First Impressions
 

Guys, let's share our first impressions in this thread.

1. What character did you pick? What do you think of the character creation?
2. What do you think of your first few hours in the game?
3. What did you like/dislike?
4. How do you think it fares compared to the first D:OS?

1. Ifan, Rogue.
2. Great but daunting. I like to make informed decisions but it feels like I'm going in blind. Are there any guides to mechanics in the game somewhere? (Is guerrilla worth it, sneaking in combat possible?, does dual wield scale better than in the former game etc.?)
3. Only have about an hour in, went tactician. Getting my ass handed to me (I've died about 4-5 times in only 3 battles…) and liking it. The power curve is much more fun to me if I feel really weak at level 1 (hopefully not at level 10 or so). No dislikes so far.
4. Too soon to tell.

Ifan - as a Wayfarer - I'm having fun.

Still downloading. *sigh*

There was like 1 hour left last night, but it was late and I decided to go to bed…this morning the download restarted from the start (first time that happens to me with Steam). I took the day off to play this and I'm going to lose 6 hours. *shake fist*

Well my first impressions after playing about 3 hours last night and then had to go to bed.

1. What character did you pick? What do you think of the character creation?

>> Since the only background I was really interested in was Ifans (and his wolf companion) BUT also really wanted Ifan in my party … I went with a custom build. I was afraid if I chose Ifan as my background that either Ifan would not be in the game or he would but it wouldn't make sense since would both have the exact same background. I don't know how they set that up and haven't seen an answer yet.

In addition I don't mind a generic background given to me but a highly specific one, like the ones in this game, mean I don't get to make my own character and have to play someone else's. So even though I really wanted the wolf (maybe will get it with a mod later) I decided to go custom.

I was fine with the character creation. I wasn't expecting something as detailed as Beth games or an MMO. Character creation in most SRPG's of this style tends to be limited. I had enough options to find something I like.

I put points into Wit, Intelligence, and Finesse initially and I am playing a Mystic-Soldier for tags based on my character Wolf from other games who is a soldier with ties to Fenrir from Norse Mythology. So I also picked water magic because of the ice and snow aspects. He will use a mix of magic and a 2H sword. I am also playing on explorer mode so I don't have to worry as much about gimping my character with RP choices versus going with a power-gamer min/mac approach.

2. What do you think of your first few hours in the game?

>> Well I was in EA so had seen some of it. Still it was better full released and really got into it. I also paid a lot more attention to everything since in EA I was mainly just curious about the mechanics and general game play. Now I am trying to get immersed into the story. So far its good minus one quibble on the combat.

3. What did you like/dislike?

>> I like the variety of character options, the companions, the back ground tags and flavor they add, the graphics, the story (so far) and the game in general.

I do find the combat rather slow but then I haven't been a fan of turn based games in decades. I prefer BG style with pausing. Combat is just so slow at times. Especially on board the ship waiting for everyone to take their turn. This was another reason I put it on explorer mode so I don't have to spend hours twiddling my thumbs waiting for everyone to take their turn in combat. Just personal taste though. I like livelier combat.

4. How do you think it fares compared to the first D:OS?

>> I was never able to finish the first one. I got to this point in the game where I became totally stuck on what to do. I could not find any place to progress the game. I was stuck in one area with no way to get out or further the quest along. After getting very frustrated with it I uninstalled it and never went back. I am hoping this game will be better.

1. What character did you pick? What do you think of the character creation?
Undead default. But if you don't want to use any premade hero, character creation for a customized one is great.

2. What do you think of your first few hours in the game?
Instead of midnight I went to sleep at 4AM. And now I need to go for a coffee with a freind, yet am thinking on making an excuse to continue the game. No, coffee first.

3. What did you like/dislike?
Dislike: default motion blur enabled in options.
Like: so far, everything else!

4. How do you think it fares compared to the first D:OS?
Richer.

I picked the slave woman character. I like that picking a character is really just picking a backstory as you can customize them, and then you get to pick a class for your companions when you find them.
The first few hours have gone ok. I get a bug starting the game, something like 'Game couldn't connect to Larian servers', I think it has to do with me agreeing to send info to them. I couldn't find where to disable it, but it's ok, after you click OK the game starts normally. I did get a crash that made me lose like 20 minute progress and another crash that was soon after a save, so two crashes in a few hours playing, not good.
I selected 'Tactician' difficulty, and it's been difficult indeed, looks like every enemy has an item/ability that is an AoE fire something so guess I need to unchain everybody and position them far apart from each other every time I see a potential fight. Another thing I don't like is that the 'Alt' button only highlights pickable items, i.e. not containers.
Other than the mentioned, I'm liking the game, but I'll wait a day or two for a patch.

