I haven't played a deep CRPG in a long time. I didn't even know this existed but based on the trailers liked it immediately. I am aware of the original trilogy but never played it extensively. World - this style of fantasy is so much fun - a kind of epic heroic bardic culture of adventure and camaraderie, the music that is not only simply great but more importantly fitting elevates the whole experience. The game draws a fine line between epic adventure and satire, it never takes itself too seriously and it just works. Gameplay - battle system is deep and fun. It manages to make turn based battles well paced and dynamic - no easy task. Every type of character is useful. Even a tank-less party made up of practitioners, bard and rogue (archer) turned out to be very effective. - character development system is enjoyable, I look forward to every level up. Each ability has tangible effect on your party effectiveness. - puzzles - I was surprised by how big role puzzles have in the game - when you're in a dungeon you're ~50% fighting enemies and 50% solving puzzles. It works great - I feel this has been sorely missing in lots of new games which are often mindless romps. This is old school dungeon of the DM or EOB kind and it's paradoxically such a breath of fresh air. Technical - as already said the music is incredible as is the voice acting. Once again to drive the point home - I really love the music:) - graphically I like it - I'm sure there are prettier games but it still looks good. I'm playing on Intel IGP so everything low and it is barely playable, but enough to enjoy it. - one potential criticism - I had to get used to the fact that unlike a game like say Deus Ex this is limited in where you can go and explore, you can't even jump down from a safe height there are invisible barriers everywhere. In time I got used to it and I think it helps the gameplay stay focused on quests and puzzles - kind of a RPG/adventure hybrid. Give it a try you just might love it!
I'm reviewing the SDragonfall, it is a significant improvement, you get both anyway. The best thing about SD is writing - there is a lot of text here and it is very well written, it really pulls you into the world, makes characters interesting and believable. The story is great I was really invested emotionally in the people of Kreuzbazar - the writing really helps with that. The gameplay itself is the next best thing. There is much more variety compared to the original and different characters give you a lot of options on how to approach battles - sniping, close combat, conjuring, magic, drones etc. Sometimes the hit calculation seemed a bit unfair (70% chance to hit = 3x miss), but overall the difficulty is just right and it never happens that a single miss or a missclick would force you to restart. The atmosphere is great and if you like the Shadowrun world (I love it) you will really enjoy the game, because it really leverages the mythos - magic, shamanism, decking, megacorporations, dragons you name it it's all there. The environments are varied and interesting - cities, countryside, seweres, corporate buildings, alternate dimension (sort of :) ) as are the enemies - (meta) humans, drones, ghouls, basilisks, hellhounds... I like that the game works equally well controlled by a mouse or a touchscreen. Now for some cons: SD is relatively heavy compared to how simple the engine is - loading, overall speed, but that's not really a problem. People complain the game is linear I don't consider it a problem - this is no Baldur's Gate it's rather a series of turn-based battles in a vey interesting environment held together by an engaging story. I would welcome if besides the main and side missions there would be a random mission generator which would tie to the merc principle of shadowrunning. You only have 4 character slots for missions which limits your options a bit. Overall an awesome game. Buy it if you love turnbased combat, Shadowrun or just good stories.
I didn't have the chance to play Ultima 7 when it was originally released. I first played it about 5 years ago and while it took me some time to get into it I then spent countless hours with it. Replaying the game now on my cell phone (thank you Exult!) I can only scratch my head in awe thinking about how much ahead of its time the game was. First of all the game is immense, but that's not so rare nowadays with all the Elder Scrolls games etc. The feeling of the game is very different from those mentioned above and basically from most RPGs today, because developing your in game character is just not that important it's more about how you, the player, interact with the game and develop as it continues. For example when completing quests it's not so much about getting reward through XP and loot, but rather about actually caring about the NPCs and wanting to help them. There is a living breathing world in Britania and the characters have so much depth and you can lose yourself in the game for hours and just chat with the NPCs while still feeling rewarded for the time invested. At least that's how I feel when playing the game. The writing is top notch with the old English and everything which is part of why the dialogues are so engaging. The game is so complex - each character has their daily routine, you can bake bread in the game, steal, spy on people, kill Lord British! etc. How many games allow you to do all that even today? The graphics is still a joy to look at especially on a smaller screen or in higher resolution that Exult makes possible. The music likewise is very pleasant and adds to the mood of the game greatly. If there's something that could be improved it's the interface - especially item management is very cumbersome but that's to be expected from a 1992 game I guess. If you can get over the single con there is no real reason not to play one of the truly best games ever. Not just great for its age, simply one of the best ever. Period.
