Watched some combat videos, this looks really good for an RPG. I was thinking from what I saw it would be a killer MMO... or better yet a coop game. Anyone play it through yet and have impressions to share?
It's more Action than RPG if you go by combat. But it has far more RPG elements than Action games that incorporate RPG elements.
Combat is fairly robust. With some elements of action fighters incorporated. The Attack, pause, attack type mechanics for instance. Or attack, attack, pause, attack. It doesn't get too complex though as there is only 1 attack button. So you don't get complex multi-attack button combat sequences. You do later on get the ability to attack while dodging though which is nice.
Item crafting is fairly robust, but the execution leaves a bit to be desired. Still crafting allows for making some incredibly powerful weapons and armor.
Socketing of gems adds more versatility. All the skills have some uses. Although pick-locks skill is relatively useless (even very hard chests are easy to pick) while dispell magic skill is essential (IMO) as failing to dispell a magic lock can result in getting some VERY nasty curses which in the early game are extraordinarily expensive to cure.
But other than that almost all the skills are equally useful and balanced depending on your playstyle (my favorite is the detect hidden skill, although I tend to emphasis blacksmithing and the one for getting better gems to drop as well as crafting them).
I'm still not sure if I'm going to buy it though (PC version) as there's some bugs I'm waiting to see if they were addressed in the retail release or not.
I want to buy it, but not going to until the bugs that would prevent me from playing are fixed.
One thing that is extremely frustrating though coming from MMORPG playing (on PC). Is that you have to select a skill/spell which maps it to the right mouse button, and then click the right mouse button to activate it. This is nice for spells/skills that are spammable in combat, but extremely annoying for buffs, heals, and pets (pets are limited duration). I have no clue why they couldn't allow you to map a skill to a mouse button while at the same time allowing you to directly activate skills without mapping it to the mouse button. Frustrating as hell. Especially when they have the skill/spell bar down at the bottom...just like an MMORPG. Except that you cannot execute them like an MMORPG.
I picked it up. Haven't started it yet. The guy at the store warned me there's 300 hours of content, or maybe he's full of shit. He said the IGN speed run of all the game content, skipping all cutscenes was 200 hours. I will never finish that.
Skipping bonus content (all sidequests) is about 20-30 hours I believe. And you'll end up around 25-27th level maybe more or less depending on how often and when you use the time slow thing (forgot what it's called). To max EXP, only using it on groups of enemies with high XP rewards and/or boss fights with multiple enemies (it gives the bonus to every single enemy that is "downed" during the time slow when you finally do the execution move).
If you do all sidequests. It should be upwards of 200+ hours. If you do all the sidequests you'll easily max your character about 3/4 of the way through I believe, even if you don't use the time slow skill much.
Regards,
SB
