Shelved/Maybe Abandoned: Aug 6 2021
Time: 30 Hours
Platform: Switch
This game is interesting in a lot of ways. Story-wise, it's the template Bioware would use for the next 10 years on all their biggest titles, Kotor and Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Influence-wise, it's easy to see how many of this game's user interface ideas and general gameplay pacing ideas have wormed their way into pretty much every big budget RPG for computers released today, especially WoW and SWTOR, which are where I see it the most, with the mild exception of the modern isometric CRPG revival. Mechanically, it's managed to translate the absurdly math-heavy rules of D&D Third Edition into a playable and understandable core, even for novices.
Hell, maybe the most interesting part is how this is Bioware's first foray into a game that focuses less on it's story, and more on pushing mechanical boundaries! In this case, there's a huge amount of multiplayer support, not only for playing premade content with friends, but you can actually create your own campaigns! Fully! From just the tools they provide!! Unfortunately this mode isn't on the console versions, but even the consoles can play multiplayer with other people running custom campaigns!
So why didn't I finish it, and why am I not in love with it? Welllllllll, the main campaign, the one that came with the game all those years ago, is kinda... boring as hell. It's slow paced to the point of tears, not particularly envelope pushing, and leans much harder on dungeon crawling than any other CRPG I've ever played. Not to mention, the combat here is much less tactical than a game like Baldur's Gate, on account of only being able to truly control one character, which certainly doesn't help the situation.
That's not to say nothing interesting happens during the story, or that it doesn't connect at all! In chapter one, there's a section in a jail that I particularly liked, and in chapter two, which is where I fell off, there were actually a few interesting quests to do. But the overbearing amount of slow, auto-pilot combat, mixed with writing that is often minimal and generally not Bioware's best, made the game harder and harder to come back to every day.
I'm still interested in the expansions, as I've heard they're better, and the sequel + it's expansions, as I've heard they're actually super super good (plus the sequel gives you an actual party to control), but as for this base game? If I come back to it, it'll be for when I wanna play D&D, but I don't wanna think.
Time: 30 Hours
Platform: Switch
This game is interesting in a lot of ways. Story-wise, it's the template Bioware would use for the next 10 years on all their biggest titles, Kotor and Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Influence-wise, it's easy to see how many of this game's user interface ideas and general gameplay pacing ideas have wormed their way into pretty much every big budget RPG for computers released today, especially WoW and SWTOR, which are where I see it the most, with the mild exception of the modern isometric CRPG revival. Mechanically, it's managed to translate the absurdly math-heavy rules of D&D Third Edition into a playable and understandable core, even for novices.
Hell, maybe the most interesting part is how this is Bioware's first foray into a game that focuses less on it's story, and more on pushing mechanical boundaries! In this case, there's a huge amount of multiplayer support, not only for playing premade content with friends, but you can actually create your own campaigns! Fully! From just the tools they provide!! Unfortunately this mode isn't on the console versions, but even the consoles can play multiplayer with other people running custom campaigns!
So why didn't I finish it, and why am I not in love with it? Welllllllll, the main campaign, the one that came with the game all those years ago, is kinda... boring as hell. It's slow paced to the point of tears, not particularly envelope pushing, and leans much harder on dungeon crawling than any other CRPG I've ever played. Not to mention, the combat here is much less tactical than a game like Baldur's Gate, on account of only being able to truly control one character, which certainly doesn't help the situation.
That's not to say nothing interesting happens during the story, or that it doesn't connect at all! In chapter one, there's a section in a jail that I particularly liked, and in chapter two, which is where I fell off, there were actually a few interesting quests to do. But the overbearing amount of slow, auto-pilot combat, mixed with writing that is often minimal and generally not Bioware's best, made the game harder and harder to come back to every day.
I'm still interested in the expansions, as I've heard they're better, and the sequel + it's expansions, as I've heard they're actually super super good (plus the sequel gives you an actual party to control), but as for this base game? If I come back to it, it'll be for when I wanna play D&D, but I don't wanna think.