So This Game Has Heart

The first scores are in and they are pretty polarizing.

• Videogamer: 2/10
• Polygon: 4/10
• Gamespot: 4/10
• Escapist: 2.5/5
• Gamesradar: 3.5/5
• Gamereactor UK: 7/10
• Game Informer: 8/10

I enjoyed the time I spent with Gothic IV when I bought it for like 5 dollars so I'm sure I'll end up liking this too eventually. :P

It looks interesting but the asking price is high. Although I feel like that's a dick thing to say considering a ton of people worked pretty hard to make it and here I am all "well I'd buy it for $5 I guess.."

I mean they're responsible for putting out a quality product and if they fail to do so you shouldn't reward them solely for good intentions, but I also think the amount of work that goes into making any game should have some baseline inherent value - and buying games for $5 while cost efficient and great for gamers, seems to be just trampling over that inherent value.

@humanity: My problem with the pricing is that on PC it's €40. That's more than I paid for new copies of Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 2. That's the standard price I pay for a AAA release. This looks more like a budget release. If it was around the €25-30 mark I'd probably have snapped it up already. It's even more "overpriced" for me on the PS4.

@jesus_phish: Yes I fully agree that currently it's too expensive for what it appears to be. A $20 pricetag, whatever that is in crazy moonrocks you guys use in Europe, would be a lot easier to swallow. As it stands I'll wait for a sale and feel kind of like a scumbag buying it for less than $10 down the road.

I hope they do a quick look, people mentioning mass effect 1 and dragon age 1 has me intrigued.

@kerse: I think Brad said last night on the Vinny-vania stream that he has been playing it and intends on doing a quicklook.

I really enjoy it so far, though combat wise it certainly lacks the options of even the first Mass Effect. It also has probably the worst voice actor I've ever experienced(the female lead).

But...I've played it straight for six hours. I love watching bad movies with my friends and this is the first time I've enjoyed a not so great game in the same sort of way. That being said, the developer Spiders, consistently includes elements, such as the crafting, some boss battles that are really interesting and fresh. I can't decide whether I like this game because its bad and makes me laugh, or because its a legitimately interesting role playing experience.

Regardless the game will always have a warm play in my heart for using the line, "As a heart attack," when replying very unironically to question of their seriousness.

Also I'm playing this on PC and can confirm that, like other Spider games, the controller has trouble mapping the camera to the right thumbstick and so I have to use the mouse to look around.

I've seen a lot of hate coming towards this game which is kind of confusing. The developer isn't a massive AAA studio so I'm not 100% sure what people were expecting from this game. I'm certainly having a blast for what it is so far. The combat really reminds me of a slightly less polished Witcher 2, which is a good thing in my book. Voice acting is hit in miss like most games of this type but it's passable overall. I can easily see myself playing through this game a couple times.

This video alone has convinced me this will be worth picking up and playing at some point. This sort of bizarre brokenness is so dang endearing to me, I cannot help myself.

Greenmangaming had it for about 24 dollars with all the coupons for a while

Sounds like a "get it later at a discount" game.

I'm really enjoying it so far and it's reminding me a lot of the first witcher game.
I have accidentally gone and made the demon posses me quite a bit but none of those choices are good vs evil it's more if you want to follow his advice or not.

I really like this game. I think its pretty great so far. I've only played a few hours as I picked up a physical copy today. Its pretty good I think. But as I've stated in this topic prior, I generally love these types of RPGs.

Played bit around two hours yesterday, enjoyed my time with it. Definitely doesn't harness the power of PS4 and has it's fair share of clunkyness and "Spiders" level of dialogue, but it could be a lot worse. Hoping to play more during the weekend.

So far there hasn't been a single post here from someone who's put some time into it and hasn't liked it :D

It seems like almost everyone who knew what kind of game they were getting likes it, or at least aspects of it. The hate seems to come from those who were expecting a different kind of game (namely a more polished AAA type of title), bought it randomly, had to play it as part of their job, or people who haven't played it at all & are just judging it on videos.

I've found the combat to get more interesting once you get deep into a tree. Early on, or if you spread your points out, it can be pretty boring yeah. I only put 3 points into the "Flaming Weapon" spell, then everything else into either the Warrior or Rogue tree. After a certain point parrying/dodging becomes less necessary and it starts to feel a bit more "actiony". Also, running around can be as helpful as parrying; let em go after your ally, get turned around in the environment or such, then wail on their backs/bunch them up and trap their asses to kingdom come =)

Don't feel bad about dying a lot though, this game is no joke. I'm playing through again on hard difficulty and it makes the Souls games seem like a cakewalk.

