Playing Demo ='s Cancel Pre-order for me!

[Roland]

Not a "rant" per-say...just wanted to share why I decided this game just isn't for me, sadly.

 

Just played the demo...and now cancelled my pre-order with STEAM.

 

It seriously sucks to see that all the elements are "there" that could of made a fun, perhaps even kick ass ARPG. But the way they put it all together is abysmal (well guess that's kind of ranty lol sorry).

 

Playing the game on the pc with keyboard felt like trying to walk through water lol

 

As far from user friendly and intuitive as one could almost get imo

 

But that did become somewhat better after a fairly lengthy time of playing, though far from preferable or optimal imo...barely tolerable just about covers it.

 

And I for one could really feel the Square Enix influence; now I have enjoyed a few FF games in my time, but this mish/mesh of FF & DS just doesn't work for me. The linear, almost tunnel like trails through zones/areas felt straight from any typical Square Enix/RPG game.

 

And the controls for PC...wow, if you're going to have WASD for movement you "really" need to be able to have other ways of changing Stances or activating Power-Ups (both using left hand/side buttons), you can't be trying to move and attack and survive AND have to pause your movement to push another button with the same finger or two. IMO (maybe I just play weird lol)

 

The final thing that just drove me nutz was the Health & Power? Orbs...I only played the Fighter class so had no use for the Blue lol

 

But I basically died because I was very low on health and knew it, tried to play as strategically as I could, "waiting" for a damn health orb to pop...and no, nothing...so I died.

 

I don't mind dying, god knows I've died hundreds of times in any other game I've played. But the difference here is that in those games I felt like it was because of my own mis-calculation or not knowing how to deal with a new boss's tactics yet, or rushing into a situation to fast and being overwhelmed...basically I died because "I" made a mistake/s.

 

This, this just leaves you depending on pure luck or chance!!!!

 

It's insane, it's not keeping people more involved with "playing the game", it's removing key character control and planning plain and simple.

 

And I'm pretty sure this is the only option (ORBS) in D3...though i might be wrong. If it is...wow, I think a lot of players will be upset. If you had even limited POTS to help augment the Orb mechanic, then maybe...but Orb by itself??? Not even close to fun! And what's the alternative, make them drop more frequently? Then you take all the excitement away because you never really have to worry.

 

No, the answer is leaving the control where it belongs, in the hands of the player!!!

 

And even I, who loves to play tons of games and I feel that I'm one of the less critical gamers that I know, it doesn't take much to feel like a game is ok or at least worth playing...this just sucked the wind out of my sails and left me high & dry

 

I'll see what the (i'm sure) coming patches do to correct issues and hopefully make the game more PC friendly, if they do enough I might look at it again at the right price-point. But sadly I think the basic design and game dynamics are pretty set.

 

Just my opinion, if someone out there finds they enjoy it...more power to ya buddy lol

 

Regards & Good Hunting All

[Kirii]

The final thing that just drove me nutz was the Health & Power? Orbs...I only played the Fighter class so had no use for the Blue lol

 

This is called Focus, and Lucas (the warrior) needs those blue orbs just as much as the other characters.

 

 

But I basically died because I was very low on health and knew it, tried to play as strategically as I could, "waiting" for a damn health orb to pop...and no, nothing...so I died.

 

Health Orbs aren`t the only means of gaining health. I put some points in Lucas` talent to gain health when enemies fall. That turned out to be my main source of health. If I was getting dangerously low I would charge head first into a bunch of enemies and "boom" my health was back up. I am pretty sure that is why they have most bosses summon more minions. This also works for Focus (blue).

Edited June 15, 2011 by Kirii

[Tigranes]

You can always use the defensive stance as well - in that stance, all characters start with an ability that lets them regain health one way or the other. If you were using Lucas just to swing at enemies and not worrying about the 'blue stuff', then you were hardly playing the game, really. I'm not saying that to accuse you of anything, just saying you should probably have another go and make full use of the character and see if it's any better for you.

 

If there were only orbs it would definitely suck, but I found that after a while, they're not even your main source of health or focus - you fight to put your focus back up (blocking or hitting), you use your various abilities and equipment properties to refuel your health, and then, as a bonus, sometimes you get orb drops.

