Sword Coast Legends - Review @ OnRPG

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HiddenX

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Jason Parker (OnRPG) has reviewed Sword Coast Legends:

Dungeons and Dragons: Sword Coast Legends had a bit of a setback and pushed the release date back to Oct. 20th, which may have upset some players who were in the Head Start/Early Access, but not me. I understand full well what it takes to make a game polished and good. Is it perfect yet? Not in my eyes, but it’s still a blast to play, and the DM tools make for an amazing way to get your D&D group together and adventure, even hundreds of miles away in a more action-packed setting. In the Head Start you don’t get access to the campaign or anything like that though; just Dungeon Crawl Mode and DM mode, which allows you to build modules (one shot adventures) for other players to download and play. Some require a DM to run them, most of the ones I have seen do not. I really wanted to peek at the story though, I did. And badly! But I did mess around a lot with Dungeon Crawl, deciding that I had a rough time going solo, so I coaxed/wheedled/demanded my editor, MissyS (who I deputized as a member of Bottom Tier) to play with me. After some time, we learned what it means to utilize teamwork.

[…]

Score: Great

Honestly, I love this game. It’s basically everything I’ve wanted in a Dungeons and Dragons game since Neverwinter Nights. In a lot of ways, I view it as a spiritual successor to the series, taking place in the same world, with many of the same important NPCs likely still alive and influencing the world. Are there things I hope I see in it? Yes. Lots of Drow, Beholders, perhaps Obuld Many-Arrows, the Orc Chief-turned Diety. You know what I hope I don’t see? Drizzt. But that’s not relevant to this review. I’m looking forward to seeing the community explode with scenarios at release, and there’s one thing really ticking in my head about it. It has “Modules, as I said above. But with that in mind, is Wizards of the Coast going to release their own Modules/stories on Sword Coast Legends, and if so, will they be free? Will they give players a chance to use this game to publish their own created campaigns? There is a lot of potential to create/share terrific stories, and I’ve seen some real winners so far. Dungeons and Dragons: Sword Coast Legends is the real deal.
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Yeees...for the modules, of course.
Been planning to build a module where my brave party repels the hordes of the evil empire of Behtesda, storms the castle of doom and slays the archdevil Hodd Toward in his lair. :p
 
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It’s basically everything I’ve wanted in a Dungeons and Dragons game since Neverwinter Nights. In a lot of ways, I view it as a spiritual successor to the series
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There was some small chance for me to buy SCL when heavily discounted, but after this statement, it's gone.
 
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Why Joxer? I'm mildly interested for the base game, but if we get 5% of the same community content that NWN had, it would be damn well worth it's price.
 
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I just stumbled upon this for the first time with the Steam Queue... really looks interesting/fun. What is the base single player campaign like?
 
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I would describe it like a budget version of NWN with minimal complexity and the most barebones editor you could imagine.

However, it's endearing in an odd sort of way. I kinda like the atmosphere and the old-school vibe.

I think the best way to approach it is to forget that it's supposed to be D&D - and accept it as a casual fantasy romp with some PnP trappings.

Keep in mind that I've only played it a few hours. It could expand in some ways, I suppose - but I doubt it.
 
DArtagnan said:
I would describe it like a budget version of NWN with minimal complexity and the most barebones editor you could imagine.

However, it's endearing in an odd sort of way. I kinda like the atmosphere and the old-school vibe.

I think the best way to approach it is to forget that it's supposed to be D&D - and accept it as a casual fantasy romp with some PnP trappings.

Keep in mind that I've only played it a few hours. It could expand in some ways, I suppose - but I doubt it.
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I played it for about 20 odd hours or more and i find the story to be great and the quests dont become boring. I dont know if that is because i am playing multiplayer though.
 
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Damian said:
I played it for about 20 odd hours or more and i find the story to be great and the quests dont become boring. I dont know if that is because i am playing multiplayer though.
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Multiplayer tends to help :)

But I don't have anything bad to say about the story yet. It's too soon to tell.

I'm talking about gameplay and mechanics. I find the whole thing rather straightforward and excessively streamlined - but that can be fun too.

