Well, a couple of replays later and many hours sunk into it, I still keep falling out (pun intended) with Underrail. TL;DR: It is a good game, so if you're not fussed, read a build guide and how to use it in combat. It will save you a lot of hassle. To be clear: I cannot fault the overall theme, setting, and most of the writing. It is a *very* well crafted universe, the maps are diverse and full of different characters and monsters. The alternate XP system is great, but also try classic - you just know where you stand when killing monsters and doing quests. Gameplay balance is where it breaks for me. There are a lot of "wrong" ways to spec a character. If you do not balance the right skills and pick the right feats, you get to a point in the game and you just can't progress without some major change. Like my first plays of Fallout, sometimes you just have to start over - and there was a few too many of those. I do prefer "normal" to not repeatedly penalise me for not making a min-max protagonist. After maybe my 5th redo, the magic of exploration was waning, and I just wanted to get to the next part of the story.
I'm a Bard's Tale (the CRPG, you heathens!) and M&M veteran, so this piqued my interest. With no actual clue where to start, of course I rolled my own party! It plays quickly, has a decent map, and is balanced more for fun play. It is pretty accessible, with some good ideas like the use of sailing. You get to the main quest fairly quickly and you get a lot of hints. Side quest tracking is fairly easy and follows the old rule of "talk to everyone" :) Overall, the amount of combat was time consuming, but not overly hard. The seemingly endless walls of monsters in some areas can initially seem intimidating, but right up until the end, there is always somewhere else where you can level up a bit. Only three minor criticisms to bear (your choice of bear) in mind for Amberland 3 :) 1. Environmental damage areas got old very fast, and having to switch items/resistances. 2. The random nature of the equipment vendor rolls did mean some of my characters were lacking equipment to match the increase in combat difficulty, but I still managed. 3. More secrets please!
Starts off very easy, half-prepares you for your first loss, then delivers it with a "what just happened?" moment - I'm used to tactical turn based games, so I wasn't playing on Story or Normal. You learn the ropes (pun intended) the randomness throws you some curveballs early on. Despite some of the fights feeling rigged (also intended) you realise that you just don't have the points to compete, so its back to repeating missions to build up crew/ship/equipment so you can survive the more difficult tiers. The difficulty tapers off, but you still get broadsided (still intended) now and again by a perfect random combo. All said, its not too bad, but a couple of the mechanics make it a bit of a slog, and the lack of variety lets it down.
I found this recommended on a LoG forum. Can I recommend it in the same vein? Not really. Exploration might have a DM "style," but in terms of combat, it's a turn based JRPG. Lots of systems - abilities, control or nullifiers, damage types, and immunities - most of which you won't get to know about until you're in combat. After being forced to fight (and die) repeatedly, then respec (at least respecs are free) to work out how to to progress, I eventually decided it wasn't worth carrying on, put this down after the 5th map boss, and won't be going back to it. Some interesting maps, some amusing banter between characters, but not really enough to carry the game when your progress get cheaply blocked by something with an ability you can not anticipate and are the "wrong build" for.
I haven't played a Robocop game since the arcade version, but this had a decent premise - a follow on to the first two fillms. It turns out this is an enjoyable game in pacing, length and entertainment value. Everything you'd expect from a game, even if the story was a little predictable - but that was also in line with the movies. And why not? Voice acting is on the money, so if you're expecting Robocop and the Detroit Police department trying to maintain a sense of justice in the tacky, social gulf ridden mess that was the self-indulgent 80s, that's exactly what you get. It's not exactly a tough game, and I'm partly glad - there's a better sense of immersion when you're meant to be a crime-fighting cyborg in an alternate past. Hats off to the rest of the force but especially officer Lewis - not a hint of titanium, but every bit as dedicated to justice as the titular hero.
I enjoyed the first one, so I was expecting more. There is definitely more story here, the highlight system makes interactions clear, even if sometimes hugely separated out. Good graphically, decent music, and atmospheric. An "excellent" score is undermined by slow movement, a few truly terrible puzzles that leave you frustrated - no more glitchy "enhance to review security footage" puzzle _ever_ again, thanks! Other than that, the horror element kind of left the building in Act 2 for me when puzzles needed a lot of backtracking, logs with required info in them in the middle of 10 entries, and so the pacing started to get kind of broken.
