Depends on the circumstance. But if you steal from a table in a merchants shop in bg(while in eyesight of the merchant) merchants will tend to call the guards. In SCL they never will.
It's almost stunning how average Sword Coast Legends is. It might be the most mediocre game I've ever played. Like most recent Kickstarter, new generation RPG efforts, it is optimized horribly and the load times are absurd (at least Wasteland 2 and D:OS have fixed this in the enhanced versions, and in Pillars of Eternity it is only an issue when you first boot the game). Once you're playing though....it's just....fine. There isn't anything glaringly wrong with Sword Coast Legends.
It's perfectly enjoyable while playing. But it's not up to the level of either Neverwinter Nights game, or the first Dragon Age, and certainly nowhere near as good as Divinity: Original Sin or Pillars of Eternity. SCL's problem is that it is being released late in the wake of a series of games that are uniformly excellent. And it doesn't hold a candle to them. It's not bad, but it has no spark or originality.
Ok, fair point. But in broad strokes it is similar in design, if not quite as refined as the older game.
The only similarity is that you never know whether you may discover a side-quest or something more important in an ordinary house ... possibly even with the front door locked. In BG, if there are inhabitants, you can be certain you would need to steal from them and be discovered or not. They also ask you to leave. In SCL, they don't care if you unlock a chest or armoire next to them ... unless it's a special container that's part of the story. And I don't think I can murder arbitrary residents.
In SCL there's no reputation decrease ... not even if you get a quest-related option to kill a beggar. The NPCs don't object either. They could open their mouths and influence you the more you turn to the dark side ... or not, but after a few hours of playing the game you learn that the situations in which they talk a bit with eachother are rare ... too rare.
Pillars of Eternity really shines when you enter Defiance Bay and the companions start talking with eachother more than before.
NWN2 offers the "NPC influence" system ... and the relationship of the companions with eachother really plays a role. Khelgar's personal quest in NWN2 ... brilliant!
It's as if the SCL designers changed their mind when building the Duergar city and trying to fill it with life and more errands. After all the uneventful looting the player could do up to that point ... and barrels and similar objects you find are to be destroyed in SCL action-style while chests, armoires and drawers you need to disarm/unlock/open ... they were bored by creating more empty houses that are free to enter and free to loot. That Duergar city is such a lovely place with no dark atmosphere ... compared with what happens within the drow city in BG2. That makes it especially weird that fighting inhabitants that choose to attack you doesn't lead to anything. I don't understand why the same could happen to me in three houses without any consequences when returning back to the streets. There are city guards outside, but no threat, no warning, nothing. I have the feeling it could be related to the story ... perhaps it's a second way to enter the prison and maybe less obvious (or unfinished) than to complete all the errands to proceed with the story.
Looks like yet another game where they release part of a game and then work towards fleshing it out over time. While as a business model it definitely helps the company get much needed funding in the midst of development, and that is often the only way that they can get funds enough to keep working, it is a bit dubious from the consumer perspective.
@Vallmyr - looks like you will eventually get your drow, and potentially Bards??
I guess it is something to watch to see if it eventually fleshes out to a game worth playing. Hopefully, although quite a lot of what I read suggests that is still a lot more Diablo than it is Baldur's gate or NWN. Ah well...
It's promising but even with branch dialogue it still would be frustrating without proper scripting. At the moment I can't set a conversation so that someone turns hostile after it. Without at least a limited amount of scripting behind it branched dialogue isn't all that useful.
That said the doubling of quest text was a good move. Prior to this change (I kid you not) I had to have my mod put someone through like 7-8 different screens just to see text from you reading a journal (this is at the end of the main quest). By screens I mean you have to click on a desk, read the text, and then click to close. So imagine how stupid it would be to have to do that 7-8 times (but I didn't have a choice since I can't make custom items). I haven't checked but hopefully now it'll only be like 3-4 times. Overall the character limit restrictions have been very frustrating.
