ghostryder: No Fallout NV only appears twitch based if you do not use vats or pause. Under the hood your ability to hit is still STAT based. Baldur's gate can appear like Diablo if you never pause, but under the hood the numbers are being crunched. Again you can have imbalances do to a weakness in the rules--but there is no way AD&D 3 rules become as unbalanced as we experience in the Witcher. Balur's Gate holds up reasonably well, and I'd say Knights of the old republic holds up reasonably well.
By sameness- I refer to Oblivion or Fallout 3. It matters not what I choose-by lvl 20 I'll be skilled in everything regardless. My mage is very much like my Warrior---However you make a Mage in Baldur's Gate and he will be a mage at lvl 20---your still be no tank with a sword---which you will be in Oblivion even if you create a mage.
Sure your a witcher, but you still have paths to lean towards-be it sword, signs, and so on. But again the over-lying determining factor for success is reflex---if you have it your do good-if you don't your going to struggle-especially in the early levels. That can only be corrected with a rules system-which there is none. The devs can nerf Quen, up response time, weaken a sword---but it's a shotgun approach to what really should be a mathimatical solution. It's what drives the strategy gender- and RPGs are supposed to be strategic.
It's like comparing Command and Conquer to War in the East. There's little in a RTS that can compete with a strategic Wargame in terms of strategy options-and the same is true when you compare an action RPG with a old school RPG. You want mindless twitch gaming you go for Diablo- You want to plan your fights, your levels, your whole build you go play an old Bioware game or sign up for a MMO because nowadays they just make action games.
What you are claiming is that action RPGs cannot be RPGs, and you are implying that the RPG elements in TW2 are useless. That there is no planning involved in TW2 and that's just false.
Well I can only disagree with your premise. I like Action RPGs and think that TW2 owns as a game. I do not find the RPG elements diminished in any way, and I think that the combat is much better than the first game.
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If you extend your argument, what you are saying is that a game like Starcraft cannot be strategic in any way or form because it depends on reflexes. That is an incredibly twisted way to look at things.
Yes, you need reflexes to do good at SC, but you also need a firm grasp of strategy and tactics.
Same things applies to action RPGs, reflexes and strategy can compliment each other and not be mutually exclusive.
I will repeat it, you need to be good at combat, and prepare tactics and RPG elements to succeed in TW2.
ghostryder: By the amount of threads on this forum I think it is a stretch to claim there's some nice balances between twitch based reflex fighting and leveling up with stats. The general debate is how to improve what is clearly out of whack---and I contend you need an underlying rules system in order to do that.
That's a different argument. TW2 combat is unbalanced in skills, and has some inconsistencies in its responsiveness. But those relate to specific balancing of the game.
What I am referring is that there is a balance in the fact that you need both preparation and reflexes in this game. Just like in SC2 you need to be good at microing and at making correct strategies to win.