You’re not supposed to sneak lol you just dress up as a guard

The game isn’t “lackluster in soooo many ways”, it sounds like you barely understand it

I doubt you’ve really experienced enough quests in this game to even compare it to skyrim yet, a game where everyone criticizes the main quest line btw. The quests in this game actually have so much freedom and branching paths, you have a lot to discover if you think skyrim has better quests.

Game isn’t half-baked in any way (other than performance on some hardware), probably the most fleshed out combat system in any game to date and I’ve only played as archer so far. I’m excited to try the other classes they all look incredible.

I played DD1 on release 12 years ago or whatever. It had a lot of the same issues this one has so maybe you’re right, I don’t “understand it”. But when its action RPG peers do almost everything better I can critique it. Skyrim and Witcher3 alone have better quests and more interactions with NPCs. I’m level 30, 20 hours played and have done plenty of stuff and quests. Haven’t even gone to Battahl yet.

You don’t even have to dress up as a guard you literally can walk right by guards and 90% of the time they do absolutely nothing, when they actually attempt to “arrest” you, you literally just run down a hallway and they forget about you.

Exploration is lackluster c’mon you can’t even argue that. In Skyrim and ER you can find environmental storytelling or quests, and new equipment in almost every basic cave you go into, and yeah ER had tons of catacombs that were almost worthless but at least the item you’d get might have a bit of lore about it. In DD2 you might get some gold or monster items from a chest in a basic cave, and usually nothing exciting outside of rare instances you get a piece of equipment. Not to mention that both Skyrim and ER’s worlds are way bigger and packed with things to find.

I’ve barely even bothered camping, up to level 10 sure you might camp once on the way to a hub but after that you can pretty much handle nighttime or get to hubs before dark and sleep there.

There’s hardly rewards for finding things yourself, case in point:

I found sacred arbor just by exploring, didn’t even realize there was an elf in the capital, and there’s literally nothing to acknowledge me finding the place, and no quests in the whole area until I went back to the capital and spoke to the guy there to begin their questline. The nameless village had one purpose basically a pitstop in the main quest and some goodies if you’re a thief build. I feel like these small hubs should offer more side quests and interactions but all they have is a local shop and an inn. Running back and forth from these hubs can get old too, running the same routes and fighting the same inconsequential goblins/wolves/etc..

They have solid ideas. Quests with expirations are a dope concept, not that I’ve done more than like 2-3. There should be more NPC interaction beyond giving gifts. The escort quests are ps2 tier.

Again, I am enjoying it and the combat is for sure fun. I just think they needed to refine and expand on things. I also think they didn’t really commit in some cases too, like all the political intrigue quests and sneaking into the castle just did not hit cuz of lack of tension by the 4th time you’re in there. And if they really wanted their combat system to shine they should definitely have added more enemy types.

@Skrilla idk man, a poison goblin/harpy/saurian is still a goblin/harpy/saurian at the end of the day. Ogres/cyclops/minotaurs all go down roughly the same way, hit them in the face. Maybe you’re right tho and the scaling is poor, because with a full squad of pawns I rarely have to even think much about strategy. The chimera is cool and I remember it from DD1.

Ehh they’re plenty caves n places you explore where you find good items lol. Mainly all the permanently infused weapons are in caves n places you have to search out for while exploring. So I don’t share that criticism. Item descriptions is ERs way of story telling, certainly not my favorite medium lol. I didn’t bother reading half that s***. Cause if I’m imagining myself in the Lands Between, if I find a sword there ain’t gonna be an item description of its background explaining what it is.

Depending how you play the game I guess you can barely camp. I try my best not to use consumables, and if I do I try to limit myself to no more than 5. I prefer for my Mage to handle any debilitations n healing I need. For me it just adds to immersion, but not everyone plays that way.

Catacombs in ER are more or less copy paste. That is definitely one thing I feel like DD2 does better head and shoulders than ER. The sense of atmosphere when it’s night time or you’re in a cave is unmatched.

