Inquisitor - Review @ GameBanshee

[aries100]

Eric Schwarz from Gamebanshee has penned a 3-page review for this game. As always, the review is scoreless. However, it seems clear that he doesn't find it very good:

Unfortunately, though Inquisitor has all the right ingredients to put a smile on an RPG fan's face, Inquisitor is let down by some colossally bad design choices which result in a game which is one-quarter charming and engrossing, but three-quarters frustrating, repetitive and monotonous in the extreme. With some of the worst game balance I have ever seen in an RPG, overly linear quest design, a lack of player influence on the story, awful combat, and massive amounts of filler content, Inquisitor's ambitions never amount to anything that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the classics of the genre. While it does have its strong points, it will take an incredibly strong-willed player to endure the dozens upon dozens of hours of torturous gameplay it takes to reach the good parts.

More information.

 

[HiddenX]

I disagree with almost everything in this review.

colossally bad design choices

I'm level 32 and still having fun…

worst game balance

I'm playing a Paladin on medium difficulty. Level 32 in chapter 2 and I rarely die.
-> good game balance, for ulta boss fights u can use a genie… if your character is too weak yet. Better: build up your character.

overly linear quest design

I play a different game then, this game is build in chapters, but chapter for chapter is very non-linear.
In fact you have to test dungeons first, if you are not good enough -> take another quest first.

massive amounts of filler content

On the contrary every inch of the world is filled with secrets and lore and interesting dialog, you HAVE to search for it. It is necessary to search a lot to find the real truth in this game.

Forget this review -> buy the game -> have fun.
My only critique in this game is that combat not tactical enough for my taste.

 

[joxer]

it will take an incredibly strong-willed player to endure the dozens upon dozens of hours of torturous gameplay it takes to reach the good parts

As if the reviewer had read my mind, if only the respawns were removed this game would have been a must have gem.
I preordered it on GOG, played it for a while, got so annoyed that after a few days I just uninstalled. It's one of those rare RPGs I won't finish ever in my life. Sorry. The game is, I mean was, very promising until I went to another area just to discover it's masked jRPG where everything you clear is back again in more amounts than daily dust.

 

[HiddenX]

There's is no full respawn once you cleared an area. Just a few weaklings are coming back.

 

[ikbenrichard]

As if the reviewer had read my mind, if only the respawns were removed this game would have been a must have gem.
I preordered it on GOG, played it for a while, got so annoyed that after a few days I just uninstalled. It's one of those rare RPGs I won't finish ever in my life. Sorry. The game is, I mean was, very promising until I went to another area just to discover it's masked jRPG where everything you clear is back again in more amounts than daily dust.

I had the same issue, BUT, after playing some more it is like HiddenX says:
There's is no full respawn once you cleared an area. Just a few weaklings are coming back.
Its a great game so far. (played 20 hours)

 

[JDR13]

It's one of those rare RPGs I won't finish ever in my life.

Considering how many RPGs have respawning in some form, and how much you complain about the feature, I doubt it's "rare" for you to not finish one.

 

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[Wulf]

A cheating reviewer - oh! - how could he sink so low.

 

[HiddenX]

I don't even use hotkeys for potions - you need potions, but mainly for your party members.
My Paladin has a lot of elementary resistances - no problem.

Anything story- or setting-related is told as part of quests and almost all of it is mandatory to finish the game (since it is needed as proof to convict various heretics).

Simply not true - I'm close to the end of chapter 2 and I haven't touched the old ruins jet.
But how is that a bad point anyway - all things you explore help to finish the main quest. Building up a character ist part of the fun. I build up perception recently and voila under some stones is good treasure to find.

 

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[HiddenX]

I have not tested several characters, but my Paladin on medium difficulty is doing fine, combat is challenging but not frustating. If a dungeon is too difficult for me, I level up elsewhere. I let my party members stand in a secure hallway and lure difficult enemies one by one in my ambush. I build up my Defense skill and Holy Protection skill.
So game balance is good if you play carefully. Learn some buff spells to protect your party members, let them do the fighting stuff and just heal them with spells.
Use Genies in deep dungeons to shop for potions,...

 

[borcanu]

its just the thief. He's hard to nail . I know I had trouble with him aswell
But it was my first character, and I skilled alot of wrong things. I'm sure there is an OP build for thief too.
I really don't know where you're coming from sea
there are so many rewarding things in the game, but you seem interested in something else. Probably it was not the game for you. People change
You have to consider that your review will influence some people that would probably enjoy it, to never try it.

