Games like Diablo 2?

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt

Originally posted by: jgbishop
Is Sacred similar to Diablo II in that monsters reappear in areas previously travelled through? Or are they killed for good as your player progresses?

One of the huge problems with Sacred was (or maybe still is) the insane respawn rate. If you fought your way from a town to a quest location and killed every monster along the way, then spent 5 seconds in a cave solving the quest EVERY monster you killed would respawn. Then you'd need to refight them on the way back to town to collect the reward and get the next quest. While you were in town they'd respawn again and you'd need to kill them all again, ad infinitum ad nauseum. One area might have 100 goblins in it, but you'd need to fight 1000 of them if you walked through the area 10 times.

GagHalfrunt,

Sounds like you aren't doing enough side quests to make each region at peace. You can eliminate the huge respawn problem by doing a certain number of sidequests in each area. The game will announce when you've done enough of them, it's like 4 or 5 roughly, then you will get a shield on the map denoting peaceful region.

Back to the original question:

Yes, I'd recommend Sacred - it is sort of a D2 and BG combination - not near as story rich as BG but with some of the hacknslash fun as D2 but lots of open area to explore. I am really enjoying it.

 

[Vee]

This nice thread could do with a bumb now and then,
So I'm just popping in to say I'm off to the shop for Gothic2, and I'll try have a look at Angband too.

 

[Malladine]

Tried the Seal of Evil demo last night and it didn't grab me at all...it's by the makers of Prince of Qin, etc. Poor translations, although I do enjoy hearing that language spoken , heh

Waiting for a Dungeon Lords demo now.

Haven't seen Dungeon Siege 2 mentioned here yet. Could be they'll make a decent game this time?!

On the Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale games, they're all awesome. Haven't played Throne of Bhaal, but I will, one day!

Hey, you guys hear about a new Bard's Tale game coming out? oh yeah...!!

 

[Mem]

Hey, they're releasing a demo soon right?

Malladine, I read they are releasing a demo,but no idea of exactly when.

 

[effee]

Tried Neverwinter Nights yet

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: Vee
This nice thread could do with a bumb now and then,
So I'm just popping in to say I'm off to the shop for Gothic2, and I'll try have a look at Angband too.

Vee,

I'm with you on the BG series. Maybe it's because I'm a middle aged man!?! No really, I started playing the first BG game in summer of 2000, then Tales of the Sword Coast, then BG2 and finally TOB the expansion. Vee, did you know there is a huge BG/BG2 modding community out there adding banter packs, additional romances and more side quests etc to the game? Even a mod called "unfinished business" which someone carefully added back in quests that the developers planned but never included due to budget and time constraints - even one where Minc's hamster gets kidnapped!

BTW, Icewind Dale is another of my classic favorites which I've played through several times. IWD2 is worth playing too. Did you play IWD Vee?

 

[Elcs]

The second best hack and slasher ive ever played....

The title heralded as the Final Fantasy 7 killer....

SILVER.

That game, although not an FF7 killer, came close imo to being as good but on a different level. Mouse controlled hack and slashing where you feel as though you are actually fighting..... control, left mouse button and up with the mouse..... sword shoved straight through the stomach of your foes.

The story was sort of corny as an overtone but once you got past the fact that some bloke abducted all of the towns women for no apparent reason and actually got into the whys and whatfors, it became enthralling.

Well worth replaying again. Perhaps over 30 hours of playing Id guess. Most bosses (must be at least 10 proper bosses) are defeatable once you see the pattern in their attacks but the final boss is a real pain even once you know his movements/attacks.

 

[Mem]

The second best hack and slasher ive ever played....

The title heralded as the Final Fantasy 7 killer....

SILVER.

I really like Divine Divinity ,lots of hack and slash in that,and when killing those elite orcs ,I just pretended they were some of the elite members here... hehe .

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: Mem

The second best hack and slasher ive ever played....

The title heralded as the Final Fantasy 7 killer....

SILVER.

I really like Divine Divinity ,lots of hack and slash in that,and when killing those elite orcs ,I just pretended they were some of the elite members here... hehe .

Interesting..... Perhaps thats why Im useless at games. I should pretend they are university lecturers.

Although I dont get it.... how can uni lecturers be better than me at gaming?

 

[Mem]

Interesting..... Perhaps thats why Im useless at games. I should pretend they are university lecturers.

Although I dont get it.... how can uni lecturers be better than me at gaming?

