Indeed, i'm just shy of 40h in and I've still got two segments of the main quest todo and a ton of side quests to sort out.

And a dragon to fight...

Quote: Original post by AndreTheGiant
It seems like people either really like this game or really dont like it.
I'm scared to buy it because I dont know which one I'll be!

Quote: Original post by Machaira

Quote: Original post by GroZZleR
I beat it last night at about ~40 hours in and am rather underwhelmed by the whole thing.

Maybe because you sped through the game? I'm about 40 hours in and I'm just to the dwarven city and about 25% of the content. This isn't an MMO where the goal is to get to the end as quick as possible (and even in an MMO that shouldn't be the goal!).

How many achievements did you unlock along the way?

I think I got 60% of all the trophies? I'm missing the origins ones (impossible to get on one playthrough), two or three romance ones, ones related to different endings having different styles, and the "getting all allies" one because I murdered a couple of allies. :P

I did every sidequest that wasn't an errand (I'm not going to deliver 10 mana potions, I'm not a fan of those quests), did three companion quests (I didn't boost every companion's happiness bar because some situations force you to make a decision that other companions don't like) and explored I think 90% of the world areas according to the stats that show up on the loading screen.

I don't feel I rushed through it at all -- I think my time is so fast because of how easy the combat was. A lot of your time might be spent micromanaging your units, but as the tank I was able to only manage me and script the others to great efficiency. If you have to constantly swap over to your tank character and order him, then switch back to yourself to cast spells, etc. etc. That eats up time.

Quote: Original post by GroZZleR
If you have to constantly swap over to your tank character and order him, then switch back to yourself to cast spells, etc. etc. That eats up time.

That's what the tactics are for. I've set them up and I rarely have to intervene. I never have to intervene for my tank.

Quote: Original post by GroZZleR
I don't feel I rushed through it at all -- I think my time is so fast because of how easy the combat was.

I'm guessing you played it on console, then. Apparently, the console version is a lot easier than the PC version. On the PC, I got about halfway through the game on Hard before I had to turn the difficulty back to Normal - and even then, combat is far from easy. Until I got the healer NPC in my party, I'd routinely lose one or two party members in combat and had to patch them up with injury kits, despite my character being a very potent mage.

Personally, I loved the game. If I have a complaint, it's that they fell into the same annoying trap that DnD has lured the RPG genre in: too many hitpoints! I had hoped that opponents would have high armor values and low HP, now that Bioware finally implemented a set of logical combat mechanics instead of the arbitrary nonsense that DnD is, but that was sadly not the case. Ah well.

[Edited by - Hnefi on November 19, 2009 3:36:47 PM]

Quote: Original post by Machaira

Quote: Original post by GroZZleR
If you have to constantly swap over to your tank character and order him, then switch back to yourself to cast spells, etc. etc. That eats up time.

That's what the tactics are for. I've set them up and I rarely have to intervene. I never have to intervene for my tank.

Yeah, I spend most of my time controlling my mage NPC in combat and letting my fighters manage themselves.

I beat the game and had a lot of fun, but I'm not enjoying the second play-through. The game is really unbalanced if you learn how to use the right spells and how to build your characters. I was playing on nightmare difficulty and it was far too easy. I'm going to stop playing and hope that bioware releases a patch that either makes the highest difficulty a lot harder, or fixes the balance issues.

I've shelved the game already. It's just really underwhelming. The story is boilerplate generic. The combat is unbalanced.. in either being too easy or too hard.

I got past the forest (to get arcane warrior or whatever) and I just can't drive myself to play anymore. It's just sooooo boring. Also, L4D2 came out..

I think what will happen is the same as NWN1 & 2. I shelved them for a year or two and came back to play with awesome mods and user created content. The only stock campaign Bioware ever did that was good was SoU for NWN.

Quote: Original post by Straudos
I beat the game and had a lot of fun, but I'm not enjoying the second play-through. The game is really unbalanced if you learn how to use the right spells and how to build your characters. I was playing on nightmare difficulty and it was far too easy. I'm going to stop playing and hope that bioware releases a patch that either makes the highest difficulty a lot harder, or fixes the balance issues.

The game is insanely imbalanced towards mages. If you're looking for more challenging play, go mage-free.

I just finished it last night in just over 70 hours.

To me it was one of the most engrossing RPG experiences I have had. Story and Dialogue were well written, although as mentioned earlier, very generic and Tolkenesque.

I don't understand the comments about the game being linear. There are about 6 areas you have to at least attempt, but each one can have a variety of outcomes that effect the rest of the story.

My favourite part of the game is the decision making. There are more than a few parts of the game where the decisions posed to you were of the 'lesser of 2 evils' variety. I remember one choice I had to make, I had to take a break from the game just to consider the consequences of what my decision would be.

On the other hand, yes the graphics seemed outdated, like a slightly improved NWN2 engine. They were also rather inconsistent. The architecture in some areas incredible, whilst in other areas generic and uninspired. I also found a door texture that was incorrectly offset.

All in all, fantastic game. I played a Sword and Board Tank, on PC, and micro-managed a lot.