First Impressions (spoilers)

Bloodmist · Post by **Bloodmist** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 11:47 am

Originally posted by Jaesha
Spam is good!

sure, but not in such massive amounts as over there, it's hardly possible to find anything meaningfull. The amount of spam here is much better; it's there, but it's controlled and conversional.
BTW, i see you found out how to post custom smilies

koz-ivan · Post by **koz-ivan** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 1:48 pm

first impressions.

i can't zoom in or out, this causes no end of frustration. but this is a beautiful looking game.

i *love* the new char screens, a bit much at first to figure out what goes where, but well done, more space is good space. the utter foolishness that was the paperdoll is banished forever.

flexible quick slots rock. (minor problem, i seem to have to switch shields when all i want to do is change weapon, mace to sword for example. and weapons that have missle or melee capability seem very complex to switch) but all in all very nicely done.

point buy is linear - yes! i love it, makes so much sense i can't believe they never used it before nwn.

i really hate the manner in which the manual lists spells, alphabetical order? wtf? while it may save space it's a total nighmare... (minor gripe)

first party, i'm sorta disapointed in the bard, i've always used them as a backup mage, but most of the "good" spells are missing(i.e. damage spells). and in combat they seem more like an archer, perhaps i should use song more, and i'm wondering if war chant of sith is a good enough reason to keep one around.

likewise spec wizards seem totally hosed, i am kicking myself for not taking a sorcerer, and am having a lot of trouble in the early game finding scrolls (of spells i want) saints be praised i finally found a fireball scroll...

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 2:22 pm

The zoom-in, zoom-out, rotate around the party is something that has spoiled people coming over/back to IWD2 from NWN. I think it's a nice piece of fuctionality, but given how good the Infinity Engine is, I'm willing to sacrifice some of the 3D graphics.

The spell I miss most is Zone of Sweet Air. Not a major annoyance, but irritating.

Point Buy still blows.

I like that there aren't hordes of 5th-9th level spell scrolls lying around early in the game. This goes back to my point about game balance; I think BG2 and IWD out of whack in some places and IWD2 is balanced nicely.

koz-ivan · Post by **koz-ivan** » Mon Sep 16, 2002 2:36 pm

agreed on the graphics, and from a gameplay stand point, the zoom function imo would hurt this game, combats seem way to spread out.

i'll agree to disagree w/ you on point buy, i suppose if you could get your hands on an editor or use cheat functions to implement dice rolls you did yourself...

what is bothering me w/ the scrolls is that i don't have scrolls of spells i normally use, or would choose to cast when i level up to them.

i was stuck w/ some fairly useless 3rd level spells for a while, now i'm stuck w/ no 4th (at all) this to me seems an excessive restriction on a class that already seems weaker than it was in iwd / bg1 & 2 / nwn. (ie the specalist wizard) *maybe* i'm missing a shop someplace, but i think i've been going to the only mage in town.

Groth · Post by **Groth** » Wed Sep 18, 2002 3:12 pm

First impressions

I've played bg, bg2, iwd, ps:t .. liked them all.

I like almost everything about this game. I have a few gripes.

Pathfinding seems to be worse then ever. You think they could of improved on this.

Finding traps seems to not work right half the time, might be just me. I'm running into frustrations with it.

Some of the controls are a little weird but I got use to it. Not liking how I have to switch my shield around all the time for my dwarf.

It's kind of getting boring looking at snow and ice a lot.

Some of the puzzles/quest drive me crazy.

Gets a little combat crazy at times.

The lack of some types of magical gear disturbs me, but I'm still kicking butt.

Lots of things I like about it.

It hasn't crashed on me yet like almost every other game does. It has done a few freezes on me, think that's a problem with my pc though. My pc freezes up from time to time no matter what. Overall it's very stable.

I love the character creation. I read how others don't like how this is set up. I've had more fun creating a party in this game then any other.

