My thoughts about Chapter 1...

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I finally finished Chapter 1 today and what a relief that was. Chapter 2 seems much better for now.
I never saw anything as boring, tiresome and uninspired as that. Obsidian really lowered the standard - first, it's not balanced and playtested at all. What's so fun in being attacked by a bunch of tough thugs in the city of Neverwinter behind every corner? They slay my party in a round or two and I ran over to the guards who just stand there and watch. Speaking of enemies, there's too many of them - it's a hackfest! Is there a reason every encounter must consist of at least 50 enemies? And when I heared some NPC's talked like male aasimars (the default voiceset) I knew nobody cared

I didn't like voiceacting - everybody were so dramatic for no apparent reason. I found the whole Axle character horribly overdone and unbelievable. I say remove him and no one will notice.

Joinable NPC's are a disappointment too, except for Shandra. Dwarves that are obsessed with orc slaying should be held in a sanatorium (I'm sick of the never ending orc-dwarf war in every game). A redhead tiefling rogue with a tail was fun in Planescape Torment, Neeshka's not.

I'll shut up now and go play with the toolset and Chapter 2 some more. As I said Chapter 2 seems much, much better.
Did anyone else expected more from Chapter 1?

 

I found the fosterfather guy's voice the worst "I-am-a-robot, please-insert-lines-in-my-mouth".

Yup, the thugs were as badly balanced as the archers in BG bandit camp. The mages that attack you with fireballs are the worst.

Also, the game seems to expect you have hoards of money for some reason. Like it was intented that you get all the overpowered weapons in the beginning to balance the game.

 

i've never had any problems with groups of enemies (i play on core), grab qara and elanee and you have really strong firepower

personally i think act 1 was actually the best and most interesting, because it's at least partly nonlinear, and there is extra places you can explore if you want
it's also an act with the most sophisticated dialogue

later on, not only the game becomes linear, the variety of enemies is smaller as well, as you mostly just fight demons and undead

since this is a 3.5 game, i really expected them to add some new creatures into the game, but nada

 

Grabbing Qara to help with mobs works very well on the lower difficulty level settings but if your difficulty level is set high enough for you to take damage from party cast area effect spells than bringing Qara along is almost an invitation for a fiery death.

 

Elanee constantly shapeshifted so i removed her from party. I didn't pick up Qara since I play as a wizard. I'm not a powerplayer, maybe that's the problem - it seems this game expects one?

Tell me, how did you survive that Backalley quest for Axle? Let me remind you of the unfair situation - immediately in the beggining there's a group of thugs to your left and another one just ahead. Here's the not so bright-looking situation:
2 spellcasters, 6 melee fighters and 3 or 4 archers against your 4 member party. Mages immediately engulf you in various lightning/fireball combos and others quickly finish you off. I'm somehow convinced that playtesters and devs didn't fight through it as we did, they just "cheated" their way through most of it.

 

Casting stoneskin on the entire party and then focusing on the enemy spellcasters first helps. Really when it gets right down to it a stoneskinned party tends to win easily while a non-stoneskinned party tends to die easily. I suppose that does reflect poor balancing but I just got used to it.

 

does chocking bags really help vs enemy casters too, how you find a game people constantly complains about being to easy is a bit beyond me

also try setting the npc's on puppet mode, to avoid the stupid AI, that way Elanee becomes quite usefull.

if all else fails, play on easy untill you learn the game.

 

Equester is correct. Bags of choking powder does wonders against enemy spellcasters, perhaps supplied with some flasks of alchemy fire and acid. They don't sell for much anyway, so you might want to use them instead.

Anyway, in any RPG game you would want to attack the spellcasters first.

You don't have to set the npc's, and especially not Elanee on puppet mode.

Go into Elanees Character sheet, choose the Behavior tab and switch Ability Usage off.

That way she won't shapeshift unless you want her to.

Elanee is very useful against spellcasters. Let her rip a couple of Call Lightnings and you'll see.

Besdies that it is very easy to get a horde of money in the game, even in Act 1. Just loot everything, and sell the expensive items to Sand. He gives a lot more for items worth over 1000 GP. And crafting for money is a way to go too.

 

back alley is pretty easy
with my bard, i took qara, elanee, and neeshka, all set to puppet mode

round 1:
qara casts fireball (you have to predict enemy movment)
elanee casts call lightning (when enemies are getting close)
neeska flanks for sneak attacks
me casts confusion, cursed song

round 2, qara casts another fireball into the back row, elanee casts another call lightning, neeshka flanks, me kills stuff

they don't stand a chance

it's even easier with a sorcerer as my main
2 fireballs, 1 call lignthning per round == destruction

the masses are just cannon fodder and it's an easy game

 

Thanks for all the advice. As my friend said, there's more micromanagement in CRPGs than before, so there you have it... If you ignore it to a certain point (as I did), you'll run into problems sooner or later. But I still say they could made it a lot better.

 

Well, that depends on the CRPG game.

I.E you don't survive long in BG2 or in the IWD series without micromanagement, but you CAN do without in BG1, but it is harder that way.

NWN1 is another matter, where micromanagement is practically non-existant.

I don't know what CRPG's you are used to, but BG1 and expansion is from 1998-1999, BG2 and expansion is from 2000-2001, and IWD series is from 2000-2002.

Perhaps you are more used to hack-and-slash CRPG's?

 

heck the old ultima games for snes, along with other crpg's from that era required a fair bit of micromanagetment. Shining forces for genesis and so on.

im feeling old, for remembering this

 

You said it yourself Equester: You ARE an old man.

 

I'm not a big fan of hack n slash games. OK, Diablo was fun but that's it.
Well, I enjoy playing some older, atmospheric and more simplistic games like Daggerfall and SSI games where I don't have to think what bonuses stack together and what don't. 3rd edition DnD isn't really that suitable for CRPGs. 2nd edition handled it much smoother IMO. In the end, all that it comes down to is that you're either having fun or you aren't, wouldn't you say?

 

Oh I totally agree. It is supposed to be recreational and fun. And that's a matter of taste.

However I find it that people sometimes spoil the fun they could get, if they compare one game to another. After all, each game is somewhat different.