I admit I love these guys, working on their own for so many years, I think you dismiss it too lightly.

 

[crpgnut]

I'm having a good time with my level 22 priest, playing on easy. I did one cheat, since I hate missing stuff, and that was to raise my perception up to 20 near the beginning with the console. I wish I would have played on medium because combat is a cakewalk for me, except against groups/bosses. I got killed by a certain orc ambush a few times and mages sometimes beat me to the kill, but most battles are brainless. I keep the dog and the paladin as fodder, so I have time to get off my spells.

I'm not seeing the linearity at all. It does lock you to certain areas, sure. I assume that if I successfully prosecute a certain person, that it'll open up the next set of areas for me to play in and I'm looking forward to it!

 

[arthureloi]

Those old Elenian ruins in the Wasteland are mandatory if I recall correctly because you need something from there to get an NPC to help you with something else that is plot-critical. The dungeon under the Colosseum is optional, I believe, but nothing about it is especially interesting except the final bad guy. Either way it's not exactly "hidden" or "secret."

Also, I do like the fact that side-quests are built into the story, don't get me wrong. I'm actually quite thankful that the main plot isn't always 100% signposted. At the same time, it means that there isn't a lot extra for players who do want to explore everything, and the downside is if you just want to finish the game quickly, you can't necessarily do so without outside knowledge of what is necessary and what isn't.

To reiterate, my main problem is simply the sheer amount of (in my opinion) bad combat and dungeon crawling in the game, which tends to drown out the interesting stuff, and the bad game balance overall. I don't think that a good story or world is enough to make a game worth playing if the combat sucks *and* it's what you're doing most of the time (unlike, say, Arcanum, which also has bad combat but much more interesting quests and non-combat gameplay, plus far less combat proportionately speaking).

I disagree with you. The game is not unbalanced. If you play it carefully it is really logical and I'd say easy. You can't go full on the mobs or they will slaughter you. If your perception is high enough then you'll find a lot of extras and very good rare items. You can have an unlimited amount of genies so in any place in a dungeon you can call it to beat the hell out of everything, to shop or to teleport.
I'm sorry man but I think you're just not skilled enough (for this kind of game). I'm playing it on hard and I don't find it that grindy. You need some persistence but every time I clear a dungeon it feels really satisfying. I don't get that feeling often with other games, in which you can just steamroll everything. In this one you actually need tactics. I had this feeling with baldur's gate and diablo I to be honest.
Also, the music is great. I'm always humming Glatzburg's tune. Brings that false innocence feeling that permeates the game =D
Just my 2 cents.

 

[joxer]

Considering how many RPGs have respawning in some form, and how much you complain about the feature, I doubt it's "rare" for you to not finish one.

These are unstoppable in Inquisitor. Weaklings? I don't care if they're weak or not, they're simply annoying. And too much, not rare as suggested by others.
It's not "rare" to finish a game where I can put a stop to hordes of boring and repetative mobs. As an example where you can stop respawning critters by destroying their nests is TW2.
Did you forget me asking for 2W2 mod that would remove respawns so I can buy that game? Instead, I actually saw a mod that forces even more respawns into that game. Me buying that thing? Using such mod? Never.

Look, I despise the very idea of respawning, I've said many times it's usually just there to cover lack of ideas and force a player to grind for days to get usually lousy plus short content that ain't clickfest. Too bad Inquisitor, with beefy and very interesting story since the game starts went into grinding direction.

 

[JDR13]

*Hands joxer a piece of cheese*

...To go with your whine.

 

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[Thrasher]

Yikes! Why would anyone compare this game to Diablo? It doesn't seem like an action RPG at all.

 

[arthureloi]

Let me break it down for you.

