Hard To Be a God Impressions

ToddMcF2002

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Having finished Drakensang this morning, I started the game in earnest. First thoughts, the game is fun. The blocking function is a must for on foot melee, since the damage you take is pretty brutal. That being said, there isnt too much motivation to get off the horse. Damage dealt from horseback is untouchable compared to on foot, not to mention the mobility factor.

Oh and the game is beautiful. I wish the music wasnt so odd, its almost musac.

So far so good :)
 
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I played for a few hours, and found the game fun as well. Lousy translation, poor dialogue, but generally fun - you get choices but without severe consequence.
 
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I hear you on the consequences thing, and I've finally noticed the dialog cutoff problem on the text. But the game has other stuff going for it.

I got a few maps beyond the demo area. They took my horse away and all the power that went with mounted combat :) However, the game is even better than I thought. You really have to be tactical in melee combat. Your shield blocking (spacebar) has a 30% block radius. When fighting multiple attackers, if you let one flank you (or worse get behind you) it is a baaaaad thing. The combat is just great! You can rush archers and raise the shield to block the arrows which I simply love. Blocking is also a great way to preserve your endurance because you can hold the block and it will rebuild. Opponents like to circle, so you have to hold your block and pivot.

I really like the tactical combat. Good stuff. You can go right into a thieves camp wearing thieves clothes and then start a brawl :)

Great game. Great combat system mounted or otherwise. I also noticed that certain creatures, slow ones that are heavy hitters, are best dealt with using ranged weapons. You can still block them but it gets through. I'm not developing ranged skills but I do use bows occasionally.

Oh and another thing, venture off the roads. There are hidden gems in obscure map areas :)
 
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I struggle somewhat with mounted combat, but agree that it is very powerful! The enemy AI uses solid tactics and keeps it challenging. Definitely worth getting and playing - gem in the rough so far.
 
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I'm taking a break to play the Witcher. I'm starting to lose interest in this title, not because of game mechanics but because of the dialog and plot. It is just wack at times. Other times I'm not sure why I have an objective because the point is lost in translation. Sometimes there are what I think are jokes in the dialog but it really breaks immersion to feel so "left out" of the punch line. I'll take a break and come back later to give it a few more hours before bailing entirely.
 
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That is generally how I play anyway, so I'll go back next week after finishing up the stuff I'm playing now and see how it goes ...
 
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The game isn't bad, I bought it at a very low price and played it somehow. But it lacks of much more polishing.

I read a review that mention the plot is totally unclear during a while but get depth and becomes clearer as the game progress and ends to be quite interesting. Alas I'm not sure I'll have the patience to get that far.

Beside unclear spot, weak in game help, truncated dialog choices and repetitive fights, the good points I saw are original background for a CRPG, original Fantasy quite far from generic Fantasy, horse fighting is fun but over powerful and seems lack a bit of more depth to really generate action gameplay value for a long time, the disguise is a nice idea but a little tedious to manage with the small inventory and so many items to wear/unwear/wear. All of that feeling are doubtful because I haven't played enough of this game.
 
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Any time I see the title of this thread I read: "Hard to be an impression". ;)
 
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The game isn't bad, I bought it at a very low price and played it somehow. But it lacks of much more polishing.

I read a review that mention the plot is totally unclear during a while but get depth and becomes clearer as the game progress and ends to be quite interesting. Alas I'm not sure I'll have the patience to get that far.

Beside unclear spot, weak in game help, truncated dialog choices and repetitive fights, the good points I saw are original background for a CRPG, original Fantasy quite far from generic Fantasy, horse fighting is fun but over powerful and seems lack a bit of more depth to really generate action gameplay value for a long time, the disguise is a nice idea but a little tedious to manage with the small inventory and so many items to wear/unwear/wear. All of that feeling are doubtful because I haven't played enough of this game.

The story of the game is based on a Russian Sci-Fi novel. I have not read it, but for a game, the story is one of the top stories I have seen RPG or otherwise. Even though bits are lost in translation all throughout, there is so much of the story on display that by the time you complete the game you get a good idea of all that was happening, plots and schemes of most of the characters. It is worth playing all the way through just to see how much stories in other games are lacking. Also, the story is presented in a way that you do not feel that you are being presented with a linear exposition much like in a lot of JRPGs. The key is to pay attention to all the dialogue and at least read though it once. Scour through your journal notes occasionaly as well. Once the game wraps up the lose ends it makes for quite a satisfying sci fi story.

It reminds me of a large Star Trek mini-series plot that would cover several episodes. But it is done very subtly revealing only tiny hints to the player bit by bit. The story is an excellent example of how an interesting setting with a good plot makes any game so much better, and how much this game stands out from any hack n slashfest, or games with very little player investment or reason for doing things.
 
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It isn't shit!

However...

If you have anything else to play, you'll definetly uninstall it. I've played it for a few days and got bored with it. To be honest, it has the story, it has the action, but somehow... It's not interesting. I can't say I was totally disappointed. But this is not a kind of a RPG I like. Dunno. Perhaps the whole inventory idea (small amount of spaces but need to have 5 items to represent a faction) was too iritating.
Do please give it a chance, who knows, maybe this is something you want and maybe you'll have fun with it. At least it's not some copycat shit you've seen in every game.
 
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The game is out here (I think) for several months now.

But I can't remember any reviews, because I've missed them.
 
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I have played a bit more and shelved it again, and already feel that I got my money's worth ... but I paid very low $ for it. If I paid full price I might be more critical. It isn't for everyone, but nor is it awful.
 
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I paid full retail price on release day and enjoyed the game "for what it is"
a Strugatsky brothers story transposed as best as possible into an rpg.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_to_Be_a_God

I played it straight through till the end, yes there are some large holes in the game immersion but if your a 'play all genre styles' gamer like me you can't really hate the game. I played on hard setting.

Wearing all the pieces of clothing to a faction set, say a thief for example meant you could mix among thieves, then by removing one item only of the set, your identity defaulted back to a mercenary and vice-versa. By carefully going with the flow of the main storyline you would see that a full wardrobe of all disguises need not be carried, only a few (three perhaps) outfits.

I had a low cost horse waiting at each game world change boundary post and could gallop across the world areas freely as required.

The main quest areas i remembers best were....

1. The boar hunting quest (time-out)
2. Fighting the spirits world opponents.
3. The great dual with the master swordsmen.
4. The stupid ending.

The game suggests there are several endings, but in a most stupid implementation, the ending were all together....at the end...you could to try each one!

Here's the rpgwatch listing of diaries, demo's, screens, news, previews and reviews.

http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/news?ref=0&id=89
 
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I had a low cost horse waiting at each game world change boundary post and could gallop across the world areas freely as required.

You could stay on the horse and click the signposts transporting you from one place to another on the world map while retaining the horse. You do not need to have a horse stationed at every signpost location to be able to ride around continuously.
 
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Yes, i used my own gaming methods - i decided from the start not to use any horses but later at certain points in the game (eg:wild boar hunting) the horse helped with the time-out problem after which i dumped the horse and continued on foot. I did this several times as the game progressed, i could see all the various horse's markers on the mini-map, sometimes i used them as quest return point markers. The stronger horses could take more damage so i bought one near to the game end for trampling continuously (using zig-zag tactics) through those weird plant thing's that rapidly reduce the life bar, it was almost impossible to continue without the horse from that point onward.
 
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