My SCL first impressions

[Sonny]

Then they should have waited.

I doubt they could afford it. Game development is increasingly expensive in both development costs and time. Waiting years isn't something a small developer can afford.

Doesn't mean they get a free pass for gameplay/content issues with the game (and there are issues with it, from the couple of hours I've played). It just means waiting isn't always an option for a game developer.

 

[EthanSental]

I've only played the story mode so far and I'm in the sewers but what games issues are people referring too? In story mode or dm creation stuff? Maybe I'm not as critical as I've enjoyed it and nothing has stood out to me as a drawback.
As far as development, remember pillars of eternity had a HUGE patch a week or two right after the game came out due to development issues and actual play so this isn't a new thing to see in a games release and it not being 100% ready to go.

 

[EthanSental]

Playing the full game now. Steam download and up and running full version.

 

[Ricochet]

Or they could have just spent more time on it. NWN came out 2 years after 3e launched, for example. I might be more interested in this game if more time would been invested in it. Luckily, Fallout 4 is right around the corner....

Sure, of course. There are also, naturally, budget concerns with prolonging a development cycle or starting it later. Yet there are two distinct philosophies in videogame development at the moment: 1) Take your time and get it right, and 2) Let's get it out the door so we can strike while the iron is hot. WotC clearly opted for the latter, and that's one of the reasons the 5e rules aren't 100% involved in the gameplay. Yes they could have waited and made a truer adaptation, but they decided not to. Couple that with the fact that they might have wanted a more action-y game rather than strict turn-based, this is probably the end result. Don't think there's much more to it really. It's not like wishing for it to be a truer adaptation will make it into one. I think Morrus has the right approach: take it for what it is, and see if the gameplay holds up.

 

[Tyranthraxus]

How is is going Ethan?

 

[JValeur]

I played a few hours during headstart. When I first heard that the game would feature cooldowns instead of rest periods, I was disappointed, but not put off. I can live with that. Then I found out that it would feature skill trees, instead of class features, I was put off, but decided to still give it a chance. I played a few hours during headstart. Here's my take on it, for those who care:

Graphics
I guess it looks okay, although it plays choppily (could be my setup, and not the game) and have jarring cuts to black whenever you speak to an NPC. Item icons are very small and not very pretty. Outdoors terrains feel cluttered, which completely ruined my immersion. I've heard others love it, though.

Characters and gameplay
Doesn't feel like D&D here, for me. Some skills have the same names, but they rarely do the same as in the PHB. You increase them by 'leveling' up the skill (increasing damage by investing more points in the skill, similarly to Diablo 2), which just feels very.. empty. The wizard has it worst, with 3/4 of his 'skills' being evocations, that scale really poorly into the higher levels. Magic Missile I, II, III, IV, anyone?

Loot
Magical items drop from level 1. They have Diablo'esque stats, like 10% cooldown reduction, 5% acid resistance, and so on. They feel bland, and you feel overdecked. Makes magic items seem positively SPARSE in NWN2, which was overflowing with magic items. I never got excited over picking up a magic item.

Monsters
They scale to fit your level, so you never really feel strong or weak. You feel adequate. Which is nice, I guess, but doesn't really make it very exciting to gain levels, because you'll just... be the same.

Death
You can't die. You can stabilize someone mid combat, and bring them back in. Not just make them not die, but just 1-click resurrect them. If your party is wiped, you just come back to life, and so does the monsters you were fighting.

DM Mode
I didn't do much with the DM mode, but from what I've read, it's full of restrictions, and lack simple things like tile-by-tile dungeon building, customizable creatures and branching dialogue. I do think, however, that the interface is pretty and accessible, which makes it good for the creative mind, that doesn't want to learn hours and hours of code. If the gameplay itself had fit my wishes more - closer to 5E D&D - I think I would have LOVED the dungeon builder after it had these features implemented.

I refunded my game before launch, but will check back periodically to see if things start swinging in a direction I like. The game has tons of potential, but no draw for me, in it's current form.

 

[EthanSental]

Nice write up JV, although I disagree on the overall fun factor. I ended up staying up and playing until 3 am this morning (glad I don't have to work today) something I haven't done for a game since I first played WoW back 10 or so years ago when it first came out. I died many a time with a total party wipe on the normal setting and the stabilize feels like the Ttrpg where a party member can go down but stabilize them. Granted there's no death saves but the feel of being able to get them back up and into the fight is better than having to say, dang now I have to load from my last save point since the fighter died.

I still haven't tried dm mode other than to click through as I was about to quit, I'll try it today. I never got into the depths of creation some on here seem to have with neverwinter nights so my expectations might be different than theirs in regards to adventure building.

 

[Chimpy]

Bear in mind that I reckon 95% of people that play this game won't have ever played the tabletop game or know much about it. They'll just want a fun game and don't care about the similarities with the tabletop game.

 

[JValeur]

Bear in mind that I reckon 95% of people that play this game won't have ever played the tabletop game or know much about it. They'll just want a fun game and don't care about the similarities with the tabletop game.

I think that's what the devs figured as well, but I think they're mistaken. Firstly, the game was intensively marketed on pages like this one, and on WotC's own page, in the Dragon+ magazines, and so on, and so on. This will draw MANY people expecting a game build on 5E D&D (which was what was promised).

Even if most potential players are completely oblivious to PnP and FR, this game has little draw. The DM mode appeals mostly to PnP fans, the campaign story (which I've heard is good) caters specifically to those with knowledge of the Forgotten Realms - not the casual players. So what you have falling back on would be good action gameplay, but truly, Diablo 3 looks 10x better than this game, is much better balanced, has more exciting loot and is just more exciting to play.

My point is, this game has been marketed one way, designed a second way, and plays a third way. It wants to do a lot of different things, and does neither really good. It's not a faithful D&D RPG. It's not a very good action RPG. It's not an extensive world-building tool.

Mind you, I could be wrong, but I think they could've landed closer to the sweet spot if they had stuck closer to 5E ruleset. Would've satisfied my nerddom, I can say that at least.

60% positive reviews on Steam tells me that not everyone is satisfied, at least. Many of the positive reviews still list several flaws - either lack of 5E, problems with gameplay, or problems with DM mode.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

This game is not the prettiest (the backgrounds are cool but the models "meh." It's using the names from 5E elements to create a more conventional set of abilities for characters. It's clearly got designs on microtransactions down the road. It's more of a tactical/action RPG hybrid than a pure RPG sim of D&D. It has good voice acting though, and the story mode is great.

I concur with others that the mix as presented is very compelling....it works well for what is intended and it was very hard to stop playing last night, and I'll be resuming tonight. I'm not sure if it is better than Pillars of Eternity, but it's definitely fun to go adventuring along the Savage Frontier again and cause some havoc in Luskan.