There's nothing really wrong with Diablo as a gameplay style, if you do it well. I'd rather see an awesomely implemented version of action combat than a poorly implemented iteration of real-time-with-pause.
(That goes for you too, turn-based games... I see you lurking there in the corner... staring at me...)
Personally I don't even mind the concept of skill trees if it were done in a way that encouraged specialization, was clearly displayed, and provided unique spells and abilities after you go down them. At the moment I think this is an area that the game could stand to improve. To be honest some of the spells (especially for mages) are located in rather strange categories. In some cases you even have spells that you use skill points to improve (Magic Missile IV, that sort of thing). So I think if you are going to take this approach you should at least make sure the relationship between spells (and why spells belong in a given category) is very clear.
@Dee - You are absolutely right that there is nothing inherently wrong with Diablo style game. But there is a big difference from a game like Diablo and a game like NWN. Not that one necessarily is better than the other, but there are times when I am interested in one and times when I am interested in the other.
And yes, the implementation being well done is important. From what I've read thus far, although the game is technically solid, it is not as wide and varied as maybe it could be (and hopefully will be in the fullness of time). I'm not sure it constitutes 'An Awesome implementation' of anything.
I guess it is something to watch to see if it eventually fleshes out to a game worth playing. Hopefully, although quite a lot of what I read suggests that is still a lot more Diablo than it is Baldur's gate or NWN. Ah well...
The game is really nothing like Diablo, at all. There is no way I would consider this an ARPG title. It's like any real-time pause game you can think of mixed with a very Blizzard-like cooldown system for skills. It certainly isn't faithful to any edition of D&D at all, much less 5th Edition, and the skill trees aren't exactly what you would call incredibly interesting (in fact they are very bland and overlap between classes quite a bit). But....as you can see above, they are going to be adding a ton of stuff to make the game more interesting (for free) over the next couple months. And like I mentioned earlier, this isn't a BAD game. But it's hardly "good" either. I wouldn't dissuade anyone from picking up a copy, but I would advise anyone to buy D:OS or PoE instead if they are limited in what they can purchase.
From what I've seen of gameplay and let's play footage, the short answer is nope, it's little like Neverwinter Nights or Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale. If anything it's more of a hack'n slash game like Diablo 1 & 2 or Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance, with a 4 person party like Dungeons & Dragons Heroes on original Xbox, the UI of most any MMO out there, and skill trees with a loose basis (at best) of 5th Edition rules. It was made more to be an action RPG with some dialogue here and there, but the voice acting and the dialogue itself aren't quite as good as the classic D&D games we played back in the day. Some of the customization options for your character background are decent, but many things seem mainly cosmetic like your alignment.
Not a bad game by any means and the music seems decent enough at least, but it seems like it plays more like a party combat MMO with Dungeons & Dragons slapped on it for name value. The only sort of tactics that seems to go into it is what routes you take with the skill trees of party members, the AI basically does most of the combat for you and characters dying isn't a big deal cus you just revive them after combat like in Mass Effect. Certainly not worth the $40 price tag I saw on Steam even if finding a multiplayer game may be a bit easier than older D&D games. Perhaps if the game were moddable to go along with the scenario editor it has it may be worth getting down the line, but I don't think you can do anything to mod the game.
Part of me on the cosmetic side also doesn't like the 3D rendered look used for portraits if you could call them that. I prefer western looking art and 2D portraits like those to 3D rendered faces from character creation. The cutscenes certainly looked nice though, just the in-game stuff seemed very, uninteresting I guess is the word.
So ... the two of us that have had big expectations with regard to Sword Coast Legends, have finished the single-player game meanwhile ... we both had started at normal difficulty, then the other one restarted at hard (after discovering that wizards in the game suck big time) ... and we have been disappointed.
The game is much too limited in what you can do ... and especially in what you need to do. And it's too much like a cartoon ... almost as if it's made specifically for children.
