i can safely say that Black Geyser is closest to the IE games. The main story keeps you motivated and guessing and actually branches depending on your decision. I’ve finished nearly 50 quests and recruited 8 companions who have their own background stories and quests. You can choose to play a greedy or generous char depending on how you choose to be rewarded upon finishing quests. This greed system will be fully integrated upon the full release of the game. Enemy AI is decent insofar as the enemies drink potions, change targets and throw powders at you but it shall be further improved. Speaking of powders – that and special abilities like waylay or prolonged berserk add to meleers tactical possibilities. Resolving combat is more akin to IE games since it plays more like RTS than other modern isometric rpgs and combat, pacing and scope of the game most resemble Icewind dale. A novelty is brewing and drying components so that you can produce your own potions and powders during resting. This system will be improved for easier use in the final release. Already in the EA i did found unique items/weapons mainly from looting (which has no influence on the greed level) or even finding parts of unfinished weapons which could be assembled by special npcs. Spells include healing, status effect spells, summons, silence etc. including invisibility. So far, though, the enemy AI doesn’t use them much and mostly status effects are too short to be worth countering but it is to be expected that enemy AI and encounters will get a closer look by the devs. Char skills amongst other offer additional dialogue options. Class skills vary from purifying cursed items to faster casting to new ones like plant items on enemies. While the game has typical unity issues like longer loading times and pathfinding those shouldn’t be worrisome. Selecting targets in combat could work better as the 3d models are sometimes getting in the way but apart from that i didn't have any issues worth mentioning.
U9 for me was always superior to other open world games. This is why: - Better controls (especially in comparison to Gothic) - Great voice acting - Interesting, thoughtful story and missions - The best exploring, only a few dungeons but 100times better than the thousands of dungeons from other rpgs - While there's no automap, you don't need it as the landscape is unique and you can navigate through it easliy - No thousands of kilometres to walk but a smaller and exciting world (the different landscapes change faster, so it's not so dull) - roughly 36 spells - that's not much but you'll need basically all of them and you'll need to find out which one to use when - more interesting battle system than in other open world rpgs - you need to carry different sorts of weapons for different enemies - it's fun and funny, the game does not take itself too serious and does not try to pretend that it's a simulation - it's truly a fantasy game whereas in other open world rpgs you have the feeling it's a medieval simulation with spells and monsters thrown in for good measure Make sure that if you play U9 you save often (i'm now in Ambrosia and had two crashes so far, also in the beginning your char is weak and you can die fast from enemies attacks)
