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Amazon should be ashamed for asking these prices for older games; they never have been nor ever will be worth these amounts. Unfortunately the speed of the game and the glitches combine to create a deterrent to this title's repeat playability.
Although I did enjoy it (and was thrilled with the inclusion of psionics), the game is often tedious, having to move characters individually as opposed to by groups, which really slowed down the progression of the game (at times almost to a standstill). Not nearly as fun as many of the reviews I read here at Amazon suggested.
After many hours of play I still haven't been moved to replay the game to reach the end. Also, the game is riddled with glitches.
I never reached the final level, because after I had gained access to that area I needed to resupply and found the link from the mainland to the area just prior to the ultimate destination was BROKEN. A decent buy but certainly not for more than $10-$20.
I'm glad I found a good used copy.
There's a long list of minor to moderate rules changes othr posters have listed, but here are my biggest annoyances with the game: - Turn-based exploring. Does he have concealment. You'll be spending most of your time in completely dark areas fighting monsters with darkvision; it sucks.- No display of modifiers/dice rolls. Transferring items and equipping items and trying to get yourself at a light load is a time-consuming chore.The in-combat interface isn't fantastic either. I know the rules for this edition by heart, and because of that I'm able to create characters and play the game proficiently.
It won't even do somehing as simple as show you the change in attack bonus while equipping different weapons (two entirely different, but both clunky, menus).The menu interface is overall clunky just difficult to work with. Which next leads me to:- Suprise rounds & combat initiation suck. I imagined a game laid out basically the same way except using the very nice D&D 3.5 rules set.Sadly, the execution was mediocre at best.The game isn't very user friendly. As I mentioned above, I was expecting something like FF tactics where only the battles were done "tactically".
I like to see the result of modifieres and dice rolls ala Neverwinter/Baldur's Gate. You can only stealth "in-combat", so scouting ahead doesn't work very well. Your HP and AC are displayed at least, but it never mentions your attack bonus anywhere which might be helpful. It's annoying to have to individually move 6 characters around the screen through difficult environments that mock the grid system with their complex layout. When you're in a well-lit environment and in combat, the game is still fun.
The only other "tactics" game I've played before this was Final Fantasy (both the original and the DS), so I had high hopes going into this. When my 4 martial-combat oriented characters that range from +6 to +10 to attack all whiff on the guy with 11 AC for 6 rounds in a row, I start scratching my head wanting to know whats going on. Is there some penalty I'm under. What's up.- Stealth sucks. You will spend most of your "adventuring" time moving your people around.- Light sources seem not to be shared. The menus and interface are still very sub-standard, and these great moments will only make up 10% of your time playing the game, but when they happen they're still great tactical D&D gameplay. For anyone who does not know the rules like the back of their hand, this game will not help you learn them at all.
If they ever decide to make a future version/sequel of this, they need to make a better interface, and drop the non-combat tactical movement (eliminating it all together, or some option to move the whole party along at once). Combine it with my poor dwarves and halflings moving at reduced speed and you have an exercise in tedium. I can understand the dwarve's darkvision not being shared with the party (though I would prefer if it was) but if someone has a torch or a light spell on them, the person next to them will still be in the dark on his turn. Because you explore in "turn-based" format, it means one of your characters (instead of whole party)will pop around a corner and get slammed by multiple enemies.With all of these negatives, there is still one big upswing. They'd have at least a 4-star game right there, maybe 5 with some further polish.
If you haven't played D&D before, it might take you a while to get a hang of all of the attributes here.This is a role playing game with every aspect under control. I would get alerts that I was being attacked - and I would see something swinging - but I would have no idea where they were, what they were or how I was arranged around them. You get the torches in the corners, the campfires, the chests and various types of monsters. They try to stuff a lot of information into the game and it ends up being a pain to wade through. Instead, each character can only move X blocks a turn. This gives you plenty of time to explore the room, evaluate your options, determine exactly who should move where to get the best results.The graphics are rather impressive for a game of this style. If you're a hard core D&D player, you'll love the level of detail found in Dungeons & Dragons Tactics PSP. Some times I literally had to move my characters to a clearer area of a room just to be able to see what was going on.The menu system is a bit overwhelming.
If you happen to kill Monster X, suddenly you can't go loot the rest of the dungeon. I would try to navigate for a better view and be unsuccessful. You have to be very careful to do things in order.Still, for real D&D fans this is about as close as you can get for a D&D experience on a PSP. They are going for a dark, gloomy look. You don't just run in a mad ax-flailing rush as quickly as you can move your controller. What's ironic is that D&D fans are going to find plenty of important things that were left out.
However, the game goes a bit overboard in this area. The result is that you literally can't see what is going on on the screen. They definitely could have done another month or two of tuning on this to make the game more intuitive to play as well as including a few more aspects that D&Ders have come to expect.There's also a problem with how tasks are laid out. Well recommended as a fun game to get your D&D fix, as long as you can be patient and tolerate some of its issues.
