» Sat Jun 09, 2012 3:58 am
Hm.
Well, they seem to have squeezed that last drop of blood out of the DX-9c turnip. (muted applause).
The world design, graphics, animation, pathing seem well designed. For a tech demo, it's pretty good.
Where's the CRPG?
You fade into existence on your way to getting your head chopped off. Your history is.....non existent. And it doesn't matter what kinds of mental mastvrbation you might indulge in off screen; if the game does not recognize it, then you are not role playing. You are playing lets' pretend, and using the game as a visual aid.
You have no skills. No education. No past. Your race has little significance now. Gender effectively none. Your effect on the world....? None. Once you find out you are Dovahkin, you could sit on your backside for a thousand game years, and nothing happens. There is no threat. No sense of urgency. No bloody time limit to give one.
Your ingame skill depends overmuch on your actual physical abilities; eye/hand coordination, flexibility, and lack of any issues with motion. More than any other game in the series, the term 'twitchfest' applies. The puzzles are 'gimmes' ; a lot of the 'cool' features are useless. Hey, you can chop wood! And do what, exactly? Nada. Cooking!!! But you never need to eat. Alchemy has uses, but with the amount of gold available, buying potions is far easier. Enchanting is a way to get uber stuff....or you can dungeon dive and work for it. And not get stuff that lets you oneshot nearly everything moving.
Guild quests are pathetic; it you -don't- pay attention and deliberately gimp yourself, you get to be Guildmaster in a handful of quests (a toddlers hand, in some cases). Over others who were older, wiser, and more capable. And once you get those master positions, it means.......nothing. Stop and think about that. A guildmaster, from the days when there were guilds, was a force to be reckoned with. -They- controlled access to whatever they were master over. You get an occasional guard comment.
They succeeded in their aim; a game that requires no real investment. Not in time (you can rush and get the main quest done in an obscenely short time), certainly not in intellect (simple puzzles, simpler traps, etc). Not in wisdom (what choices do you really have, and what consequences do you have to consider? Or deal with? Very few, very far between, and not so significant). It's a shame they killed one of the few remaining CRPGs in the process........