Joseph_Joestar wrote on Today, 07:03:

Lots of progress in Dark Souls 2...

It's always nice reading your thoughts on the game. I know you're enjoying it (though not to the extent of the first game), but you might find that you enjoy it even more on a replay; after replaying it a couple of times, sometimes I think it's my favorite game in the series!

The DLC is quite excellent, though can also be very difficult depending on what kind of character you're using, so I'm looking forward to reading about your DLC adventures!

newtmonkey wrote on Today, 08:40:

The DLC is quite excellent, though can also be very difficult depending on what kind of character you're using, so I'm looking forward to reading about your DLC adventures!

Cheers! I'm playing a melee focused build, with high strength, vigor, vitality, endurance and a fair amount of adaptability. Other stats are largely ignored. This allows me to wear heavy armor and use big weapons like the Large Club and the Dragon's Tooth. I pair those with the Stone Ring, which makes it easier to knock down regular enemies.

This isn't the approach that I used in DS1, but it seems works well here. My swings are slow though, so I need to time them carefully. Also, I always aim manually, and never use lock on. Not sure if that helps or hurts my chances, but I just don't like how the lock on mechanic restricts the camera viewing angles. Never used that in DS1 either, and I had no problems there.

Avadon 2: The Corruption
I just completed this. I mentioned earlier that I got really bored with it... but, much like the first one, it ended up being a perfect casual RPG to play while listening to music or watching old MST3K episodes, and I ended up spending a couple hours a night finishing it up over the last week or two.

It took me just over 38 hours to do absolutely everything I could find in the game, including reaching max level for each character. The game isn't actually particularly massive, it's just that the maps are large and mostly full of nothing but endless trash fights against the same encounters over and over, and you're required to slowly backtrack over the handful of maps. Walking speed is surprisingly slow, so during the last 10 hours or so I used Cheat Engine to speed the game up 2x and then 3x over; so playing the game normally would probably take about 45-50 hours.

It's more of the same Avadon, to the point where it feels like I just got done playing through a fan mod of the first game. The only really interesting thing it adds is the "corruption" area, which features a fun mechanic where enemies can be corrupted into other forms as you fight them.

Although the game is overall extremely easy on Normal difficulty, there were some infuriating sections in which you are forced to sneak through areas or run away from endless waves of enemies. The game engine was designed solely for walking around in real time exploring and then fighting in turn-based combat, so none of the stealth or chase sequences work well at all, and required endless saving and loading just to get through them. The game is also fond of taking your companions away for story reasons, forcing you to tediously fight wave after wave of boring enemies when you are hardly ever in any danger. It's also fond of having you do something, and then immediately invalidating what you just did for story reasons, which always drives me up the wall.

Overall, I think I liked the first game more, and I honestly didn't really like that one very much. The RPG mechanics are just too simple to really get anything out of them, and I don't find the Avadon setting and story to be interesting enough to carry a single 40-hour game, never mind three of them. Still, Avadon 3: The Warborn is just sitting there in my Steam library, so I might as well complete the trilogy... just not this year (or next).

Right then, been spending time with other stuff lately but did finally manage to complete Thief II: The Metal Age. Took a while to explore those pleasently large maps.

About a year ago I completed Thief Gold and found it pretty conflicting experience. At its best I loved it, and at its worst I thought it was so bad I wasn't sure should I even continue playing it. Level design took some pretty heavy swings and the lack of detailed map drove me nuts occasionally, getting lost is very low on my list of things I like to experience in a game. But the thing is I've never been that into stealth games and yet Thief still made me genuinely love it at times. A big thanks to that goes to its horror-esque atmosphere and ambient music.

And here we have Thief 2, which tones down the horror aspect with a heavy hand. Disappointingly the ambient music is far less upfront and oppressive, diminishing the atmosphere. Also the undead are nearly gone, there are a few around but not many. But on the plus side avarage level quality is better and there's also a more detailed map which I'm very grateful for!

Looking at it from an objective view I do think Thief 2 is the better of the two, it's more polished and even game. But personally I like the gothic horror of T1 much more than the steampunk stuff T2 has going on, especially security cameras started to get on my nerves. The last level in particular is pretty damn far from what I would consider fun, but I suppose it demonstrates what kind of steel hellscape Karras wants to create.

I guess I could say Thief 1 has lower lows, but also higher highs than Thief 2 in my opinion. I get a huge kick out of strong atmosphere, and while Thief 2 has its moments I found it lacking in comparison overall. But I still had pretty good time with T2, which isn't bad at all considering I'm a guy who generally prefers to shoot the guards with a shotgun than sneak around.

I have to say I've taken a liking to the dark world and characters of Thief. Stealth isn't really my genre of choice, but both Thief 1 and 2 have levels I really could replay just about anytime. And levels I'd be ok for never playing them again.

Sombrero wrote on 40 minutes ago:

Right then, been spending time with other stuff lately but did finally manage to complete Thief II: The Metal Age.

Congrats! Glad to hear you enjoyed it, despite the shift in atmosphere toward a more industrial setting. I imagine you played it on EAX capable hardware? I liked the improvements to the soundstage that occlusion brought to the table compared to the first game.

Sombrero wrote on 40 minutes ago:

The last level in particular is pretty damn far from what I would consider fun, but I suppose it demonstrates what kind of steel hellscape Karras wants to create.

You're not alone there. That's pretty much considered to be the low point of the game by most people in the community. I'm curious if you liked Life of the Party? The level with the rooftops and prominent Table Fog use. 😄