more challenging but not in the ways yu would want to be challenged later on in the game. After  the 1st 6 hours you\'d still be hacking away. I prefer my challenges to come in new scenarios/puzzles  and multiple boss encounters. Just having a harder hack and slash really wouldn\'t change the monotony but really just making it a harder monotony which doesn\'t change anything


I do wonder how the higher difficulty would play with my already leveled character, but thats a question I\'ll have to experience some other dsay. J+D is next on my list


Rent or Buy ???

I don\'t regret buying the game, but the game fell short of being a Game of the Year Candidate.

Rent it first and decide. You can beat the game in 14 hours or less so its can be beaten with a rent.

Well I don\'t get board with those type of games so I should be alright, I\'m so looking forward to playing the co-op

I think co-op games are great. I like it when you can sit and play with someone hand and hand and go through the game instead of sitting there playing while they sit and watch. Although it doesnt really bother me much Im sure it does bother them a little. Oh well.

Ill be renting the game shortly, after I take back Crash Bandicoot: TWOC.

I always enjoy reading your opinions DDaryl as you tend to be objective rather than hyping a game on the fun aspects completly forgetting about the bad aspects.

As soon as I found that BG : DA wasn\'t a PC type RPG true to the series and instead a hack and slasher action game, repetitiveness was ringing through my mind.

You have basically answered my worst thoughts about this game.

I may still check it out but im thinking about maybe getting some different games.

Rich.

[CHIZZY]

The co-op thing does sound cool, my girl & I had a blast beating Gauntlet Legends for the DC. If she ever stops playing Jak & Daxter, I\'l probably pick it up. ( one of the ways I get to play more games is to get her hooked on them. then our "quality time " is spent gaming!!!    )