[Roland]

Well, there seems to be quite a few areas of the gameplay mechanic that wasn't immediately obvious to me.

 

Sorry for my apparent lack of full understanding.

 

The above suggestions and insight does make sense and would definitely help, and yes I only played Lucas...I don't remember seeing his "focus" diminishing in the course of fighting that I was actively needing to pay real attention to the blue orbs...

 

Perhaps I'll download the demo again and try it with the new clues.

 

Thanks for the posts & help!

 

Regards

[Alpha]

Once you learn the Stances pro and Con you will have better luck getting less damage and life orbs that you won't need because you heath will regen depending of the skill you have .

Edited June 15, 2011 by Alpha

[Tigranes]

Yeah, if you were doing normal swings 7-8 times every time you used an ability, I'd think that your focus would probably come back up fast enough for you to not notice. If you used them more, though, you'd find that you run short. Did you get far enough to level up? The demo lets you go up a couple of levels and choose new abilities to use as well - I remember using one where Lucas throws some sort of ranged 'beam' that slows enemies or something. So he definitely isn't your typical swing your sword all day fighter.

 

I agree the PC controls are pretty annoying at the moment, so that probably meant you weren't able to experiment as much. You might still dislike the game, but at least you'll get to see everything it can do first.

[Roland]

Yeah, if you were doing normal swings 7-8 times every time you used an ability, I'd think that your focus would probably come back up fast enough for you to not notice. If you used them more, though, you'd find that you run short. Did you get far enough to level up? The demo lets you go up a couple of levels and choose new abilities to use as well - I remember using one where Lucas throws some sort of ranged 'beam' that slows enemies or something. So he definitely isn't your typical swing your sword all day fighter.

 

I agree the PC controls are pretty annoying at the moment, so that probably meant you weren't able to experiment as much. You might still dislike the game, but at least you'll get to see everything it can do first.

 

 

Agreed

 

I thank you (and all) for your suggestions and guidance

 

I will take some more time with the demo and see how it plays with these factors in mind.

 

Then if we're able to re-map the controls then there might be another side to this coin

 

Regards

[themo]

The only nice parts of this game are shadow and light effects, mystical game world and that's it.

 

Feel of impact, controls, the camera, items, inventory screen, gameplay and (absence of) details are just horrible.

Edited June 15, 2011 by themo

[metamag]

The final thing that just drove me nutz was the Health & Power? Orbs...I only played the Fighter class so had no use for the Blue lol

 

This is called Focus, and Lucas (the warrior) needs those blue orbs just as much as the other characters.

 

 

 

LOL, he actually needs it more.

 

OP, learn to play, I had the exact same thoughts as you at first, but now I see it has the best thought out and enjoyable gameplay I ever experienced in an ARPG despite being heavily degraded through consolification, and controls now work perfectly fine when I know what I am doing and why.

Edited June 15, 2011 by metamag

[Azilis]

Playing the game on the pc with keyboard felt like trying to walk through water lol

 

As far from user friendly and intuitive as one could almost get imo

 

But that did become somewhat better after a fairly lengthy time of playing, though far from preferable or optimal imo...barely tolerable just about covers it.

 

And the controls for PC...wow, if you're going to have WASD for movement you "really" need to be able to have other ways of changing Stances or activating Power-Ups (both using left hand/side buttons), you can't be trying to move and attack and survive AND have to pause your movement to push another button with the same finger or two. IMO (maybe I just play weird lol)

 

The UI definitely needs some work . . . having to wade through several menu screens to get to where I want to be is irritating. They clearly designed the menus for consoles and didn't rework them much for the PC.

 

The PC controls, though . . . I'm a little mystified at the problems people have had with them. I played the demo pretty much the same way I played Sacred 2. Point and click to move, 'a' and 's' to rotate the camera and space bar for dodging and blocking (rather than for drinking potions in Sacred 2). Worked fine after adjusting to using the right mouse button to move instead of the left. As you get deeper into the full version of the game, the directional aiming of skills could possibly prove troublesome, but I had no issues in the demo, playing as both Lucas and Anjali.

