Parrish
11-03-2011, 04:00 PM
Finished the game this afternoon after 21 hours of play at level 20 as Eradan. Some things of note:
If you want to play as primarily an archer, you will have problems getting enough arrows at certain points in the game. I highly recommend expanding your quiver to the max asap. Looted arrows disappear if there isn't room in your quiver. You do significant damage at range and it is well worth it. Some mobs in some fights can only be killed at range. Aiming is good and you get extra XP for headshots.
You will still need to put points in a blade weapon skill, particularly if you are playing solo with AI, as there are just times when it works better. I went 2H and was not disappointed. You get extra XP for combos with hand weapons that you don't get with ranged weapons, which is another reason you want some melee weapons skills as well.
If you are playing solo, don't waste your money at the vendors buying gear and weapons for the AI players. They replace them with better stuff they loot very quickly. Forget about equipping the AI and just buy the best gear for yourself. Sometimes I'd drop a really juicy class item on my AI companions, but only rarely.
If you are playing solo, stick with the character you start with. Switching is possible, but not really feasible. The points where you can switch characters don't occur that often. And they only occur while zoning into a difficult area, which is definitely not the best time. Later on, when you've played through as each character, this may be more feasible.
Boss death cut scenes. Like a lot of these games, some boss death cut scenes carry you on to the next segment without allowing you time to loot. ARRGH! So, even if it hurts, if you're like me, spend a little time sweeping up the loot and breaking boxes before finishing off the boss.
Was this fun? Yes. Battles were exciting and I can see co-op play would be very enjoyable. Several of the dwarf defense scenarios were really well done. The last crawl through Carn Dum was moody and the last battle challenging in solo.
The worst glitch I encountered was during the battle in Mount Barandur. There's a drop that only one of my companions would make. For whatever reason, the second one would not jump down. Since the next fight was 2 trolls, a slew of goblins and finally 3 hammer wielding Uraki, this was brutal with only two. The good news is that there was a save point directly before this awesome battle, which allowed me to die conveniently several times before solving the puzzle of how to kill all these dudes with only 2 players. I figured out how to get Andriel (the healer) down with me, which allowed us to take out the goblins and the 2 trolls. I then got 1 Uraki attacking Andriel and kiting the other 2 back up the tunnel to where Farin was stuck on the ledge. Farin fired at them with his crossbow and let off his war cry. When Andriel was stuck on the ledge, she did nothing but gaze into the distance, so it's important if you encounter this glitch to get her down with you and not Farin. In any event, with the Uraki occupied with Farin, who they could not hurt, I ran back and finished off the Uraki with Andriel, then took out the last Uraki, Farin having killed one. Directly after this battle there was a Proceed point and Farin auto joined from his distant ledge.
I highly recommend this game. Thoroughly enjoyable. The graphics are awesome, the story is compelling, the voice acting is uniformly excellent. Combat is good, not hard to learn and a little more difficult to master.
And, waiting for DLC!
If you want to play as primarily an archer, you will have problems getting enough arrows at certain points in the game. I highly recommend expanding your quiver to the max asap. Looted arrows disappear if there isn't room in your quiver. You do significant damage at range and it is well worth it. Some mobs in some fights can only be killed at range. Aiming is good and you get extra XP for headshots.
You will still need to put points in a blade weapon skill, particularly if you are playing solo with AI, as there are just times when it works better. I went 2H and was not disappointed. You get extra XP for combos with hand weapons that you don't get with ranged weapons, which is another reason you want some melee weapons skills as well.
If you are playing solo, don't waste your money at the vendors buying gear and weapons for the AI players. They replace them with better stuff they loot very quickly. Forget about equipping the AI and just buy the best gear for yourself. Sometimes I'd drop a really juicy class item on my AI companions, but only rarely.
If you are playing solo, stick with the character you start with. Switching is possible, but not really feasible. The points where you can switch characters don't occur that often. And they only occur while zoning into a difficult area, which is definitely not the best time. Later on, when you've played through as each character, this may be more feasible.
Boss death cut scenes. Like a lot of these games, some boss death cut scenes carry you on to the next segment without allowing you time to loot. ARRGH! So, even if it hurts, if you're like me, spend a little time sweeping up the loot and breaking boxes before finishing off the boss.
Was this fun? Yes. Battles were exciting and I can see co-op play would be very enjoyable. Several of the dwarf defense scenarios were really well done. The last crawl through Carn Dum was moody and the last battle challenging in solo.
The worst glitch I encountered was during the battle in Mount Barandur. There's a drop that only one of my companions would make. For whatever reason, the second one would not jump down. Since the next fight was 2 trolls, a slew of goblins and finally 3 hammer wielding Uraki, this was brutal with only two. The good news is that there was a save point directly before this awesome battle, which allowed me to die conveniently several times before solving the puzzle of how to kill all these dudes with only 2 players. I figured out how to get Andriel (the healer) down with me, which allowed us to take out the goblins and the 2 trolls. I then got 1 Uraki attacking Andriel and kiting the other 2 back up the tunnel to where Farin was stuck on the ledge. Farin fired at them with his crossbow and let off his war cry. When Andriel was stuck on the ledge, she did nothing but gaze into the distance, so it's important if you encounter this glitch to get her down with you and not Farin. In any event, with the Uraki occupied with Farin, who they could not hurt, I ran back and finished off the Uraki with Andriel, then took out the last Uraki, Farin having killed one. Directly after this battle there was a Proceed point and Farin auto joined from his distant ledge.
I highly recommend this game. Thoroughly enjoyable. The graphics are awesome, the story is compelling, the voice acting is uniformly excellent. Combat is good, not hard to learn and a little more difficult to master.
And, waiting for DLC!