This game has quest markers. Not for EVERYTHING, but I definitely noticed quest markers.
Lar_q: When I was doing the Bandit Camp quest I actually thought the game was broken for not telling me exactly where to locate the Bandit Camp - that's just how much of a staple Quest Markers have become for the industry. They are not a bad thing. Yes, it speeds players through content, but if your goal is to deliver a tight, streamlined experience, that's the idea. If the goal is to deliver an open-ended world of exploration and discovery, you can still have quest markers, the world just needs to be much more open than in DKS (which I didn't feel had that much for exploration or discovery, even without Quest Markers everywhere).
There's also fast travel in the form of the statues, and later Dragon Form... which is mainly used to explore the linear corridor that is the Fjord. We also have the ability to respec, a storage chest that we can send items directly to from the field so we don't have to fuss with tedious inventory management, and skill-less hack and slash combat.
I'm not sure why it would be *against* Larian's beliefs to provide more/improve upon current methods of player guidance, when they already employ many methods in DKS. Guidance and hand-holding are two seperate things - Guidance says "This quest wants you to eventually go here, the area of interest mentioned by the NPC you just spoke to is here" etc., and hand-holding says "Here is a breadcrumb trail that leads you there, here is a flashing point and it is the boss' weakspot).
tl;dr Guidance = Good, Hand-holding = Bad
Last edited by james5272; 01/12/10 06:47 AM.
