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I was not sure if I was going to do any more reviews until DU3 kicks in, I have several that I want to do but... I kind of feel that they would just be lost with DU3 only a few months off. However, being pretty pissed off with some things at the moment I decided to do one to distract myself for a bit.
I intended to do one of the ones I have waiting but then I saw the DS3 demo was up and action RPG's being among my favorites, I changed my mind and went for it. The demo weighs in at just over 1.2gig and took me about 25 minutes to download. A bit faster then has been lately but still not on par with how fast my PC downloads.
I played the original DS on the PC and thought it was OK. The whole develop your character by what you do thing was kind of new then and seemed like a cool idea but it did not work out as well as it sounded. I've not read anything about this version so... Lets see what it has become.
Rated Teen.
A pretty cool splash screen of a swamp or something similar with a cool statue and birds flying abound. If you leave the game to sit while you type about the splash screen, it goes into a video about how the land is in danger and the warriors of virtue who stand to defend it... How original, heh.
Start up the game and it goes into another video... You have been the good guys for ages till something happened and one of your own went bad and all of the legion was destroyed. War has been raging for 30 years. Then you pick your character, two of four are available for the demo. Swordsman and a battle mage type. It does not show what the other two are so I don't know.
I'm going with the battle mage, a woman that fights staff or spear but also has a fire incarnation that uses... yes, fire to kill the bad guys. After character you get difficulty (3 levels), I'll go with easy for the demo.
New video. You received a letter about how special you are and how bad things are, so go kick some ass! You can do this by getting to some valley.
The game seems very dark yet with very vivid colors that blend and mix well. According to the mini-map in the top right hand corner, I have a very linear path to follow. I go to the end of the path meeting no bad guys and come to some mansion where I get a new objective to find survivors. The music that I turned off in the option menu has gotten very tense so I know battle is coming. I go into options and turn the music off once again. In the court yard of the mansion there are a few bodies to interact with but no loot. Into the mansion and it is in ruins, lots of it on fire giving a bit more light but it is still very dark.
I go through a door way that has exploded open and the mini-map begins to get a bit more complex, with upstairs and downstairs criss crossing each other and the map does nothing to let you know the difference in the path. This probably would not be an issue if the game were not so dark but it can be hard to tell a dim (black) path from a wall since you can't see either. I fumble about a bit, find an "Awesome Spear" and head on to-wards what is highlighted on the mini-map. Going downstairs the bottom is blocked by debris which the game tell me to attack... and it spills out some gold... WTF, they blocked the stairs with gold?
I go down once again and finally get a few bad guys to kill. I'm in fire form so I'm shooting fireballs at them... hmmm, you seem to auto target whoever is closest. OK I guess but I prefer to select who I'm attacking... I can make this work.
I kill off the baddies no problem and find an AGNI of Resolve... I have no idea what that is so I look in my inventory and it is under my Fire Yantra's... I still have no idea what these are... Not rings or amulets... Not spell... Fuck it, it gives me a +5 bonus to "Will" so I equip it.
I should note here that so far, even though the mini-map looks a lot more complex, I still only have one path to travel. Also, when loot drops, you auto pick up gold by walking over it but items have to be done manually by using R1.
I come to a room with 4 or 5 guys and dispatch them, then from the other side, a bunch more guys come through the door and I take them out as well. Look out for green and blue globs to restore health and mana. After killing everyone, some guy comes through the same door the last group came through and asks me to follow him... Wait... They walked by you and you could not come help... fucker.
The guy tell me how glad he is to find anyone else alive... Well no shit, you just hide and don't help. It goes into a Q&A session with the guy and then he asks you to help him to destroy some bridge. You go down the hall and suddenly there is a bridge in the middle of the mansion... Strange place for a bridge. You go across the bridge and light some barrels on fire and when you get to the other side it goes into a but scene where it shows the bridge blow and then tells you the mansion burned to the ground.
No you and this guy are in the valley... I assume the one you were looking for and you get another Q&A session. The Q&A sessions are the typical go through the menu and try every question type and the story is pretty un-interesting but... They usually are in these types of games.
There is a save point at the start of the valley but no saving is allowed in the demo... hahahahaha, it says it is there for "promotional purposes only" heh, thats pretty funny.
You fight your way through the valley and get to the chapter house at the end, where you meet the guy that sent you the letter at the start and are rewarded with another Q&A session. After the Q&A I get my first level up.
At level up you get one skill point for your spell tree. Some are for human form and some for fire form, a total of three spells on three levels, nine spells all together. You also get ability point to spend to increase each spells power. You also get talent points to apply to talents that enhance spells or give you bonus's based on spell level.
The demo actually goes on a bit more but I have the general idea for the review.
Graphics - I'm not sure how they managed this. The game is amazingly colorful, simply beautiful to look at without getting to... cluttered when a lot is going on. Yet... it is far to dark at the same time. Whatever they want you to focus on is well lit but the rest is almost pitch black. Maybe that how they get such great detail and color without a hit to frame rate. Whatever the reason they did it, I find the pitch black sections annoying, far too many of them.
Game Play - Tried and true action RPG game play here. I'm not seeing anything new but they have it down pat. A good variety of things to level up and so far a good amount of enemies and loot to be found. Biggest dis-appointment so far is the lack of variety in the enemies, they have all been pretty much the same so far, mercenaries... not a single actual monster yet.
Controls - Reasonable. All the buttons are used with some pulling double duty so it is a bit hard for me to remember them all but like most will come with a bit of practice so no big deal.
Fun Factor - ummm, not bad. There does not seem to have been much change in this genre in a long time... yeah, better graphics, more types of loot, new and different spells but it all boils down to the same thing. This game has all the basics but does want in a few areas. Gold - I have collected a good bit but so far there has been no use for it and for the amount of way I've gone, I should have seen something by now. Stats - The basics are here but I would really have liked to see more because only the basics are here.
Bottom Line - I can never see renting these types of games because the idea to me is to build up godly characters. The game does not do anything really wrong but I'm not seeing anything outstanding either so I definitely do not see myself buying this new but depending on when it hits the bargain bin/used slot and when Diablo III gets released I may go for it.
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