Ya, I think some of the reviews have been a little harsh on the game. Like the reviewer didn't understand what type of game they were going to be playing.

For me, and I know I am in a very small minority on this, this game is way more fun than inFamous Second Son.

@sterling Thinking about it...this is my favorite game on the PS4 so far. Infamous SS is memorable to me because of the graphics/animations, but everything else has been disappointing. This one has been a nice surprise.

A small rpg game janky as shit and developed with passion instead of $$$ is exactly what i need right now. It may be the next Witcher or it might be just another Mars War logs and thats the beuty of it.

I'm happy to see that lots of people here are enjoying the game! it's the reviews that are shitting all over the game the most. The steam community also seems to have an irrational hatred for the game for whatever reason. The community hub for the game is covered with hate threads, and some are almost as long as a book (Some people are very passionate about the hate they have for this game).

That comment made me realize that I'm going to hook my goddamn computer up and play through Amalur again. I've been bored as hell with games lately, and that sounds like just the thing I need! THANK YOU!

LOL! he looks like a fuckin human statue. I'm actually on that same part that's in the vid.

Can you create your own character, or is there just a single default?

It looks to be that you can select from a handful of preset faces and hairstyles, and also choose your gender, but that's it. No sliders or anything like that.

It was basically down to three choices:
Male/Female

About 10 types of hair (or lack thereof)

About 10 types of facial hair (or lack thereof)

I'm currently at the beginning of Act II and I'm having fun with the game. I'm sure it could be better, but it was slightly discounted ($50) so I came in expecting about what I got, and then some. The swearing's a bit tiresome and doesn't exactly fit the mood (in my opinion) but eh, at least the gameplay is good so far.

@yummylee: @smtdante89: Good enough :)

Either way, it'll have wait. It has piqued my interest, but nowhere near enough to pay Sony's European premium. Currently asking £49.99 on PS4, or $84 for those of you over the pond.

Judging from the Quick Look... I like what this game has going for it. Reminds me a lot of Risen 2; especially the unfairly difficult combat. Might pick it up someday in the future, when I finally get a PS4.

Reminds me of the first Witcher or some of the early 2000s DnD games (Temple of Elemental Evil, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance)

@nezza: Is that the digital pricing? It's going for £42 on amazon at least. Which is still ridiculous of course, but... less so. Really not liking how damn expensive current-gen console games are these days for us =/ It's the one major factor that's deterring me from buying a PS4. I've given myself till the end of August to really think it over, since that'll be the release date of The Evil Within -- a game I'd really not want to play at what'll (most likely) be 20-25fps on last-gen. Guess this'll at least mean I'll hafta considerably cut down on buying games day-1.

Hopefully PS+ will be as great a value as it's looked to have been on PS3.

I doubt the story goes as far as Soul Nomad & the World Eaters did with its demonic possession story line but I'm still interested, something to look forward to in the Steam Holiday sales if nothing else.

TO ANYONE ELSE WHO BOUGHT THIS ON PC. Am I the only one experiencing extremely long load times? Could just be my CPU that's old (3-4 years). But I have yet to encounter a game of this generation that puts me through such long waits. I have played an hour and I feel like I have already seen all the loading tips lol. Other than that, I am loving this game. Everything about it. Its corny, stupid and extremely fucking charming.

I cant imagine the CPU has much to do with it. Are you using SSD or HDD?

@rethla: HDD, but I figure thats still pretty standard considering how expensive SSD disks are?

Finished Act 1 last night. Still really digging it. No idea how people have been saying they beat this in just over 12 hours. I've played almost 9 and just finished the first act. Then again, I did absolutely everything there was to do in the first act and explored every inch of the maps. So I assume those people just bum rushed the main missions.

And at this point, this game is in my top 3 for Game of the Year. Its early in the year and it will most likely fall. But so far its in contention. I really dig this game. Jank and all. And some of the dialogue has been fantastic. Laugh out loud worthy. I know its not for everyone, and more than not will diss like this game. But man, its pure gold for me.

And playing this really makes me want to play Risen 3. And for those not in the know. Risen 3: Titan Lords was announced for August 12, 2014. But PS3/360/PC only. No PS4/X1 version.

Polarizing Score are usually indicative that a game is fairly mediocre/at best will attain a cult following of fans.

For some reason, I couldn't look away from the Quick Look. But its main accomplishment was making me want to finish up The Witcher 2.

@sterling: I just beat the game last night sitting at the 15 hour mark. I did most of the sidequests but didn't listen to everyone's dialogue and I missed out of some of the companion quests.