I do agree that the towns don’t feel as reactionary to things you do as it does in the wild. For example I failed to stop the Battahli Empresses assassination. Other than that one lady feeling sad, it seems like it’s completely unacknowledged that she was assassinated. I haven’t progressed the story much after that yet so maybe it does. But that’s something that should be immediately felt by talking to random NPCs in the city. But they make no mention of it. Makes the whole thing fall flat.

Skyrim is one of the most universally loved games of all time, I really doubt you’d have anything but a blast playing it

I disagree with basically everything you’ve said. I think we just can’t see eye to eye on this. The amount of quests that have freedom and branching paths is insane. Skyrim and elden ring wish they had quest design like this. I’m gonna have to play this game many times just to wrap my head around the freedom of choice.

There’s like 20+ different types of enemies just in the first area, if you explore during day and night. So that’s just flat out wrong.

The sneaking into the castle quest has a woman lead you to a room where there’s a chest with a guard disguise lol, I think you’re missing out on context clues

This game tops elden ring, Witcher 3 and skyrim imo. Better combat and skill progression, the abilities in the later ranks make combat fun instead of just doing more damage like 90% of rpgs, better enemy variety, quests have true freedom of choice, and I actually feel compelled to fully explore because there’s no copy and paste s***

I’m a gameplay mechanics first kinda guy. Dont care how good the story is if the gameplay mechanics are s*** I can’t get into it.

Dragon Age: Origins for instance, I’ve tried playing that game like 7 times and it literally puts me to sleep like i know Id love the game but the mechanics of it are just too janky n dull. I put over 250 hours into Inquisition and that game was mid looking back at it, but it was more engaging to play.

It doesn’t have to be action combat either. I grew up on JRPGs so turn based games are still fun for me. I’m like 60 hours deep in Unicorn Overlord.

Witcher 3 is another one. Although less so. I found the combat mechanics in it to be… shallow. I do have intentions to play it to completion one day but it’s just one of those games where I won’t argue against people having it as their #1, it just isn’t necessarily for me and my preferences.

i’ve not played this, but the elden ring comparison has me seizing

They’re both fantasy open-world action-rpgs, comparing games to other games in the same genre is probably the most boilerplate statement one can make

If ER changed their skill system, so that you ain’t cycling through 1 spell at a time, and made it so you can use multiple ashes of war on one weapon, I’d f***ing looooooooove the game more than I already do. As it is, it’s good, but just doesn’t ever really fully scratch that itch. DD2 for me does.

lmfao i’m not critiquing you, im saying “oh that’s a big claim maybe i should play it” but i get why’d you be defensive looking at the thread

Oh you said seizing so I thought you meant like you were laughing at how ridiculous my statement was

Definitely try it if you liked elden ring, they’re birds of a feather imo

probably gonna just throw this on the backlog, i’ve got ff7rebirth and the metal gear collection to go through first

oh i could see how that’d be confusing. nah i just genuinely believe capcom has had a 7 year streak going of no misses so im very interested in whatever they release

re2 remake single handedly made me interested in videogames again

Game is mid if we are genuinely honest with ourselves. Does some really cool things but overall its ehhh

If I'm pretty sensitive to frame rate and performance should I cop or wait for patches, PS5 btw

it’s pretty bad i kinda wish i got it on pc instead of xbox (the performance is pretty much the same on ps5)

wait for ps5 pro imo

We’re not being honest with ourselves if we don’t share your opinion? Crazy take. Maybe if this game had 40 hours of repetitive mini games like rebirth then you’d be calling it the best game of all time lol

Fellas don’t fight

Haha I was mostly kidding, I absolutely loved rebirth

That Cosmo Canyon Proto Relic mini Game can burn in hell

Oh god the horror

Mother f*** I actually beat this in just over 34 hours.

That endgame is fast as s*** if you dont do all the side quests.

The pacing is insanely fast after you get to bakltahl