Druidstone hype and early impressions thread

lackblogger

SasqWatch
Joined
November 1, 2014
Messages
4,762
Druidstone is nearly upon us, May the 15th release date has been confirmed by the developers, that's less than one week away.

Who are the 1st day purchasers who are going to volunteer to give us a textual metaphor for the extent of their salivatory wetness and be kind enough to help us discover if the game is worth purchasing above 75% sales?

What is it:

It's by the Legends of Grimrock devs.
It's isometric this time.
It will have lots of puzzles.
It looks delightfully colourful, potentially the nicest eye candy of the year.
It only has Druids as playable classes.

It has been rumored that the lavatory cleaner's third cousin once removed once dated the cat of the uncle of someone who shook hands with Chris Avellone once, which must bode well.

As a bonus, let's have a "how many patches shall we wait for" guessdebet, winner gets a free +1 from lackblogger.
 
Joined
Nov 1, 2014
Messages
4,762
I love the concept and everything I've seen and read on the project to date, but I don't purchase games on the day of release anymore, I'll likely pick it up three to four months down the road. I've a few friends that are braver than me, so I'll be keenly listening to their input.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
18,799
Location
Holly Hill, FL.
What hype.
I'll buy the game eventually thanks to fun Grimrock provided, but Druidstone still doesn't have a story, I don't have time to play everything possible and I'm "cleaning" my backlog.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
I had no idea it didn't have a story. This segment from their hype page:

The peace and quiet of Menhir Forest is threatened by a cancerous corruption that spreads through it. Caught in the flow of events are Aava, the missing archdruid’s daughter, who must now shoulder her father’s responsibilities, Leonhard, a Warden of the forest with a mysterious purpose, and Oiko, the failed Red Priest who is living proof that one may be very smart without being particularly wise. Along the way, they meet companions and villains, whose unique personalities and abilities make every encounter memorable.

Get ready to venture forth and uncover the secrets of the Menhir Forest!

suggests some sort of story?
 
Joined
Nov 1, 2014
Messages
4,762
I am waiting to read more about it myself. I am not huge on lots of puzzles in games but on the other hand I am enjoying Operencia which has puzzles ... so will see. Also depends what the character creation options are and how much freedom in making your own druid.
 
Joined
Jun 4, 2008
Messages
3,959
Location
NH
Planned to play that one as well. Sounds to me that it has a story. Without one I wouldn't play it either, though the story isn't the main thing.
 
Joined
Jun 2, 2012
Messages
4,691
I am waiting to read more about it myself. I am not huge on lots of puzzles in games but on the other hand I am enjoying Operencia which has puzzles … so will see. Also depends what the character creation options are and how much freedom in making your own druid.

I think they said there was no character creation and you start with a predefined party of three story characters (sadly)
 
Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
1,901
Location
UK
I honestly prefer games that permit you to fully roll and detail your own beginning party, but I've had some recent positive experiences where the starting team was provided for you, so that alone wouldn't deter me from this game.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
18,799
Location
Holly Hill, FL.
I think they said there was no character creation and you start with a predefined party of three story characters (sadly)

Thank you Pongo ... I thought I had heard that but then wasn't sure if the descriptions were of followers. That would be a bit of a killer for me as just not a big fan of pre-defined characters.

I will have to read up on it more.
 
Joined
Jun 4, 2008
Messages
3,959
Location
NH
Whelp, looks like the premise for this game has seen no super-hyped takers yet. Or perhaps it's such an awesomely immersing game that they're too busy playing non-stop?
 
Joined
Nov 1, 2014
Messages
4,762
Ah right, I Ass'umed it was in the morning, that explains it. Thanks for taking one for the team, I look forward to your thoughts on this game that has me utterly fence-perched.
 
Joined
Nov 1, 2014
Messages
4,762
I'm still enthralled by Cosmic Star Heroine for the moment, so I'll be watching here to see what others that jump in have to say about Druidstone.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
18,799
Location
Holly Hill, FL.
I played the first missions so far and I quite like it.
However it's first and foremost a tactics game. You have some story before and after a mission (which you could also repeat for additional resources (if you get all optional targets you get additional gems, and I am not sure about XP yet), you can use gems and gold for updating your character. After the second map you are on a world map and can select from different new missions to do.

So far I would say the closest game to this is is Blackguards. I So far I prefer it to blackguards, though that's no surprise as I really disliked blackguards for it's randomness, bad mechanics and unpolished feel.

