First Impressions

Originally Posted by Sneaky_seal
Guys, let's share our first impressions in this thread.

Thought I'd keep this thread going rather than create a new one. Lots of great reading and a variety of experiences are related here.

I'm about a week into my first time ever playing this game. I decided to jump headlong straight into Tactician mode without too much fuss; wanting to be challenged and immersed in the game. Thus far it has well and truly delivered - it has really been a tough start. I just finished up the Radeka witch fight and feel close to getting off the first island - all this in a crazy 49 hours. I've been having fun experimenting with a lot with fights where I've struggled to win to get a greater feel for combat, which has really inflated my play time.

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

I went for a conservative dwarf warrior type; focusing on warfare and single handed.
Character creation was great without being overwhelming and I got the sense of the character I wanted to play straight away. On the whole, I'm engaging with the skill system much more so than I did with the first game. That may be partially due to playing on tactician - as I never did that with the first game.
I also took on Beast and had this wacky idea of an all round "stunty" party, but don't know if that'll be possible. (I've also got Ifan and Lohse)

2. What do you think of your first few hours in the game?
I struggled to really find enough encounters I could cope with at first and so my progress was quite slow, but I expected this. Sometimes the environments can feel too busy with the surface elements which occasionally affects my enjoyment, but I really like the sense of discovery and the layers which come from greater exploration in the game. Finding a new strategic idea in a fight that works can feel really rewarding and exciting. That openness to experimentation of approach also makes it fun and encourages one to really take their time.

4. How do you think it fares compared to the first D:OS?
On a par, I would say. I don't really lean one way or the other yet. I'm still not fully sold on the story as a tonal improvement from the first, but hopefully it improves and engages me more somewhere down the line.

Edit:
Just took down Alexandar to end Act 1. Really amazing fight with some unbelievable momentum swings.

Finding the right place to be can sometimes be tricky. Other times its like the folks at Larian know exactly when you're going to level up.

If you get stuck, though, google up a level map of the game. It will tell you what's what level without having to walk all over the map.

The one thing that kind of turns me off is the exponential increases in armor and damage (equipment and enemies) with levels, coupled with randomized diablo loot style. After a few levels all except your best traited stuff is disposable. Don't really like all the fussing with equipment upgrades. It's a bit too much of a time drain.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
The one thing that kind of turns me off is the exponential increases in armor and damage (equipment and enemies) with levels, coupled with randomized diablo loot style. After a few levels all except your best traited stuff is disposable. Don't really like all the fussing with equipment upgrades. It's a bit too much of a time drain.

It is if you want it to be. I for example went to a merchant to buy new stuff like once in a long while, only when I needed to go back to town for some quest and I casually checked the marketplace. Most of my characters' equipment came from loot and 'lucky charm'. Granted, I didn't play on tactician, so maybe playing in that mode does require you to keep your equipment always up to date.

I played on tactician and i don't remember loot being an issue. While I did check stores it was mostly out of curiousity than need for survival or progression. Also my characters were 'junk' with regards to build. I made some mistakes at the start and kept thinking one of these days i'll respect them since it is free but i never got around to it till the last act and then it was too late.

Originally Posted by wolfing
It is if you want it to be. I for example went to a merchant to buy new stuff like once in a long while, only when I needed to go back to town for some quest and I casually checked the marketplace. Most of my characters' equipment came from loot and 'lucky charm'. Granted, I didn't play on tactician, so maybe playing in that mode does require you to keep your equipment always up to date.

I was getting creamed in Act 2 without upgrades, so yeah it was necessary.

Then again I am playing a no death run, and I don't use any consumables.

Can you resurrect dead party members during battle?

Yes, with resurrection scrolls but I think their health and armor is zero or near zero.

There is a perk that allows them to be resurrected at full health.

!? Arrows are consumables! No knockdown or charm arrows… jeez, that would hurt.

Lucky Charm and quests have been feeding me most of my gear but sometimes there's incredibly good stuff at a vendor. There's also lots of cheap-but-no-buffs stuff. I've started tending toward the latter after blowing my wad on one of the former then finding a better version 15 minutes later.

Lucky charm at 3 for me drops about every 10th container. Occaisionally it’s useful stuff. But I’ve gotten a lot of crappy rings and belts and boots. Getting items with good buffs means I usually resort to stealing. Having 3 chars who can pickpocket helps. The dwarf in Driftwood will give you +2 thievery gloves if you play your cards right. Make sure to suck up to Butter in Fort Joy.

The Spirit of a Pianist is very cool.

It's an in game homage to Kirill.

Touching.

Originally Posted by you
There is a perk that allows them to be resurrected at full health.

My best investment! Nothing worse then resurrecting someone to have them immediately killed again (you can raise them further away, but their may be enemies everywhere)

Originally Posted by booboo
Nothing worse then resurrecting someone to have them immediately killed again…

Resurrecting them then having them get charmed and attack you?

Still, that is a good perk. Mnemonic is also super handy (if hard to spell).

I played for about 1.5 hours…. and hmmm…

I can see improvement over dialogues, the story so far is interesting enough to keep me going, combat is decent as well. But…. the control is pretty clunky and I hate the narrative (it breaks immersion). So far, I only managed to find Red Prince, but from the initial chat/interactions, I'm more interested in traveling with Ifan, Beast and Lohse. I rolled a custom character rather than picking one as my main.

What do you find clunky about the controls and immersion-breaking about the story?

It's been a while, but I am pretty sure I had no issues with either.
In fact I'd call the story to be one of the best (that is if you look at the whole game, as it stays good while most other games degrade a lot inmho)

I'm finding camera quite fiddle-y, not liking having to rotate it all the time using middle mouse button. I also don't like the fact items can't be highlighted (except for the items you can pick up), it feels more like an adventure game or hide-and-seek. And having a narrator "reading out the script like a play" really breaks immersion for me. *I* am playing the game as a main character, I should feel like I'm experiencing it first hand, not being told what is happening.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
I also don't like the fact items can't be highlighted (except for the items you can pick up.

What other items would you want to be highlighted?

Things you can interact with. I guess I'm too used to "tab" highlights in IE games. I'm finding having to move mouse over for every single object to find out what it is quite irritating - that's what I meant by it feels like an adventure game or hide-and-seek. I'm hoping I will get used to it soon.

Originally Posted by purpleblob
Things you can interact with. I guess I'm too used to "tab" highlights in IE games. I'm finding having to move mouse over for every single object to find out what it is quite irritating - that's what I meant by it feels like an adventure game or hide-and-seek. I'm hoping I will get used to it soon.

I believe I quickly installed a mod for that, as well as one that severely cut down on the JRPG number bloat. It made for amuch better experience in my opinion.