Yes I'm getting that text box every time and it's also asking me to put the CD in:biggrin:

Can skip them both but I see bugs so rarely these days

1. What character did you pick? What do you think of the character creation?
I can't decide between Lohse or Sebille. I might like character creation a wee bit too much.

2. What do you think of your first few hours in the game?
Overwhelming, where's my manual with all the spells, talents, skills and mechanics explanations!!! I keep restarting the game to test stuff on the boat right now.

3. What did you like/dislike?
I dislike that I don't know what character/build to play. Also, motion blur/depth of field (I think joxer does the same thing as me when starting a game for the first time: hope into the graphic options and disable motion blur).
I do like all the rest though.

4. How do you think it fares compared to the first D:OS?
I spent 9 hours into the game and I haven't made it inside of Fort Joy because I keep restarting. I can't comment on how it compare to the first game yet.

Oh I didn't like the default not being for edge scrolling ON, I mean isn't that like standard? Anyway, with a multi-monitor setup you have to enable it, and also enable the option to 'keep mouse in game screen' FYI.

For people with server issues, it's should be resolved "soon".

I picked Fanne as my protagonist, I have the lizard/prince and the rogue with me as well. I did a few quests, then ran into a huge fight with some crocodiles, one of which was carrying a glove that I needed for a quest. So I turned in the quest, but the guy ran off or something afterwards, so I used the glove to teleport down to some beach area, entered a cave and then logged and haven't been back to play yet. My guys are level three, and I still have some darn collar on me that I'm hoping I get taken off at some point.

I like it a lot so far, I've played maybe a total of three hours. I'm in love with all the tactical possibilities, and I'm sure this is only the start of what's to come. Overall, I'd say this one is pulling me in even moreso than the first, and I likely won't get a chance to play again till Monday.

This is a bummer. I was going to play this weekend, but there's still no proper manual to read. If it's a proper RPG, I really like to read the manual before starting. Kind of ridiculous to not have it ready for launch.

Got a lot more hours in now although still on the island. Getting used to the mechanics (not easy since I am so used to FO4 and Skyrim) so its getting smoother to play.

Did have to some wasted points but I prefer to live with my mistakes on my first play through. Was going to be a warrior with water magic and Sebille as my rogue but then … well I ended up not liking how we met so … she is no longer an option.

Ifan is my tank so I am moving Wolf into more of a rogue with water magic for healing. So some points spent not really ideal for him but luckily I found out at level 3 so wasn't much wasted.

Like the talk with animals talent a lot though - rather fun and actually useful from time to time.

There is a full party respec option when you reach Act 2.

As for Sebille, I was laughing all through her intro news thread where people were saying she was a lock for their party. I knew. ;) She might be better as a main character (still debating between her and Lohse).

Also, Pet Pal dialogues can be different depending of the origin character doing the talking.

My very first impression is that this is the worst character models I've seen in ages. Especially the elves. I didn't know elves were a mix of human and giraffe. God, they're ugly. Lizards are ugly, dwarves are ugly, undead are almost okay in comparison. I'm playing a little bit but I may wait several months for modders to fix all the ugliness before I really play.

You sure everyone's ugly?
My undead main is pretty. :p

I will say I tried her out for a little while before reloading before I met her. I did like her character personality from a general view point. Rather funny in a dark way actually and she has some great lines (well the ones I heard). But she is not someone I would trust … and can't say more without spoilers. Regardless she is very much not an option any more … I made sure of that :p

Maybe another play through though.

1) Did a tailored one for my main and ended in a group with the most crazy guys I could found. So it is Sebille, Lohse and Beast.
2) Was planning to just have a try during the week end. You know, 1 or 2 hours. Looks like I got already 18 hours in there, in fact.
3) I like than the leveling is not only for the char but also for the player. New skill, new power mean you have to really learn and understand them how to make them interact together better. And you need that, the fights are hard in a positive way.
4) On steroids at every level.

Playing tactician is the way to go, game has few battles so I like that I have to play tactically on each battle.
My main is Sebille, a conjurer (summoner). I made the lizard my rogue (having him jump to backstab and then spread everyone with a breath fire is so tempting, but then he dies quickly if I do that), the undead is a wizard, and the human male (forgot his name, Ib Azil Alaf or whatever) he's my archer, but I'll ditch him once I find the dwarf (who I'll obviously make my tank).

I'm playing on explorer and plan to play mostly alone. I really don't like playing other people's stories, so I may solo as much as possible but take some of the origin guys if it makes sense with what's going on. I've started over a few times but I think I'm going with custom-elf-lady that has water and fire skills with a touch of lockpicking. We'll see how that goes.

Weird that everyone needs/wants manuals. I just wing it man. Turn off the Gaming OCD. So far so good.

