Got properly stuck in to this last night after 'giving it a quick try after work' that ended up swallowing my whole night. I've just finished the first game and I have to say this is miles and miles ahead. It's basically ditched everything I didn't like about the original: Graphics, while a bit low res, are backed up by some great art direction, which really puts it above the first game. Combat is sped up and much more enjoyable, as is the platforming. The puzzles are great so far and the loot system is compulsive as hell. Oh and it involves horse riding over big grassy plains, which automatically gets big points in my book. Lots of points.

Got to say, the voice acting is much better than that found in KoA.
Danclarke, you got it on PS3? Might have to swap weapons at times, mebe?

HIIII. Still level 4. Dipping back in today.

I've sent Matty some stuffffff

Also, level 5 now, first dungeon done. Really good, I love the open world to indoor action. The variation in weapons and combos is decent, and I've just got my gun so that should be fun. Off I go to the next place...

Urgh, a section just now nearly used up my reserves of patience: was a bit tedious and it had some irritating enemies in. Still, if it was in Darksiders the first it would have been twice as long I reckon.

Really noticed how gorgeous this game is today. Just soaking up the art design and the exceptional lighting was a treat, also the scale is just right and everything that is supposed to be massive is indeed fucking massive.

Wahey, I finished it. Use a guide to clear the Soul Arbiter's Maze, was worth it for an amazing set of Posssssed Scythes. Even though I had a Possessed Glaive doing between 2k-3k damage on crit, I still used Achidna's Claws until getting those Scythes because the amount of health they give you back is ridiculous, felt invincible with them.

Missed the whole Gemstone side quest and also didn't get all of the chapters of the Book of the Dead, something for NG+ I feel.

End boss was weak sauce, especially after the penultimate big bad.

Overall agree with everything Face has said, obviously. It's no Zelda or Okami, the game just wants to make you feel unbelievably powerful and that carries over to the dungeons, nothing will wow you or stretch your synapses.

Special mention goes to the graphics, I started out thinking it was ugly bit that was swiftly changed around, it's utterly gorgeous, vibrant and full of wonderful details; the backgrounds and skyscapes are worth an extra mention.

The story is fluff, and I didn't realise until halfway through that it was happening at the same time as the first. Whoops.

I don't suppose anybody fancies sending me something nice? It would make an old man very happy...

Slowly plugging away at side quests and some of the stuff I hadn't worked out. Have had to youtube a couple of things.

Deposed king went down like a sack of shit in NG+. Even on the harder settings, it's tough finding a challenge.

A couple of enemies at the start of the psychomeron were nasty, and I can't quite make it through levels 50-75 of the Crucible in one sitting just yet, but most stuff just can't deal with what I'm packing. Especially now I have a talisman giving me 500 hp back on executes, and and about 3 items giving me better odds of executes. Pretty much everything is roaming around with a B on it's head and I'm just refilling.

Would love some DLC right about now.

Enjoying really seeing what you can do with the combat in the later stages of the crucible. It is making me wish they had some areas that were open and out doors with more enemies. Fighting in the crucible, with no camera issues and wave after wave is making me think they've missed a trick.

Face. You're making the end-game combat sound utterly one dimensional. Is it the lack of options that your character has (i.e some moves aren't worth using because others are OP), or that every possible AI attack pattern has been fought so much that the relevant solution has been downloaded into your combat pattern responses?

Why don't they get that the more you level up, the less you have to do isn't fun : /

Nick wrote:

Face. You're making the end-game combat sound utterly one dimensional. Is it the lack of options that your character has (i.e some moves aren't worth using because others are OP), or that every possible AI attack pattern has been fought so much that the relevant solution has been downloaded into your combat pattern responses?

tbh, as soon as I said that, I've had a couple of spikes where I nearly got done.

But it's actually the combat and the loot that's keeping me going.

Worked my way through the maze. The challenge there is more keeping up health and wrath refills as you go through. It's fight after fight, and the trick is to have your perks set up so that you end up with full health and wrath by the end of the fight.

There are some nasty enemies, but I have all my moves maxed out, so even the nastiest is struggling to do enough damage. The next section will be interesting though, I know from the crucible, that those enemies are doing some proper damage.

The issue I have with all the abilities is more managing the puzzle abilities with the combat ones when you're switching between 10 abilities with 4 slots to use at one time.

There's probably not quite enough variety in the enemies, I reckon. And there's only a couple of fights, bosses included, that really go for the jugular. The combat and the fun is more to be had in areas where you're surviving multiple waves.

Still, also bare in mind that I'm talking about NG+ and being 20 hours in on that after doing 37 hours on first playthrough. 57 hours, for a non Souls game, is pretty good going.

But it's a game that will make you think about hwo they could have done things differently. So many decisions, so  many mechanics, maybe a restructure, maybe less abilities, maybe a different focus. It's fun to think about.

Anyone want to swap their copy of this for Sleeping Dogs before I take in in for a trade-in?

He asks in a thread where Face has been singing it's praises since page 1

XTC_NRG_4_DARKRAVER wrote:

or tolerable shit,

I won't lie, this still has structure issues, and it drags towards the end, but it's not as blatant a fall off as the first. The addition of loot and weapon upgrading and proper skill trees mean that there's fun mechanics to play with right until the end, and banging around in the arena mode has been cracking fun. Basically, where in the first it's the last third that is really bad and noticably so, and it's also a loooong haul, this probably sags around the final quarter, and rather than then sending you on a massive fetch quest all over the map, you can just crack through to the end.

I should mention that that arena mode (The crucible) and weapon swapping with other players require a code/and/or MS points. So be wary of second hand prices. Factor in a season pass. You can still crack through the main game, obviously, but The Crucible is just about worth it. Be very interested to see what they do with the other DLC for this.