I can't agree with you. I think that DD is a much better game than LH. I loved LH when I first came to Barcelona. The place seemed huge and filled with quests and choices to make. I didn't find it hard, it was challenging and exciting. (I played as a warrior-dyplomat).
But the level of my excitement soon grew down as I got to Montelou (less quests and space, but still well thought off and created with a heart). Then I set off to find the Lance,... and the game became all linear hack-and slash, which I hate! The last part of the game was very, very boring.
Well, you could say the same about the last chapter of DD. But there was one neat feature that made all the difference for me - that turn-into-ghost spell (sorry, forgot the name of it) and cat\frog\spider statuettes. So I had a good laugh hopping and flying through the enemy hordes without them taking any notice at me and killing only boss mages. It was close to most fun I ever had in a computer game! OK, I could take sneaking in LH, but then I would lose precious points I wanted to invest into one-handed sword and dyplomacy. Nothing in Barcelona hinted that I might want to use sneaking later on at all. Mind you, I wanted to skip fights because it was boring, not difficult.
Now to dyplomacy. Speechcraft is one of my favorite skills since Fallout. But all it did in LH was helping to avoid combat with several bosses. Poorly developed skill in comparison to Fallout. Still, I give LH full credit for it (it felt nice to bring peace to the world with my 180+ dyplomacy skill <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />.
So Larians, please, PLEASE make a speechcraft skill in DD2! Make it like in Fallout, so that different development of this skill could lead to different small events, not just major ones, to give the feeling of a real live world. Remember Fallout, where sometimes being dumb served you better than being clever? Cool.
LH was a huge disappointment for me, too, as I expected "Fallout in medeival setting", as they put it. That's the worst PR ever! Many gamers expected a miracle, and it didn't happen, much to our frustration. As for DD, I bought it just to play something while waiting for one of my favorite titles to come by. Guess what? It became one of my favorite titles!
I'm not saying LH is bad. Barcelona was near perfect for me, but the overall experience was ruined by the second part of the game. Still, I think with computer games it's more a choice of heart, and my heart is with DD.
