Dawn of Magic - Review @ Jolt

Dhruin

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4.6/10 is the score handed down to Dawn of War at Jolt:
So, beyond mind-numbing quests and graphics that leave you wondering what might have been, what other lessons has Dawn of Magic not learned from earlier games in the genre? Well there’s combat. I never found anything wrong with being able to hold a mouse button down over an enemy and having my guy attack him until one of us was dead. Selecting a target and then having to repeatedly click like a mad man just seems like a waste of energy to me, especially when guiding your character around is achieved by much the same mechanic. I’m not saying that this is one of the most infuriating systems that I’ve played for ages but ...well, actually yes, perhaps I am saying that. And then having attacks and magic missing for no apparent reason? I’m no longer even going to ask what that’s about.
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4.6 out of 10?.... maybe the sky has fallen on 'Skyfallen entertainment' :raincloud:

This result is a good example to demonstrate the theories of pre-release hype.....of how it can fail. It was supposed to "blow the socks" off Diablo-2.....it doesn't appear to be doing this just yet!! - The added magic's angle was not enough it seems, shallow quest strength appears to have failed Dawn of Magic....hack and slash isn't enough to satisfy the reasonable/average gamers appetite.
 
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Dawn of Magic is very fine game, I think. I have played the demo somewhat intensively. It has some very nice & interesting sidequests as well as a very intrigiung main quest. There also seem to a time of the essence thing going on in the quests. If you don't do some quest straight away, the quest simply disappear. Very nice, but a bit annoying, but adds to the 'immersion' in the game ;)

The visuals are somewhat nice, the gameplay and the UIinterface could have been a bit matter, but you get the hang of it - after a while. The only problem I have with this game is the lack of town portal spell, and that monsters respawn. But that's not much. I found the game to be enjoyable and fun to play. If I were to give it a score, it would get 8/10.
 
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I HATE timed quests!!
 
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I might be getting to review this, so I will be able to get a look at the big picture. If so, though, my recent immersion in SilverFall means I need a break from straight hack-n-slash for a few days before doing this ...
 
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I HATE timed quests!!
I don't really like them much either.

Wasn't Fallout timed? Like you had a few hundred days to save your people or something?

I never completed Fallout :blush:
 
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Fallout was timed but due to so many complaints that later patches increased the timer to be negligible. Because of this we have very few games now that have timed quests. This is the first I've seen since I don't know when.

I suspect it has something to do with Morrowind and the trend for open ended games. The silliness of completely ignoring the need to save the world..ohhh..when you feel like it.
 
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FThe silliness of completely ignoring the need to save the world..ohhh..when you feel like it.

Saving the world... oh THAT was what I was doing ... for a minute there I thought my purpose was to run around searching out different colored leaves and hit every glowy thing I saw ... ;)
 
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I have 2 complaints with that timed quest in DoM. First, you're not told it's timed, or how long you have. Second, the time is too short, since you have to find the ants, kill them while also being attacked by other beasts, and then look for where they dropped their egg. I spent as much time killing wolves etc as I did ants and pixel hunting in long grass is not fun either!! FO was different, you knew the time limit in advance and it was reasonable. However, it did spoil aspects of the game, since I avoided doing side quests as I was totally focused on that water chip!! :)
 
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I have 2 complaints with that timed quest in DoM. First, you're not told it's timed, or how long you have. Second, the time is too short, since you have to find the ants, kill them while also being attacked by other beasts, and then look for where they dropped their egg. I spent as much time killing wolves etc as I did ants and pixel hunting in long grass is not fun either!! FO was different, you knew the time limit in advance and it was reasonable. However, it did spoil aspects of the game, since I avoided doing side quests as I was totally focused on that water chip!! :)

eh - did we play the same demo ??

I think I got told that I had 5 or maybe 10 minutes to kill enough fireant and get their eggs. It confused me a t first because I thought that only the female fireants would have eggs, but no.... when the game says 'fireants' it means fireants. Also, I remember distinctly that there was a timer counting down from either 5 or 10 minutes. I agree, however, that the time is somewhat to short.

As for the magic system, I didn't get it at first, and still don't. And when leveling it was really hard to tell which skills you could level. But I still find DoM very enjoyable...
 
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Hmmm, I should get hold of that timer-removing patch for FO and try it out again :)

As for Dawn Of Magic, I think it's quite enjoyable and entertaining. A score of 4.6/10 seems rather unreasonable to me.
 
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Oh, would 4.0 have been better!! :)
 
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I think I got told that I had 5 or maybe 10 minutes to kill enough fireant and get their eggs. It confused me a t first because I thought that only the female fireants would have eggs, but no.... when the game says 'fireants' it means fireants. Also, I remember distinctly that there was a timer counting down from either 5 or 10 minutes. I agree, however, that the time is somewhat to short.

As for the magic system, I didn't get it at first, and still don't. And when leveling it was really hard to tell which skills you could level. But I still find DoM very enjoyable...

I don't recall getting a specified time when the quest was given, but it *was* said that time would be limited and that I would need to act fast. It wasn't until the first 'minute' had gone that I got an indicator of time.

The skill & magic leveling system is somewhat obscure, and I need to spend more time to understand it - and the inventory is somewhat of a pain, but works well enough. The map is definitely a pain in the butt.

It is decent, and will get more of my time ... when I find some.
 
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