04-15-2004, 02:09 AM
I've had it for about 2 weeks now. I enjoy it quite a bit as well.
Co-op multiplayer only allows four people, but how often in any other coop type game could you get more than 4 people to actually play together (the BG games excluded)? So I don't mind that. Haven't tried the other multiplayer aspects yet.
Have a stand alone server helps a lot (and you can run more than one stand alone server on a machine if you like and have the power to do so) for my LAN play since I have some merely average systems for my wife and I, but it does give a good use for my old Duron 650 with 384MB of RAM. Being bechind two routers I haven't quite got the server to be accessible from the outside world. It is visible, but no one can connect. Of course there are problems with the multiplayer code and Ascaron says they are working on making things more friendly for those who NAT. Of course if the dang DSL modem/router (though it only hands out one IP) would actually function as a bridge like they say it should it might be easier. I might also be able to hand of the PPPoE functions to my other routher but I haven't had time to do all that config changes and testing yet (my wife gets mad if internet access goes away for too long :) ).
There are still bugs but nothing game breaking that I have seen. I see a lot of equipment bugs, it morphs at times, I have a Wood Elf who can ignore class restrictions on belts and wear any of them as long as level and attribute requirements are met, if I trade them to my wife's Seraphim she sees the class restrictions. I have seen a Seraphim that couldn't wear a searphim only item because it said that it was wrong class. There are some other things like that as well.
There are skills in the game that are just fun even if they aren't all that powerful. Making your own combos is really cool too (multishot -> spider arrow -> exploding arrow -> spider arrow) is a lot of fun, and then since combo timers don't affect your skill and magic timers I can spider or exploding arrow again right away while still under multi-shot. :) Of course I love spider arrow, nothing like shooting someone and then seeing 4 little spiders pop out and start dealing out really rapid but only mildly damaging attacks. They generally stun lock the poor bugger they are on though, or at the least make them start attacking the spiders. Watching all those yellow numbers fly by is just fun though.
I haven't really messed with horses too much. Some weapons slow down on them some speed up. Opponents with long hafted weapons deal more damage to foes on horseback, and there are some other fun weapon considerations.
The way you get to pick your skills (like armor, weapon lore, dual wield, riding) is pretty neat and allows for good customization of a character of the same class. You can easily do a spell slinging or a meleer with some of the classes based on these choices (seraphim for sure can be made melee or spell slinger this way). And of course as mentioned I like the rune system for improving spells and combat arts (which would be like the skills in Diablo/Diablo2).
I got a lot of fun out of starting a Battle Mage and then clicking on the stone and getting attacked by crazy bunnies and you could do that as often as you liked for a whooping 2 exp each... But there are a lot of easter eggs like that in the game.
The world is huge and fluid and despite not being random there are enough little side quests and areas that you can easily replay the game without the BG syndrome of, oh, yeah lets do that fight over again so that I can get this uber weapon (though I still replayed the BG games for other reasons). Storyline seems to be alright. Character depth is good enough for me.
I hope they keep patching it, I can put up with patches (I play all the Blizzard games and they all get at least 5 to 10 patches with 3 to 7 of those bringing major changes). This game does have the potential to have good longevity, and it has made me finally stop playing D2 because it fills any of the needs D2 used to fill and then some and I used to play D2 at least once a week since the day it was released.
Co-op multiplayer only allows four people, but how often in any other coop type game could you get more than 4 people to actually play together (the BG games excluded)? So I don't mind that. Haven't tried the other multiplayer aspects yet.
Have a stand alone server helps a lot (and you can run more than one stand alone server on a machine if you like and have the power to do so) for my LAN play since I have some merely average systems for my wife and I, but it does give a good use for my old Duron 650 with 384MB of RAM. Being bechind two routers I haven't quite got the server to be accessible from the outside world. It is visible, but no one can connect. Of course there are problems with the multiplayer code and Ascaron says they are working on making things more friendly for those who NAT. Of course if the dang DSL modem/router (though it only hands out one IP) would actually function as a bridge like they say it should it might be easier. I might also be able to hand of the PPPoE functions to my other routher but I haven't had time to do all that config changes and testing yet (my wife gets mad if internet access goes away for too long :) ).
There are still bugs but nothing game breaking that I have seen. I see a lot of equipment bugs, it morphs at times, I have a Wood Elf who can ignore class restrictions on belts and wear any of them as long as level and attribute requirements are met, if I trade them to my wife's Seraphim she sees the class restrictions. I have seen a Seraphim that couldn't wear a searphim only item because it said that it was wrong class. There are some other things like that as well.
There are skills in the game that are just fun even if they aren't all that powerful. Making your own combos is really cool too (multishot -> spider arrow -> exploding arrow -> spider arrow) is a lot of fun, and then since combo timers don't affect your skill and magic timers I can spider or exploding arrow again right away while still under multi-shot. :) Of course I love spider arrow, nothing like shooting someone and then seeing 4 little spiders pop out and start dealing out really rapid but only mildly damaging attacks. They generally stun lock the poor bugger they are on though, or at the least make them start attacking the spiders. Watching all those yellow numbers fly by is just fun though.
I haven't really messed with horses too much. Some weapons slow down on them some speed up. Opponents with long hafted weapons deal more damage to foes on horseback, and there are some other fun weapon considerations.
The way you get to pick your skills (like armor, weapon lore, dual wield, riding) is pretty neat and allows for good customization of a character of the same class. You can easily do a spell slinging or a meleer with some of the classes based on these choices (seraphim for sure can be made melee or spell slinger this way). And of course as mentioned I like the rune system for improving spells and combat arts (which would be like the skills in Diablo/Diablo2).
I got a lot of fun out of starting a Battle Mage and then clicking on the stone and getting attacked by crazy bunnies and you could do that as often as you liked for a whooping 2 exp each... But there are a lot of easter eggs like that in the game.
The world is huge and fluid and despite not being random there are enough little side quests and areas that you can easily replay the game without the BG syndrome of, oh, yeah lets do that fight over again so that I can get this uber weapon (though I still replayed the BG games for other reasons). Storyline seems to be alright. Character depth is good enough for me.
I hope they keep patching it, I can put up with patches (I play all the Blizzard games and they all get at least 5 to 10 patches with 3 to 7 of those bringing major changes). This game does have the potential to have good longevity, and it has made me finally stop playing D2 because it fills any of the needs D2 used to fill and then some and I used to play D2 at least once a week since the day it was released.
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It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.
It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.