So this appeared on Steam just now. Anyone know if it's any good?
Edit: I likey me some hacky-slashy stuff. I enjoyed the Dark Alliance games, I loved Oni, and if it weren't for the sluggish controls I'd have liked the Dungeon Siege 3 demo better than I did. So I guess what I'm asking is how good is the combat.
Last edited by Icarus; 24-06-2011 at 05:45 PM.
Not as good as D&D.Originally Posted by Icarus
What is it as good as?
None of us have got around to playing it yet. We should probably look at that.
I haven't played this, but I remember that Metacritic shitted all over it.
That... that probably wasn't helpful.
Watched a few videos of this on Youtube. I think I'll hold off on spending a tenner on this, but I might drop a fiver.
A friend of mine owns it and can barely get it to run, apparently it's a bit of a buggy mess.
Buying games you aren't going to play is a waste of money (no matter how cheap they are). Forcing yourself to play games you wish you hadn't bought is a waste of time. Both are best avoided.
General impression seems to be one to avoid, then. What a shame :/
That's a shame. Hopefully they'll get it sorted out. I've seen some videos and iit looked like it could be fun.
Thanks for the heads up.
Why would anyone make a D&D game that isn't D&D? It makes no sense to me. Surely the strong point of D&D is D&D. It's interesting that the best combat systems in RPGs happen to be D&D based, yet even D&D games don't use D&D any more.
Very much the question I asked when Dark Alliance came out way back when. It didn't make sense then, it doesn't make sense now.
Buying games you aren't going to play is a waste of money (no matter how cheap they are). Forcing yourself to play games you wish you hadn't bought is a waste of time. Both are best avoided.
Dark Alliance wasn't even the first. There were "D&D" games like Heroes of the Lance and Dragons of Flame back in the 80s. The only positive thing about those was that they came out in a time when actual D&D games were being released. The same can't be said for today.
Interesting. Since I didn't play PnP D&D until the early 90's, and since my exposure to PC games was severely limited prior to that same period (for lack of a PC at home), I wasn't aware of those. I can sort of dimly understand how you might end up with DragonLance games that weren't D&D, since in the case of that setting there are quite a lot of fans of the novels that don't necessarily play the PnP game. Why you'd bother to license any of the other D&D settings without using the ruleset I can't imagine, and I say that as someone with a real soft spot for Forgotten Realms from back when I used to DM it.
Actually that reminds me, I can think of a couple of D&D settings that would be worth licensing for the uniqueness of the setting alone: Dark Sun and Spelljammer (used to run campaigns in the latter, great fun). Still, the mechanics go a long way towards fleshing out and defining those worlds, which brings me back to where I started.
Yeah, weird.
Buying games you aren't going to play is a waste of money (no matter how cheap they are). Forcing yourself to play games you wish you hadn't bought is a waste of time. Both are best avoided.
There are 2 Dark Sun CRPGs, 1 Dark Sun MMORPG, and a Spelljammer CRPG.
Never any Lankhmar, though. And surprisingly little Eberron, given that it was supposed to be the next big thing. D&D Online doesn't even have the Artificer class. Why bother with the ruleset or the setting if you're barely going to use either?
You are an endless font of useful information. I was aware of one Dark Sun RPG, but not two. MMO's don't particularly matter to me, but as an academic curiousity it's interesting that such a thing exists. I was also unaware of the Spelljammer CRPG, I really MUST look that one up.
All that said, I trust those four examples actually use the D&D mechanics. The particular reason I referenced those settings was that they're among the few pieces of world building in the D&D universe that would be worth licensing for the fluff value alone. I suppose Planescape is another one, but the howls of outrage at a misuse of that would be heard across the internet and down into the depths of the Abyss.
All of which is to say I can't fathom why anyone would license Forgotten Realms as a setting but jettison D&D mechanics. Any old generic fantasy setting would do, after all.
@TillEulenspiegel
Both after my time, I'm afraid. FOrtunately for me, the PnP settings I remember fondly happened to coincide with a period of frantic classic CRPG creation.
Last edited by vinraith; 25-06-2011 at 12:43 AM.
Buying games you aren't going to play is a waste of money (no matter how cheap they are). Forcing yourself to play games you wish you hadn't bought is a waste of time. Both are best avoided.
Well, the Dark Sun games are proper AD&D. Quite a good implementation too. Turn-based, of course. The first Dark Sun game, Shattered Lands, is one of the finest CRPGs of all time. The second isn't as good, though it is playable (and buggy). Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace is generally considered a poor CRPG as it was made by a small team on small budget and it was rushed and ended up being glitchy. I know some people who like the game, though.
Yeah, Shattered Lands is the one I was aware of. Still, I'll have a look at the others. It's a shame the Spelljammer one wasn't so good. There's a setting that just demands a modern, proper CRPG interpretation.
Buying games you aren't going to play is a waste of money (no matter how cheap they are). Forcing yourself to play games you wish you hadn't bought is a waste of time. Both are best avoided.
The reviews I read were pretty disastrous. It appears to be D&D in name only and it's really more akin to the Gauntlet games. I guess it's going to be like the last Ghostbusters coop game.
"I was one of those. I meddled with dark powers. I summoned demons. I ate the entire little cheese, including the rind."
~Kvothe, The Wise Man's Fear
There were some other games set in some other unusual settings. There were two well known Ravenloft CRPGs from the mid '90s, Strahd's Possession and Stone Prophet. There was an Al-Qadim action adventure game called The Genie's Curse released in '94. There was a Birthright turn-based strategy game in '96 called The Gorgon's Alliance. There were a few Mystara games, most of which were console junk though.
Of course you've got your famous ones like Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Dragonlance and Eberron. Forgotten Realms has like a billion video games. Greyhawk, surprisingly, doesn't, with Temple of Elemental Evil from 2003 being the first. Eberron has DDO, of course, and that's about it. Dragon Lance has lots of shitty console junk while also having the very good Krynn trilogy to make up for it.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
