Visual setting/environment
Too bright and happy feeling. There is no dangerous dark brooding environment. Some minor brooding and dark diversions.. but not enough. I am not sure if there are day cycles..It's always sunny, bright and the whites seem to be blown out too much... Cranked the gamma down didn稚 help.. Its not my card, other games look great. I am not saying the game looks bad...Just not the mood i was looking for. Example: The splash screen... Its a sunny view of a beach, blue sky, wispy clouds move by. A pirate ship looms in the distance and I can see some crummy looking ruins. Wouldn't it have been more exciting to have a dark forest scene, with a mysterious babbling brook, some fog...wouldn稚 that have been more adventurous? Why a beach...when i think RPG i sure do not think of blue skies and beaches... Really don't get that. Unfortunately this art design carries right through the game it seems...and I know this comment will draw - But why does an RPG environment have to be dark comments? I can only answer this by saying I live in blue skies, and beaches... and I want to adventure a dangerous place...and beaches, blue skies, bright fluffy clouds are not on my range of RPG exciting places to adventure.
I disagree completly. Part of the charm of the game (for me) is the balance between lightness and darkness. How they manage silly jokes only for the next scene to be deadly serious without you feeling that its not fitting.
I dont agree that there arent enough "dark" areas. Visually this game is very easy on the eyes (something I struggled with in Pillars of Eternity). I dont know, perhaps we just have different ideas of what gloom and doom is supposed to be? Personally I cant get around a game like Dark Souls.
Written setting/environment/Game "buyin"/hooks
As i start to understand the core story line it becomes very convoluted, and just yawnable...There is no Buyin. There is no passionate reason my character is driven to do any of these things... Fabric of time idea is almost interesting, but not delivered properly. I get the feeling Its " Do not bother with the man behind the curtain..." type of of a story... If you peek around the corners the story is held up with scotch tape...
Agreed. There has to be some sort of "now its personal" hook to the story. Some would object with me on this though, they would rather have an open world where you can explore. As an old DnD player (and DM) I can see the appeal in both perspectives. While the PCs are free to roam the world as they please, whenever you introduce something that becomes very personal for the players the immersion gets better. You cant have it being part of your history either (so the bad guys killed my parents, I dont care because I dont care about my character (yet)). The hook needs to be interactive in order to create that feeling. A typical trope used for this would be betrayal.
When Baldurs Gate came out I was a teenager and had just discovered DnD. The main protagonist curse (or whatever you'd lable it as) and the fact that you are basically thrown out into the wilderness with little to no idea what to do next.. all you knew was that this Sarevok guy killed your father. Perhaps I was just young then, perhaps its because I'm 32 now and struggle to relive "those moments" because they've already happened in one incarnation of some sort.
Characters
At first the character creation seemed extensive, and complicated. But when you drill down its not at all. Character models in game mode... Their not well executed. The design twinges of light Anime, or something of that flavor... NO body changes like height, weight, build. The NPCs seem very "pasted", or cloned. The colors of the gear is very bright toned with no "gistalt".. Its like the people who created the models of the characters didn't really play DnD back in the day...
Also agree on this. Hopefully D:OS2 will come with a more extensive character creation. However, comparing again to Pillars, where the character creation is quite extensive it matters little what you pick. The only thing that define your character was the class, basically. What I would like to see is choices that actually matter, that has drawbacks because you pick a certain path.
voice over/character models/
Voice over: If i hear that dang Scottish woman telling us she has been mauled again I think i will dig my eyes out with a rusty Nail!
Why do designers feel the need to add English and Scottish accents to a game WHY??
This is not a middle ages sim... drives me bonkers and shows how out of touch the design is.... I tried to turn the voice off but i can still hear the Scottish woman complaining..Just crap voice over ALL OVER the game. < if you can't do it properly please don't do it at all... JUST SAYING!
I probably have written enough and why should i waste my time on such a big post for a game I don't intent to ever play again...
Moving on...
"Lets see.. halibut, sheep cheese, tomat-uhs".
Things like this are part of the games' charm. I hope its not removed. So what the merchants shout at the market - thats what they're supposed to do in order to get your attention (and oh did they succeed with that). Things like this will be part of the reminiscent, just like that "You must gather your party before venturing forth".
