Impressions (version 30 Oct 2010) [spoilers]

Amarth 14 years ago

Warning, spoiler territory. Warning. I'll try to keep it light but still.

This is mainly addressed to Ville, but others can chime in with their own impressions or make counter-points to mine or something.

First, it was fun! Short though. Did you throw away all of the maps that were in the demo or will parts of them return in some form? Those were good maps, seems like a lot of time wasted otherwise.

I like the mouse controls. It allows me to be lazy. Awesome. Not sure how well it would translate to a laptop touchpad though with the constant button-holding. Also, I think I missed a pause combat button when playing mouse-only? It doesn't say anything about pressing space in-game either I think. Don't let parts of the game lie undiscovered because your tutorial isn't complete!

A way to see your ammo when using a ranged weapon would be nice. Well, I guess you can drag the ammo to your tool bar thing... Hmm. Didn't think of that. Also didn't think of adding my health potions to the bar. Put some emphasis on that bar during the tutorial.

Why are they called Evil Berries? I hope there will be some sort of explanation for that ingame. It's a bit strange, especially when (IIRC?) the first of those you find is in some kind of dangerous tomb.

There were a couple of dialog paths where there was an unclear point of no return. I found it extremely jarring, because the game is very exploration-heavy yet blocks the player from reading potentially interesting (they're probably not essential, but still) bits of story. The points that stood out the most were with the gardener, where I transformed him before I knew it, and even worse, with the big spider near the end. Once you start examining the runes (IMO the most innocent action I could have done), there's no way out of the fight. I still wanted to pick up those potions first!

The thieves gave the impression they would attack me if I came by them again, but they didn't. I accidentally looted their building during the night. I then thought one of them would be carrying the gem I was looking for. I didn't explore the south-west because of Robert (or me? Confused there - if Robert is saying anything at all outside of modal dialog, maybe differentiate the colors?) saying 'the path continues south', which I understood as 'this leads to a whole different area' instead of a little shack. So yeah, bit confused and annoyed when all I got for that fairly hard fight was a slightly better sword and some XP.

A shield near the start would be fine. It makes the shield ram ability useful (I guess, I didn't bother to take it because no shield) and (I think?) gives you a reason to drop your torch, a nice dilemma at the start.

Also, torch and bow looks a bit silly, but it might be too hard to fix that. And the whirlwind attack animation is not very convincing. And the magical transformation of an enemy into a skeleton on dead without further effects could also use some work. Minor nitpicks, apart from those, I really like the style.

Also, the music is awesome.

It seems to me (though I haven't tried it yet in this version) that mods for this game could potentially turn out pretty awesome. We already have a few very good ones for the older version, but there is infinite potential in this. Sweet! Warning, spoiler territory. Warning. I'll try to keep it light but still. This is mainly addressed to Ville, but others can chime in with their own impressions or make counter-points to mine or something. First, it was fun! Short though. Did you throw away all of the maps that were in the demo or will parts of them return in some form? Those were good maps, seems like a lot of time wasted otherwise. I like the mouse controls. It allows me to be lazy. Awesome. Not sure how well it would translate to a laptop touchpad though with the constant button-holding. Also, I think I missed a pause combat button when playing mouse-only? It doesn't say anything about pressing space in-game either I think. Don't let parts of the game lie undiscovered because your tutorial isn't complete! A way to see your ammo when using a ranged weapon would be nice. Well, I guess you can drag the ammo to your tool bar thing... Hmm. Didn't think of that. Also didn't think of adding my health potions to the bar. Put some emphasis on that bar during the tutorial. Why are they called Evil Berries? I hope there will be some sort of explanation for that ingame. It's a bit strange, especially when (IIRC?) the first of those you find is in some kind of dangerous tomb. There were a couple of dialog paths where there was an unclear point of no return. I found it extremely jarring, because the game is very exploration-heavy yet blocks the player from reading potentially interesting (they're probably not essential, but still) bits of story. The points that stood out the most were with the gardener, where I transformed him before I knew it, and even worse, with the big spider near the end. Once you start examining the runes (IMO the most innocent action I could have done), there's no way out of the fight. I still wanted to pick up those potions first! The thieves gave the impression they would attack me if I came by them again, but they didn't. I accidentally looted their building during the night. I then thought one of them would be carrying the gem I was looking for. I didn't explore the south-west because of Robert (or me? Confused there - if Robert is saying anything at all outside of modal dialog, maybe differentiate the colors?) saying 'the path continues south', which I understood as 'this leads to a whole different area' instead of a little shack. So yeah, bit confused and annoyed when all I got for that fairly hard fight was a slightly better sword and some XP. A shield near the start would be fine. It makes the shield ram ability useful (I guess, I didn't bother to take it because no shield) and (I think?) gives you a reason to drop your torch, a nice dilemma at the start. Also, torch and bow looks a bit silly, but it might be too hard to fix that. And the whirlwind attack animation is not very convincing. And the magical transformation of an enemy into a skeleton on dead without further effects could also use some work. Minor nitpicks, apart from those, I really like the style. Also, the music is awesome. It seems to me (though I haven't tried it yet in this version) that mods for this game could potentially turn out pretty awesome. We already have a few very good ones for the older version, but there is infinite potential in this. Sweet!

Impressions (version 30 Oct 2010) [spoilers]

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