From the positive side of things ... the music is good. I've had tears in my eyes the first time my heroes set up a special Adventurer's Camp ... sort of a safe haven where unused companions wait ... and I talked to every companion to learn about them a bit. I truly wish there had been more events like that ... It made a big difference compared with the silliness throughout the rest of the game.
I can understand the excitement when starting a new game and discovering things you like during the first 3-4 hours. Unfortunately, afterwards, you've seen everything the graphics engine can do. Back into the sewers. Next another cave. Then another mausoleum-style "maze". Ascent again into the city of Luskan. Back into the sewers, now the "abandoned" ones. If only the sewers were much more difficult and dangerous to explore ... with focus on environmental sounds. Oh no, they didn't take that chance! Not a single huge forest either. Only areas where you always can find your way. Or where running around becomes a pain, because you can't speed up movement.
The game failed to scare me. When I faced the first trolls, I didn't check my inventory for fire/acid weapons. Why would I? The wizard NPC can throw unlimited fire missiles. I didn't even check whether I needed to do that. I didn't bother opening the combat log ... which opens a chat input prompt and blocks other combat specific keys ... that confused me more than once and even made my reload a few times because I thought keyboard didn't work anymore.
The game failed completely at making me think about how to develop my heroes further. The enemies that confronted me never required me to learn something new. I didn't spend a minute thinking about what spells and skills to learn in advance, because reviewing the skills I could learn already and the locked skills I could learn at higher levels only, didn't open many paths. My thief never failed to open a lock ... and when he failed to disarm a trap, oh my gosh, you simply stabilize fallen heroes with a simple mouse click. Stabilizing is a feature that makes it possible to undo unconsciousness even in the heat of combat. No priest with special skills needed. Anyone can do it. What a joke! I never encountered an enemy caster that required me to dispell protections. I never was attacked by archers I could not overrun quickly. No threat at all.
The part I hated most is when a crummy wooden fence pops out of nowhere at some point just to cut off your path and make the game more linear on purpose. Any character worth their metal should be able to find a way around or climb somewhere to get past that fence, but apparently high Strength scores mean nothing. At least in some RPGs like one I found on Steam called Underrail, there's a point in the game where if you pass a Dexterity stat check, you can climb over a rock pile to get some nice goodies. Not so in a game like Sword Coast Legends where you'd hope your stats gave you something extra in certain situations. I mean there are a few dialogue checks here and there for some uninteresting sidequests, but it doesn't feel like it means much if you succeed at getting the best result of those events or not.
Trying to bend some things into the story is something that has happened in NWN2, too.
For example, in NWN2 you're travelling with your favourite three companions, and the other companions are far away in the HQ (inn or keep) ... but yet they talk about things as if they have been in the party all the time to experience everything themselves. Ummm, okay, ... you can work around that and assume you've reported to them everything that has happened.
In SCL, the inactive companions wait in your adventurer's camp, happily, they get along with eachother fine and use a magical stone to watch each of your steps ... and they jump into your conversation with other people anywhere on the world. Later it gets more ridiculous, and the companions in the camp even discover things around you as if the party were not competent enough to explore the local place. Or they give hints, which creates a feeling of a misplaced tutorial late in the game ... Then, to make it worse, a low-level companion who has not travelled with the party once, but who has waited in the camp all the time, appears next to the party because the story requires it.
It's promising but even with branch dialogue it still would be frustrating without proper scripting. At the moment I can't set a conversation so that someone turns hostile after it. Without at least a limited amount of scripting behind it branched dialogue isn't all that useful.
That said the doubling of quest text was a good move. Prior to this change (I kid you not) I had to have my mod put someone through like 7-8 different screens just to see text from you reading a journal (this is at the end of the main quest). By screens I mean you have to click on a desk, read the text, and then click to close. So imagine how stupid it would be to have to do that 7-8 times (but I didn't have a choice since I can't make custom items). I haven't checked but hopefully now it'll only be like 3-4 times. Overall the character limit restrictions have been very frustrating.
