On the horizon...

IMADeviant

I had no idea the rpg section of boards.ie existed so I will try and take my meagre knowledge of the crpg arena and talk a bit on what you can expect, and what has come to pass.

First off a quick look at the last couple of R.P.G's I tackled..

Sacred

A hack-fest in every sense of the word, if you enjoy endless clicking to bash away the hours then this is for you. Otherwise you might want to try out the demo before you buy. As all "action-rpgs" seem to be falling into the trap of mistaking stat-management and thousands of randomly generated items for what makes a good rpg I wasn't surprised to find Sacred had done the same.

The graphics are excellent , a beautiful isometric view with every item you wear showing up in shiny detail on the avatar. The animations are good, as well as the partical effects on all the spells. The environment changes, with nice weather transitions although they do seem to take place very rapidly.

The combat is utterly mindless with no sense of tactics, click click click and maybe a potion if your god-like character is having health difficulties after hammering through an army of identical, but well rendered, frost giants.

Overall i'd give it a miss. Its entertaining for a while, but unrewarding, your character decisions have no effect on the world. The character development is restricted to combat and the dialogue consists or yes or no on accepting quests.

Sarky

Originally posted by IMADeviant

Overall i'd give it a miss. Its entertaining for a while, but unrewarding, your character decisions have no effect on the world. The character development is restricted to combat and the dialogue consists or yes or no on accepting quests.

Pen&Paper RPGs are often just as restrictive. I recall a game where a certain someone wanted to do something opposite to what the GM had planned (in fairness, it was a good game and the player was being a bit contrary), so he was suddenly and unexpectedly ambushed and raped by a pack of werewolves on the way. A week later, he gave birth to a litter of cute puppies. He then decided to go with the GM's suggestion...

IMADeviant

I was dm exalted when somebody decided they wanted an item intended for someone else. For some reason touching it gave them two points of aggravated damage and paralised their hand for a while.


the games shouldn't be like that thought. They should have the beautiful impartiality of a computer, allowing whatever choices within reason that the user can come up with.

IMADeviant

Temple of Elemental Evil

I didn't play this game the whole way through. In fact I gave up after a couple of hours. Thats not to say its not a good game, by all accounts its very well made. However it is the epitome of dungeon crawl, it has an amazingly well crafted turnbased combat system that encorporates more DnD 3.5 rules than you imagine a game could, and maybe more than it should.

The graphics are gorgeous with bright beautiful sunny days, and deep ominous forest nights. The music and sound effects are excellent also creating the impression of a well polished game.

A false impression, its buggy as hell and you should apply the two patches, created by one of the designers in his own time since atari refuse to back up the game the scabby ***holes.

Its leagues ahead of hach n' slash games like Dark Alliance but it really should be billed as an action rpg since any other rpg elements are on the heavily anaemic side.

I love troika, the guys who gave us arcanum and in a previous incarnation fallout, but this game isn't up to those kind of standards.

Overall if you like DnD get it, if you like turn based strategy get it, if you like indepth storylines meaningful dialogue and actions that impact the story world forget it.

wombat

In fairness to the players, it's usually better to let themselves screw things up than to restrict their actions. I mean, I may have a campaign written but if the characters decide that they're going to enter a large smoking cave, with the dented armor and charred bones of dozens of knights then well... so be it I guess, it's not my place to decide how they play or to tell them what to do.

Having wild hogs leap out to molest them or having their magic items inexplicably fail or begin operating differently is sucky IMO.

Come to think of it, the "behind the screen" section of the D&D page on Wizards.com contains some handy information for GMs who wind up in these situations.

Sarky

Originally posted by wombat

Having wild hogs leap out to molest them or having their magic items inexplicably fail or begin operating differently is sucky IMO.

Hey, if you take Weirdness Magnet in Gurps, you deserve everything you get!

wombat

Yeah, but if you were playing gurps they'd be wild ninja space hogs with cyberlegs.

Specky

Cyberlegs?? No!! Much more fun to have just the one cyberleg.

Sarky

Has nobody learned anything from Gorkamorka?

Gyro-stabilised Monowheel. The way forward.

Specky

The way forward

Only when you get it in the right gear......whoooOAAAOOaaaaaaaOOOOOOAAOAOOaaaaa!!!

Sarky

There is only one gear for Orks- "Ded fast".

Specky

Mine has a "Frontwards" and Backways" switch also

Sarky

Girl.

Specky

Ever seen a girl do Ded-fast with the Backways switch on? I don't think so! Not without dropping your handbag.......oops.....

LoLth

Originally posted by Specky
Ded-fast with the Backways switch on?

so tell me, how loudly did you squeel as you ran away?

Specky

Louder than a ninja space hog on a pair of supercharged cyberlegs with the top down, the valves re-bored and the title track from The Screaming Blue Anchove's new album "Oh Gawd Blimey, I Wish I Hadn't Set Light To My Gonads" playing at full blast on the stereo.