It's very well balanced. I don't consider any of the characters to be overpowered. I got a party with 6 very different characters and they all seem to pitch in evenly.

I love how the feat/skill system works.

I can go on and on in detail about the things I like about it. I won't though cause I'm getting bored and want to read through this forum.

Overall, I'm having a lot of fun with it. It'll be a game I'll play 3 .. 4 .. not sure how many more times. I got my 40 bucks worth out of it (got it at walmart). I would of payed more and been happy.

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Wed Oct 30, 2002 9:06 am

Final Impressions

I finished IWD2 a couple of weeks ago, but haven't had a chance to formulate my final opinions on the game until now.

As a sequel, I liked it very, very much, although I'll admit that I thought it was a little short. In terms of straight gameplay, I think it is comparable in length to the first IWD, but having been spoiled by BG2, almost all games seem short now.

At first I thought it was cool going back through the Dragon's Eye and the Severed Hand 40 years after the first IWD, but the more I think about it, the more I am disappointed that they chose to use the same settings as the first game. As I was taking my party through the Severed Hand, I realised that I had been there before and that the thrill of discovering a new area wasn't there for me anymore. I would have liked to have seen some completely new areas.

I liked a lot of the new side quests they put in the game, such as the ghost's tears and solving the murder in the Severed Hand which were sorely missing from the first IWD. Still, some of the quests seemed redundant and/or boring, such as the Fellwood "maze", battle squares and the monk trials at the Black Raven Monastery. I thought these got old rather quickly.

Point buy still blows.

The ending disappointed me because it seemed almost anti-climatic. The boss characters were very shallow and not very interesting, unlike Irenicus and even Belhifet.

Overall, the implementation of the D&D3 ruleset was very good, although I found myself not using the skill system as fully as I should have. Being basically a hack and slash game, I drained out INT (thus stiffling my skill point accumulation) for everyone except my mage and thief and didn't really round out my party as well as I might have if I had been playing a PnP game.

The game's balance was very favourable. There weren't a lot of +5 weapons just lying around nor were there many scrolls or wands that turned the party into a 6-man wrecking crew. Many of the new weapons were very nicely done, although the lack of unique armour is something that I understand has been addressed (I haven't played with the patch yet).

I liked the game very much, although as I said, I thought it was kind of short. I look for an expansion pack to come out in a couple of months. Aside from my annoyance at the developers using areas like the Dragon's Eye and Severed Hand again, the game did not disappoint me like NWN did, although as a CRPG it still falls far short of the benchmark set down by BG2.

I am just now starting a new HOF game, which I hope will bring some much-needed replayability to the game.

Skooter327 · Post by **Skooter327** » Wed Oct 30, 2002 10:15 pm

Originally posted by Groth

It's kind of getting boring looking at snow and ice a lot.

Obviously you don't live in the Spine of the World. Or Minnesota. Or Canada. Or...

While IwD II is just great, I can't wait for the expansion, best BIS game since _____, yadda yadda yadda
Still, I have gripes too...

I was disappointed with Dragon's Eye. I guess I didn't like it that much the first time around (it was just so warm in there!), and this time each floor got worse.

I successfully mapped the Fellwood, it wasn't that hard, you just had to go back and forth a few times to get the right paths availible. It helps to ignore the fact that you came in through a path. Overall, it was a pain in the @r$e, counterintuative as all-get-out, and could have been skipped.

I loved the Severed Hand in the first game, and I mostly liked again. At first I was thinkng that it was nice to see the place fixed up again, but by the time I got to the towers I felt disgusted by the sheer desacration those half-breeds broght to it. (OK, back to reality now)

I didn't mind seeing Kuldahar again, but I hate it when there's all these buildings that you can't snoop in. After defeating that sumug looking barrel, you'd think someone in my party could hack a door open, even if it was nailed shut!

I would've liked to see some new and exciting areas. Chult was refreshing, but far too small. It felt like half the game was in the same areas. (Maybe because it was?)