 

Before playing the demo, I assumed I'd end up buying a 360 controller for my PC just for this game, but I'm starting to think that won't be necessary.

 

And I for one could really feel the Square Enix influence; now I have enjoyed a few FF games in my time, but this mish/mesh of FF & DS just doesn't work for me. The linear, almost tunnel like trails through zones/areas felt straight from any typical Square Enix/RPG game.

 

This did bug me somewhat, though honestly DS2 wasn't much better in this regard. I hope things open up a bit more later in the game (I'm not talking open world here . . . just wider areas along the main pathway), but honestly, I don't see this being a major turnoff for me due to the actual gameplay being enjoyable.

 

All in all, the demo only confirmed to me that this is a game I'm going to like.

Edited June 15, 2011 by Azilis

[MonkeyLungs]

With his defensive ability and rolling and blocking Lucas is really hard to kill.

[Zoma]

Tried using the health regain ability? Hold block and activate the first skill. It lets you gradually heal up to half of your maximum health when activated.

[Roland]

Tried using the health regain ability? Hold block and activate the first skill. It lets you gradually heal up to half of your maximum health when activated.

 

Yea just learned that Abilities are linked to "Stances" thus the reason I could never link my 3rd Ability under normal conditions...needed to be using "Block" for it to show up lol

 

That was my bad I guess.

 

Though they really need a better tutorial/demo....there is a serious lack of explanation on many of the game's functions and gameplay...and not even a list (that i could find) of what the current/static/default key-mapping is set to.

 

That said, not sure I like depending on my health through "Abilities" rather than just managing my character's actions better and using pots when needed. I guess it's just semantics with a similar outcome through different means...guess I'm a bit old school lol

 

thx for the tip though, I appreciate it

[Roland]

After playing the demo for several lengthy times now, trying out some of the things I've learned here (Thank you) the game is a bit more manageable and actually enjoyable to some degree.

 

The major reservation and holdup for me now ( as long as editing keybinding is actually patched in) is the controls using the mouse & keyboard atm

 

The biggest being that if you choose to play using WASD then many funtions are simply too cumbersome and basically impossible to play effectively.

 

Like trying to use "Empowered Abilities"...if I'm using WASD with my left hand to move my character and using LMB to attack...how is pressing Left Shift & 1-3 key (at the same time) anywhere close to effective and realistic?

 

IF they're going to include 2 control schemes, then you "should" be able to actually play the game equally well regardless of which one you use.

 

Basically IF you choose to use WASD then you should be able to use the mouse to click on Ability or Skill Icon/hotbar actions to activate.

 

Using WASD to navigate and LMB to attack AND trying to make you use other keyboard keys to activate skills is insane...I really don't see how this could of been missed with any amount of QC or testing.

 

So that's my main criticism, if they can get the mouse/keyboard functionality fixed then the game has a chance. Though I'll still wait for a price drop. If that's fixed then I'd be willing to pay $19.99 - $29

 

range, but from what I've seen...it's not worth the initial $45 - $49 price point.

 

Guess we'll see what the patches bring to the table

 

Regards & Good hunting All

[Chasted]

Tried using the health regain ability? Hold block and activate the first skill. It lets you gradually heal up to half of your maximum health when activated.

 

You can also activate those abilities by pressing 4, 5 and 6. For Lucas (Or how I fondly call him "Sword guy") 4 is Heal (Like everyone), 5 is +20% armor (With the choice to up block or damage reflection) and 6 is Focus rebuild (Damn useful for a two hander Sword Guy)

[Volourn]

I waS looking for DS3, but I have to say that the demo is horrible. Thankfully, I don't base purchases on lame demos... but, my god, if the game is anythjing like the demo... EPIC FAIL.

 

I'll have to wait a bit before purchasing DS3...

 

Too bad too...

[Oner]

Oh no! He has come! Take your children and run! RUN!

[Flouride]

Oh no! He has come! Take your children and run! RUN!

 

Too late for that.

[Oner]

Finally found the ignore button.