Also haven't seen any bugs yet. Interface feels good and polished.
 
Joined
Jun 2, 2012
Messages
4,691
I really enjoyed both the Blackguard games, especially the first one, so sounds like a compliment, in my opinion. Thanks for trying it out for us, Kordanor!!!
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
18,799
Location
Holly Hill, FL.
I hope there's no mystery to these druids. I'll have to put on a hood and yell again!
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
So far I would say the closest game to this is is Blackguards. I So far I prefer it to blackguards, though that's no surprise as I really disliked blackguards for it's randomness, bad mechanics and unpolished feel.

Which is actually not that far away from Blackguards

In Blackguard for example you often did not have the time pressure. The result: Many missions you optimized by kiting the enemy around, just running back and fourth, exploiting that your character had one field more range or something similar.

You seem to be the only one so far keep referencing Blackguards, but from what I've read and seen of the game so far there are very few real comparisons here and that referencing Blackguards is actually a whopping red herring. [By the way, I don't remember using kiting in Blackguards at all, let alone exploiting it, but I only ever played on normal difficulty, but that's a side-track point]. However, Blackguards is such a recurring reference for you that it would be nice if you actually said why you feel it is comparable as I'm not sure if comparing the two is being 'genuine' to any Blackguards fan.

From what I've seen, the only real comparison is that you travel on a world map rather then navigate the world on-foot. In blackguards your destination could be a number of areas, from combat screens to NPC homes to town squares, but it seems like Druidstone is always either your start point or a combat screen? To which the only other comparison is that the combat screen is then contained within it's own individual chess-board and takes place in a turn-based system.

I wouldn't describe Blackgards destinations as missions, more often than not you're just encountering a monster, the same as you would in any RPG, to which you are free to deal with that monster however your build prefers, in as many turns as you like. In Druidstone all scenarios are essentially puzzles with a specific objective beyond 'kill all enemies' are they not? While Blackguards may spice things up with the occassional combat scenario which is a bit puzzly, in Druidstone it's always puzzly, yes?

And when Blackguards is occasionally puzzly, it is doing so because one of it's unique selling points was the concept of "manipulation of the environment", ie: you could set a table on fire and the skeleton would stand on the fire while attacking you, providing extra damage, something that was entirely optional and just 'cool'. I'm not seeing any environmental aspects to Druidstone with regards to the puzzles, to which the example of respawns makes evident: In the rare times Blackguards had respawns in a scenario you could close-up the holes that generated the respawns, Druidstone seems to have no similar option and more than that uses respawns in every (?) encounter regardless of creature type or sense of realism.

Even the words used in describing the scenarios is different, in Blackguards you complete quests, whereas in Druidstone you complete missions hence: in Blackguards you can never re-do a scenario once completed whereas in Druidstone you can re-do scenarios as much as you like?

Blackguards has a massive character creation and build system [you call "very bloated" which I find to be a very unfair and inaccurate description] combined with a level-up system which put the focus of player-interest in the development of their characters, whereas Druidstone has no character creation and a very basic level-upping system.

The stroy of Blackguards took up quite a lot of screen time, either in dialogues, cut-scenes or following up on leads, where as Druidstone is much more just looking for an excuse to do another puzzle-mission, no?

And from your first quote, Blackguards has randomness (dice, to-hit etc) where as Druidstone doesn't (deterministic), again an important difference in 'RPGness' design. I also just disagree that Backguards is either unpolished or has bad mechanics, it always stuck me as a very polished game with both interesting and unique mechanics, but you're referring to Druidstone as polished when other people are saying a lot of the unpleasant elements of it's puzzle scenarios come from unpolished AI design and the like; AKA cheap tricks, and Blackguards never needed to use cheap tricks.

Have I missed something which really makes them actually comparable, either in genre or gameplay that no-one's communicated yet?

[I've also posted this in the Druidstone news thread so people know where your other quotes come from]
 
Joined
Nov 1, 2014
Messages
4,762
Let's stick to the other thread regarding this as it would get too tedious.
 
Joined
Jun 2, 2012
Messages
4,691
Hype originated from source: lackblogger. Then it passed onto Kordanor. Then it went back onto lackblogger again. Et circa.
 
Joined
Jun 5, 2015
Messages
3,898
Location
Croatia
Back
Top Bottom