PC Demo - Post your impressions.

[Mr. Perfect]

There are a few little things I'd suggest making adjustments to, at least for the PC version.

1. Why do the corpses disappear? Don't get me wrong here, I far prefer the disappearing corpses to how DS2 handled monster death. DS2, for some bizarre reason, decided that any time a monster got so much as a paper cut that it should explode in a bloody, gut ridden cloud like some sort of macabre firecracker. Watching someone just slump to the ground in DS3 is definitely more realistic, but then they immediately fade away like some figment of your imagination. My guess is that this is simply resource management for the Xbox and PS3, but a modern PC has more RAM then it knows what to do with. Leaving the bodies on the floor would keep the game from feeling quite so... surreal.
   
2. Something makes this game feel like a JRPG... Or, more correctly, like a JRPG developer tried to make a western RPG. I think part of it, in addition to the magically disappearing bodies, is the looting system. Why in the world do lootable items float? Do they each have their own built in anti-gravity device, or have the laws of gravity stopped applying to inanimate objects? And who, exactly, is shining those multicolored spotlights on them? On a similar note, why must treasure chests vomit their contents in a glorious rainbow of color? The bright blue trails of light behind a weapon's swing is also something I'd expect to see in a Final Fantasy game, not in something western like Dungeon Siege. It all makes the game feel less like a gritty, war torn land and more like a child's fantasy journey.
   
3. Can we go back to the DS1/2 saving system? Being able to choose where and when you save the game is much more convenient then wandering around the world until you find a checkpoint. Loosing items, quests progress, or experience just because you have to go to work, dinner, or bed and don't have time to find one of those light fountains is going to be frustrating.
   

The game is launching in less then a month, so I don't know if any of this could be changed though, much less if the devs want to change any of it.

Edited June 9, 2011 by Mr. Perfect

[Tigranes]

Loot floats? I thought they jump out of the chests then sit on the ground. O_o I wish they'd jump faster, though.

 

Them being shiny's probably just a usability thing so they're easier to see. If we could turn the bloody bloom down for the whole game they might stop looking like candy floss.

[mr insomniac]

I skimmed this thread while waiting for the demo to download, and I gotta say the kb/m controls were not at all as bad as people are saying. I can agree than not being able to remap the keys is a legitimate complaint, but that aside, it just takes a little getting used to. Someone mentioned getting a little lost during combat and I agree having Lucas change targets all the time was a little weird, and the camera seemed to end up just rotating quite often.

 

Other than that I liked the combat. I have to practice defense a little more; most of the time I completely forgot about blocking attacks, etc. As happens whenever I play this kind of game (or most games), I just wanted to charge in and kill everything as quickly as possible and the hell with strategy. Because of this I died several times. Oh well, it appears save points are plentiful, so backtracking a little bit won't be a big issue. Have to say I'd like to be able to zoom out the camera a little more and get better warning that a fight is coming, especially when I'll be playing as the chick with the guns... but again not a big issue.

 

I was engaged throughout the demo. Visually I thought it looked great, sound effects and music were good, VO work was good (love those accents), and the pacing was good, and very smooth transitioning from one area to the next. I'm gonna hate going back to games with loading screens.

 

The only minor complaint I have with the UI is during level up. It seemed a little... what's the word? awkward? ....to get through, but I know that will change as I play through and get used to it.

 

It kind of reminds me of when I bought torchlight. I played Diablo 2 for about half an hour before getting bored, but I quickly got addicted to torchlight. I think I'll get addicted to this game as well. As I'm typing this I'm thinking, 'dammit I want to go to Gunderic manor!'

 

Hope this game does really well, Obsidz, so we get DLCs (levels and quests plz and not just pretty swords and armors) and expansions.

[kirottu]

I skimmed this thread while waiting for the demo to download, and I gotta say the kb/m controls were not at all as bad as people are saying. I can agree than not being able to remap the keys is a legitimate complaint, but that aside, it just takes a little getting used to.

