1.
Planescape: Torment: Meh. Gameplay was predictably awful, story/dialogue was better than most videogames but that's not an accomplishment. Only memorable moments were the tomb, the memory of TNO manipulating Deionarra, the encounter with Ravel, and the encounter with three of your previous incarnations. Here are some things I wrote down as I played the game:
- Some doors are hard to spot, others are straight up impossible to see unless you bring up the annotated map
- Maze dimension is annoying
- Found my way inside Siege Tower but there was no option to share info with the abishai that was looking to do the same
- Grimoire of Pestilential Thought is cool
- Ignus was a huge threat yet no one bats an eye when I free him, even the barkeep
- Calling the chicks in the brothel "prostitutes" makes no sense. For someone who's trying to turn back on their nature Fall-From-Grace sure seems hellbent on using sex terminology. Also falling from grace doesn't sound like something evil races would give a shit about.
- The conversation where you try to talk down a Godman from committing suicide is very poorly written. Makes no sense that someone who followed that ideology and concluded that suicide was the way to go would be influenced by the argument the TNO presented
- Couldn't give Ecco the silent "prostitute" the tongue which would clearly solve her problem until I found out why she lost her voice. What fucking difference does the reason make? The solution was obvious
- Character pathfinding is 100% shit
- On a similar note, characters refusing to auto-attack unless personally attacked is retarded
- Too many filler combat areas, like the prison under Curst or the Lawful Evil place (what a disappointment that was)
- Curst is shit, town of betrayal more like town of boredom
- I can summarize this game as: [Wisdom dialogue choice]: [Say something obvious].
- Second half of the game wears out its welcome
2.
Pillars of Eternity: After playing PS:T I was ready for a combat RPG, and my choices were this or D:OS. I hate RTwP so I chose to go with this first. It's not as bad as I expected (my expectations having been set by DA:O), but having worked my way deep into the Endless Paths (level 13, as far as I can go ATM) the fun has worn off. I made my PC a wizard despite being warned that the fun of spells had been balanced away. I actually found spells pretty fun, at least the CC stuff. Damage per spell is disappointing, but once you get 5 fireballs (x2 with the wizard NPC) you can put out an absurd amount of AoE damage. The camping system is retarded, on that note, too easy to abuse.
3.
Serious Sam 3: It starts off really badly, then gets progressively funner. The minigun, devastator and cannon are great. The pistol and semi-shotty are useless. Using the C4 is suicidal, though it comes in handy against one type of enemy before you get better weapons. The double-barreled shotgun and sledgehammer are situational. The assault rifle is the default weapon and I wish it weren't (boring and out of place). Likewise some of the enemies are completely at odds with the alleged design philosophy of the game. Monkeys actively hide from the player, slowing things down to a crawl. Witches encourage seeking cover, are invulnerable for long periods of time (and teleport), limit the amount of damage they can take every time they are vulnerable, and just generally are an unbelievably bad fit for this game. Helicopters have near hit-scan weapons and actively dodge player rockets, again encouraging hiding. The game is at it's best when it sends huge waves of trash mobs along with bulls and mechs at you.
I'll even say I like it more than Human Revolution.
I did too. Could be because I went in expecting total shit, while I expected HR to be much better than it actually was.
