Of the 3 modern Elder Scrolls games, Oblivion seems weaker than Morrowind and Skyrim due to lacking the depth of the former, and being technically crude versus the latter. This game looks bad and has a broken levelling system that ramps up the difficulty unless you really game the levelling system. HOWEVER - install the Unofficial Patch, use BethINI to edit the game settings and install a mod to give fixed bonuses on level-up; and you now have a superb RPG. The game has an addictive loop of discovering new locations, conquering dungeons, then clearing your backpack and levelling up in town. Being able to purchase properties and renovate them offers some longer term goals. And there's a main series of quests that beats Skyrim's. Eventually the game gets boring when you have no more goals to aim for, typical of a Bethesda game. If you're considering getting this game - I suggest that if you're an RPG fan and don't mind figuring out the aforementioned mods, you should DEFINITELY play this. If you don't want to figure out mods, I'm not sure I can recommend the base game.
I bought this game while trying to find Japanese dungeon crawlers or ARPGs. Delighted that it scratched my itch! This is a JRPG light on story that jumps almost straight into dungeon crawling and powering up your character. Pros: * Quite neatly designed in that it's linear but you always have a few things to do like save up for the next armor, discover rare item drops, or find secret rooms. Really good light RPG fun. * Looks and sounds great, for a game with a PS2 aesthetic. Cons: * Doesn't have full controller support so you'll need to reach for the mouse on occasions. Sometimes the controller feels a little buggy, and some platforming challenges are just a lot easier with mouse. * Overall maybe a little too easy. Only times I die are going into a boss fight unprepared, and that feels unfair as there's no breathing room to re-equip mid-fight. Even if the game was more challenging, it has a respawn mechanic where the only penalty is losing half your money. * I think a little more depth to the levelling and skills would have gone a long way. It's a simple level-up system, with the only twist being the ability to intentionally level down to re-spec your stat points. * A minor gripe is that the game has lots of key items that grant abilities e.g. be able to push blocks, but you can only equip 4 at one time. And other items like health potions or town portal items also use those 4 slots. Fully exploring dungeons requires swapping items via the inventory (and you can't use the controller for that...)
The graphics might look laughable and the UI ancient; but Might and Magic 6, 7 and 8 offer solid RPG gameplay, and 7 is probably the best of those. A lot of the early game is wandering as far as from the nearest inn and killing as many enemies as you can before needing to crawl back to recover. There's a slow grind from killing enemies, but spread through the game are treasures and quest items. A big plus to this game is the risk/reward balance - if you can push a bit further, it's laborious, but almost always the game rewards you for pushing through. The rewards are very satisfying, as you watch your party's equipment, stats and skills grow. Towards the middle of the game you'll be mopping up quests, trying to find new areas where you can push through; and trying to figure out permanent upgrades for your party. Towards the end of the game, there are some really tough dungeons where you sometimes need cunning but occasionally just seem to need to charge past enemies - this is a weak point in the game. You'll either need trial-and-error or an online guide to find where you're supposed to get to before enemies slaughter you. Another negative is that you can't judge how to create a good party at the start of the game and can't change the party later. Giving up and starting over with a new party is very likely to be a part of playing this game. Overall this is a fairly modest RPG that just seems to deliver a sense of adventure and progression in a way that big budget RPGs miss.
It's an ARPG from 2006. It's since been followed up by Grim Dawn. Diablo 3 and Path Of Exile entirely surpass it. And we have so many other ARPG, loot-and-shoot, and live service games. So there's no point playing this game, at all. Except... it's still fun. Plus points: * Pure ARPG enjoyment. Get that next level up, or find that rare item that gives you the edge you need. There's always just one more small goal for you to keep playing for. * Nice mythological settings; with quests that fit the mythologies. * There's still people playing the multiplayer - and they're very helpful to new characters! * The character build approach works well - there's maybe 10 classes and you choose two of them for each character. And after that, you might still have a choice on the best weapon type to use. Negatives: * Maybe slightly janky controls. Sometimes your character doesn't attack. Sometimes you stop dead while moving. Sometimes your attack does not fire at the angle you intended. * Starting a new character can be a little slow and boring. * The game's not 100% stable. For my experience, once it's launched without freezing it runs OK single player, but multiplayer might crash. Other reviews seem to have a worse experience. * The flip side to the character build system being interesting is that you can build bad characters that you can't fix. Some builds are very obvious (max int or max strength, etc) but some of the more interesting classes mix primary stats and there's no way to deduce from the start of the game what stat(s) to focus on. I've never found this "learning experience" of being able to fail character builds in ARPG games enjoyable or interesting.