 

True, but APs targeting and hitting stuff with weapons took little time to getting used to and most of people didn

[Mr. Perfect]

Loot floats? I thought they jump out of the chests then sit on the ground. O_o I wish they'd jump faster, though.

 

Them being shiny's probably just a usability thing so they're easier to see. If we could turn the bloody bloom down for the whole game they might stop looking like candy floss.

 

It doesn't float for you? The gold lays on the ground, but everything else hovers in the air. Armor, weapons, things like that just bob around at about chest height.

[Starwars]

Tried playing through it once as Lucas on the hardest difficulty.

 

I think my first playthrough will probably be on Normal just to get used to everything but it seems like the real fun will be had at the highest difficulty. Seemed pretty challenging and I died several times throughout the demo.

[Oner]

If any devs read this: are there conditions for blocking aside from what the help topic says? 'Cause I found blocking doesn't work when you have 0 focus (even tho the value is high enough to negate any focus cost), plus sometimes I still get damaged. Happens mostly in big fights. Or is that an ability for some enemy types?

[Pidesco]

You always need focus to block. Some enemies can damage you even when you're blocking.

[Tigranes]

Loot floats? I thought they jump out of the chests then sit on the ground. O_o I wish they'd jump faster, though.

 

Them being shiny's probably just a usability thing so they're easier to see. If we could turn the bloody bloom down for the whole game they might stop looking like candy floss.

 

It doesn't float for you? The gold lays on the ground, but everything else hovers in the air. Armor, weapons, things like that just bob around at about chest height.

 

I'll have a look next time, but I always play in the 'iso' camera angle, so maybe I didn't notice. Sure looked like they were on the ground though. But if that's a bug for your game that's a very odd bug to happen.

[Bendu]

Doing some funcroc. Comments from Nathaniel over at SA:

 

Also, for the people saying that the combat feels slow, remember that the demo is more or less a somewhat chopped down version of the first hour+ of the game. We actually had to tune down combat quite a bit in that section to avoid destroying players too quickly. I'd say that probably the most intense parts of the demo (the witch caves) are the average intensity level for the rest of the game.

 

For instance, the witch boss you encounter in the caves is really pretty timid compared to the rest of the boss fights in the game. DS3 has, by far, the best/most epic boss fights of any Obsidian game.

 

Oh, and finally, if you want an intense combat experience, play the game on Hardcore! It's really where you absolutely have to use all of the mechanics in the game to survive. If you are getting bored because you can win by just mashing "A", you should really crank the difficulty up. Of course, if you're judging by the demo, the rest of the game is more difficult anyways.

 

Jeyne's motivation is more complex than H8 U LOL, and you do get to learn more about it... after the first hour of gameplay .

 

Honestly I think that there are a lot of pacing issues with the demo. I think cutting out all of the sidequests from the main town and cutting off all the possible branches and various ways you can travel gives a bad impression of the game that isn't really accurate to what the final game is. I'm not saying it's Oblivion but it's better than what you get in the demo.

 

There are more than 2 side quests in the town in the full game, yes.

[pmp10]

For instance, the witch boss you encounter in the caves is really pretty timid compared to the rest of the boss fights in the game. DS3 has, by far, the best/most epic boss fights of any Obsidian game.

That's genuinely scary, obsidian boss fights tend to be cheap and badly balanced even when they don't have epicness quota to fulfill.

That one character can defeat the witch boss with little trouble while the other one dies constantly is already a bad sign.

[Oner]

Actually, I mopped the floor with her with Lucas today easily.

[HoonDing]

For instance, the witch boss you encounter in the caves is really pretty timid compared to the rest of the boss fights in the game. DS3 has, by far, the best/most epic boss fights of any Obsidian game.

That's genuinely scary, obsidian boss fights tend to be cheap and badly balanced even when they don't have epicness quota to fulfill.

That one character can defeat the witch boss with little trouble while the other one dies constantly is already a bad sign.

I guess then one should play as Katarina and max out Chain Shot.