I checked and thanks to the new text limit I only make players go through 4 different screens in my mod.
Now if they could just get rid of the text limit things would be even better
A huge attention to SCL and a wall of negativity from those who didn't get "a spiritual successor to NWN" can very much serve as a testament that NWNEE could be quite a hit today.
It's almost stunning how average Sword Coast Legends is. It might be the most mediocre game I've ever played. Like most recent Kickstarter, new generation RPG efforts, it is optimized horribly and the load times are absurd (at least Wasteland 2 and D:OS have fixed this in the enhanced versions, and in Pillars of Eternity it is only an issue when you first boot the game). Once you're playing though....it's just....fine. There isn't anything glaringly wrong with Sword Coast Legends.
It's perfectly enjoyable while playing. But it's not up to the level of either Neverwinter Nights game, or the first Dragon Age, and certainly nowhere near as good as Divinity: Original Sin or Pillars of Eternity. SCL's problem is that it is being released late in the wake of a series of games that are uniformly excellent. And it doesn't hold a candle to them. It's not bad, but it has no spark or originality.
I'm glad i chose to buy Fallout 4 for Christmas instead of this.
"The problem with Sword Coast Legends is that its designers seem to not understand what having that logo on their game really means. Right from the start you are hit with, at least when compared to their contemporaries, very limiting character creation options. With one less class and race choice than what was even available in the very first pre-modded, pre-expansion Baldur’s Gate and no ability to specialize in weaponry other than picking the one, dual, ranged or two-handed skill trees, the game feels incredibly limiting for being born from Dungeons & Dragons.
<...>it’s more than just throwing in some elves and some magical swords, it’s about depth and the ability to fully inspect the formulas that create that depth. It’s about math, numbers, strategy, and fans making excel spreadsheets to explain it all. It’s about complexity and transparency. It’s about having everything at your fingertips to tinker with and examine. Sword Coast Legends’ designers don’t seem to have understood that part.
<...>Sword Coast Legends doesn’t really give you the chance to actually roleplay within the campaign mode. Having selected a Paladin of Helm at character creation without knowing the significance of such a decision, I was dismayed when I encountered the villain who was *also* a Paladin of Helm and he never once acknowledged our similarity. I didn’t even get the chance, within dialog, to bring the topic up.
What’s worse is, as a Paladin, I was able to engage in very unpaladin-esque behaviors like stealing people’s belongings, threatening innocent villager’s lives in dialog and even murdering people without falling from grace. It felt odd telling people I would murder their children or threaten to burn down their house in order to get them to reveal secrets in dialog and yet still be using the holy powers of my patron deity without penalty. Maybe Pillars of Eternity and its exhaustively complex dialog system and non-linear quests spoiled me this year and I need to learn to lower my standards.
Or it could be that Sword Coast Legends is just very console-ized.
<...>There was never a time playing Sword Coast Legends where I felt I was playing a D&D game. Even if the license wasn’t a part of the title, I would consider n-Space’s RPG to be barely average. It has no real substance or depth. It plays like a slow, plodding, poorly paced user mod that doles out powerful equipment by the bucket load and forces you along a highly linear path to a predictable end. There is no real mathematical or strategical meat to the game and it suffers greatly due to this.
The only real saving grace is the DM mode, which is great if you are the kind of person who likes quick, randomly generated monster-spawning dungeon romps. Though it doesn’t have the pliability, feature list, or depth of Neverwinter Nights, the DM mode is great for pick-up-and-play sessions where you simply want you horse around with friends and kill stuff in a diablo-esque fashion while gaining loot and experience. Though n-Space has promised free DLC in the future to help flesh out the multiplayer component of the game, I highly doubt you’re ever going to see something along the lines of Dreamcatcher come out for Sword Coast Legends, although I would enjoy being wrong in this instance.
Sword Coast Legends isn’t completely worthless, but as a Dungeons & Dragons game, it is extremely flawed and forgettable. Without any real depth and no ability to actually roleplay within its highly linear and feature-thin single player story mode, I can only recommend the game to those who want a player-driven multiplayer action RPG that lets them blow off steam in a hastily constructed dungeon with their friends every weekend for an hour or two. Yet, for that, I still wouldn’t pay full price.
It’s a pity that the failings of this game will probably discourage any real development on future hardcore D&D CRPGs. Other than Trent Oster & Beamdog’s upcoming Baldur’s Gate “1.5” sequel, there isn’t likely to be much in the way of good news for fans of the license."
After reading the quoted lines, here are my thoughts.
”The problem with Sword Coast Legends is that its designers seem to not understand what having that logo on their game really means. “
I think that they in fact DID understand what the logo brought to the table. However, they were relying upon the logo to BRING these things to the game, not the other way around.
”<...>Sword Coast Legends doesn’t really give you the chance to actually roleplay within the campaign mode. Having selected a Paladin of Helm at character creation without knowing the significance of such a decision, I was dismayed when I encountered the villain who was *also* a Paladin of Helm and he never once acknowledged our similarity. I didn’t even get the chance, within dialog, to bring the topic up.”
This is just poor writing on the part of the developers. Many games fall foul of simply not putting in flags to ‘interact’ with the game and simply disgorge script lines with no soul or context to the player or the surroundings.
”What’s worse is, as a Paladin, I was able to engage in very unpaladin-esque behaviors like stealing people’s belongings, threatening innocent villager’s lives in dialog and even murdering people without falling from grace. It felt odd telling people I would murder their children or threaten to burn down their house in order to get them to reveal secrets in dialog and yet still be using the holy powers of my patron deity without penalty. Maybe Pillars of Eternity and its exhaustively complex dialog system and non-linear quests spoiled me this year and I need to learn to lower my standards.”
Here I find fault with the reviewer actually. In BG and NWN, you could equally ‘Slaughter the innocent’ as a Paladin and with just as much impact. Power gamers all over the world rejoice in the fact that in NWN2 they can play their Paladin/Blackguard characters with the benefits of both but with no penalty. Again, poor writing, but also poor role play on the part of the player.
”Or it could be that Sword Coast Legends is just very console-ized.”
I think this is most certainly a large component of what went wrong.
“There is no real mathematical or strategical meat to the game and it suffers greatly due to this.’
Here at least we have a real problem with the game. From everything I have read, the engine itself was not designed with any of the ‘Features’ that fans of BG and NWN, and in fact D&D as a whole have obsessed about for decades. That is a BIG problem.
”Sword Coast Legends isn’t completely worthless, but as a Dungeons & Dragons game, it is extremely flawed and forgettable. Without any real depth and no ability to actually roleplay within its highly linear and feature-thin single player story mode, I can only recommend the game to those who want a player-driven multiplayer action RPG that lets them blow off steam in a hastily constructed dungeon with their friends every weekend for an hour or two. Yet, for that, I still wouldn’t pay full price.”
In other words, the Diablo fans. Not that there is anything wrong with Diablo, I happen to love the game myself. But it is not an RPG experience, nor even an Action RPG experience. It’s an action monsterfest.
”It’s a pity that the failings of this game will probably discourage any real development on future hardcore D&D CRPGs. Other than Trent Oster & Beamdog’s upcoming Baldur’s Gate “1.5” sequel, there isn’t likely to be much in the way of good news for fans of the license."
This is my fear as well. However, given Wasteland 2 and Pillars of Eternity and Divinity: Original Sin, I do hope that there are at least some developers out there who can see the ‘Good’ from the ‘Bad’.
Comments
It's perfectly enjoyable while playing. But it's not up to the level of either Neverwinter Nights game, or the first Dragon Age, and certainly nowhere near as good as Divinity: Original Sin or Pillars of Eternity. SCL's problem is that it is being released late in the wake of a series of games that are uniformly excellent. And it doesn't hold a candle to them. It's not bad, but it has no spark or originality.
Quite spectacular, actually.
I would like to support the devs for old-school RPG's.
https://forums.swordcoast.com/index.php?/topic/7884-interesting-tidbits-from-digging-in-the-game-data/
In SCL there's no reputation decrease ... not even if you get a quest-related option to kill a beggar. The NPCs don't object either. They could open their mouths and influence you the more you turn to the dark side ... or not, but after a few hours of playing the game you learn that the situations in which they talk a bit with eachother are rare ... too rare.
Pillars of Eternity really shines when you enter Defiance Bay and the companions start talking with eachother more than before.
NWN2 offers the "NPC influence" system ... and the relationship of the companions with eachother really plays a role. Khelgar's personal quest in NWN2 ... brilliant!
It's as if the SCL designers changed their mind when building the Duergar city and trying to fill it with life and more errands. After all the uneventful looting the player could do up to that point ... and barrels and similar objects you find are to be destroyed in SCL action-style while chests, armoires and drawers you need to disarm/unlock/open ... they were bored by creating more empty houses that are free to enter and free to loot. That Duergar city is such a lovely place with no dark atmosphere ... compared with what happens within the drow city in BG2. That makes it especially weird that fighting inhabitants that choose to attack you doesn't lead to anything. I don't understand why the same could happen to me in three houses without any consequences when returning back to the streets. There are city guards outside, but no threat, no warning, nothing. I have the feeling it could be related to the story ... perhaps it's a second way to enter the prison and maybe less obvious (or unfinished) than to complete all the errands to proceed with the story.
http://steamcommunity.com/games/325600/announcements/detail/48771702978730958
"Community Pack 3: December
Official introduction of mod support, including
Tile based level editor
Branching dialog editor"
@elminster What do you think?
@Vallmyr - looks like you will eventually get your drow, and potentially Bards??
I guess it is something to watch to see if it eventually fleshes out to a game worth playing. Hopefully, although quite a lot of what I read suggests that is still a lot more Diablo than it is Baldur's gate or NWN. Ah well...
That said the doubling of quest text was a good move. Prior to this change (I kid you not) I had to have my mod put someone through like 7-8 different screens just to see text from you reading a journal (this is at the end of the main quest). By screens I mean you have to click on a desk, read the text, and then click to close. So imagine how stupid it would be to have to do that 7-8 times (but I didn't have a choice since I can't make custom items). I haven't checked but hopefully now it'll only be like 3-4 times. Overall the character limit restrictions have been very frustrating.
(That goes for you too, turn-based games... I see you lurking there in the corner... staring at me...)
And yes, the implementation being well done is important. From what I've read thus far, although the game is technically solid, it is not as wide and varied as maybe it could be (and hopefully will be in the fullness of time). I'm not sure it constitutes 'An Awesome implementation' of anything.
Not a bad game by any means and the music seems decent enough at least, but it seems like it plays more like a party combat MMO with Dungeons & Dragons slapped on it for name value. The only sort of tactics that seems to go into it is what routes you take with the skill trees of party members, the AI basically does most of the combat for you and characters dying isn't a big deal cus you just revive them after combat like in Mass Effect. Certainly not worth the $40 price tag I saw on Steam even if finding a multiplayer game may be a bit easier than older D&D games. Perhaps if the game were moddable to go along with the scenario editor it has it may be worth getting down the line, but I don't think you can do anything to mod the game.
Part of me on the cosmetic side also doesn't like the 3D rendered look used for portraits if you could call them that. I prefer western looking art and 2D portraits like those to 3D rendered faces from character creation. The cutscenes certainly looked nice though, just the in-game stuff seemed very, uninteresting I guess is the word.
For example, in NWN2 you're travelling with your favourite three companions, and the other companions are far away in the HQ (inn or keep) ... but yet they talk about things as if they have been in the party all the time to experience everything themselves. Ummm, okay, ... you can work around that and assume you've reported to them everything that has happened.
