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double nine posted:so uhhh, I'm going to deliver some gin to the barman at the docks, and when I open conversation the game takes an awful long time to load. When it finally does, it is revealed that the guy is into black magic and has opened a gateway to another dimension? GOTY, clearly.
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Jun 12, 2018 20:57
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Protip: you can change the flavor upgrades on weapons if you decide you'd rather have extra damage or blood, you just have to pay the mat cost again!
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Jun 12, 2018 21:16
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double nine posted:so uhhh, I'm going to deliver some gin to the barman at the docks, and when I open conversation the game takes an awful long time to load. When it finally does, it is revealed that the guy is into black magic and has opened a gateway to another dimension? I must have missed a clue, because I don't remember that at all. Just started act 2 and, yeah, make sure to level up because I went into the West end at level 20 and was have really rough fights against level 30s. I got up to level 24 and upgraded my mace to level 4, so that's helped bring things back in line.
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Jun 13, 2018 01:29
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 not only is he tall but he doesnt recognize people's personal space either 
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Jun 13, 2018 04:19
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Soonmot posted:I must have missed a clue, because I don't remember that at all. just so we're clear, the whole black magic stuff is a joke. The gin isn't. And neither was that non-euclidean shelf.
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Jun 13, 2018 09:29
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Me at level 6ish: "Oh jeez this is tough I might need to suck on some people, these sidquests and random enemies are hard." Me at level 8: "Wow this club is amazing" Seriously I have no idea why at this stage of the game I would want to use any weapon other than this amazing club wrapped with barbed wire that I apparently just found in the sewers. Between it and abusing feeding invincibility I don't really have an urge to chow down. Quick question: How often is the game going to give me a "go to bed to advance chapter" prompt? Seems like a decent way to delay districts getting worse as long as I can handle the difficulty, since I can then use that opportunity to level up. I just got mostly done with Whitechapel, about to report back to Ashbury.
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Jun 13, 2018 09:29
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I've just gotten the opportunity to run around the West End and I've been kind of tickled by the resemblance of the music to tracks I remember from V:TM-B. It's been quite a while since I've played Bloodlines so there may not be much of a real similarity between them, but it certainly FEELS like there is.bewilderment posted:Me at level 6ish: "Oh jeez this is tough I might need to suck on some people, these sidquests and random enemies are hard." I just started Act II and I haven't had one of those prompts in a while. I always try to put off sleeping until I've got everyone in a district healthy so that the situation doesn't degrade overnight  When I first read about this game I was sure that I wanted to be a total rear end in a top hat and eat everybody all the time, but now that I've been playing I haven't eaten anyone at all... except for those Priwen jerks who keep harassing me  - I like to make it a point to kill them with my teeth as often as possible  buglord posted:
This is a great illustration of what has bothered me the most about this game so far - the super janky animations that NPCs go through while you're talking with them, plus your weird positioning during the conversation (I've had the opposite problem compared to your gif - it feels like Johnny boy is always a mile away from the NPC). Britt Burns fucked around with this message at 13:26 on Jun 13, 2018 |
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Jun 13, 2018 13:20
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I donno, has there been any game with good-looking dialogue animations (in a first person/over the shoulder perspective)? This one seems about par for the course in my experience.
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Jun 13, 2018 13:31
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double nine posted:I donno, has there been any game with good-looking dialogue animations (in a first person/over the shoulder perspective)? This one seems about par for the course in my experience. Eh, I guess the camera positioning feels awkward to me, and I feel like the NPCs almost thrash about... lots of swaying and stuff. I kind of want them to be a little more locked-in, or to have more scripted movements.