Risen 3 is out in August? wow I'll have to pre order that when it becomes available, here's hoping it isn't as disappointing as the second one. The second one was good but it wasn't nearly as good as the first game.

@ezakael: What? Risen 2 was amazing. Fuck yes!

Judging by your name and avatar we have similar tastes. Good to see someone else standing up for Risen 2! Loved the shit out of that game. Jaffar is best. Fuck yes!

Really excited to play Bound by Flame after reading this thread, seems like exactly the game I thought it was going to be, love a good ol' jank-filled eurpoean rpg.

@sterling: Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed my time with Risen 2, I just didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the first Risen mainly because of the combat (Which to be fair they improved quite a bit when they patched in the dodge).

I bought this game against my better judgment, but it ended up being pretty good and I wasted a lot of this weekend on it. I got to this part toward the end of act II that seems super-shodilly put together, though, like, end of KOTOR 2 shoddy. I had to choose between two of my companions, then ended up walking up some icy ridge without explanation, then I'm knocked into a pit of corpses I have to climb while fighting successively harder waves of undead. I'm still not sure exactly where I'm going and I'm presently stuck on a fight that involves several of the harder enemy types, including one of those dual-shield deadwalkers who I still haven't found a reliable way to beat that doesn't involve reloading five times. They hit so damned hard.

This definitely looked like a game that was going to blow its load early with its super-deep first act, and so far the indications are that impression is correct.

@veektarius I try to kill everything else and save those guys for last. As a rogue I just whaled on them with as much chance-to-set-on-fire/poison and +fire/poison DMG as I could find. As a warrior...they're what I use my traps on :) Trap knocks him over, unload on him while he's down, repeat.

Just beat this. Man what a terrible final boss fight. Overall I loved the game. But man, what a terrible boss fight. And I don't mean a terrible ending to the game. Just the boss fight. Ugh.

Also super disappointed in how the leveling system worked. I figured I would be able to level up enough to fill one of the classes up all the way and still spread some out to the others. Nope. If you want those trophies you better stick to one from the start and use all your points to level it up. I beat the game at level 25. And I did everything. And I even grinned a little. I can't imagine how much grinding I would have had to do to finish one of the classes. I only put 3 levels into the fighter. 14 levels into the rouge. And 8 into the pyro. To fill the rouge up all the way I would have had to not put any in the fighter, and moved 3 of those from the pyro into the rouge. Making my pyro skills pointless. Also for this play through I played on Hawk. I wonder if the leveling is different in Buffalo or Captain. I doubt it.

Also the crafting/loot system is this game is semi pointless. You can tell they had some great ideas, but they just didn't implement them correctly or fully. Or something happened and they forgot about it and never finished it. Don't buy anything until Act II. You find things better once in each act then what you can buy (excluding Act II). Nothing you buy is good. Never sell anything, because gold is pointless (excluding Act II, and you will have enough that you found when you get there). I only ever bought something twice. At that was at the end of the game I bought a bunch of health potions just to use up my gold. And once in Act II (the best weapons in the entire game). You should Recycle everything. Because when you find new weapons you can check out the upgrade slots to see what you can add to them. However, this also becomes pointless mid Act II. When you get the best daggers and sword in the game. The smith sells them for 1000 gold each. And once you get them, you can just stop caring or attempting to find something better. You wont. Nothing will have more damage, interruption or critical hit chances. So then the entire crafting system becomes pointless. Unless you are making bombs and bolts and potions. Which you don't need to recycle anything for that. You will just find those while playing. And you can make as many as you want. I never bought any bolts/bombs or magic potions. And I didn't need to buy those health potions, I just wanted to spend my 7000 gold.

And the "romance" options. What. Did they take queues from Dragons Dogma? What is going on with this. I did some side missions you asked me to do. And now where are hooking up? Really. No actual romance or dialogue about this. No flirting. No real story. Nothing. I just did you some favors and you are sleeping with me. Out of the blue. In the most inappropriate time. It just didn't feel well put together. At all.

Oh, and this possession thing is a choice? Really? When was I ever given the choice? When did I have an option to not be possessed? The demon says one thing and now all the sudden I am 40% possessed and on a path I had no idea I was making. He said it could be dangerous in there. I said ya it will be. And bam, I made a choice to be evil. Okay. I'll roll with it. But it would have been nice to know what I was doing. Or what you were trying to make me decide here.

Overall I did actually love the game. I always love these quirky EU rpgs. Jank and all. But this is not the best of that style/type of game. It starts off really strong. And gets so weak after the first act. Like many of them. But this one just seems to burn out faster than most. I am not so sure I want to do a trophy clean up of this one. I thought I did, until the last act. I don't know if I could do that again on Captain.