Last game you finished, tell us about it

I guess I should give River of Time another chance... I was bored to tears last time, and I don't really care for the RPG system. But I could have been in a bad mood....
 
Thrasher said:
I finally finished Drakensang: The River of Time + Phileasson's Secret. Another wonderful gaming experience from a studio that is no longer. Too bad. Once again, lots of charm, and an almost completely bug free gaming experience. Such a pleasure to play (except for certain grindy combat areas).
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The Watch has a dedicated Drakensang forum with a dedicated River of Time forum, it might be worth giving us all a wall-of-texty run down of all your positives and negatives or just a detailed post-play review type thing, for no other reason than that section of the site exists (I can sense it's welcoming arms beckoning out to you) :)
 
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DArtagnan said:
I guess I should give River of Time another chance… I was bored to tears last time, and I don't really care for the RPG system. But I could have been in a bad mood….
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I'm with you regarding some bad grindy spots. The expansion and the rivergod's temple in particular were very tedious. So much so, that I shelved my gameplay for months until I got tired of Diablo 3. The gameplay is a bit slow in comparison. :)

The RPG system, well I had to re-learn it from the first game. And once I got the hang of it again, and was sharp enough to recognize the errors in the translated game descriptions, I did very much enjoy it. I think TDE give's DnD a good run for the money. But still prefer DnD 3.5 for its greater variety of feats, which adds more customization on top of skills/talents and attributes. Drakensang:RoT does have the combat "special abilities" which are like feats, but are limited to combat, and are not nearly as extensive as the feat list in 3.5 games like NWN/2 and ToEE. In general though, I can say that the TDE system is much more interesting than those in recent RPGs. I do think you have to like numbers and the statistics of dice rolls to fully appreciate it though. Not like Skyrim or other CRPGs with rather opaque, yet simplistic rule systems.

Also worth mentioning, the derived attributes in TDE in addition to the base attributes is a rather nice touch. Gives the system a more realistic flavor somehow for me. As well as the triple attribute skill roll checks. Great stuff!

BTW, it's clear that the expansion was designed for characters that have finished the base game, so one can expect lots of lengthy combat if you go in the portals as soon as they become available. The loot rewards are pretty good, not to mention some great armor pieces you can buy off the merchants there. The expansion also gives a ton of XP that makes the base game rewards meager in comparison.

One thing I loved doing was going around to all the merchants and comparing equipment and recipes to use the final chapter, using up ingredints to brew potions, and do a little crafting. Must have taken a day to figure out what I would spend all my gold on, buying what for who. Some may find that boring, but I love that kind of stuff. Strange, I know. :)

Of course, once again I was entirely over prepared for the final chapter, although on cue, Cano did die once when many of the mages targeted him with their spells at once. Poor guy. ;)
 
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Thrasher said:
I'm with you. As I said there were some bad grindy spots. The expansion and the rivergod's temple in particular were very tedious. So much so, that I shelved my gameplay for months until I got tired of Diablo 3. The gameplay is a bit slow in comparison. :)

BTW, it's clear that the expansion was designed for characters that finished the base game, so one can expect lots of lengthy combat if you go in the portals as soon as they become available. The rewards are pretty good not to mention the XP, that makes the base game rewards pale in comparision.

But one thing I loved doing was going around to all the merchants and comparing equipment and recipes for the final chapter. Must have taken a day to figure out what I would spend all my gold on, buying what for who. I love that kind of stuff. Strange, I know. :)
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Doesn't sound too bad…. :)

There are SO many games to play these days… How will I ever get through them?!?!

I'm having great fun with Grimrock 2 right now - and I'm also doing a half-asleep playthrough of Dragon Age 2.

Also, my PS4 version of GTAV unlocks in a few hours.

GAH!
 
If you guys like the TDE system, definitely check out the Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny remake. The RPG systems in that game are incredibly unique and wonderful. I know, I know, it had a poor release, was unfinished, etc. etc., but it was very playable after a few patches, and by now it's 10 times better now than it was on release.

If you're looking for a TDE game that is a true hardcore RPG experience, and something much different than you're used to in modern RPGs, you cannot go wrong with this game!
 
Fluent said:
If you guys like the TDE system, definitely check out the Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny remake. The RPG systems in that game are incredibly unique and wonderful. I know, I know, it had a poor release, was unfinished, etc. etc., but it was very playable after a few patches, and by now it's 10 times better now than it was on release.

If you're looking for a TDE game that is a true hardcore RPG experience, and something much different than you're used to in modern RPGs, you cannot go wrong with this game!
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I'm not actually a big fan of the system.

But I played the original BoD games back in the day and loved them ;)
 
I loved a few things from the TDE system represented in that game. Like the fact that you actually had to carry items in your inventory to perform certain "item checks" throughout the game.

I also enjoyed the negative attributes, as I found they added another layer of intricacy to the character builds.

The amount of skills/talents/whatever were nice as well. And the non-combat stuff was pretty interesting as well.

That remake game actually had a lot going for it, it's a shame it was so poorly received at the beginning. They worked pretty hard on it after that and fixed it up to where it looked like a completely different game.

If anyone is still sitting on their copy on Steam or whatever, I'd suggest giving it a shot.
 
Fluent said:
but it was very playable after a few patches, and by now it's 10 times better now than it was on release.
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I tried playing it after 6 or 7 patches and it was still complete garbage.

That said, I know it's been patched a bunch more times since then. I might give it another try someday, but I have a feeling that the 2nd & 3rd games in the series aren't going to get remade anyways.
 
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Well, to each their own. I played it very early after only a few patches and found it a very engaging, hardcore RPG experience. That said, I can definitely understand why some would be frustrated and/or not like it at all, for sure.

To anyone considering giving it a shot, make sure you have a bit of time and patience. If you approach it patiently, you may end up liking it!
 
I'm sure the original is fine, but I'd still probably rather play the remake. The remake keeps pretty much everything from the original, and I believe it also adds some new things.
 
No, not yet. I own them, but they are just sitting in my virtual backlog collecting virtual dust :) . Someday I'll play them, as they definitely seem like cool games, but also keep in mind that all 3 Realms of Arkania games are going to be remade, so I might play the remade versions first.

The nice thing about the remade version is like I said, they retain all the intricacies and elements that made the original great, and also add some interesting new features on top of that. So, I think that makes it worthwhile to play at some point if you're interested in the series.
 
Fluent said:
Well, to each their own. I played it very early after only a few patches and found it a very engaging, hardcore RPG experience. That said, I can definitely understand why some would be frustrated and/or not like it at all, for sure.
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Thing is, it's not really just an opinion. The game was borderline unplayable for most people. If you were somehow able to play all the way through it in that state, then were part of a small minority.
 
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By the time I played, most of the game-breaking bugs (of which there were several at release) were squashed. That said, I did encounter a game-breaker at one point, but as soon as the next patch was released, the problem was fixed and I was able to continue.

You are right, though, the game was unplayable and rough at release. It is very much playable and enjoyable now.
 
Went back and started XCom: Enemy Within over. Had a much better run this time around, made it past the base defense, and won the game. They did a very good job capturing the magic of the original while adding some interesting new things to the game. I had to wait on this one until I had good enough hardware to run it, but this one was well worth the wait.
 
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