mason

I've been hearing good things about this. I like a good arcadey stealth game (i.e. Shadow of the Ninja) compared to traditional big budget stealth games which can sometimes be a pain in the ass.

It's also nice to see a game that can be intense and without using violence as the metaphor for its game mechanics. Even Mario can't claim that.

Mind you, I play plenty of violent games and really have no problem it in general. I just like a the change of pace.

Nice. I might buy it for an excuse to play again.

I like this game a lot... but I never did complete it. If I'm honest, I started getting a little annoyed by it. I feel the progression system discourages experimentation by over-rewarding rush tactics while punishing slow, careful, tactical play.

This is because your XP is mostly determined by how many turns it takes to win.
If you waste turns and keep getting D and C ranks and it becomes impossible to keep up with the campaign. At least not without grinding the same boring training maps for miniscule XP.

I ended up just deploying scouts and constantly running up to enemies and shooting them at point blank range. It wasn't the safest path to victory, but it felt like the only reliable way to S rank.

Allowing players to replay missions, or putting more XP value on skillful play rather than speed would make this one of my favorite tactical games of all time. Would love to see a mod to this effect.

I'll give it a shot then, and decide for myself (when I can spare the ca$h).

I remember hearing such belly aching from reviewers about how broken and cheap Demon's Souls was when it was released in the US. They're entitled to their opinions, but I let it scare me off the game for a year. When I actually tried it myself, I instantly loved everything about it, even the weirdly frustrating parts which I found endearing.

So yeah, I still have an open mind. Even so, AI does seem like a game that's full of great modding potential. I'd still like to see what people come up with.

Reading the reviews, there are criticisms that I can definitely look past. I can learn to appreciate the save system, learn to master the obtuse game systems through sheer persistence, etc.

The one thing that is keeping me from wanting to play is the prevailing criticism that once it appears the Alien rarely leaves your side for more than a few seconds. It seems its appearances become annoying and familiar which works against the tension.

The frequent encounters could also be the main reason the game is criticized for being overly long (20+ hours). Many reviewers point to having so much down-time, constantly hiding and waiting for it to go away

I feel like the core of the game is good and its only real issue is pacing. That one issue seems quite fixable. We could have a perfect horror game on our hands as long as the encounters are made more special by being spaced out, somehow. I'm no designer/programmer, so I'm sure there are other factors in game balance, but that seems like the obvious first step.

Anyone hear any rumblings about a mod community forming to "fix" the game's pacing? If so, I might see myself buying it.

Stuck at home and recovering from a surgery, I felt the urge to finally try the expansion content.

This time, I felt brave enough for Ironman. Now that I've experienced it, it's the only way I'll ever play. This is coming from a life-long save scummer.

Ironman has been scary and stressful, but the highs are so worth it. I almost wanted to quit and restart when in the mid-game, I had 5 bad missions in a row where all of my veterans were systematically wiped out. It felt pointless to keep going. Because I had not prioritized scientists, all I had were rookies with basic armor and basic weapons. Not where you want to be when the base invasion mission comes around. I regretted wasting so much effort on MECs and Gene soldiers, when that stuff wasn't needed in the early game.

I decided to just see things through, toughen up and bear witness to my complete downfall. Instead I found out that the game is balanced to give the illusion of impossible. It's actually very possible to come back from this. Apparently I had built my base well enough that I still had options. From then on I prioritized armor, then beam weapons (which I always skipped in Enemy Unknown) and suddenly my rookies started to survive.

Since then, I've lost only 2 vets (some close calls), and getting close to the end I have 8 colonels and a dozen others who are lieutenant or better. Despite that earlier setback, my crew is kind of OP.

Definitely moving up to classic next time. Or that Long War mod.

@demoskinos: Those who love the Souls series must never ever stop replaying.

ABS: Always Be Souls-ing.

I guess I could dust off one of my old NG+ characters, and try with them.

I just would have loved to play through the entire game with a fresh character, while remaining human the whole time and sampling all of the covenants. I think I still might, and just accept bullshit invasions as part of the experience. It's not like I care about dying and losing progress anymore.

It's weird though. A couple of invaders dropped some extremely good items for me, before trying to murder me with their OP build. I assume they're playing out some power fantasy where they're this benevolent killer with god-like control over my fate. I'm more like "Whatever gets you off buddy. Can we get this over with?"

With Demon's and Dark Souls, I used to completely panic about invasions and play offline (or hollow/phantom form). As I became a seasoned player, I know I would have found the online fun, but never really engaged with it. Old habits die hard.

With dark souls 2, I'm changing my ways. The online has been great. Really great. I actually wish invasions weren't so rare, so I do a lot of duels.

Even so, I prefer the first Dark Souls. So I decided to go back on PC, and finally put some time into the PvP / Co-op.

...

What a colossal disappointment. There isn't a single non-twinker to be found. I'm level 5 in undead burg, with starting equipment, and every single summon is equipped with optimal end-game gear. I don't want overpowered partners.

Same with PvP. Out of the 6 times I've been invaded, I couldn't do more than 10 HP of damage to any of them. I could easily outmaneuver them and get my hits in, but the damage output is so low that it's futile. So I eventually suicide (Crestfallen warrior would be proud).

So either everyone is doing a SL1 run, which I highly doubt. Or cheat engine has ruined the experience. Either way, what a bummer. I guess I missed my chance to enjoy it years ago.

I've been cranking the contrast on both my graphics card and monitor to make the brights brighter and the darks darker. It makes the game look a lot less washed out. Not only does it make things moodier, it also serves to make the game more exciting since I'm sometimes surprised by what's lurking in dark areas. It makes the torch a useful tool at times, and I find myself going out of my way to light those sconces.

It's never as dark as the Tomb of the Giants. Nothing is ever pitch black, nor do I want THAT. I just like it to look closer to the contrast level of the early DS2 footage.