Finished Siege of Dragonspear: my small review. (SPOILERS!)
xzar_monty
Member Posts: 631
So, I just finished Siege of Dragonspear, and here is a kind of a review.
First of all, the most important thing: this is a damn good game. Given that the developers had to juggle with the end of the previous episode and the beginning of the next, the story is very good. There's a bit too much railroading for my liking, but in the end, it didn't really matter.
I know the new UI has received a lot of criticism, but I found it all right for the most part. The most serious gaffe for me was the "Ready to level up!" text, which is in blue (why blue? nothing else is blue!) and which is not clickable, although it looks like it is.
As for the Mizhena thing, I'm frankly astonished. She's a minor character, there's nothing in it. I agree that her lines are badly written, but that's it. Nothing more to it. I feel sorry for the writer who surely didn't deserve the reception they got.
I absolutely loved the fact that they had managed to bring something new to the maps. For instance, there's a troll cellar underneath a pool, but that can only be discovered by someone with infravision. And in another troll cave, there's a hidden cache that can be accessed if you light a torch there. And there are several instances where someone points you to a hidden location which cannot otherwise be found. These were all great additions, and I liked them very much.
I tried all the new characters, and on a scale of 0 to 10, this is how they rate:
Corwin: 8+. Solid, no-nonsense. What bothers me here is that the archer kit is simply way too overpowered. Corwin destroys everyone. This is not the fault of the writers, so no blame to them. The rules suck.
Glint: 8. Another gnome in the Jan Jansen mould, but not nearly as funny. However, there's nothing wrong with Glint. His quest wasn't too great, though.
Voghlin: 6-. Verging on poor, frankly. Bad voicing, nothing interesting to say. Perhaps the writer didn't have too much enthusiasm for this character, either? No quest, it seems.
M'Khiin: 10-. By far the best. Excellent voicing, big heart, strong character, interesting new classs. I would give her a full 10 if it weren't for two things: she never once started a conversation that would have revealed something of her past, and her disappearance in the end is very abrupt. I agree that you probably couldn't justify taking a goblin to Baldur's Gate, especially in the company of a suspected murderer, but I would have liked to say goodbye.
Caelar: Well, she was only there for the final fight, so she cannot really be rated...
I believe both Caelar and M'Khiin are positively screaming for more content. Perhaps you could start Caelar on her way towards redemption through the planar sphere, or something. And you should definitely be able to meet M'Khiin again, quite possibly near Trademeet or the Druid Grove or even Windspear Hills, and find out more about her life.
Thank you to Beamdog! The expansion was worth every penny.
The final fight was a bit evil in the sense that you needed +3 weapons to hit the bad guy. There are NOT many of those around. The aura of fear is also an incredibly powerful weapon, given the levels we're at in the end.
First of all, the most important thing: this is a damn good game. Given that the developers had to juggle with the end of the previous episode and the beginning of the next, the story is very good. There's a bit too much railroading for my liking, but in the end, it didn't really matter.
I know the new UI has received a lot of criticism, but I found it all right for the most part. The most serious gaffe for me was the "Ready to level up!" text, which is in blue (why blue? nothing else is blue!) and which is not clickable, although it looks like it is.
As for the Mizhena thing, I'm frankly astonished. She's a minor character, there's nothing in it. I agree that her lines are badly written, but that's it. Nothing more to it. I feel sorry for the writer who surely didn't deserve the reception they got.
I absolutely loved the fact that they had managed to bring something new to the maps. For instance, there's a troll cellar underneath a pool, but that can only be discovered by someone with infravision. And in another troll cave, there's a hidden cache that can be accessed if you light a torch there. And there are several instances where someone points you to a hidden location which cannot otherwise be found. These were all great additions, and I liked them very much.
I tried all the new characters, and on a scale of 0 to 10, this is how they rate:
Corwin: 8+. Solid, no-nonsense. What bothers me here is that the archer kit is simply way too overpowered. Corwin destroys everyone. This is not the fault of the writers, so no blame to them. The rules suck.
Glint: 8. Another gnome in the Jan Jansen mould, but not nearly as funny. However, there's nothing wrong with Glint. His quest wasn't too great, though.
Voghlin: 6-. Verging on poor, frankly. Bad voicing, nothing interesting to say. Perhaps the writer didn't have too much enthusiasm for this character, either? No quest, it seems.
M'Khiin: 10-. By far the best. Excellent voicing, big heart, strong character, interesting new classs. I would give her a full 10 if it weren't for two things: she never once started a conversation that would have revealed something of her past, and her disappearance in the end is very abrupt. I agree that you probably couldn't justify taking a goblin to Baldur's Gate, especially in the company of a suspected murderer, but I would have liked to say goodbye.
Caelar: Well, she was only there for the final fight, so she cannot really be rated...
I believe both Caelar and M'Khiin are positively screaming for more content. Perhaps you could start Caelar on her way towards redemption through the planar sphere, or something. And you should definitely be able to meet M'Khiin again, quite possibly near Trademeet or the Druid Grove or even Windspear Hills, and find out more about her life.
Thank you to Beamdog! The expansion was worth every penny.
The final fight was a bit evil in the sense that you needed +3 weapons to hit the bad guy. There are NOT many of those around. The aura of fear is also an incredibly powerful weapon, given the levels we're at in the end.
7
Comments
Just a few things I would suggest , though :
- I felt that there are few NPC reactions during dialogues. And banters. And I wish there were player initiated dialogues.
- Even though the quest is linear, I felt that certain things, such as Caelar's reasons to do what she does, weren't clearly explained, or were explained at some point and not discussed among my allies and companions.
- The final battle is amazing, the "elevator" scene felt so unique, but I must admit that the final villain was waay too difficult, had it not been for Caelar I would have died along with the rest of my party.
Oh, also, a suggestion for whoever is having trouble with the fights - spend your money of potions, all sorts of potions (heroism, invulnerability, clarity, giant strength ...) and buff up your party a lot.
Luckily, I had bought plenty of +3 arrows that Corwin and M'Khiin could use.
As for money and spending it: the game suffers from the same thing that Pillars of Eternity suffered. You get an awful lot of money, but nobody in the whole game has anything special to sell. This is a problem. Think of the Robe of Vecna in BG2: that's something you want to save money for, it's so good. In SoD, there's nothing. And so, potions is where you spend your money, I agree with you on that.
The dialogue trees do have problems, that's true. Sometimes you find out things that you cannot then point out to the relevant people.
I always play on Core rules.
I honestly think there should be a few more NPC additions though, whether or not they are completely new, or brought in from BG1, doesn't really matter to me because I liked BG1 NPCs