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This is a first. I have never given up on a game before. This game has so very many strong points but so many glaring weaknesses throughout the game. The final straw is the incredible number of problems with the entire final battle/zeppelin scenario. All the time spent finding cool Dragon Armor, wasted. All the time spent building my human character, useless. No options about big picture strategy at all. How about letting the Dragon fly ahead and take out the resistance and THEN launching the Zeppelins? Nope.

In the end it becomes learning 2 or 3 "tricks" that you perform over and over in a mindless "Action-boy" twitch-game 3 minute flurry that apparently satisfies some percentage of the players but couldn't possibly make the majority happy. Or maybe it's just me. Whatever.

I can't stand thinking of how much money I spent on DKII and FOV and how much time I wasted on it.
Thankfully Dragons Age II is released on March 8th and I can look forward to a game that doesn't require a gaming controller, and intelligence is more useful than dexterity.

No reply to this topic is necessary.


I've been playing these game so long that I started back when I was screwing your mother.
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Another one lost thanks to that escort mission. Never again escorts mission in any future game,ever.

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Originally Posted by pall
Another one lost thanks to that escort mission. Never again escorts mission in any future game,ever.

Quite. I wouldn't give up on a franchise completely because of one quest, but perhaps it's just that enough time has now passed that I've largely forgotten how bad an experience it was.

I hope Larian takes note: seems most gamers absolutely loathe escort quests, and this one was a particularly nasty example, especially given its position in the game: it did leave a rather sour taste after what was overall an excellent gaming experience.


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I get it that DKS doesn`t appeal to everyone, but what i don`t get is how one segment of the game can so utterly ruin the game for some:P I mean if you enjoy most of the game, how can 3 minutes of game time make you hate a game you`ve spent perhaps 50-60 hours playing be such a big deal? In my opinion 3000 minutes (50 hours) of an enjoyable game really should make up for 3 minutes, right? To take it even further, 3 minutes is only 0,1% of total game time... If i had enjoyed 99,9% of a game, i`d count it a success and not a failure. And i take it you bought the game from Steam? In that case you didn`t spend "all that money" compared to other games you could have wasted more money on;)

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If it's bothered someone (in fact quite a few people) enough to write about it, I'm not sure it's really helpful to quibble about whether or not it's "right" to be bothered. Unfortunately it's the lingering memory for a lot of people, especially if they were unable to complete it. What's that line about comedians? Something like "they're only as good as their last performance". The escort mission was DKS's last performance for a lot of players.

If it didn't bother you, that's all well and nice, but please don't dismiss the experiences of others quite so hastily.


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I've posted this before but escort missions received the nickname VIP missions from the Counterstrike days. There were so many complaints about VIP missions that its surprising they're still being implemented.

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I quite agree Vometia... Im not gonna trash the whole game for one escort quest i cannot do, but that being said, to not be able to finish a game u have put hours of enjoyment into playing is very frustrating. The DK Saga was one of the best games i have ever played (as i have stated in other posts) but I too, sadly, could not finish FoV due to the escort quest. I hate them, i have never been able to do them. And to those that say.."It was easy" well thats U, not the majority of posts i have seen on this sight, most ppl found it difficult and some can never complete it. It truly is a sad day for the game because whereas during playing ED i was telling everyone i knew that they should play this game...now....i would not recommend it unless i tell them of the escort quest and the apparent possiblity of not completing the game. Sorry Larian but now ur game comes with an "IF" factor...and it's not very appealing.

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Vometia makes a good point. The end-game is something that is supposed to inspire us to start a new character and replay the game, not compel us to play something else instead.

I've played many games over the decades, and two things stand out as my all-time least favorite features:

1. Escort quests
2. Time limits

Bonus points if the escort quest is also on a timer.

Oblivion had a time limit in the battle for Bruma, but I was able to mod that crap out of the game and so the game remains a favorite. I much prefer games that imply a time limit (aka urgency), but never enforce it. I play games to relax after a long day at work, not to be hounded with yet more deadlines. :P

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Something I have wanted for long but never seen, is quests with a loose time limit. Meaning that if you fail to meet the time limit, quest isn't lost, but gets more difficult. For example if you are to kill someone, after the time limit he meets some nasty friends.

Or if you are to find someone, after the time limit, he leaves for some other place, so you have to search for him in some new (undocumented ?) place.

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I had a similar experience playing Psychonauts; it was still a great game, with a few memorable moments/lines, but I'd knock a point off for the end section. The game itself required coordination and sometimes timing (easier using a gamepad than a keyboard/mouse), with only a couple instances where I had to go through a part multiple times to get it. The only pre-final level section I got frustrated enough to swear at the game became a fair bit easier after I mapped a 're-centre camera' function to one of the gamepad buttons (had to walk/jump along a rotating structure).