Maybe they get more time to practice ,but seriously "Divine Divinity" was a really enjoyable game,I`ve virtually played every RPG from "Ultima" up to "Sacred" and have quite a few favourites,but for hack and slash "Divine Divinity" is up there.

 

[Vee]

Originally posted by: techwanabe
BTW, Icewind Dale is another of my classic favorites which I've played through several times. IWD2 is worth playing too. Did you play IWD Vee?

Of course I have
IWD/HoW/TotLM(you didn't miss the 'Trials', did you?)/IWD2 are more like snacks between meals (BG and MW), But I love them dearly.
From start, I didn't, because IWD was so linear and all combat all the time, while I originally appreciated different things in BG. But I think BG changed me. I eventually started to feel some confidence in handling the battles. And when I didn't feel so inadequate, intimidated or 'scared' (actually) anymore, I started to enjoy them.

I think the atmosphere is really, really good in the IWD series. The stories too, appeal to me more than the less modest, Eddings-style "chosen"/"god" of BG.
I enjoyed Dungeon Siege and KotOR too. But there's so little to do or shape, as a gamer, I certainly hope that style of polished watching-combat-innuendo-games is not the future of RPG.
In the end I prefer more free games like BG, or totally free, like MW.

I didn't find Gothic2 BTW. I'll have to get it by mail, I suppose. Meanwhile, I'll read up on it a bit, make sure it's something for me.

 

[Mem]

I didn't find Gothic2 BTW. I'll have to get it by mail, I suppose. Meanwhile, I'll read up on it a bit, make sure it's something for me.

Gothic 2 is an awesome game,I would recommend you get the first one called "Gothic" since the storyline in Gothic 2 sort of follows on from the first one,they`ve improved the controls in Gothic 2 which was the only negative thing about the first Gothic game,hehe I can still remember the giant troll chasing me all the way back to camp in that game.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Originally posted by: techwanabe

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt

Originally posted by: jgbishop
Is Sacred similar to Diablo II in that monsters reappear in areas previously travelled through? Or are they killed for good as your player progresses?

One of the huge problems with Sacred was (or maybe still is) the insane respawn rate. If you fought your way from a town to a quest location and killed every monster along the way, then spent 5 seconds in a cave solving the quest EVERY monster you killed would respawn. Then you'd need to refight them on the way back to town to collect the reward and get the next quest. While you were in town they'd respawn again and you'd need to kill them all again, ad infinitum ad nauseum. One area might have 100 goblins in it, but you'd need to fight 1000 of them if you walked through the area 10 times.

GagHalfrunt,

Sounds like you aren't doing enough side quests to make each region at peace. You can eliminate the huge respawn problem by doing a certain number of sidequests in each area. The game will announce when you've done enough of them, it's like 4 or 5 roughly, then you will get a shield on the map denoting peaceful region.

Back to the original question:

Yes, I'd recommend Sacred - it is sort of a D2 and BG combination - not near as story rich as BG but with some of the hacknslash fun as D2 but lots of open area to explore. I am really enjoying it.

Ever try English as a second language? If you need to do a whole bunch of sidequests to make a region at peace, what happens until those sidequests are completed? Do 1 and kill all monsters. They respawn. Kill them all again on way back to town. They respawn. Set off on 2nd sidequest. Kill them all again. They repawn while completing sidequest. Kill them all on way back to town. Get reward and next sidequest in town. They respawn while you're there, so fight them again. Doesn't that sound like exactly what I said? Exactly how many times do you need to kill the same respawned monsters until a region is at peace? And an even better question, exactly how braindead do you need to be to be amused by killing the same batch of monsters 10 or 12 times to make a region at peace?

 

[Smilin]

It's not how many times you kill the monsters that put the region at peace. It's completing all the regions subquests (small pointer on your quest compass) that does it.

It's still 10 kinds of a pain in the ass though. I just bought Stan the Steroid Stallion for a horse and ran past the whole mess.

The whole leveling up thing in RPGs is a delicate balance and I think Sacred blew it.

Make it too easy and the game won't get the "Evercrack" effect. Make it to difficult and it just gets downright tedious. I work for the money that I pay out to be entertained. I don't want to "work" all over again for entertainment itself.

 

[jgbishop]

Holy Moly!!! I bought Morrowind the other day, and it is such a detailed game! I have never played anything like this. You go into a book store, and every book is readable. How cool is that?

