So yeah, I liked it, it was exactly what it was advertised, and was quite good at it. Short story where you can experiment a bit, I will soon go trught it with another character (first need to finishg base game AGAIN :D )
Bigest con is that is quite sort, and will end at big and a bit unsatysfying cliffchanger. Will surely go back to it when next part come out, but at the sime time, it is a little bit concerning that you will not be able to play it without paying again. If it was a bit longer I would not have any concerns.
I am giving it 5 stars. Why? It delivers exactly what it promises:
- Mini campaign for low level characters, 8-10 hours seems fair for the content in it.
- Two companions will join you, they are relatively well made/written and will offer completely different perspectives/options on how to proceed at specific times during the adventure.
Yes you are forced to take them with you and you can't let them die as they are an integrant part of the story. Can't see what's wrong with it.
There's the 3rd DLC for those that don't want any NPCs in their party.
- It's a survival style DLC. There won't be a lot of roleplaying during the usual point/click action, but there will be multiple "book narrated" events that will allow for some interesting choices. Not very impactful, but adding flavour to the flow of events.
- Played it on Core difficulty, it offered as far as I am concerned, the perfect level of challenge. It has been one of those few instances in this sort of games where I found myself having to judge whether each encounter was worth my resources/risk.
- Maps and encounters are relatively well designed, exploring feels interesting and rewarding as you can really use whatever you happen to come across, and there's lot of room for different approaches to the fights or ways to get past them. The few puzzles for once were not annoying and quite straightforward, feeling like a nice occasional diversion from combat without requiring you to look for a solution online or decide not to even bother with their nonsense.
Only reason for 4 stars instead of 5 is:
- Cliffhanger final/part of the plot not being properly explained
- Stealth mechanic is a bit barebones. This DLC would have really benefitted from a rework of the stealth gameplay. Even something similar to the Pillars of Eternity would have been a nice to have.
If you go into this with the mindset for a typical cRPG, chances are you'll be disappointed. This is more an adventure survival module.
Things are scripted to happen in a very specific manner, and if you go differently from the script, chances are good that you'll get screwed. Zero xp enemies, xp for performing specific actions, specific locations for rest, rigged shop prices, the route you're "meant" to take, the way you're "meant" to take down enemies - most everything is scripted. Sort of Telltale's The Walking Dead, dressed in Pathfinder skin - you are to hunt for specific plot items placed at specific locations and interact with specific objects with said plot items, for the purpose of progressing.
If you expect the typical "tough encounters that give appropriate reward for the experienced players", you'll be wrong. You're really meant to just skip them. If you keep banging your head against that wall like you typically do in the main campaign, expecting you'll at least get something good for it when you finally make it through? Well you're not going to have fun.
Of course. being a survival adventure minigame doesn't spare you having to deal with typical Owlcat enemies. Swarms - oh, yes, enjoy. Hordes and hordes of (well-optimized, overleveled) enemies. Enemies with on-hit status effect, damage immunity. Hopefully you didn't mind metagaming and savescumming in the main campaign, because you'll be doing more of that here.
Don't play on anything harder than Normal. Tightly scripted story, coupled with lack of decent gear and low level party means some classes are massively more effective than others. Not reading a guide beforehand and go into this with whatever character concept you happen to be fancying at the moment is dicey. Unfortunately, despite being dressed up as a fairly linear adventure survival game, you still have to "game the system" just like in the main campaign, but now it's more restricted because you have to do it with a handicapped party.
Small scale module that forces you to optimize a low lvl party, and strategize with how you spend resources, since youre pretty much in the "survival" mode the entire time. Some parts were more tedious than they needed to be but overall it's well worth playing through.
Your party will progress Lv 1-4 with 2 "real" companions and the rest are mercenaries with no dialogue. The plot is not interesting. You are just trying to get to the defenders heart to warn Irabeth about the demon attack that happens in the main game. There's a cliff hanger ending regarding one party member. Maybe that will be interesting in the followup DLC but I doubt it. I don't feel this DLC adds anything to the game.
I'd have preferred if this DLC just added more voice lines to the already very lengthy main campaign.