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Jun 13, 2018 13:50
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I really want to like this game, but I find myself agreeing with reviewers that it makes a really good first impression, but the longer you play the more the seams really start to show. The basic loop is pretty repetitive (pretty basic combat, lots of conversations in each district), which would be fine but the game goes out of its way to make it onerous (districts that you spend a lot of time curing just fall to poo poo overnight again, the game forces you to backtrack constantly and has no fast travel, super long load times). I've also noticed that performance starts to struggle the longer you play, at least on the X - not sure if that's because it's having to simulate more in the background as you uncover more NPCs, or what. Side quests are, mechanically, very same-y and simplistic. The overall narrative gets submerged by Chapt. 3 and there's no real "drive" to the main story, so the game really just feels like a management game. Most of the "grey" characters with moral dilemma around biting are found early on, and there's relatively few of them. Otherwise, there are good characters who it's clear you shouldn't embrace for a "good" ending, and bad ones that seem "okay" to take. It's an interesting game but I just find it harder and harder to pick back up, and it really does feel like it shows all its best cards in the first 2 chapters or so. I feel almost like DontNod shot themselves in the foot by trying to do too much with the game. Like, if they had doubled down on it being a narrative game in the vein of LiS, they could have really let the story and characters breath. OR they could have focused on a character action game that tapped into the classic vampire feel and lore, but ditched the conversation stuff. Instead we just got a middling version of both. VanillaGorilla fucked around with this message at 13:56 on Jun 13, 2018 |
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Jun 13, 2018 13:54
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bewilderment posted:Quick question: How often is the game going to give me a "go to bed to advance chapter" prompt? Seems like a decent way to delay districts getting worse as long as I can handle the difficulty, since I can then use that opportunity to level up. Every act will involve a major decision regarding the pillar of the community that will have an impact on the district after you rest, and the game will prompt you. You don't need to rest to keep going, but that's a good opportunity to so you can see how the world changes according to your decisions. Beat the game last night on a no-embrace run. Overall despite the underwhelming combat I greatly enjoyed it and appreciate that the story seemed self-contained with no irritating sequel hook (not that I wouldn't like to see one). Beyond the earliest parts, I just never felt meaningfully challenged by the combat despite ostensibly playing on the more difficult story path. Their whole thing about "MAYBE YOU SHOULD EAT SOMEONE TO MAKE THINGS EASIER" struck me as quaint by the end. It's not that you can just button mash your way through, but if you are aware and patient even enemies double your level can be handled fine.
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Jun 13, 2018 14:01
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how do ranged weapons fare in the later game? Is it a good investment to upgrade the starter pistol? And what's the combat utility niche for shotguns?
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Jun 13, 2018 14:46
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Upgrade shotguns because they tend to do a ton of damage against anything that can't be easily stunned.
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Jun 13, 2018 14:53
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I finally finished this thing after a few playsessions where I actually had to kind of force myself to play instead of allowing myself to get distracted by something fun. Hooray. I ended up liking the story and the end reveals but having to backtrack every time I spent XP in order to cure people on the other side of the map just loving ruins any momentum the plot might have had at any given moment. Overall, it ended up being a lot like "Remember Me": a beautiful piece of interesting fiction with some really poor pacing and gameplay that feels like a waste of time. Feels kind of good to see the back side of this one, like it's a horrible chore I finally finished.
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Jun 13, 2018 15:16
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double nine posted:I donno, has there been any game with good-looking dialogue animations (in a first person/over the shoulder perspective)? This one seems about par for the course in my experience. Well there is quite a long way between repeating two animations and a perfectly choreographic cutscene.... Vampyr does the first one. And quite literally so. They play their idle animation + lipsync and then repeat one single loving animation over and over and over and over. It's really bad. It's better NOT to do those (except when you're Bethesda, then your choice is always worse) as to make it overly obvious through constant repetition. Merrill Grinch posted:I finally finished this thing after a few playsessions where I actually had to kind of force myself to play instead of allowing myself to get distracted by something fun. Hooray. drat. I'm just at that point having to force myself as well... doesn't sound like it's worth it. Remember Me had at least something special due to being SciFi, great art direction, outstanding soundtrack. Vampyr doesn't have these things and I'm merely interested in the stories progression I guess. How long is the game approx.?
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Jun 13, 2018 15:45
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It took me 35 hours playing at an unhurried pace.
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Jun 13, 2018 16:11
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VanillaGorilla posted:I've also noticed that performance starts to struggle the longer you play, at least on the X - not sure if that's because it's having to simulate more in the background as you uncover more NPCs, or what. I'm glad to hear someone else say this - I'm playing on the PC and I've had to turn some settings down because it's starting to chug after playing for 20 hours.