I am having a problem, however. I am using some Mods I got from the web that CGW recommended (momoney, walkfast, that kind of thing), but they give an error saying that they are based on older versions of the main files. I see that I can supposedly open them up in the TES Construction Set and save them (so the problem goes away), but when I try to do that, the TES Construction set gives me a ton of errors. I can either choose "Yes" to continue or "No" to exit the program. I cannot choose something like "Yes to All" to skip the errors.

Has anyone else seen this? If so, is there a solution?

 

[Mem]

New Kult: Heretic Kingdoms Trailer released, you can get it from here ,it`s about 61mb.

This is also a bump for all those great RPG games and replies .

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
Ever try English as a second language?

My graduate advisor never thought it necessary. Somehow I managed a masters degree in geology.

If you need to do a whole bunch of sidequests to make a region at peace, what happens until those sidequests are completed? Do 1 and kill all monsters.

No, you don't need to kill them all. In fact I only kill what is necessary to safetly get to my objective and return. Once you have completed enough side quests, then you can "clean house" and most monsters will stay gone.

They respawn. Kill them all again on way back to town. They respawn. Set off on 2nd sidequest. Kill them all again. They repawn while completing sidequest. Kill them all on way back to town. Get reward and next sidequest in town. They respawn while you're there, so fight them again. Doesn't that sound like exactly what I said? Exactly how many times do you need to kill the same respawned monsters until a region is at peace? And an even better question, exactly how braindead do you need to be to be amused by killing the same batch of monsters 10 or 12 times to make a region at peace?

Oh, very brain dead indead! Again, don't bother trying to kill too many enemies - just do what you need to complete your objectives. Don't obsess on trying to kill to many enemies until the region is at peace. Like Smilin said. Just get a horse and go blasting through - sometimes that work well. This isn't like IWD or BG where you simply clean out an area and generally they stay that way.

Vee,

I indeed did download and play TOTLM in IWD... IWD has been one of my favorite hack'n slach infinity engine games. True, it isn't as story rich and interactive as BG, but great atmosphere and art.

I tried the Dungeon Siege demo, but felt like it was a little too "mindless" compaired to BG/IWD and NWN. I don't mind mindless, but somehow it didn't strike enough interest. It will be interesting to see if Dungeon Siege 2 is any better. Never tried MW, maybe someday. Did you try Pool of Radiance II or Temple of Elemental Evil?

 

[Mem]

Did you try Pool of Radiance II or Temple of Elemental Evil?

I`ve played them both ,they are turn based games action wise,the main problem I found with Pool of Radiance was the dungeon levels were huge and going backwards and forwards all the time between dungeon levels was really annoying.

Temple of Evil was decent,the latest patch improved the game,these games are ideal for people that love turn based fighting but neither are in my top 10.

 

[Vee]

Originally posted by: jgbishop
Holy Moly!!! I bought Morrowind the other day, and it is such a detailed game! I have never played anything like this. You go into a book store, and every book is readable. How cool is that?

I am having a problem, however. I am using some Mods I got from the web that CGW recommended (momoney, walkfast, that kind of thing), but they give an error saying that they are based on older versions of the main files. I see that I can supposedly open them up in the TES Construction Set and save them (so the problem goes away), but when I try to do that, the TES Construction set gives me a ton of errors. I can either choose "Yes" to continue or "No" to exit the program. I cannot choose something like "Yes to All" to skip the errors.

Has anyone else seen this? If so, is there a solution?

I wasn't going to give you any "advice" for this game, letting yourself discover your own *game* in it.
UNFORTUNATELY I see someone else have already been at it, so it's lost anyway...
Here's mine: Don't, I mean don't use those mods. Almost all Morrowind mods are munchkin crap. To hell with *more money*, *walk faster*, *uber kill weapons* and the whole ********! - I really, really mean that!
Just think one second for yourself! - What's in those mods for you? You'll just cheat yourself very badly.

There are only two or three mods you should have. Strongly recommended is 'RealSignposts'. Something else nice, is some modest shack to call home. My fav is 'Balmora,Abandoned Tower'. Unlike many other :roll:, it's no palace, while still spacious enough, contains no fortune in complete sets of weapons and bodyarmour, fits perfectly into the game, has tons of atmosphere and roleplays really well. But there are others available too.
And that's about the end of it.
I've been working, off and on, on one, to improve the shopping situation, 'Fancy_Skirts'. But those kinds of mods are basically the only 'safe', when it comes to gameplay.
This game is easy enough. In fact you are going to find it too easy much too soon anyway. - So Fcensor those cheat mods!

