I loved the shades in Act 2, each with their individual little bit of memory that, by giving glimpses of life in the area before the shadow curse, helped give that curse more impact. And hated those bloody Death Shepherds (not really, I just found them tricky to beat especially in my first playthrough and then in my second when I first visited the area where there were two at once).
And yes, I appreciated the drunken kobolds in the Rosymorn Monastery partly because of the connection to the earlier games but also as it was an imaginative encounter rather than just a bunch of stock enemies, as was the one with the magic hating cat thingies whose name I’ve forgotten. And the fact that the majority of enemies did have at least a bit of narrative content attached to them was a major strength of the game as a whole, I feel, and I agree the goblins in particular were a triumph.
I don’t think there is too much variety, and find that variety adds to replayability. But while there are too many enemy types for me to reel them all off the top of my head, I don’t think that’s because (most of them) are forgettable. On the contrary, if I stop and think about the places in the game, because the enemies are mainly well connected to those areas I can recall them pretty clearly at least after two full playthroughs.
Which isn’t to say all the encounters work well. I recall on my first playthrough finding the poltergeist encounter in Lady Jannath’s estate unbearably frustrating. I unknowingly went in with a party that didn’t seem to have any way to combat the cursed skulls and it also took me an embarrassingly long time to work out why my party would suddenly and periodically get chucked around the place. I appreciate the idea behind the enemies and encounter and it was very atmospheric, but for me that one didn’t come off, and wasn’t much fun even the second run when I knew what I was doing and went in with appropriate spells prepared. Though I’m willing to believe I still haven’t worked out the best way to tackle it! Next time maybe.