For the final escort mission I tried it a few times, but between the twitch based timing required and NPC AI (that often had him run directly into the opponent before you could get anywhere near him), I was soon looking for cheats to boost the countdown timer and/or friendly NPC health. Failing to find either, just lots of similar problems, I ended up watching the end section of the game on YouTube. Initially checking the video was just to see what I should be doing, but there was no frikkin way I was going to duplicate the timed twitches necessary to finish the game, so I quit.

I'd still probably get Psychonauts 2, in the unlikely event it ever gets made.

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Originally Posted by JadedGeek
How about letting the Dragon fly ahead and take out the resistance


That's what you're supposed to do!

You fly ahead of the Zeppelin and take out all the towers and nests. Do NOT stay with the Zeppelin, fly ahead of it. Don't worry about the flyers. Use your weapon in the number 2 spot to take out big clusters.

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The majority of the people that i am seeing say that the excort mission was too hard and ruined the whole game for them are also the ones who are asking how to do every single aspect of this game, instead of running around looking for an answer. In the process they would be discovering other thiings in the game.

Yeah i do agree that escort was hard even for me, and i was using a trainer to cheat. But, i found it exciting because after failing it about 4 times, while cheating, the game was forcing me to experiement and find different ways that catered to my playing style.

I will tell you this. After spending quite some time playing this game... I have written the one, and only walkthrough for this game. I just submitted it to gamefaqs. all they have to do is like it.


My name is Legion: for we are many.

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yup i failed it 4 time to, just than i figure that fire breath was useless, fire ball could take out tower in 2 hit, big forteress just die in a big AM-SHOOTING-MA-LAZER and finaly everything els was being target by arrow wall.

so when i finaly figure out the bloody ability i succed it with the blimp with 100% hp still kamikazing himself. shame shame shame...

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Zeppelin Escort Mission on Nightmare Skill

I used a combination of 1 Fireball plus Firebreath, and that seemed to work for me, even on Nightmare skill. (Even with the short cooldown on Fireball, I didn't like waiting for it.)

1. Fly as far ahead of the zeppelin as you can.
2. Kill all the towers.
3. Don't worry about the flying enemies any more than you need to stay alive.

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It was kind of weird to go kamikaza with 90% health (first run too).

I don't see the issue though. Did they nerf it in a patch? Do they do x9 damage in Nightmare?

The real bad part was when I figured out my sword/shield were gone (WTF?) and I had to fight the boss-battle with second hand gear (well, no shield, I had no second shield).
Nor music since that didn't run on reloading the auto-save.

*sad*

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I enjoyed most of the game, but the last mission was too damned hard. I play on casual but that escort mission was just a pain in the rear. Especially the last 1/4 of it where all those balista towers and lightning towers are right before the zepplin is supposed to crash into the base and burn Ygerna.

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Nuke and the base is gone?

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Not everyone uses the bomb.


When you find a big kettle of crazy, it's best not to stir it.
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"Interplay.some zombiefied unlife thing going on there" - skavenhorde at RPGWatch
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Then don't be shocked if it's harder than it should be.
The "bomb" is given for a reason.

Anyways, re-tried on Nightmare, and had to re-do once (because I died, not paying attention, lol, not because of the zep). Sure, was only 75% health instead of 90, but still nowhere near difficult to keep the zep alive. Just myself.

And fortunately kept my weaponry in the endfight this time. Not sure if that was because of Bellegar, because I put 2 other weapons in my slots "just in case" or because it was a random fluke last game...

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Originally Posted by Endurium
Vometia makes a good point. The end-game is something that is supposed to inspire us to start a new character and replay the game, not compel us to play something else instead.

I've played many games over the decades, and two things stand out as my all-time least favorite features:

1. Escort quests
2. Time limits

Bonus points if the escort quest is also on a timer.

Oblivion had a time limit in the battle for Bruma, but I was able to mod that crap out of the game and so the game remains a favorite. I much prefer games that imply a time limit (aka urgency), but never enforce it. I play games to relax after a long day at work, not to be hounded with yet more deadlines. :P



This plus 1000000000. I haven't played FoV yet. But from other games, I LOATHE escort quests above all else. Main reason being is they make no sense. Why on earth would you send big, gigantic targets through enemy territory without clearing the way first? I may end up just setting the difficulty slider to easy for that quest. Same with time limits. Another thing I really can't stand is having to protect something stationary like a building.

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