I agree with a lot of what folk have said here.
I really like the concept of the poltergeists and curses in Lady Jannath’s house and it’s very atmospheric but just *so* frustrating with the multiple levels. Not as bad now I know what’s going on, but the first time I had no idea why my party kept being blasted about and had gone in with a party without any way to combat the cursed objects. I suppose fair enough that I had to run ignominiously away and come back better prepared, but the blasts are just way OTT.
The Steel Foundry is another one where I like the idea but I agree the execution is annoying. Especially downstairs. I’m all for the Gondians taking on their own fight, and for freedom to come at a cost for some of them, but while I think their AI might be a bit better than it was it’s still pretty poor, and the fact that some of them start off so outnumbered in groups of enemies shows they planned their uprising very poorly. And in my last playthrough, one of the guards dropped a detonator after all my party had used their turns so I could do nothing but wait while all the Gondians pointlessly fired off ineffective spells while their doom approached (does the game say they can’t touch the detonators with their collars on? You’d have thought such talented engineers would be able to disarm the detonators themselves).
And yes, the mud mephit fight in act 1 is a pain.
And the final battle is somewhat of a slog. The bit up the top when one has fallen out with the Emperor I find particularly anticlimactic, as it seems the best way to deal with that is simply to ignore the fight and leg it up to the portal.
