The Gamer's Quarter

[dhex]

mediocre diablo/dungeon crawler or what?
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[aerisdead]

Jim Rossignol reviewed it for Eurogamer.

(He also reviewed the expansion pack, on the front page today.)

That guy knows the score.
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aerisdead

[Pijaibros]

Wasn't this on sale somewhere with the expansion pack bundled?

I've been curious about it. Though the seemingly insane requirements for a hack n slash kinda scare me off. I mean Diablo II runs on damn near anything now, though I can't play that game anymore.

[dhex]

i saw it for 40 the other day, the bundle. alone it was 20 bucks.

yeah, none of the reviews make me think it's better than tile crawl.
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[Pijaibros]

Alright! I saw Circuit City selling this game with the Expansion Pack for only $30! I caved in and convinced a friend to buy a copy of the game is well for maximum, mindless fun!

First off the game is a bear to install. With the XPack the game takes up 5GB of total space. There are no other choices for a minimum install or other customizations. A bit of a downer since I have a tiny HD. Apparently this game was headed by Brian Sullivan, co-creator of Age of Empires, the only RTS game I have ever enjoyed on the PC (not part III, that one is lousy). It was also written by Randall Wallace of Braveheart fame, so the little story bits throughout Act 1 are pretty motivating so far! Every village and town you adventure through has a storyteller to fill you in on the town's latest myths and gossips. It helps the feeling of being in Greece really sink in and lose you in the game.

Upon starting, you are offered few choices. Choose the hero's gender, name, and the color of their rags. I was hoping for some more skin customization ala Morrowind, but no dice. I created a raven haired maiden named Athena and chose bright red rags for her to skip around in. I have plans (that will hopefully pan out) for making a warrior out of her!

The first thing that I noticed was that in traveling throughout the lands, there are no loading screens. Everything just streams in, moving from the plains to the mountains, going into caves, climbing down into dungeons, it is all big and sprawling without pause. Before I knew it, 4 hours had passed due to no loading screens to snap me out of the game. Sidequests just pop up from talking to people and venturing from the main path. The rewards are worth it too, usually enough experience points to hit the next level or an upgrade to your current weapons.

There's a lot of little details in the grpahics of the game that I really loved. Trees and grasses sway in the breeze, footprints are left in the sands, reflections in the water, dust kicking up in dungeons little environmental touches. Enemies actually wear the equipment they drop. If you get lucky you can sometimes spot one holding a unique weapon or armor which will be dropped for picking up upon slaying. A nice touch! I'm enjoying this so far. I wonder if tedium will come in the following acts. It sure is pretty to look at.

One of the my favorite little things that has been done in this game is multiple keys for filtering what items you can see for picking up. For example, pushing ALT shows everything that has been dropped so far. Pushing Z filters out the broken, rusty, crude items, and hitting X only shows magic and rare items that have been dropped. Very cool and efficient!

I'm such a sucker for these hack n slash adventures. It's like my own personal slot machine and I just keep pulling the lever hoping to hit the jackpot.

[dhex]

what's the combat like? can you use a joystick?
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[ryan]

There's a pretty lengthy demo out. I tried it when it was first released, and it was about what you would expect and ran good on my old system. I don't think anything is Diablo, in the on-the-same-level sense, for whatever reason, except maybe Nox, but it's a great substitute. I'm picking it up when I can either trade something in for it or I can get it for a little less.
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Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart.