Day 5.5: BEAT IT
Who is the Padawan now? XD
It was a 4 hour sit at the least but I finished it in ONE playthrough with maybe 70% of my hitpoints left. Although I did use maps for basic orientation. Technically speaking it helped the exploration. There is no 100% correct map that shows everything yet. Using 2 different unfinished maps was an interesting experience (I start to understand how sailors in the medieval age must have felt ...).
It really helped to know where the keys are because these tiny little shitthings are really annoying to find. It would have been hours of backtracking to find these things. That's one of the things I hate for example about old point & click adventures ... It has nothing to do with your lack of skill ... Most of the time you just don't know which tiny pixel you have to click at ...
And by the way. I made some screenshots of every scroll/book I collected ... On the one side to show that I've completed it, on the over hand for me to get a better grasp of the "story" that takes place in the background. So if anybody is interested in it (maybe for the wiki or just personal interest):
Personal Observations and Impressions:
This game is actually not that hard the moment you get average armour, a one-handed sword (with torch for the dark sections) and a two handed sword for everything else. I just blazed through the hordes of zombies without taking any permanent damage ... at least after getting the two handed sword at the end of the first level ...
Don't understand that as an attack at all the people who gave me advice, but like I was saying from the beginning ... my personal skill wasn't that big of a problem as soon as armour and fitting weaponry came into play. Which means I stay by my opinion that keeping equipment wouldn't have changed ANYTHING except avoiding at least 3-4 hours of tidious grinding aka unfunny busy-work ... (I guess I have played the game for 12 to 14 hours at maximum yet ...)
You know ... I didn't get that much training in the main game (or the arena -> Just beat it once by collecting the weapons/armours of my opponents) ... The only thing I did was playing "
The Game of Doors" ... And I'll keep making fun of this ... You have THE most realistic melee-battlesystem in any game yet, you have THE most realistic armour- and weapon-system in any game yet, You have THE most believable environment of any dungeon-grinder I've played so far ... And then a major core-mechanic (by accident. improvisation and/or deliberately) is tricking enemys who are to stupid to use a door handle ... That really breaks the immersion ...
But my point is ... I didn't fight a single enemy until I get decent armour and a sword ... So everything before is tidious busywork after you've done it for the first time ... It's tricking enemys with doors ... There was no lack of fighting skill on my own ... I just had to get the right equipment and it got quite easy (still exciting though) ... So why frustrate new players by removing the equipment after every death ... It's a really transparent way of stretching the gametime without enhancing the experience ...
And there is this gap between the veterans and me as a new player that really makes me wonder. For one I totally get that after some training you'll be able to get through the game without getting hit at all (despite any armour). But that's the kind of skill you only develope after finishing the game for a few times ... Which people would do with a much higher probability if they didn't get frustrated the living shit out of them ...
I also get the impression that most veteran players who didn't get my points are just used to play in the higher levels and not starting in level 1 ... Level 2 and 3 just through decent stuff at you at every corner. Even if you have to restart in those areas with zero equipment it's much easier to get the good stuff ... So I think there is a much different perception that I have observed in many games ... Most veteran players are used to the later stages and actually better equipment ... (Which is no personal attack ... I bet some people here play through the game naked without taking any enemy blows, but the average veteran player might just get used to the later stages ... I mean ... I am a newby at this game and just went through level 2 and 3 in a row ...) ... As soon as you have the equip it's a really fun game with good flow and yet hard enough to let you act careful (even if you would keep the equip ...)
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On another note. The environment is really fantastic. If you're observant enough you get a good grasp of how this underground-community have lived and worked together. There is so much detail in it with the different kinds of workshops, the dinning rooms, kitchens, sleeping places and toilettes ... Although I really wonder how those toilettes work (is there some kind of sewerage below there)? And it would be interesting to know how they got their food. I guess they crafted all kinds of stuff and sold it to the world above?
Which brings me to an interesting idea. It would be really cool to visit this underground-settlement when it was active and in use. Maybe as idea for some kind of future special add on or something like that ...
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And although it was very simple I like the vague informations about the potential incident that happened here. Although I found it really sad that you actually found that Elara the kidnapped victim just starved to death ... I hoped to met her as an NPC somewhere, but thats just me and my heart for unimportant side-characters ... ... ...
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And that's all I can think of right now ... Oh ... one thing ... I don't know if the game saves anything between getting restarted yet ... which is one of the reasons I played level 2 and 3 in a row because I didn't want to loose my character ...
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And there where 2 bugs:
Sometimes when you kill a zombie his shadow appears standing under the door he has passed before you killed him. It disappears as soon as you get near it ...
And I recognised some potential AI-dropouts ... They don't know what to do when another zombie is already in the room they want to pass ... So they stand around, not knowing what to do (in the small rooms atleast). I also saw two zombies bumping into each other not going anywhere ...