PorkyThePaladin
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2013
- Messages
- 5,167
Started a play-through of Dark Sun: Shattered Lands. If it goes well, I want to play though Wake of Ravager as well. I actually tried this before, but it didn't take, but these days, with so many great RPGs being released every day, ... yeah....
So anyways, just escaped out of the Arena. Pretty early in the game, but here are my initial impressions:
- Graphics haved aged pretty badly, especially for a 2D game. I mean, you can tell what everything is, but it just looks bad aesthetically. Perhaps it's not that they have aged, but were bad to begin with.
- Gameplay-wise, I am really digging it so far, for two reasons: player agency and freedom.
Player agency: Unlike most modern games, the gameplay here is very active, you are told only the basics, and have to figure out everything else, which is exactly how it should be. Some spoilers ahead, so proceed with caution. So one of the guys in the slave pens told me he will help me escape if I get him a valuable gem. The gem belongs to another guy who was chained in the Arena itself. After one of my fights, I talked to that guy, but he asked for water. That's it. Nobody tells you where the water is. So I explored the pens between fights, and found a locked room with what looked like a water container inside. Somewhere else, I found an empty jar. Not rocket science or anything, but with a little bit of thinking, I bashed open the door with my weapons, dropped the jar on the floor in that room, and then was able to pick it up over the water container to fill it. Felt really good. Giving the water to the prisoner, he told me the gem was hidden in one of the grain jars. When i interacted with those jars, finding them in one of the pen rooms, I was told that it would take forever to find anything in them. Again, using a little bit of brain power, I bashed the jar with a sword, and the gem fell out on the floor. After I gave the gem to the other guy, he told me how to escape. I don't know if I messed up his instructions, or he lied to me, but there was no door that I could find based on them. However, I saw a grate leading into the sewers, and used that to escape instead.
All of these are not anything super hard, but they require you to use your eyes and brains, and actively participate in the game. This makes the gameplay interesting, and makes you feel like someone important, as opposed to some mindless errand-boy in modern games.
Freedom: So far it seems like there are a lot of different ways to tackle the game. You can bash down doors, and try to escape through all the guards, if you have a really powerful party. You can pay the ratmen or fight them. You can do optional side-quests or not. I fought 2 fights in the arena, and then tried the third, which had an 8th level Stalker. That guy was hard to take out before he went through my party, so I just decided to escape before the third fight instead. But again, this feels really cool, having all these options and different outcomes.
So anyways, just escaped out of the Arena. Pretty early in the game, but here are my initial impressions:
- Graphics haved aged pretty badly, especially for a 2D game. I mean, you can tell what everything is, but it just looks bad aesthetically. Perhaps it's not that they have aged, but were bad to begin with.
- Gameplay-wise, I am really digging it so far, for two reasons: player agency and freedom.
Player agency: Unlike most modern games, the gameplay here is very active, you are told only the basics, and have to figure out everything else, which is exactly how it should be. Some spoilers ahead, so proceed with caution. So one of the guys in the slave pens told me he will help me escape if I get him a valuable gem. The gem belongs to another guy who was chained in the Arena itself. After one of my fights, I talked to that guy, but he asked for water. That's it. Nobody tells you where the water is. So I explored the pens between fights, and found a locked room with what looked like a water container inside. Somewhere else, I found an empty jar. Not rocket science or anything, but with a little bit of thinking, I bashed open the door with my weapons, dropped the jar on the floor in that room, and then was able to pick it up over the water container to fill it. Felt really good. Giving the water to the prisoner, he told me the gem was hidden in one of the grain jars. When i interacted with those jars, finding them in one of the pen rooms, I was told that it would take forever to find anything in them. Again, using a little bit of brain power, I bashed the jar with a sword, and the gem fell out on the floor. After I gave the gem to the other guy, he told me how to escape. I don't know if I messed up his instructions, or he lied to me, but there was no door that I could find based on them. However, I saw a grate leading into the sewers, and used that to escape instead.
All of these are not anything super hard, but they require you to use your eyes and brains, and actively participate in the game. This makes the gameplay interesting, and makes you feel like someone important, as opposed to some mindless errand-boy in modern games.
Freedom: So far it seems like there are a lot of different ways to tackle the game. You can bash down doors, and try to escape through all the guards, if you have a really powerful party. You can pay the ratmen or fight them. You can do optional side-quests or not. I fought 2 fights in the arena, and then tried the third, which had an 8th level Stalker. That guy was hard to take out before he went through my party, so I just decided to escape before the third fight instead. But again, this feels really cool, having all these options and different outcomes.