Zloth
I smell a... wumpus!?
OK, I finally got the game and played a few hours tonight. I've only got 3 hours but I can at least rattle off some basics now?€?
It's truly isometric - there's no spinning the camera in this one.
No character customization. The characters you get will be a certain class with a certain background. Good for storytelling but don't expect to roll up three paladins.
The exploration all takes place in an inverted tower (meaning you start at the top and go down). Move around by holding the left button down on the mouse and pointing where you want the leader to go. Everybody else follows. You can get flavor text by clicking on some things on the map.
I'm still on the first "entrance" level but, if the map screen is any indication, it's going to be a big level! There are teleporters here and there around the map so you don't have to trudge around through empty areas too much. You can see stats on the level telling you how many of its quests you've done, how many battles you've fought, and so on.
You can teleport back to town at any time to get training and do crafting. When you teleport back, you'll be in exactly the same place in the Tower. (So, essentially, it works like a menu item.) The town is in horrible shape at the start but you can fix it up by investing cash and finding blueprints in the tower.
You don't sell your items at all - you dismantle what you don't want for later crafting. I've barely dismantled anything this early in the game so I'm not sure what stuff I'll be able to get.
The combat is fairly unique - I guess its closest to Dragon Age 2. It doesn't take place in the tower map at all, you get plopped into a strategic battle map instead. You get to pick your initial locations within a starting circle then start the battle. There are various spawn points around the edge of the map that enemies will come out of. So far it's only been 1-3 at a time. A bar at the top tells you how many enemies are still to come, which is a lot better than DA2 "surprising" you with some unpredictable number of ambushes every battle.
The combat has a unique slow-on-space style. Instead of flat out stopping, clicking pause makes the game slow down to 5% of normal speed. (You can set that to other speeds, including 0, which would turn it into pause-on-space.) It's been pretty good so far! With pause-on-space you have to go/stop/go/oh no I stopped too late! If things get really hairy with this system, you can just leave it inching along. 5% gives plenty of time to react and plan.
The game is definitely not hard core tactical. You don't have to worry about friendly fire and all your HP/mana come back when the battle ends. There does seem to be a good bit of depth to the combat, just don't go in expecting XCom or Battletech.
I think you'll eventually get 8 characters. 4 can play at any time. There are quite a few skills for each character but each character can only bring 4 (?) at a time.
Saves work anywhere on the map. You can make permanent saves and do a quicksave. I haven't actually tried to save in combat! (Edit: tried it - no saving in combat.)
This is also the first isometric game where I really wanted my 3D Vision. There's a lot of chasms to see in this game!
It's been fun so far! The only bugs have been a couple of typos in the text descriptions.
It's truly isometric - there's no spinning the camera in this one.
No character customization. The characters you get will be a certain class with a certain background. Good for storytelling but don't expect to roll up three paladins.
The exploration all takes place in an inverted tower (meaning you start at the top and go down). Move around by holding the left button down on the mouse and pointing where you want the leader to go. Everybody else follows. You can get flavor text by clicking on some things on the map.
I'm still on the first "entrance" level but, if the map screen is any indication, it's going to be a big level! There are teleporters here and there around the map so you don't have to trudge around through empty areas too much. You can see stats on the level telling you how many of its quests you've done, how many battles you've fought, and so on.
You can teleport back to town at any time to get training and do crafting. When you teleport back, you'll be in exactly the same place in the Tower. (So, essentially, it works like a menu item.) The town is in horrible shape at the start but you can fix it up by investing cash and finding blueprints in the tower.
You don't sell your items at all - you dismantle what you don't want for later crafting. I've barely dismantled anything this early in the game so I'm not sure what stuff I'll be able to get.
The combat is fairly unique - I guess its closest to Dragon Age 2. It doesn't take place in the tower map at all, you get plopped into a strategic battle map instead. You get to pick your initial locations within a starting circle then start the battle. There are various spawn points around the edge of the map that enemies will come out of. So far it's only been 1-3 at a time. A bar at the top tells you how many enemies are still to come, which is a lot better than DA2 "surprising" you with some unpredictable number of ambushes every battle.
The combat has a unique slow-on-space style. Instead of flat out stopping, clicking pause makes the game slow down to 5% of normal speed. (You can set that to other speeds, including 0, which would turn it into pause-on-space.) It's been pretty good so far! With pause-on-space you have to go/stop/go/oh no I stopped too late! If things get really hairy with this system, you can just leave it inching along. 5% gives plenty of time to react and plan.
The game is definitely not hard core tactical. You don't have to worry about friendly fire and all your HP/mana come back when the battle ends. There does seem to be a good bit of depth to the combat, just don't go in expecting XCom or Battletech.
I think you'll eventually get 8 characters. 4 can play at any time. There are quite a few skills for each character but each character can only bring 4 (?) at a time.
Saves work anywhere on the map. You can make permanent saves and do a quicksave. I haven't actually tried to save in combat! (Edit: tried it - no saving in combat.)
This is also the first isometric game where I really wanted my 3D Vision. There's a lot of chasms to see in this game!
It's been fun so far! The only bugs have been a couple of typos in the text descriptions.
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