Multi could be better but hay Single player is fun. not as good as pen ad paper but a good RPG none the less get it
The availability of new adventurers to hire, and new stores to peruse is great, and really adds to the gameplay. Even with the limitations of the PSP, it overcomes much of its negatives by giving us so many positively creative 'tactical' challenges, and enduring replayability.Recommended. The character menu is accessed through the directional buttons, and the 'x' is used to select. The 'x' button is the select button, the 'circle' button is the back button, the 'square' button changes from equip to unequip and back, the 'triangle' button is good to quick sell inventory, and the 'left' and 'right' triggers can be used to horizontally scroll through the characters. However, base body appearances that remain static regardless of body armor or headgear are a little disappointing. On the plus side the lighting and fog effects are great.The sound is ok.
I mean, I like to move around from 'tile' to 'tile' in turn based mode when roaming dungeons, so I can better plan, rather than real time RPG's which leave me feeling somewhat panicked. Still, the animations are pretty good, especially non humans, like the wolves and dogs. The downside is, this is one your PSP, which isn't that great a platform for party-based/turn-based adventuring. D&D requires a wealth of information to displayed on screen at once, since each character has huge inventories and stats to keep track of. All of the 'basic' classes are there, including psion and psychic warrior, as all of the 'basic' races, and most of the applicable rules.The graphics are fine, very three dimensional, and with a rather blocky polygon count. There are no voice overs for the 'sliding puppet show' cut scenes, and this is fairly disappointing. The first three battles are quite easy. Some problem animation issues weren't resolved, like the issue surrounding 'unseen' monsters which do not move at all but slide like chess pieces when coming out of the cover of darkness.
I can explain.First of all, this game is amazing. This gives individual control and thought to each person's actions in the party, and that trumps all other styles of play, IMHO. They designed this game to kill you, and destroy your party. Your party is not limited to the original cast which you can create, or borrow the ready made ones to start things off quickly. This menu, which is visible for almost the entire game, does everything from character options during a fight, to dungeon exploration options, to map navigation and party management.This takes some getting used to.
D&D fans rejoice. It would be nigh impossible. While it helps the more times you've been through a dungeon, you will find new challenges along the road the further you travel, and often times you'll find regrets. I mean, most of the up-down, side-to-side scrolling is done with the directional buttons, but some descriptive information about items is accessed using the joystick. During battle or dungeon exploration the 'select' button can be used to zoom in the viewing angle, and the joy stick vertical axis controls the degree of overhead angle, and the horizontal axis rotates the view. Each character has a wealth of options to do at any given turn, including spells which need preparing and accessing.
These are familiar to every D&D fan, but if you are new to D&D, but have played other RPG's, this will give you some idea of what to expect.The downside is significant, and predictable. The music is good, but gets repetitive, and the sound effects are nothing special, but fairly varied and appropriate. I mean, it is the closest thing to the pencil, dice and paper games of D&D past with great TRUE implementation of the rule set. How do we access these all these options, and keep track of everything going on the screen, while not losing sight of the character whose turn is underway.Well, they attempted to solve the information display problem by using abbrevations, and collapsable bullet menus, and with the rest of the navigation (including gameplay) they went with a central horizontal/side scrolling menu.
You can finally put those long dormant mental powers to use using all the characters designed in the d20 D&D 3.5 system in this game. Hit start to bring up the 'save/options' screen during the battle to save when on the fly, or speed up gameplay by using chess mode, or other options.There is not much intuitive about how this game is controlled, but it can be learned without too much effort. I guess no voice overs is better than cheap voice overs, and imagine they were left out for budget reasons.The game play seems pretty linear, as your encounters are laid out on a map kinda resembling a "skill tree" and your battles are sequentially tougher as you travel further along the road. But, could a team of halfling bards make it all the way through. A team of halfling bards could survive with no armor, if you play it correctly. Finally a game to implement the 3.5 rulebook with psionic characters. I have often found myself drawn to the character creation and shear infinite combinations of party members that are possible, and whenever I come across a difficult dungeon, sometimes I start again thinking some other configuration would be more successful in EVERY possible situation.
Once you play this game, you might start thinking like I do, that there is a challenge behind every corner, and you really have to be prepared, and make the right choices at every turn, or you will find this game very difficult. This is just one aspect of the problem.The other problem is game control itself. The exchange of inventory between characters further complicates matters. The fact that both right and left hands may be equipped with weapons further complicates matters. I mean sure, battle can do that to you, but I feel that taking some time to make your moves assures that you are putting more thought into it, which would be impossible in real time across multiple characters.
This is the attraction. You find out as you travel, the ready made ones you passed up in the original party formation can be added later in the game at various stops along the way.Character creation is simply the matter of picking your race (Human, half-elf, half-orc, elf, dwarf, gnome, or halfling), your sex (male, or female), your class (barbarian, bard, cleric, druid, fighter, monk, paladin, psion, psychic warrior, ranger, sorcerer, and wizard) and your attributes (strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma) and then assign your skill points and pick your feats. Not only that, but buying and selling inventory from stores further complicates matters. I doubt it. But it is overcoming these obstacles that makes it addicting, and seeing your character with just a few hit points make a miraculous save is always heartening.If this game was made for the PC, it would be a five star must buy since all the problems could be overcome.
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