I wish the game would respawn enimies. I hated walking through empty floors in the Hand after a trip to Kuldahar. You can't tell me that nobody would reassign the availible gaurds while I was away. Heaven forbid they defend "their" citadel

I love the challenge Burial Isle brought to HoW, but found nothing comparable in IwD II. (HoF doesn't count, its challenging in a different way)

Loved the point-buy system so much, why bother with all of those silly classes? (I love Arcanum's classless system) Go Point Buy!

The expansion pack must include a BGII-style journal, it just has to!

I like how you find +4 & +5 weapons, and/or +2 & +3 weapons with "special features"; but no +1.000.000.000, slays living & undead instantly, AC: impenetrable weapons.

Where is all the fancy, unbalanced armor?

Just got done reading the Great Point Buy Debate archive...
I would DIE laughing if I came across a creature called an 18 Monster (TM) in a future BIS game. Just imagine checking on him while you hack away...
18 Monster (TM)
[just] Barely injured, but on the verge of regeneration. And Mensa membership. And...you get the picture.

18 Monster (TM) is some sort of trademark of Xyx, and used without permission of any kind, whatsoever.

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Thu Oct 31, 2002 3:56 pm

Originally posted by Skooter327
18 Monster (TM) is some sort of trademark of Xyx, and used without permission of any kind, whatsoever.

I saw that!

</SPAM>

Ambiorix · Post by **Ambiorix** » Sun Nov 03, 2002 6:26 am

I've finished one game and started a second one. My impressions:

1. Many improvements on IWD I: more slots, more space in packs and other things people have mentioned here.

2. Game was fun, but like IWD I replayability is low. Unlike BG I and II.

3. Two cons:
- experience gaining system sucks. In my second game I got max XP by doing everything right. This meant my party was one level higher when starting chapter II than in the first game . Result: got less XP from killing monsters. So doing everything right causes XP penalties later on.

- pathdinding is terrible. Bunch of monsters appears. Whole party retreats to set up a good defence but one character decides to run towards the monsters.

Sojourner · Post by **Sojourner** » Sun Nov 03, 2002 10:23 am

If there's anything that really bug me about this game, it's the experience penalty that makes it darned near impossible to get a party of 6 past level 16. Argh!!

Ambiorix · Post by **Ambiorix** » Sun Nov 03, 2002 1:01 pm

Couldn't agree more, Sojourner. I'm now near the end of chapter 2 and the bonus points I got from making a flawless run through chapter 1 are almost gone because of the lower XP from kills in chapter 2. Annoying. The game could as well give a fixed amount of XP at the end of each chapter and dispense with XP for missions or kills.

I don't know why you get lower XP for kills at higher levels. There is already a slow on getting higher levels because each next level is progressively harder to come by in terms of XP.

At least in one aspect BG II had the opposite philosophy: thieves got higher XP from disarming traps or opening containers when they got to a higher level.

Skooter327 · Post by **Skooter327** » Sun Nov 03, 2002 5:07 pm

Am I remebering correctly, do mages get EXP for successfully writing spells in BGII?

Also, didn't the amount of EXP thieves got depend on the skill level the lock required to be picked?

Maybe if IwDII sees fit to reduce the EXP per kill it should have more monsters to kill, and keep the total EXP availible constant, which would increase the level of challenge and reward thourough and skilled players.

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Sun Nov 03, 2002 5:09 pm

Originally posted by Skooter327
Am I remebering correctly, do mages get EXP for successfully writing spells in BGII?

Yes, but in the first IWD, mages did not get XP for scribing spells, nor did thieves get XP for disarming traps.

Ambiorix · Post by **Ambiorix** » Sun Nov 03, 2002 6:01 pm

Originally posted by Skooter327
Also, didn't the amount of EXP thieves got depend on the skill level the lock required to be picked?

No. Simply dependent on the level of the thief.