daveman247 said:
See, now for me this is a weird one. I'd agree that KotOR 1's gameplay is a bit of a chore. Indeed, when I first got it, I hated the initial combat on the Endar Spire that I almost gave up then and there. But I came back a few days later, persevered and ended up loving the game. Of course, it
was pretty much my first 'proper' RPG, and the way I specced my first character was just a mess. Admittedly, I hadn't learned all that much even by my first playthrough of KotOR 2, but damn I love the gameplay in that. Always have too.
I'm not sure whether it's the new animations, or the new feats and powers that give you a worthwhile sense of progression, or for that matter the fact that guns were now a viable alternative. Maybe it's the skills being useful in the dialogue segments too, it sort of blurs the lines between where 'gameplay' ends and 'story' begins. That line gets even fuzzier with certain plot developments. Either way, with the exception of the Citadel/Telos/Telos military base (those sections are such a
chore, even the d20 random damage, turn based combat is fun, IMO.
I also don't really agree with the comments so far on Mass Effect 1. Sure, I'd agree that ME2 and moreso ME3 were an improvement on gameplay (apart from ME3's 'press a to do everything'), but I really don't think there was much to dislike about ME1. There's maybe a lack of diversity in enemies, and certainly a lack of weapon diversity but if you picked the right class, it was a ton of fun. Infiltrator was a blast with a few points in sniper rifles, because unlike the sequels there were environments big enough that you could actually snipe from range with impunity. I also prefer how some of the biotics work - I still don't get why biotics don't work on enemies with shields or armour in 2 and 3, doesn't make any reasonable sense. For that matter, I prefer the enemies' health system in 1. While I'm at it, I really don't like what they did with Vanguards. In ME1, they were simply about trading a few higher end powers for better survivability and slightly better weapon diversity. ME2 made them all about close-quarters for some reason, but sacrificed the whole damage resistance idea to give it to the Sentinel, a class they obviously had no idea what to do with. So now you have a class meant to get in close - risking taking a lot of damage out of cover - yet you're just as vulnerable as an Adept, without any of the cooler powers. And I still think that 'charge' was hilariously lore breaking. Ah well, enough ranting.
OT: My vote would probably be the Witcher 2. I picked it up cheap in the winter Steam sale, and while I'm really enjoying the swearing, characters and story (to a lesser extent, I'm not at all versed in the lore, and I'm still too early in the game to work out what I should be caring about), I just can't wrap my head around the gameplay.
People are probably going to tell me I'm just doing it wrong. Fair enough. But I still think it has some genuine issues. For one, there seems to be a fair bit of delay between hitting a sign button and Geralt actually casting it, even before he has to go through the long animations. Blocking either doesn't seem to do anything, or I don't understand the timing of it. But what I think I find most frustrating is the game's weird insistence on preparing for fights. Part of me likes that you can't drink potions in the middle of combat, it adds a nice challenge and it makes sense. But how the hell am I meant to psychically know what's round the corner? The bit I'm on a the moment, I got told to go and meet a certain character. Now, he'd already tried to lead me into a trap, so I wasn't expecting it to necessarily go smoothly, but after a quick cutscene, I got literally dropped into a boss fight against a character who, from a story point of view, I wasn't expecting to
see this early in the game, let alone
fight. How was I supposed to know I'd need to drink a potion/wipe my sword with stuff to deal damage against humans ten minutes before the fact, when the game led me to believe I was going for a chat with a bunch of elves, FFS?
And it's ridiculously punishing for even the slightest mistake. Messed up that dodge because Geralt was faffing about laying an orange glowy trap? Tough shit, holmes, because that beefcake ************ threw a poison bomb at you and now you're down to half health
with no way to get anywhere near enough of it back until you finish the goddamn fight. Manage to stun the shithead and hit in the back with your sword? Great! But you only carved out a sliver of his metre long health bar because you didn't smear the toxic blood of some random monster you killed half an hour ago onto your sword. And did you even think about barging into peoples rooms and nicking handfuls of gold so you could slowly save up to buy that pricey sword that does maybe 2 more damage than your current one? Ha, you dumbass! Go load an old save, you're not
man enough for this RPG.
I wouldn't mind a tough boss fight if I only had issues there, but it seems I can deploy identical tactics against a group of, say, 3 nekkers in a couple of fights and the first time come away without a scratch, while the second time I might barely escape with my life. I don't even know why. Because random damage? I honestly don't know, and it's frustrating.
Yuck. Wall of text. TL;DR - The Witcher 2 because I'm not really a very hardcore RPGer.