1. Fane. Character creation was great. I like the Tags system and all the class preset choices, of which there are many.

2. It was cool. I'm not really in gaming mode right now so I'm easing into it. I liked when the ship section started to get more action-packed.

3. I like the combat a lot so far. So satisfying and challenging. I may want to turn the difficulty up even more. I think I'm on Tactician Mode. But it's just really fun combat so far.

Dislike, hmm. Not much so far. The exploration doesn't seem amazing yet but I'm not very long into the game. The beach area seemed a little linear with not much off the beaten path so far, but I'm hoping that changes.

4. Can't really answer that yet. But it seems good so far, and I really enjoyed the first game, so we'll see.

I killed Griff before she talked to him. Didn't know she'll want to chatty with him.
As her quest is now screwed (probably), she's outta my party for good.
The way to go is different for each of us. I picked as usual, normal (second difficulty).
JDR and dart will start at max (fourth difficulty) and I can't wait to hear how the game wiped them. :D

Played for about 10h, sadly i think it suffers from the same stuff the first one did, uninteresting story and chars, clunky interface, a lot of useless shit in the inventory :(
ps who had the bright idea to make dialogue replies "indirect", fuck you

Hey hey, I usually go in blindly at max difficulty too. The insta-save wipe was a little too intimidating for a first run though. I'll save that for later. :)

I'm not really wow'd by it so far as I thought I would be, but I sort of attribute that to my lackadaisical attitude towards RPGs and gaming in general right now. But it just seems, I dunno. Lacking something so far. Boring start I think. Only 3 hours in though.

@wolfing
The dwarf is on the western beach looking at a shipwreck.

Well, since I'm here I might as well do my impressions. I've only JUST made it out of Fort Joy into the swamp. Playing on Tactician it has been a legitimate challenge! Pretty much every single battle has been a reload because I'm not happy with the amount of consumables I used. Res scrolls especially. But that final wing from the Fort Joy Dungeons waypoint I used FOUR res scrolls to get out of there. I was starting to fall asleep and just wanted to finish it. Saved and exited without moving an inch in the swamp.

ummmm….. Did I do it right? Hang on….

1. What character did you pick? What do you think of the character creation?
I went The Red Prince with default Conjurer class, default looks, etc. I thought the Demonic Stare was some sort of magic damage amplifier because I didn't understand the way armour works.

My party is the enchanter, rogue and wayfarer npcs on their defaults.

2. What do you think of your first few hours in the game?
Extremely polished and well made! I can't be bothered with the rant but it's an amazing game so far.

3. What did you like/dislike?
I like too much to mention. What I dislike is walking feels too slow, some animations are a tiny bit long and delay (eg. rogue doing flesh sacrifice and adrenaline I wish they were just instant), sometimes enemy can melee attack you when you're on the top of high ground and they just walk up and hit you from the ground level.

4. How do you think it fares compared to the first D:OS?
It's much more Jiggly and full of juice

No spoilers but the game offers one thousand ways to screw your quests by "careless" actions. Check your journal when the update warning is coming.

I really got my grove last night. Went to bed at 1 am…

Main: Sebille
Extra: Beast, Ifan and Lohse
Everyone with their default setup.

I'm currently enjoying exploring stuff around Fort Joy…and I had some unfortunate adventures, using one-way secret passages.

It's not screwed. The quest is advanced by a NPC right before finishing Act 1.

I saw lots of people saying that Lohse has nothing in Act 1 regarding hers though, well that just mean they haven't explored all of Fort Joy and going by that discussion missing it isn't that important, once you reach a certain place someone is going to come to her anyway.

Aye I came across two scenes related to Lohse and her quest in two different places in Fort Joy. People may not be doing enough talking or exploring.

Can't disagree more.
All characters are batshit crazy, story in first 10 hours is basically a prologue so I'm not sure what were you expecting, interface is good but not great as they adapted inventory to console bullshit, and "useless shit" in inventory you should either drop or sell already.

The only reason to despise "useless shit" in inventory is if you're playing a thief able to steal everything.

Didn't know this. Thanks! I'm in some gargoyle maze currently, when I finish it I'll check it up.

Well, my games bugged out. Not long after getting to the swamp my party is permanently wet and it crashes if i try to reload (the initial load works but I have to restart the whole game to load again)

So much for waiting until early access was over to avoid issues such as those which ruined DOS1 for me :( :(

Not sure if this will help or not but just saw a hot patch downloaded:

Hello everyone!

First of all, thank you for your patience. We've had a few more problems in the last few days than we had hoped, but we're working hard on fixing them. We'll have them sorted out as quickly as we can.

We have good news for everyone who had problems with their savegames after a few hours of playing - we just released a hotfix that solves the problem. The existing savegames should work now.

We're working on an additional hotfix to resolve some other problems you may have have noticed, and we'll be releasing it in the next few days.

