To me this looks like a trailer designed to attract a different audience on top of the existing one. Everything we've heard to date has described a game with reasonably varied gameplay, mixing the spells and building bridges and stuff. Everyone following that is either interested already or not. So to appeal to those who thought Sorcery looked kiddie and who would rather play some shooter, this trailer was released to show them Sorcery is an action adventure. Maybe. Still, it'd be wrong to think this one, limited trailer shows the game has been massivelt dumbed down.
Deadmund's Quests have 7-8 actions and items for the users to use. I ended up using the throwing star and bow + arrow most of the time. One of the main reasons is because I couldn't get to some enemies; they are too far away or separated by terrain/level. I'm also forced to use ranged weapons because the game is on-rail. When Deadmund stops walking, I shoot. Fortunately, the levels here are pretty compact yet varied, so I spent my time fumbling in and out of villages, countryside and castles.
I suspect Sorcery will be similar but deeper (e.g., you can combine spells) and bigger (larger maps). However the trailer shows too much of the same gameplay over and over again. The wider space also makes me think I have to walk a lot since this is a free roaming game.
One thing I hope they improve from Deadmund's Quest is weapon switching. It's a hassle to switch between bow+arrow, shield and sword using gestures in the middle of a fight. The throwing star is great because there's no setup time and gesture. You flick your wrist to throw projectiles immediately; you revert to your sword automatically. Hopefully the navcon will allow fast weapon switching in Sorcery.
I think they should make the wand a versatile magic whip/sword + ranged strike weapon. If the action is seamless and powerful, the designer can throw all sorts of enemies and scenarios at us. If the action is weak, we need to spam the same action repeatedly to make the effect last. This is something Deadmund's Quest does rather well (powerful action). The Sorcery's trailer seems to tell me I need to spam-a-lot for the frozen spell to take effect. It looks tedious and tiring as a result.
I also hope the enemies are not as stationary as the ranged attack enemies in Deadmund's Quest. It kinda looks that way in the Sorcery trailer (even though it may or may not be true). I expect to be able to path-find to most enemies in Sorcery. I also expect them to hunt for me. Hopefully the level design is not always as monotonous as the open spaces in the trailer.
Deadmund's Quest also have pretty good (and varied !) boss fights. We enjoy them a lot. You have to do different things to disarm or take down some bosses in stages. From the Sorcery trailer, I can't discern much except for some dodge and shoot action. Hope to see more variety in this aspect.
I was also very impressed by the cinematic camera in Metal Gear Solid 4 during gameplay and cutscenes. Windwaker also has pretty interesting camera angle in the game. I hope Sorcery can show more depth here too.
EDIT:
They should give the chap "fast travel" (a broom ? short teleport ?) if the level is too open.
lol)
