Prime Junta
RPGCodex' Little BRO
- Joined
- October 19, 2006
- Messages
- 8,540
I just gave Medieval II a spin. It's a slightly weird experience, as I feel like I'm wedged somewhere between the grand sweep of history and the French Taunter sketch from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The fake French accents are hilarious, and it doesn't hurt that there are some minor bugs that causes the military advisor in battle to yell complete irrelevancies at times.
I'm not too impressed by the AI, though. It's still pretty unimpressive; doesn't make any use of terrain that I can see, and lets itself be flanked or even surrounded without doing anything to disrupt the process. I never was a fan of the exaggerated height map of the terrain, and they haven't changed that for Medieval II, which has led to some pretty silly situations like having my crossbowmen rain death upon the enemy sitting about a half mile down a cliff face (and the enemy just sitting there and taking it).
I'm playing as the French, and have managed to promptly overextend myself (Metz? What the hell am I doing in Metz?!?); if the English or the Holy Roman Empire attacks, I'm crisped bread product. So far, I like it quite a bit; definitely evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but unlike some of the reviewers, I think the little touches they've added do add a quite a significant layer of gameplay, more than just cosmetic. And many of the UI tweaks are very nice too.
All in all, it appears to be better than I expected. I hate to say it, but I'm enjoying it a lot more than either Gothic 3 or NWN2. If there's one improvement I'd like to see for the next version, it's the AI -- even with everything else the same, it would pump even more adrenaline into the gameplay.
I'm not too impressed by the AI, though. It's still pretty unimpressive; doesn't make any use of terrain that I can see, and lets itself be flanked or even surrounded without doing anything to disrupt the process. I never was a fan of the exaggerated height map of the terrain, and they haven't changed that for Medieval II, which has led to some pretty silly situations like having my crossbowmen rain death upon the enemy sitting about a half mile down a cliff face (and the enemy just sitting there and taking it).
I'm playing as the French, and have managed to promptly overextend myself (Metz? What the hell am I doing in Metz?!?); if the English or the Holy Roman Empire attacks, I'm crisped bread product. So far, I like it quite a bit; definitely evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but unlike some of the reviewers, I think the little touches they've added do add a quite a significant layer of gameplay, more than just cosmetic. And many of the UI tweaks are very nice too.
All in all, it appears to be better than I expected. I hate to say it, but I'm enjoying it a lot more than either Gothic 3 or NWN2. If there's one improvement I'd like to see for the next version, it's the AI -- even with everything else the same, it would pump even more adrenaline into the gameplay.
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2006
- Messages
- 8,540