In SCL, the inactive companions wait in your adventurer's camp, happily, they get along with eachother fine and use a magical stone to watch each of your steps ... and they jump into your conversation with other people anywhere on the world. Later it gets more ridiculous, and the companions in the camp even discover things around you as if the party were not competent enough to explore the local place. Or they give hints, which creates a feeling of a misplaced tutorial late in the game ... Then, to make it worse, a low-level companion who has not travelled with the party once, but who has waited in the camp all the time, appears next to the party because the story requires it.
Now if they could just get rid of the text limit things would be even better
LOL!
It sort of works?
LET'S GO!
"The problem with Sword Coast Legends is that its designers seem to not understand what having that logo on their game really means. Right from the start you are hit with, at least when compared to their contemporaries, very limiting character creation options. With one less class and race choice than what was even available in the very first pre-modded, pre-expansion Baldur’s Gate and no ability to specialize in weaponry other than picking the one, dual, ranged or two-handed skill trees, the game feels incredibly limiting for being born from Dungeons & Dragons.
<...>it’s more than just throwing in some elves and some magical swords, it’s about depth and the ability to fully inspect the formulas that create that depth. It’s about math, numbers, strategy, and fans making excel spreadsheets to explain it all. It’s about complexity and transparency. It’s about having everything at your fingertips to tinker with and examine. Sword Coast Legends’ designers don’t seem to have understood that part.
<...>Sword Coast Legends doesn’t really give you the chance to actually roleplay within the campaign mode. Having selected a Paladin of Helm at character creation without knowing the significance of such a decision, I was dismayed when I encountered the villain who was *also* a Paladin of Helm and he never once acknowledged our similarity. I didn’t even get the chance, within dialog, to bring the topic up.
What’s worse is, as a Paladin, I was able to engage in very unpaladin-esque behaviors like stealing people’s belongings, threatening innocent villager’s lives in dialog and even murdering people without falling from grace. It felt odd telling people I would murder their children or threaten to burn down their house in order to get them to reveal secrets in dialog and yet still be using the holy powers of my patron deity without penalty. Maybe Pillars of Eternity and its exhaustively complex dialog system and non-linear quests spoiled me this year and I need to learn to lower my standards.
Or it could be that Sword Coast Legends is just very console-ized.
<...>There was never a time playing Sword Coast Legends where I felt I was playing a D&D game. Even if the license wasn’t a part of the title, I would consider n-Space’s RPG to be barely average. It has no real substance or depth. It plays like a slow, plodding, poorly paced user mod that doles out powerful equipment by the bucket load and forces you along a highly linear path to a predictable end. There is no real mathematical or strategical meat to the game and it suffers greatly due to this.
The only real saving grace is the DM mode, which is great if you are the kind of person who likes quick, randomly generated monster-spawning dungeon romps. Though it doesn’t have the pliability, feature list, or depth of Neverwinter Nights, the DM mode is great for pick-up-and-play sessions where you simply want you horse around with friends and kill stuff in a diablo-esque fashion while gaining loot and experience. Though n-Space has promised free DLC in the future to help flesh out the multiplayer component of the game, I highly doubt you’re ever going to see something along the lines of Dreamcatcher come out for Sword Coast Legends, although I would enjoy being wrong in this instance.
Sword Coast Legends isn’t completely worthless, but as a Dungeons & Dragons game, it is extremely flawed and forgettable. Without any real depth and no ability to actually roleplay within its highly linear and feature-thin single player story mode, I can only recommend the game to those who want a player-driven multiplayer action RPG that lets them blow off steam in a hastily constructed dungeon with their friends every weekend for an hour or two. Yet, for that, I still wouldn’t pay full price.
It’s a pity that the failings of this game will probably discourage any real development on future hardcore D&D CRPGs. Other than Trent Oster & Beamdog’s upcoming Baldur’s Gate “1.5” sequel, there isn’t likely to be much in the way of good news for fans of the license."