I think this criticism is fair to be honest and is one of the things that’s sort of swept under the rug a bit in discourse about Witcher 3. I definitely think the pacing is off just as you mentioned. I’ve heard other people regret their choice of Triss because they had basically locked in her romance already by the time you start doing stuff in Skellige with Yen and start seeing what she’s like.
Personally I think the Yen/Geralt dynamic is a lot better than with Triss, although it’s got its own troubles (nobody is perfect). I like the banter between them and they feel more like a proper couple.
The game as a whole also flows better with Yen as your romance choice in my opinion and to me it feels more like the Triss romance is an afterthought yes. A bone thrown at those who desperately can’t stand Yen.
Geralt (in the books) is deeply in love with Yen and is also bound to her by literal Djinn magic, so it makes sense that he’s always hot for her in the game and I think the attention paid to the Yen side of things is a desire by CDPR to anchor their game in the preexisting lore.
If you’re not dead set on Triss or wildly opposed to Yen I’d say go with it and do the Yen romance. It’s very suitable for a first time playthrough imo.
It was even 2 RNG heavy ones but I was forced to take Weight Room twice (thanks Hall of Mirrors!) so I couldn’t make it downstairs. Worst feeling I’ve had in a game in a long time actually. I honestly think sanctum keys could be permanent without the game being too easy.
I’ve only gotten 3 classrooms I think, taking notes on the subjects though! I also think the first classroom helps with the sigil puzzle. Have you lit all the braziers?
Btw I just had to call it a day with 2 sanctum keys in my inventory. Had to take Weight Room twice.
One of the safe solutions really pissed me off. Which ones do you have? I have six, no clue where the last one is supposed to be.
Are you looking to fully drain the reservoir? That’s the only thing you need boiler power connected for I think, provided you have the Tomb open.
The sanctum thing is so frustrating too, still haven’t solved my first sigil though I know what to look for now I guess. Still haven’t made it back to room 46 a second time either, RNG has been hitting badly. Maybe that will help.
Good lord there is so much still to do haha! Every time I think I’ve seen most of the puzzles a new secret bottom opens up to an entirely new layer. I’m loving putting together the narrative but my god some of the puzzles didn’t work for me (I had to look up a couple of hints - would never have organically gotten them). How have you been progressing with the safes?
Just rolled credits. Really strange actually haha. There are so many unsolved mysteries! I feel like I’m close to piecing together the narrative but I’m still missing crucial pieces.
I’m sure the remake will release with the same level of QA and polish that the original Oblivion shipped with. That renowned Bethesda standard of quality.
spoilerWait didn’t you roll credits? That’s very interesting that you did that without opening any safe…
Anyway thank you so much for your responses, they’ve been perfect hints without being too spoily, which is a hard thing to pull off! I might bug you again at some point, we’ll see what I accomplish today.
spoilerDrained the fountain, now I need the basement key again. Still don’t know how to get the chests at the bottom of the reservoir as I don’t know how to drain the final bit. Maybe pump room needs to be next to boiler room to get the last tank in play? I’m starting to see I’m going to need to get through insane amounts of RNG to finish. I already basically concluded I probably need the boiler room adjacent to the lab to get the lever machine working.
I also am tearing my hair out about the
spoilerdrawing room safe code. The other safes had the clue in the same room but for the life of me I can’t figure out the paintings with the steps.
The whole aimed shots thing makes combat magnitudes more fun in the classic Fallouts. Maybe this is telling of when I first played the games (hint: I was a teen), but there is something about taking cheap shots at people’s groin that doesn’t get old. Becoming a Prizefighter by exclusively and indiscriminately punching your opposition in the dick is always going to be funny.
The critical hits and misses are also very entertaining, though definitely add to the notorious RNG. The animations and effects, like disintegrations and splatter, also make combat a lot more satisfying.
To be fair to Arcanum in terms of companions Baldur’s Gate 2 was really the watershed moment in terms of how companions were treated in RPGs. Arcanum released less than a year after it and so while development timelines were shorter back then I doubt they had much time to adjust and get influenced by BG2. Fallout 1&2 doesn’t have it much better in terms of fleshed out companions.
(Fallout 1/2 combat had many issues by modern standards, but it was definitely much more refined than in Arcanum).
I would definitely recommend FO 1&2 easier than Arcanum and with fewer caveats. Maybe that’s just because I think they are fundamentally better and more important games than Arcanum though and so they are more worth suffering through some jank for. They still have a fiendishly retro interface that is quite clunky and the combat is not great, especially without mods. There is some really questionable encounter design in there and they both suffer from tremendous RNG heavy potential misery and loads and loads of reloads. Not least with random encounters.
Also the first few hours of Fallout 2 are absolutely miserable. It’s still one of my favourite games of all time though.
I played the Multiverse Edition which had a bunch of patches and fixes integrated. Including HD I believe.
I think the world building is pretty good, at least parts of it. There is some disappointingly boilerplate Tolkienesque fantasy in there, but the conflict between magic and technology is well realised and interesting and feels grounded in the world. The steampunk aesthetic is cool and I like the Victorian racism angle they’re doing with half orcs and ogres. I liked the newspapers and there are some interesting quests, like the half ogre conspiracy. I thought the peace negotiation was going to end up being absolutely amazing but in the end it is just an anticlimactic stat check.
The combat is absolutely atrocious in every possible way, from balance to animations and whether you play turn based or real time doesn’t really matter, both are horrible. It’s quite possibly the worst AI I’ve ever seen and every fight is just every creature mashing into eachother until one dies. I don’t think anyone or anything has special abilities or different AI behaviour. You can’t use Mage followers because they don’t use their magic, opting instead to charge into melee with their fists or staves.
The tech skills are the most interesting and unique aspect of the game, but involves a horrendous amount of parts collecting, crafting, inventory management and over-encumberance for very little rewards.
The companions feel extremely bare bones by modern standards and it’s extremely disappointing that none of them even get ending slides. I liked Virgil but not even he got any sort of closure at the end.
The main story was okay, it had some twists and funny moments like with Nasrudin. The whole “life was a mistake” angle by the BBEG felt a little tired to me, but maybe if playing Arcanum was the first time I came across that concept it would have blown me away.
The actual writing itself is not bad in terms of the prose and dialogue etc and the game has some funny moments.
The vast freedom you get with character building is probably the best part. I like how varied you can make your characters, although I don’t know that all builds are viable. Props for following the example of Fallout 1 and 2 and including specific “dumb dialogue”, even though I didn’t go for that personally. Having to balance tech and magic with your character build is a fun concept.
Overall I understand why it has its cult following and I’m glad to have played it, but it’s hard to recommend it to people unless they have an extremely high retro game/clunk tolerance.
Thanks to the design documents being leaked back in 2007 (I think) and the original designers being open to contact from some dedicated people, there are actually a couple of fan made attempts at creating what would have been Van Buren. I know of both Project Van Buren and Fallout: Yesterday.