The Realms of Arkania series SUCKS!
Sasha Solunac
Is is just me, or does anyone else here think this game really sucks?
The first one I bought was Star Trail. It was like pulling teeth. Treat
wounds, contract tetanus! Uncurable by you, therefore go to a healer.
Healer can't cure it either and takes all your money in the process.
Therefore, character dies. And don't forget about shoes wearing out
every five minutes. Annoying things like this make you have to save the
game every 10 seconds. What FUN!!! You know what else was fun? Having to
ask the same question to the same character 50 different times before he
gives you a clue. Now that's fun! Why were the writers purposefully
trying to annoy us?
It was so bloody time consuming too. You spend half your time dealing
with your thousand odd statistics and the other half in combat. And level
increases were SO painfully SLOW. This was extremely monotonous. Unless
you spend your life glued in front of your computer, you can forget about
finishing this game anytime within a year.
What really turned me off though was the linearity of the game. I went to
the swamps "before I was supposed to" and therefore couldn't finish that
area (Sir Tech told me this themselves). Therefore, the two characters
that were being held hostage were gone for good unless I reloaded the
game from WAY back when. That's when I said fuck this and quit the game
for good.
Being the masochist that I am, however, when I saw the Blades of Destiny
CD on sale for $20 (Canadian) I bought it. I figured originals would be
better that sequels, right? BIG MISTAKE! It was like pulling teeth and
then some. In the first dungeon I ran into 2 rogues and it took all of
half an hour to dust them off. Later I ran into a group of 8 rogues so I
said "Fuck this, I'm outta here!" Off the hard drive it went.
So my question is: Why do so many people consider this such a great game?
My advice is: IF YOU HAVE ANY SEMBLANCE OF A LIFE, FORGET ABOUT THESE
GAMES. Will Wizardry Gold be just as annoying? Enquiring minds want to
know.
Just my two cents,
Sasha
DLRapp
>Is is just me, or does anyone else here think this game really sucks?
>The first one I bought was Star Trail. It was like pulling teeth. Treat
>wounds, contract tetanus! Uncurable by you, therefore go to a healer.
<snip>
>Being the masochist that I am, however, when I saw the Blades of Destiny
>CD on sale for $20 (Canadian) I bought it. I figured originals would be
>better that sequels, right? BIG MISTAKE! It was like pulling teeth and
>then some. In the first dungeon I ran into 2 rogues and it took all of
>half an hour to dust them off. Later I ran into a group of 8 rogues so I
>said "Fuck this, I'm outta here!" Off the hard drive it went.
<snip>
Umm, maybe it's a combination of the game and the player. BoD flows very
well. If you create the proper characters and equip them correctly at the
start, you get through the battles easily and rarely, if ever, get sick.
I found the game to be reasonably nonlinear, with an interesting
storyline. You are given plenty of clues along the way to help you track
down the people you need to find, and the events you need to complete.
It's definitely a game that is for someone who can initially plan out the
characters stats for the party to cover all the essential skills. The
key is the initial planning. After that, just up each characters assigned
skills when they advance a level. That keeps it from intruding on the
gameplay.
Star Trail is a different story. The game engine was still generally the
same. The problem was twofold. One was the storyline. It was so obscure
that it never really made any sense. Also was hellishly linear. The
second problem was that they tweaked the character maintenance way too
high. You had to do too much to keep them alive and healthy in the
earlier stages of the game.
Neither game is for someone who wants to play with nothing more to
maintain than their "goody bag".
t...@ms3.hinet.net
><snip>
><snip>
I've got a litter problem about the game"star trail",is there any
sound (speeches)when you guys playing the game.......mine seems
to have no speech effect;although I installed the own damn game
onto my hard disk.......can somebody tell me what's wrong.
Thanks!!
Joe Harrison
David Stephenson
>
>Is is just me, or does anyone else here think this game really sucks?
>
>The first one I bought was Star Trail. It was like pulling teeth. Treat
>wounds, contract tetanus! Uncurable by you, therefore go to a healer.
>Therefore, character dies. And don't forget about shoes wearing out
>every five minutes. Annoying things like this make you have to save the
>game every 10 seconds. What FUN!!! You know what else was fun? Having to
>ask the same question to the same character 50 different times before he
>gives you a clue. Now that's fun! Why were the writers purposefully
>trying to annoy us?