1. The only source of difficulty comes from whether you have potions or not, and whether the enemies you are going up against spam stunlocks/etc.
2. There are no substantial combat tactics in the game. At best you can use elemental damage against certain enemies for greater effect. At worst your party AI is moronic, cannot be controlled with any precision (get used to walking back and forth to make them follow you to the right spot so they don't ruin your battle). Enemy AI has no variety whatsoever. The only way to reliably beat large rooms of enemies is to throw in a weapon to draw them out one by one to die (because their AI is also terrible).
3. Enemies have 5x more HP than they reasonably should, it gets ridiculously annoying to have to go through a 2-plus-hour dungeon where the enemies each take 10-30 seconds to kill and there are hundreds of them. Again, from what I know, the real exception are Priests, who can just slay everything instantly once they hit master level.
4. Most random loot sucks. The best items can be bought in stores even in act 1; even uber-powerful uniques have completely random stats which means they are often terrible. I never had any gear progression for 2/3 of the game because the equipment I bought in act 1 was better than anything else that dropped. This is bad, not just for any RPG, but especially a Diablo-like with random loot drops.
5. Perception is cool, but the number of trapped containers is ridiculous. I think I was poisoned, or slowed, or confused more times than not in Inquisitor because I had no way to disable traps. I probably used more potions healing the damage inflicted than they ever contained.
6. Magical Boxes are fine and there are tons and tons of them in the late game. problem is that they do not drop reliably enough, especially early on when you need them, and they are extremely expensive (2500ish gold). On top of that, you have a chance at getting free skill and attribute points if you let the djinn go, which means you are effectively losing out on free stats by using them to shop.
7. A game where you have a level 1 spell that literally renders an entire separate skill with 20 levels (100ish actual points) completely useless is not unbalanced? How about one where a character literally has multiple "every enemy of X type dies" spells?

It was satisfying for me… until I realized that many dungeons are 4-5 levels deep and take several hours to complete, yet had absolutely no variety. I am sorry, but fighting the same repetitive trash mobs for hours and hours on end is not fun. It is tedium incarnate. If you enjoy systemically drawing out monsters one-by-one so they don't ruin your party outright, and then repeating that hundreds of times over per dungeon… great, you are a stronger man than me.

Consider Diablo II. There you have enemies with distinctive AI patterns and personalities, clear differences in stats (HP, resistances, etc.) which significantly affect the way you fight them, special abilities which define them (not just "stunlocks your party by spamming chain lightning" or "makes you walk slower for 3 minutes"), different movement speeds, etc. You also have superuniques and champions to deal with, and dungeons are rarely just "a thousand skeletons." On top of that, character movement and attacks feel weighty, precise, and predictable. Inquisitor is basically the exact opposite in every way(yes, there are a few exceptions to those rules, but not many).


I've already said the game looks and sounds beautiful. Those are by far the least of my concerns with it.

Also, yes, the respawning mobs suck horribly, especially when they appear after you literally leave the room and come back - and it's inevitably the most annoying enemy possible, like one with a slowing AoE attack standing right between you and the exit back to town after you've run out of potions. Hint to developers: just because fighting an enemy was fun once doesn't mean it will be fun to fight that exact same enemy in the same place, without making any game progress by doing so, another ten times over.

Well I think it's a matter of taste then. I really like slogging through the dungeons. It's satisfying to clear them. The way the quests and sidequests are intertwined really enticed me too. Also, what I love about it is that it won't hold your hand… nowadays you get a quest and immediately a pointer appears on your hud and your map.. makes you look like a retard. Having to actually find stuff by myself is much better. And since I always try and explore 100% of the games having to complete every sidequest is actually a good point to me.
I play with the priest so that's why it's easier to me. I went through each and every magic school and read all the spells before beginning so I already had planned beforehand what build I'd do. I don't use a lot of potions, only mana potions. I heal my guys with magic only and buff them a lot so they don't get much damage. And depending on the enemies I have to use different spells and tactics actually.
I read somewhere that playing on hard gets you the best equipments and a lot of rares so I went for it. It's true; I get a lot of good stuff on the dungeons and I don't buy anything… only sell. I buy a lot of magic boxes. I have like 15 in my inventory right now and I have 70k gold because I don't buy stuff, only magic boxes.
As for comparing with diablo (I) I did it because when I played it I felt pretty much like this. I was very young (8 I guess) when Diablo I came out so I did not know what the NPCs were speaking and all that mattered was the insanely difficult dungeon and gore everywhere.
I think I love Inquisitor because of the nostalgia it brings =D

 

[HiddenX]

Well I think it's a matter of taste then...

-> This.

For 15$ I can recommend this game to anyone who likes Devine Divinity, Titan Quest or Sacred 1 and Icewind Dale.