Thursday, June 26, 2003
There was actually about 40 minutes left of gameplay - a small dungeon with simple puzzle and then the climatic battle. The small puzzle would have been more interesting if I didn't have gear that made me totally immune to the damage it causes, so instead of having to think, I could just plow through.
The final battle was an obvious case of destroy-the-source-of-power, and once again, I had items that made me immune to reprisal damage and so on my 3rd try (took me a bit to discover what spells and damage she did), it took me 30 seconds and 3 quick katana slices to dispatch the ultimate boss. So much for that.
The ending, however, was awesome. It would be extremely cinematic were it a film, but instead they decided to stick with the ugo game engine and boring still-frame cutscenes. It's also an interesting cliffhanger, which kinda brings me to my next rant:
Everyone knows Shadow creatures are cool, ya? Obviously, otherwise we wouldn't see so many of them. The various undead types, shadow dragon, shadow mages, ect - they are cool, but they always suck. Seriously, try and think of a cool Shadow creature, npc, ect (Alice and Tondel don't count for this!) that didn't get blown away by the hero in 2 seconds. There really isn't an example, although a couple in their context are pretty close.
The Shadow Dragon in BG2 did a good job at ass kicking...but really you weren't even supposed to fight him since you could sneak by him as he sleeps. Then you can come back after leveling up a bit and totally put him down. Afterall, Shadow Dragons are about as powerful as a White dragon and they are the weakest of all true dragons.
The basic Shadow undead is pretty nasty to level 1 characters, but they didn't get the massive upgrades like almost all other monsters with 3rd edition. They basically drain strength and that's it. A level 3 hero could hack them apart in 2 seconds. The next level up is a Shadow Mastif which is a really shitty oustider that is only also usefull against very weak opponents. The Shadow Fiend is much better but still overrated for its level. If it could drain strength like a normal Shadow, it would definately be dangerous.
SoU specific creatures are the Shadovar, which are ancient Netherese humans that escaped into the Plane of Shadow to avoid death. They've been there for thousands of years and yet I killed HUNDREDS of them on both the Prime and Shadow planes and they didn't once do more than cast darkness on me. Ancient extremely magical people who have been there for thousands of years and the best that their mages can do is darken the room?
It really takes the interesting out of creatures when you can smack them down so easy. It doesn't help when a low level character can smack them down easily on their own shadow turf. Meat for the grinder, free experience. All of these monsters have interesting potential, but are still pretty basic and weak for their challenge ratings. Where is a Shadow Elemental? Shadow Mephits? REAL Shadow Mages/Clerics like from Spells&Magic? And why are they always evil? I loved the interesting perspective on Shadow Mages in S&P because they are seperate from death, darkness and evil and thus truely more neutral in the alignment spectrum. But, because all the creatures they associate with shadow are evil, it usually turns out that they are better off being evil as well. Its silly.
The world needs more Alices and Tondels.
The final battle was an obvious case of destroy-the-source-of-power, and once again, I had items that made me immune to reprisal damage and so on my 3rd try (took me a bit to discover what spells and damage she did), it took me 30 seconds and 3 quick katana slices to dispatch the ultimate boss. So much for that.
The ending, however, was awesome. It would be extremely cinematic were it a film, but instead they decided to stick with the ugo game engine and boring still-frame cutscenes. It's also an interesting cliffhanger, which kinda brings me to my next rant:
Everyone knows Shadow creatures are cool, ya? Obviously, otherwise we wouldn't see so many of them. The various undead types, shadow dragon, shadow mages, ect - they are cool, but they always suck. Seriously, try and think of a cool Shadow creature, npc, ect (Alice and Tondel don't count for this!) that didn't get blown away by the hero in 2 seconds. There really isn't an example, although a couple in their context are pretty close.
The Shadow Dragon in BG2 did a good job at ass kicking...but really you weren't even supposed to fight him since you could sneak by him as he sleeps. Then you can come back after leveling up a bit and totally put him down. Afterall, Shadow Dragons are about as powerful as a White dragon and they are the weakest of all true dragons.
The basic Shadow undead is pretty nasty to level 1 characters, but they didn't get the massive upgrades like almost all other monsters with 3rd edition. They basically drain strength and that's it. A level 3 hero could hack them apart in 2 seconds. The next level up is a Shadow Mastif which is a really shitty oustider that is only also usefull against very weak opponents. The Shadow Fiend is much better but still overrated for its level. If it could drain strength like a normal Shadow, it would definately be dangerous.
SoU specific creatures are the Shadovar, which are ancient Netherese humans that escaped into the Plane of Shadow to avoid death. They've been there for thousands of years and yet I killed HUNDREDS of them on both the Prime and Shadow planes and they didn't once do more than cast darkness on me. Ancient extremely magical people who have been there for thousands of years and the best that their mages can do is darken the room?
It really takes the interesting out of creatures when you can smack them down so easy. It doesn't help when a low level character can smack them down easily on their own shadow turf. Meat for the grinder, free experience. All of these monsters have interesting potential, but are still pretty basic and weak for their challenge ratings. Where is a Shadow Elemental? Shadow Mephits? REAL Shadow Mages/Clerics like from Spells&Magic? And why are they always evil? I loved the interesting perspective on Shadow Mages in S&P because they are seperate from death, darkness and evil and thus truely more neutral in the alignment spectrum. But, because all the creatures they associate with shadow are evil, it usually turns out that they are better off being evil as well. Its silly.
The world needs more Alices and Tondels.