>
>It was so bloody time consuming too. You spend half your time dealing
>with your thousand odd statistics and the other half in combat. And level
>increases were SO painfully SLOW. This was extremely monotonous. Unless
>you spend your life glued in front of your computer, you can forget about
>finishing this game anytime within a year.
>
>What really turned me off though was the linearity of the game. I went to
>the swamps "before I was supposed to" and therefore couldn't finish that
>area (Sir Tech told me this themselves). Therefore, the two characters
>that were being held hostage were gone for good unless I reloaded the
>game from WAY back when. That's when I said fuck this and quit the game
>for good.
Those are all valid complaints, I just saw it a different way. I saw it
as a game that offered a much more real rpg experience than most games
had. I found the first game (which you bought after the second)
unplayable. In that game your characters fumbled ALL the time in battle
and it received generally bad reviews. They took some of the advice in the
next game from consumers and reviewers and made it a bit more friendly.
These games originate from a very complex RPG in Germany and they were trying
to preserve that. I LOVED the complex characters and attributes, and I kept
my healing skills up so high that I only got tetnus about once. The one time
that I was unable to cure it( I guess I got it more than once after all)
I did go back to recent save(I made the habit of saving often and rotating
spots and zipping some saves from time to time-but I find that I have to do
that in any complex Rpg) and reloaded. The shoe thing did get old, as did
the constant cold catching from some characters who were wearing coats and
boots and head gear???? It was linear in some ways, although I never ran
into the dead in that you did in the swamp although I did go through it
earlier ( I just ran through.) I liked that the level increases took time.
I ended the game at 8th level and one 9 level character after playing the
crap out of it. There were a lot of things about the game I liked, like
combat. Some of those forest ones with the tigers became busy work but
other combats were pretty cool.
honest in their reviewing and they gave it a high rating, editor's choice a
ward, and RPG of the year (this year they left that award out, they saw no
honest in their reviewing and they gave it a high rating, editor's choice
award, and RPG of the year (this year they left that award out, they saw no
real, well made RPG out there at all.)
>Being the masochist that I am, however, when I saw the Blades of Destiny
>CD on sale for $20 (Canadian) I bought it. I figured originals would be
>better that sequels, right? BIG MISTAKE! It was like pulling teeth and
>then some. In the first dungeon I ran into 2 rogues and it took all of
>half an hour to dust them off.
They did make VAST improvements in the game since the first one.
I quit the first one after the first couple of dungeons, disgusted.
I read the horrible reviews AFTER I purchased the game and did not
like it and I took a chance on Star Trail due to good reviews and
ratings by magazines and on the net. I am sorry that you did not
agree. I think it is kind of a type of game that you like thing.
I liked the level of detail, and the fact I needed a healer to heal
the sick. Like you I did not like the shoes thing, and the tetnus character
dead thing. Overall though, I thought it was a good game. Without some
of those things it could have been great, and I will wait to read reviews
about the sequel before I buy it to see if improvements were made in some
things.
The problem is that in Germany they are masochists and these guys
made the game hard on purpose. THe third game which I and a lot of people
are drooling over is Shadows of Riva, and again they are supposed to have
listened to complaints-the combat system looks the same (I liked that)
but they eliminated that map you have to tramp along and get sick on so much
with a first person perspective (like in the cities, but now for overland
also)that is far more detailed.
>So my question is: Why do so many people consider this such a great game?
>My advice is: IF YOU HAVE ANY SEMBLANCE OF A LIFE, FORGET ABOUT THESE
>GAMES. Will Wizardry Gold be just as annoying? Enquiring minds want to
>know.
Wizardry Gold will be like Wizardy, which I did not like because it still
uses that outdated first person combat rpg perspective. That just does not
work right for combat in an rpg.
right for an RPG.
I would like to see more rpgs with a similar level of detail, that take
so much time to finish.
Dave
Nils Jeppe
>Is is just me, or does anyone else here think this game really sucks?
Yes me.
>What really turned me off though was the linearity of the game. I went to
>the swamps "before I was supposed to" and therefore couldn't finish that
Don't forget the fun of losing items in the swamp....
>So my question is: Why do so many people consider this such a great game?
>My advice is: IF YOU HAVE ANY SEMBLANCE OF A LIFE, FORGET ABOUT THESE
>GAMES.
I agree a hundred percent... The paper & pencil "original" of Realms of Arkania sucked too, by the way, so it doesn't come as a big surprise.
>Will Wizardry Gold be just as annoying? Enquiring minds want to
>know.
