OK, I finished the game a few days ago...couple thoughts:
1. Overall, fabulous game...way better than D2 in nearly every aspect.
2. Killing the Demon of Lies was way too easy - in comparison, killing Josephine was a major pain in the butt, and I'd nearly considered it to be impossible. Eventually, different tactics got me through Josephine (barely), but I destroyed the Demon on the first try without much trouble at all. Killing the end-of-game boss should be the biggest tactical challenge of the game - this time, it was a ho-hum affair.
3. When you get transported to the land of Orcs, it would have been nice to have been able to go back to Rivellon and/or the Dark Forest - I had a few quests to finish up, and some items in my house in Verdistis that I would have liked to have access to.
4. Now my game is over...not sure I'll play again from scratch. One of the things that I really liked about D2 was that you could replay (at a higher level) with the same character - it would have been really great if you could do that in DD. I'd have played it as many times as there were levels of difficulty.
5. I thought the game was a bit short...sure, it kept me mesmerized during gaming time, but I don't think I spent all that much time on it. Another "land" to go through would have been appreciated.
6. Overall, I thought there were too few tactical challenges - only a couple times in the game did I encounter fight scenes that I couldn't handle right away on the first try...I think that it would enhance the drama and realism of the game if there were more fight scenes that you would be forced to run for your life from the first couple of tries...
7. I think the open areas in the wilderness should have re-populated with monsters over time. That way you have an ample supply of monsters to fight to gain experience and/or wealth from should you need to do so. I habitually "clear" all of the wilderness as soon as I can - and then there's nobody left to play with <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />
8. I don't remember at what point, but at some point when I entered a labyrinth I automatically had the entire labyrinth map available - I think it's better to have to discover it.
9. I had considerable instability problems with the game - made a habit of quick-saving all the freakin' time. Naturally, more stability would be more better.
10. Another thing that I really liked about D2 (maybe the only other thing) was that you could hire mercenaries to buddy up with you, and give them your extra armor and weapons. Along the same lines, it would have been neat if NPCs might have joined up with you, maybe based on your reputation and how you interact with them. I thought it was a bit of a downer not being able to have more than one character on your side (I don't count summoned creatures, even though you might have the skill to command them. They're stupid, weak, and don't add the same dimension to the game as a merc or NPC would).
11. I did notice, but not use, some hacking utilities being made available. I think that's a bit of a downer too - especially since in DD there wasn't much "need" to hack a character. I know there's only so much the developer can do, but I'd like to see it be very difficult if at all possible to hack the game. Hacking is cheating, pure and simple.
12. Multiplayer! Hello! Is this thing on...? Not neccessarily on-line, but at least a LAN version would be nice...
13. Something that I think any RPG would be greatly benefitted by, although to my knowledge no one has ever done, is to release a campaign editor. If there was a campaign editor for DD, the game would never die - gamers would post new campaigns to their websites and the re-palyablity of the game would be endless...you could sell the game in retail outlets for years and not have to do any further game development yourself! If you look at other games, notably RTS or turn-based strategy such as Heroes of Might & Magic, there are buttloads of custom, user-developed maps and campaigns for them - I for one have as much fun building campaigns as I do playing them. You could even package up the best user-made campaigns (with legal verbage around any custom capaigns being made are free for you to use - no one would complain) and sell them as expansion packs!
Anyhoo, I guess I'll leave it at lucky #13. As I noted, I really enjoyed this game, and am quite glad I bought it and referred it to friends. It's probably too late for RR to look at any of these ideas, but maybe the next one...
<edit> OK, one more - kill the #$@%ing baby!!! It makes no sense to let it live! KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/stupid.gif" alt="" />