It's just not D&D as I understand it. Well, unless we're talking about a real-time version of the original D&D from the 70s.

However, the most important part of NWN - certainly to me - was the powerful editor capable of creating elaborate mods and campaigns, full of branching dialogue and triggers for complex events.

From what I've seen of the SCL editor, it's essentially a RNG system with super simplified dialogue.

For anyone looking for a modern NWN, that would be a tremendous disappointment, I'd say.

Thankfully, I sort of figured that out from the previews and videos - so I'm walking in with very low expectations.
 
Not into D&D myself though this looks like a cynical cash grab aiming at grognads who don't know any better and casuals who don't care to play dumb rpgs.

Might pick it up one day if it gets deep sale since I am a sucker for RTwP (not enough to buy derp quisition though).
 
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My plan is to buy it in a couple years if there are enough fan-made single player modules to support my purchase. Otherwise, I'll just play more Skyrim mods like Falskaar or Helgen Reborn, etc.
 
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Having both this game and Age of Decadence lined up as the two main contenders for my next new RPG purchase is really quite bizzare, both being kind-of extremes of the happy middle I tend to prefer. I'll make a choice at some point soon, and likely play them both at some point, but I can't help thinking that whichever I purchase I'll have many moments where I'll wish I'd've bought the other game.
 
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After reading this thread I went to the SCL forums (never really spent much time there before). It was impressive how much fan support they have providing feedback on features and ways to improve the game. I guess that's a good sign for the developers (as opposed to no one caring about your game). The bad news..feature request list I saw is about 100 pages long! I fear their fan community is going to be sorely disappointed. I doubt they will ever implement 1/10th of their requests. Here are some things on the list I saw that stood out in a depressing way....
* A zillion monsters they want added. No Ettins, Giants, Gnolls, Golems, or Elementals. No Kobolds or Owlbears (can this be true!? How is that possible in a DnD game?)
* Locations like deserts, jungles, snow, mountains. Seems for now your exciting fan built 'modules' can be dungeon-only.
* More playable classes. They don't have bards, druids, monks, barbarians or sorcerers. What? And the wizard implementation is broken apparently.

Given they are currently not supporting Kobolds or the ability to play a Sorcerer, I think it will be a long time before they start adding things like 'branching dialog' which they also don't support or an answer to this comment posted on the forum:

"Where is the Danger?: This is a massive deal for some people. Right now there is no death. If the party wipes, they're just unconscious and somehow end up at the start of the map. No penalty. The monsters that killed them? They don't heal. The only way to heal them is to remove them and make new ones. Right now, players can just constantly rush the enemy, regardless of whether they wipe or not, and eventually succeed. It's mindless and boring. The only tools DMs have to deal with this relentless stupidity is... nothing. There is currently absolutely no way for the players to lose."

My verdict...if you are a DnD fan, buy the game to support the potential and fund further development...but don't bother playing for about a year.
 
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They also lack Orcs, Warlocks, feats and class Archtypes (these were mostly put into class ability trees but still lack some and those that exist don't have much in common with PnP).
Not to mention game lacks skills. Some classes have skill like abilities on their class trees but that is it. You want to persuade or intimidate anyone? Good luck with that.
Knowledge checks? Tumble? Sense Motive? Don't exist!
 
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Archangel said:
Not to mention game lacks skills. Some classes have skill like abilities on their class trees but that is it. You want to persuade or intimidate anyone? Good luck with that.
Knowledge checks? Tumble? Sense Motive? Don't exist!
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This is by far the biggest issue for me. I considered picking this up as a DM-lite tool and organizing a gaming group with some friends, but the limitation to combat-only skills is a much bigger deal than the limited class choices and the streamlined magic implementation. There's essentially no ability to run an actual campaign with real narrative elements - SCL is suitable only for (real-time) dungeon crawl after dungeon crawl, and even there it's super-light on consequences.

I had a pre-order, but I'm so glad I canceled and picked up Vermintide instead. Not really an RPG, sure, but it's doing a fantastic job of delivering the "Left4Warhammer" experience I expected.
 
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