Well I think that will be designed by a totally different team.
Nils
Cap'n Buckwheat
>Is is just me, or does anyone else here think this game really sucks?
>The first one I bought was Star Trail. It was like pulling teeth. Treat
>wounds, contract tetanus! Uncurable by you, therefore go to a healer.
>Healer can't cure it either and takes all your money in the process.
>Therefore, character dies. And don't forget about shoes wearing out
>every five minutes. Annoying things like this make you have to save the
>game every 10 seconds. What FUN!!! You know what else was fun? Having to
>ask the same question to the same character 50 different times before he
>gives you a clue. Now that's fun! Why were the writers purposefully
>trying to annoy us?
>It was so bloody time consuming too. You spend half your time dealing
>with your thousand odd statistics and the other half in combat. And level
>increases were SO painfully SLOW. This was extremely monotonous. Unless
>you spend your life glued in front of your computer, you can forget about
>finishing this game anytime within a year.
>What really turned me off though was the linearity of the game. I went to
>the swamps "before I was supposed to" and therefore couldn't finish that
>area (Sir Tech told me this themselves). Therefore, the two characters
>that were being held hostage were gone for good unless I reloaded the
>game from WAY back when. That's when I said fuck this and quit the game
>for good.
>Being the masochist that I am, however, when I saw the Blades of Destiny
>CD on sale for $20 (Canadian) I bought it. I figured originals would be
>better that sequels, right? BIG MISTAKE! It was like pulling teeth and
>then some. In the first dungeon I ran into 2 rogues and it took all of
>half an hour to dust them off. Later I ran into a group of 8 rogues so I
>said "Fuck this, I'm outta here!" Off the hard drive it went.
>So my question is: Why do so many people consider this such a great game?
>My advice is: IF YOU HAVE ANY SEMBLANCE OF A LIFE, FORGET ABOUT THESE
>GAMES. Will Wizardry Gold be just as annoying? Enquiring minds want to
>know.
>Just my two cents,
>Sasha
Ditto all of the above for me too! When I hear people say that game is
great, I'm also afraid to try their other recomendations!
DLRapp
>
>Sasha Solunac <gl...@aei.ca> wrote:
>>Being the masochist that I am, however, when I saw the Blades of Destiny
>>CD on sale for $20 (Canadian) I bought it. I figured originals would be
>>better that sequels, right? BIG MISTAKE! It was like pulling teeth and
>>then some. In the first dungeon I ran into 2 rogues and it took all of
>>half an hour to dust them off. Later I ran into a group of 8 rogues so I
>>said "Fuck this, I'm outta here!" Off the hard drive it went.
>>Sasha
A half hour? What were you doing, taking breaks between turns? I
restarted the game last night, after a hard drive crash killed it half
way through. The battles you're talking about are nothing. It took no
time to win them; if you have the characters properly equipped.
These games aren't terrible; nor are they great. They fall in the middle
of the RPG pack, IMO. As for playability; I've noticed most RPGs are as
playable as the ability of the player. The RoA games are going to be
more appealing to people into stats. Those who want to just play with a
character who never eats, sleeps, needs new armor or weapons, never gets
wounded, and can carry 8 tons of equipment, won't like it. It's not a
"Monty Haul" game.
As for comparisons between "Blade of Destiny" and "Star Trail"; I'll go
with "BoD". Star Trail was a vague, poorly written game. The plot was
obscure, the game horrendously linear and you got sick every other day.
BoD did a much better job.
>Ditto all of the above for me too! When I hear people say that game is
>great, I'm also afraid to try their other recomendations!
And your idea of a great rpg game is what, Doom?
Alex van Veldhoven
In article <31684...@news.hnehealth.com>, buck...@hnehealth.com
(Cap'n Buckwheat) says:
>
>Sasha Solunac <gl...@aei.ca> wrote:
>>Being the masochist that I am, however, when I saw the Blades of Destiny (etc.)
A half hour? What were you doing, taking breaks between turns? I
restarted the game last night, after a hard drive crash killed it half
way through. The battles you're talking about are nothing. It took
no
time to win them; if you have the characters properly equipped.
Hi,
Question: do you know where I could find a walktru? After some years I
recently started playing Blade again but I'm stuck o the same points
(e.g. what/how is/to (the) sacrifice for Swafnir to prevent getting
swallowed by the sea?).
Thanks for reading,
Alex van Veldhoven
aa...@dds.nl