I am afraid I will have to agree with the person who posted their negative feelings for the game.
I am by every plausible definition of the phrase a "casual rpg gamer." I played and enjoyed KOTOR over 3 times. I gave Morrowind a whirl and enjoyed it but could not get into it as much as I would have liked (but still recognize it for a wonderful piece of software.) I enjoy getting into games that you progress, gain power, and simply evolve. Story, as long as it isn't too far out there, is an after thought to me. If I want story I will read a book. I however DESPISE turn based combat systems. I am by nature a real time gamer. First person shooters and 2D fighters are my bread and butter. I dislike the Final Fantasy franchise with a heated passion.
With that said I was in fact *excited* for this game. It was going to be the single player leveling experience to tide me over until Fable's release. Currently I'm playing City of Heroes so my RPG thirst (what little their is) is adequately being quenched. Boy did disappointment follow...
My first hint that this game may in fact not be exactly what my mind had already made it up to be was the mixed reviews that were pouring in. I saw a lot of 6'sand 7's. Upon actually reading the reviews they sounded closer to 4's and 5's but gave mercy to the XBox's barely increasing RPG library. Instead of continuing on this long winded tunnel of mental excrement, I'll simply list some pro's and (mostly) con's that this game appeared to have to me: a casual RPG gamer.
The main thing that appealed to me initially was the combat system. Real time and action packed. Sounds like fun, right? It ended up being a mildly bland hack-n'-slash with a 3 hit combo system. You can pretty much meld together any possible combination of A and X together to perform a nicely animated combo as long as your timing is on. This was absolutely no challenge.
You did not run into mobs randomly along the path nor could you hunt them, but you would enter "arena" like area's where combat would take place. This took me out of the game to a great extent.
Realistically you can only control one avatar at a time, and once one of your other avatars is in the hands of the AI, the damage he or she deals is relatively cut in half for no real reason. Your ranged casters can upgrade their weaponry to do more damage but take an increased amount of time to cast pretty much negating any real need to upgrade as the DPS remains practically the same.
You have the ability to launch special attacks from the UI by spending SP that will pause combat to show you the so-so animations the developers dreamed up. Their is no way to pause this, skip it, or speed it up. Imagine how tedious this gets later in the game when your healer is healing ad nasium. This aspect alone can really take you out of the game.
The controls on the other hand were fine. They took no time getting used to. The camera was about on par with most 3rd person console games which is to say 'not very good.'
Other aspects that are more appealing to the hardcore RPGers were also lacking. If their was a story of any real significance I must have skipped right past it. The voice acting and scripting was so drab and cliche it was literally painful. As I am sure most of you know the graphics were above par, but not by much. I honestly was not impressed but I certainly was not disappointed. The SFX and musical scoring were both satisfactory but once again nothing wonderful or worth excessive praise.
In short I can see people enjoying the game if they are really looking for something to enjoy, but Sudeki is *not* a good game. It is 100% mediocre.
(I apologize for all the typo's, spelling errors, and poor diction. You will have to find a way to sift through it if you so chose.)
This post has been edited by N.T: Aug 1 2004, 12:03 AM <
