variety of enemies that require different weapons
I had a totally different experience. In my first playthrough I just switched weapons, when I felt like it (and for level challenges), because there’s just no reason otherwise. And the second playthrough was with only the SSG in the first half and Impaler in the second, and they just shredded everything.
With stuff like this, it’s always possible that’s just the slowest hardware the devs have on hand to test with. The Doom and Quake re-releases are the same, I think all of these use the Kex Engine.
I got an email from Bandcamp about the soundtrack from Andrew Hulshult and had to check if these games finally got a remaster/re-release/sourceport.
Pumped for this, and I don’t have to pay anything extra for the update, since I owned the old games on Steam already.
Yes, same, been waiting for this one.
I played through Heretic on Steam (not on the Deck) a few years ago, but I definitely didn’t use the Dosbox version, but some sourceport (probably Chocolate or Crispy Doom). Guess I have to re-play it.
I see that there has been a misunderstanding on my part. I agree with your last three points, but for some of the others, things you deem fine or good currently, I’d say they are rather mediocre (like your first point).
And in the end it basically all comes down to the combat, I think the most important part of these types of games, which you think isn’t engaging enough (it’s not, but that doesn’t bother me). I think if you did change it, and “fix” points two and three at the same time, you’d lose too much of what makes these types of grindy, rng loot games work in my opinion.
Which is why I think you’re wrong with saying
but not what most people want when they go to play a video game including in the ARPG genre
I think the mindless grinding, not having to pay attention, is exactly what most people want with this type of game. Of course, that isn’t to say everyone wants that and that there isn’t a market for something else.
However, I’d personally probably rather recommend the Niohs, the Khazans, the Wo Longs, the Remnants, the whatever of the world to those people (or try SSFHC or something, I dunno).
Most of them have barely innovated on Diablo 2’s core moment to moment loop and it’s something that seemingly everyone is aware of but no studio has yet to be able to fix.
That’s what I’m saying, because for many people there is nothing to fix, because they feel it’s not broken. That’s why basically all the isometric ARPGs still go back to the D2 formula and maybe add some QoL changes.
Also, your examples and expectations feel extremely unrealistic and mostly not what ARPGs are known for, and frankly some are even incompatible with the genre in my opinion.
From your comments here, it seems like kinds of isometric ARPGs aren’t for you. Last Epoch, PoE, TQ2, all don’t have good enough combat, so what are you looking for?
If you still want the loot and grind aspect, maybe a shooter is more up your alley, like Borderlands or Destiny. Or maybe something like the Team Ninja third-person action games, like Nioh, Stranger of Paradise, Wo Long (and games like that).
I’m not certain I have the faith it’ll ever have 30 hours of content
Does it need to? Nothing wrong with a solid 20-25h campaign, you play through once, maybe another time with a different class or in multiplayer, and you’re done. I don’t need everything to be a forever game with constant content drops, even a game like this.
Bought it as the EA price was cheap enough to take a chance and early reviews where positive enough to signal that the game isnt completely broken.
That’s my thinking as well. I don’t mind Early Access either way, and I’m fine with coming back to the game every couple of months when more content drops.
That worked, thanks.
That’s only during Early Access, and the price will increase. 1.0 release is supposed to cost 50€.
I don’t even get a captcha, just a straight up error, when I try to redeem the code (with adblock disabled).
it will take a bite out of Horizons sales numbers.
Press X to doubt
With the focus on PC and Mobile in China, the big console franchises don’t strike me as super popular over there (based on nothing but feelings).
The layoffs were already yesterday’s news, with basically no one talking about them. I don’t think MS needs any diversion tactics for that, and even then, Silksong wouldn’t be it.
It’s mainly just talking to people, but if you want to fight as few times as possible, you probably need to know the game or tons of save-scumming. You’ll also have to be ok with just missing a bunch of stuff, or pick and choose your fights, which again, needs prior knowledge.
I don’t think it’s a good way for a first playthrough.
IIRC there are six fights you always need to do (two of those in the tutorial and another shortly after, although technically you can use glitches to skip these). But if you only wanted to do these fights, you’d basically do an evil playthrough and miss most of the game, especially Act 1 and 3. And if you’re not talking to people, save-reload the correct dialogue choice, you would just sneak around everywhere, trying to avoid enemies, constantly saving and reloading, because you were spotted.
If you add a handful of boss fights, a good run is possible, but still, there’s going to be a lot of sneaking around and save-scumming.
I think you can only be non-lethal, not truly pacifist, if someone cares about this difference. You still need to knock people out and do stuff to them, even if they don’t die by your hand.
I remember playing this on my Voodoo graphics card back in the day.
I always wanted to check it out again, but there are no proper discounts of this game anymore, and the price even increased to 20€ a couple of months back. Who thinks that anybody will buy Descent with DOSBox for 20€ in 2025? Might as well just use my old pirated copy on a burned CD I have somewhere.
I’ve bought the game in the recent Steam sale and played it on launch through PC Game Pass before. My biggest complaint are all the loading times and screens, especially when you want to get into a race. Just constant waiting, for hundreds of races.
Back on launch I just eventually did more and more open world stuff, like the XP boards, Danger Signs, Speed Traps, etc. and then quit. I’m kinda doing the same already now on Steam, but I still do want to do more proper races.
2XKO will never not sound like a dumb name.
I played on default Nightmare and then some custom turbo mode (150% game speed with lower damage taken and dealt, and a bit more).
As the OP said, after a few levels you can get upgrades that destroys shielded enemies quickly and for some reason the game starts spawning mostly superheated ones anyway, so you can just instantly blow those groups up.