A very nice game; but unless it reveals entire new gameplay elements and research options (from the store description, it doesn't look like it will - I have got to sample everything the store description says the game has) the game is quite limited or at least oddly paced. At about 25 hours in, I have almost run out of research options and base upgrades but have barely scratched exploring the map. At this point in the game, I don't have motivation to push further into the map. The campaign keeps pushing you to upgrade to a larger ship and there doesn't seem to be an option to store your ship fully equipped (storing the ship strips its equipment) or add it to your fleet. Therefore at any point in the game, you only view your ship as a stepping stone to the next ship. Adding it to your fleet would have been really nice. As another review mentioned, the game has an odd lack of intertia in the ship movement and often feels like you are pushing a 3D model around an editor rather than moving a ship through space. It's especially noticeable when setting your speed to 0 as the ship will come it a sudden and total halt. There's also a lack of customisation options and I bought this game after trying out Starpoint Gemini 2 and this doesn't seem to have the loot system that game has. The game would probably just about feel worth its current full price; except when it is light on content and has a bunch of DLC releases - it feels like maybe they're being greedy.
While it obviously looks very dated, some elements of this game keep it atmospheric and engrossing even today. The game can seem eerily beautiful, and I think its due to aspects of its design like sometimes being able to see and hear what's in the next room when you approach a doorway, and the game using a variety of angles when viewing rooms instead of always being parallel with a wall. There's a good amount of FMV to see and documents to read. One bit of advice for new players - use some patience/care when clicking around the screen. It can be very easy to overlook when there's an option to click near the edge of the screen; and also the FMV cutscenes will be instantly dismissed by a single click - if you see the screen flash for a split second while you were clicking, you just missed some story! If the "museum at night" theme sounds in any way interesting to you, definitely pick this one up!
I'm about 5 hours in and haven't seen much, but I think I've seen enough to give a potential purchaser review... Pro: * Nice "Groundhog Day" mechanic. Generally the game seems to reward the time you spend on it. You get more powerful, and you learn the cast of characters. * The game explains itself poorly; but learning what's what is part of the fun and appeal. * In the screenshots, you can see the Koei-Tecmo-like UI aesthetic. If that looks appealing, you may well find the overall game appealing. Con: * The control system is the biggest challenge in the game. The left stick only gives you coarse and slow-responding control of the direction you face; and the right stick pans the camera pretty slowly. It's not *terrible*, but when the game relies on you having the right position and angle for a sword attack to land on your opponent it often seems like the controls and camera were the main cause of your failure. * The game initially seems pretty dull. Until I realised the world map had a fast travel option; I was struggling to find anything to do, and events were seemingly disappearing from the map before I could reach them.
I bought this immediately when I saw it in the store; as I loved the original trilogy. Initially it looked very promising - Black Mirror rebooted in a 1920s Scotland setting; and the game quickly has you exploring a dusty old castle by torchlight. At this point, it looks & sounds very rich. Nice ambient sound, OK-ish voice acting, and lots of spooky lighting and decor. But after a respectable first chapter, cracks start to appear: * Almost literally; there are seam cracks throughout the house. In the dark of night they are imperceptible; but in chapter 2 the game has a daytime skybox and light blue lines are scattered all round the house. * There are almost no puzzles after the first chapter. While there are some; often the game artifically prevents you leaving an area with a puzzle left to solve; and the puzzles almost solve themselves. * The game is padded out by having quick time events and interaction with ghosts. Both suck. The QTEs do not tie in with reactive character animation and they do not immerse you. They are just padding. The ghost interaction is badly explained; and like the QTEs they are just filler. It's easy to miss dialogue here as you need to hammer the action button to succeed, and a single extra press skips the resulting dialogue. * Almost the entire game is set in the castle grounds; and what you see in chapter 1 is about 50% of the entire game. Compared to the originals; this is really horrible. * Many bugs. I tried to not let them bother me, but they're there. Some affect gameplay - it's possible in multiple places to press action to interact with something, and the game is unable to complete the action. You need to load your last save. I also found a point (late game) where it's possible to get stuck if you combine inventory items while an outstanding puzzle requires an uncombined item - keep many saves! * Story is not good. The pacing of the mystery is terrible; and the means of exposition are super crude, sometimes laughably so.