Might not pick it up after all then… or wait for a massive discount.

@joxer - how does it compare to Expeditions: Viking?

So I started playing this for the first time. The camera reminds me a lot of Neverwinter Nights 1. And that's not a good thing ;)

Didn't see this thread until a few minutes ago - here are some comments:
1. What character did you pick? What do you think of the character creation?
Beast as a warrior and happy i did.
2. What do you think of your first few hours in the game?
I had played a little of the alpha so i knew what to expect; but the voices help a lot and the story is much fuller and well flushed out.
3. What did you like/dislike?
Really well done. Not sure I liked my classes. I have Beast (main char as warrior); ifan as cleric; sibelle as mage and Lhose as archer. Most unhappy with Sibelle and would change her for fane if I start over or play a second time. Also would make Lohse enchanter and ifan archer and fane something and beast cleric.
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Also playing on tatican mode but not familiar with how the classes will evolove as this my first play so bit concern things might become pretty hard later on - d:os was pretty easy entire game 'cept for the lich fight - this is definitly more difficult.
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Not happy with the ai as enemy can frequently hit me from places I can't hit them (what I mean is that they seem to have significantly greater range for arrows, spells and throwable and can easily throw things over barriers that block myself - this take into account the impact of height so i'm not sure if ai cheats or npc have significantly higher something or other. I go behind a tower to block arrows and they shoot right through it but i can't return fire because it blocks me.

4. How do you think it fares compared to the first D:OS?
Story wise much better and ai is better but i think it is cheating (see above). d:os story and writing sucked.

@wolfgrimdark Yeah, that hotfix did fix my reloading issue :D

1. Picked Lohse and made her into a rogue. Took me a while to pick which kind of character id like to play. My other characters are Beast as a fighter with 1 hand and shield, The red prince as a summoner who also dable in airmagic and sebille as a cleric which I specced into bows. Works pretty solid so far in classic mode.

2. Just finnished act 1. Really good so far, hope it keeps up like this through the following acts. I lost interest in original sin 1 after a very fun act 1.

3. I like most things so far except the inventory clutter and the cluttered questlog.

4. I find the story and the characters more interesting.

A couple of hours in and highly enjoying it. Not at all sold on the armour mechanics though, which makes a party specialized in a single damage type (physical or magical) much more effective than a versatile one. That's just a bad idea severly limiting your choices if you want your party to synergize well. I'm running a pure physical party now and the battles got alot more doable. When the option comes to respec I'll use it and try going 2 physical and 2 magic though, perhaps if they focus on different enemies it's still a decent tactic, and it will be alot more fun.

^^^this. I'm playing on 'normal (i.e. classic) The AI is definitely more 'clever' this time around. I assumed only Tactician or higher difficulty would have souped up AI…guess not. I spent 40 minute on a fight last night…I don't have time for that! AI seems to know *all* possible combos of skills, has perfect knowledge of the world, can position AI npcs in exactly the right place and exploits all this for every encounter. Even low level critters (including actual bugs ;) seem to have perfect tactics and knowledge so most fights are a chore (long)… What's more, summons, which saved my bacon before, seem crap (well, Ok, only have a certain game awarded summon…but its really useless, doesn't seem to get attacks of oppurtunity and every AI agent ignores it when in combat. If they ignore summons in general then they really have lost 90% of their utility) And as I expected, elemental surfaces account for majority of combat difficulty. It's like swimming through soup at times. I'm almost done with the first part of the game, just the big combat at the end left before I can leave the island …but its been laborious. I'd like some trivial encounters now and then too please, to reflect the fact that I actually leveled up?
One plus so far is that some of the new skills like fly and tentacle lash are great fun, the former is especially good for exploring. But getting enough money to buy skill books is a bugger - I spent several levels with many empty memory slots because I didn't have enough cash to buy more than 1/2 skills books a level. It's improved now, but does limit the impact of levelling up unless you have money.

I'm enjoying the game visuals, and also like the puzzles, exploration and story.

@booboo you sound like someone who have no idea what he is doing.

Summoning is actually great, if you invest into the summoning skill line because summon effectiveness is based on that and your level, nothing else (mentioned on the summon skills). The incarnate can have melee and ranged attacks and it has attack of opportunity and provoke (warfare taunt skill).

Buying books shouldn't be an issue outside maybe level 1 and 2, just pick and sale everything you don't need and you'll be able to trade all the junk for what you want. Some of the junk around is worth a lots of $$. Like the jars of maggots and paintings.

As for the surfaces, bypass them with mobility skills (teleport, cloak&dagger, hasted retreat, etc) or just make sure your armors are up, plenty of skills for both of these options. Shields even provide "shield up" for free. Otherwise, invest into warfare stomp skill (remove normal surfaces).