 

[jgbishop]

Ha! I didn't download any blatant cheating mods. Here are the four mods that I am currently using:

1. Bitter Coast Sounds - An official mod that adds some swamp sounds to the Bitter Coast region.
2. Real Signposts - Awesome mod, adds a more realistic feel to the game.
3. Momoney - Gives the shopkeepers more money to buy you things with. I could actually do away with this mod now. I just wanted to be able to actually sell my goods to the dealers. They were so poor, they couldn't buy any of the armor I had found lying about!
4. Walk Fast - Makes your character walk/run faster (but does not change your character's skill levels in Athletics or Speed). This was one of the first mods I went looking for. Since I mostly play FPS's, I couldn't stand how slowly the character walked around. Like frozen molasses in a block of ice in a snowstorm in winter. I simply had to speed it up. The mod author recommends turning it off when your character's speed attribute gets higher - but it's still too slow for me.

Is there a way to tell what time of day it is in the game? The only way I know to do it is press T (to rest), then press Cancel. That rest dialog is the only place I know that says what time it is.

This has been a fun game so far. The quests are way more involved than the standard "go to A, pick up B, return it to C".

Vee, where can I get that abadoned tower mod? That sounds cool. I hijacked a house in Balmora as a place to live (the lady who owns it is outside all the time). An abandoned place would be a better fit.

I have so much real-world work that I need to get done, but it's being neglected. Why? Because I'm playing Morrowind until 2:30 in the morning every night!!! Aargh! Why must games be so fun???

P.S. - I fixed those mod error messages. I just had to learn how to use the darn editor (that thing is really complex).

 

[Mem]

kult preview .

Kult is a story-driven isometric hack-and-slash action-RPG, set in a distinctive fantasy world. While the basic gameplay is similar to most games in this genre, Kult has several unique twists that colour the experience. Players explore the world of Kult, which consists of around 50 individual maps, undertaking quests from NPCs and engaging in point-and-click realtime combat with enemies.

.

 

[jgbishop]

Originally posted by: Mem
kult preview .

Kult is a story-driven isometric hack-and-slash action-RPG, set in a distinctive fantasy world. While the basic gameplay is similar to most games in this genre, Kult has several unique twists that colour the experience. Players explore the world of Kult, which consists of around 50 individual maps, undertaking quests from NPCs and engaging in point-and-click realtime combat with enemies.

.

Wow, thanks for sharing that Mem! This looks like a game to keep an eye on. I like the color palette used in those various screenshots - incredibly varied. What I don't understand is the quote. "... several unique twists. Players explore worlds, undertaking quests from NPCs and engaging in point and click realtime combat."

WTH is unique about that? Sounds like Diablo II (and every other hack/slash game) to me. The wording used in press releases is always so clunky and unrealistic. Oh well - whatever those pointy hairs think sells works, I guess.

 

[Mem]

WTH is unique about that? Sounds like Diablo II (and every other hack/slash game) to me. The wording used in press releases is always so clunky and unrealistic. Oh well - whatever those pointy hairs think sells works, I guess.

jgbishop you have different endings unlike Diablo,

Six different endings with real consequences to the player and the game world.

.

It features:

· One Hundred Attunements for Ultimate Character Customisation


Change your characters skills and abilities to prepare for each mission ? or develop your own character classes.

· Dynamic World Space
The world changes in reaction to the player ? allies, enemies and story all adapt to player actions ? encounters change to reflect what the player has done in the world.

· Story-driven Narrative in a Morally-reactive World
Players moral choices have consequences ? takes the exploration of the meaning of good and evil to new levels.

· Unique Game Mechanics
Never seen before game mechanics for healing, combat and treasure create fluid, engaging gameplay ? tactical play mechanics balanced for maximum player choice and challenge.

· Powerful Game Engine
Amazing spell effects, multiple levels of zoom ? the most powerful isometric engine ever constructed.

Designed to give RPG players all that they want - and a few things they hadn?t thought of wanting yet - Kult: Heretic Kingdoms combines combat, strategy, exploration and story to breathe new life into the genre.

More info here .

 

[zodder]

New Kult: Heretic Kingdoms sounds pretty cool. Any idea of the release date?

 

[zodder]

The playable demo is now up for New Kult: Heretic Kingdoms. Check it out here.