[Purkake]

So I realized that us European PC-toting peasants are finally allowed to play the demo as well. After having to change all my regional setting to the hallowed land of the free and the brave, I was finally able to run it. My impression matches my expectations pretty well, it's a mediocre action RPG. The graphics and especially the backgrounds are pretty good, the animations are horrible, the combat is functional, the abilities seem interesting, the menus are clunky beyond all belief(I think AP did a better job) and what little writing/story I saw was ok at best.

 

Just my two cents, I wasn't really interested in DS3 anyway.

[olbrecht]

Played the demo and liked it pretty much ... in singleplayer mode.

Tried to play it with my gf ... and turned it off after 2 min.

 

You call two players bound to one screen multiplayer? forget it. the game sucks. and the story, told by big boobed ladies sucks, too.

I would love to be in that moment at the desk, where you decided that one.

 

"how can we kill multiplayer mode?"

"lets just put four players on one screen. That would be wicked!"

"done."

"And on top of that, we allow just one class per game."

"excellent, so that we focus on the crappy story no one gives a s*** about!"

 

Nice excuse for not making good multiplayer in this one. Why the name Dungeon Siege? It has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Call it "stupid story book for single guys that like to talk to big breasted young female russians"

 

Good news:

Diablo is coming for Consoles. Finally somebody who knows how to put a good story into EPIC multiplayer.

 

I dont get why nobody copies that gamestyle.

 

Thanks for the demo guys, at least i didnt bought or rent that pile of ...

[sorophx]

Diablo

 

good story

this never gets old

[Lexx]

Damn, wanted to quote exactly the same right now.

[rc deaths agent]

Diablo

 

good story

this never gets old

Diablo's story may not be verry deep but imo it's better than the old...YOU'RE THE LAST OF YOUR KIND, AND YOU NEED TO SAVE THE WORLD. crap that ds3 is doing... heck i just played that in dragon age origins.

 

And in the end i believe it's not really how good the story is as much as the characters in it and imo diablo has awesome characters and creatures in spades.

[Subliminal]

Diablo

 

good story

this never gets old

Diablo's story may not be verry deep but imo it's better than the old...YOU'RE THE LAST OF YOUR KIND, AND YOU NEED TO SAVE THE WORLD. crap that ds3 is doing... heck i just played that in dragon age origins.

 

And in the end i believe it's not really how good the story is as much as the characters in it and imo diablo has awesome characters and creatures in spades.

 

Yeah, Diablo story was good (the cutscenes were fantastic back in the day). Moreso the atmosphere. It doesn't shove it down your throat either. DS3 story seems incredibly 1 dimensional, and the atmosphere is generic fantasy so far.

[sorophx]

DS3 story seems incredibly 1 dimensional

[Sannom]

Diablo's story may not be verry deep but imo it's better than the old...YOU'RE THE LAST OF YOUR KIND, AND YOU NEED TO SAVE THE WORLD. crap that ds3 is doing...

The thing about DS3 is that the story is all told by a guy who is deeply involved in the events of the game. He's completely biased, and I think what we think is simply narration is going to become something almost like a framed narrative.

 

And isn't Diablo 2's story about 'You're the best of your kind and you must save the world from the Forces of Darkness.'? Granted, I liked reading the lore from the manual, it was neat, but the story in the game itself isn't that much to talk about.

[C2B]

Apparently the XBOX360 version/PS3 version got leaked early . So, there should be some (really horrible with horrible players) streams up soon.

Edited June 9, 2011 by C2B

[Lexx]

BUT THE PC VERSION HAS COPYPROTECTION, DOESNT IT??

 

Oh wait, only console version got leaked. Nevermind then. :>

 

By now I am really thinking about buying the game. Since I've got into the controls, it became much more fun... Even in singleplayer. Damn, reviews have to show up fast, so I can judge better.

[Bendu]

Lexx, GameStar gave 80 % and PC Games 85 %.

[Lexx]

Both aren't really known anymore for quality reviews, but if even they give the game such a good rating, it has to be better than average.