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Jun 13, 2018 16:31
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I will definitely say that after my playthrough I feel no desire to play it again. The notion of chomping everyone to soup Jonny up loses its appeal when the combat has no real depth or insurmountable challenge, and I get the strong impression that little beyond the ending and some throwaway dialogue would really change by the shift in morality. Enjoyed my time with it, back to Battletech.
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Jun 13, 2018 16:44
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I was hoping there would be more...finesse..with the conversations? The characters in this game are generally interesting, but it feels odd that I can straight up accuse people I just met of various crimes and misdeeds, and then just continue conversation as if nothing happened. I figure out a worker at the hospital is extorting patients, then nothing happens? I can seemingly say whatever I want at any time so long as I unlock hints, and people are okay with it. I think I did bad by mentally comparing this to Alpha Protocol, since conversation choices appeared to have longer reaching effects.
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Jun 13, 2018 17:39
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buglord posted:I was hoping there would be more...finesse..with the conversations? The characters in this game are generally interesting, but it feels odd that I can straight up accuse people I just met of various crimes and misdeeds, and then just continue conversation as if nothing happened. I figure out a worker at the hospital is extorting patients, then nothing happens? I can seemingly say whatever I want at any time so long as I unlock hints, and people are okay with it. I think I did bad by mentally comparing this to Alpha Protocol, since conversation choices appeared to have longer reaching effects. It's suggested that he's using his vampire charm to compel them to talk about such things, hence the ripple effect and echo when you do it the first time. I agree that there's never any real follow up to it, which is unfortunate and adds to the lack of replayability in my opinion.
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Jun 13, 2018 18:10
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buglord posted:I figure out a worker at the hospital is extorting patients, then nothing happens? The happening is turning Milton's punk rear end into a slurpee and then killing Pippa when she goes rogue. You've kind of got to make your own consequences to people in more than a few.
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Jun 13, 2018 18:50
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Yardbomb posted:The happening is turning Milton's punk rear end into a slurpee and then killing Pippa when she goes rogue. You've kind of got to make your own consequences to people in more than a few. Which would be compelling if that were ever reflected positively in the game's framework, but anyone's death just further destabilizes things. Weeding out the extortionate hospital staff, the loving piece of poo poo landlord or the priest that uses grave robbing to fund burning homeless people alive all contribute towards instability and worsening plague? Give me a break. Same deal with the investigations. It's a nice story, but if nothing comes of it then who cares? It seems to fly in the face of the developers' ideal of you giving a drat about these people. Buck Wildman fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Jun 13, 2018 |
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Jun 13, 2018 19:06
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I'm not quite to the point of retrieving it, but does anyone know what (Usher-related question) Usher's notebook (that he warns you not to read) says? I've googled it and all I've come up with are people telling you not to read it, but not what it says if you do.
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Jun 13, 2018 19:11
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Britt Burns posted:I'm not quite to the point of retrieving it, but does anyone know what (Usher-related question) Usher's notebook (that he warns you not to read) says? I've googled it and all I've come up with are people telling you not to read it, but not what it says if you do. Reading it locks you out of getting the info you need to acquire the best weapon in the game, and getting all 30 lore documents. Be careful when you do get it not to push the button to jump to its description, since that's reading it. E: misunderstood you sorry. I don't know what it says but if you follow through on other things it still cracks their order's secrets open. Buck Wildman fucked around with this message at 19:27 on Jun 13, 2018 |
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Jun 13, 2018 19:15
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FunkMonkey posted:Which would be compelling if that were ever reflected positively in the game's framework, but anyone's death just further destabilizes things. Weeding out the extortionate hospital staff, the loving piece of poo poo landlord or the priest that uses grave robbing to fund burning homeless people alive all contribute towards instability and worsening plague? Give me a break. Same deal with the investigations. It's a nice story, but if nothing comes of it then who cares? It seems to fly in the face of the developers' ideal of you giving a drat about these people. Yeah ultimately it sucks a lot that the game took that route of 'Any death is a negative' when some of these people 110% have it coming, instead of something deeper, but I guess budget to blame and all in the end. It seems like the game's been doing pretty well at least, always potential of another game later.
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Jun 13, 2018 19:21
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Yardbomb posted:Yeah ultimately it sucks a lot that the game took that route of 'Any death is a negative' when some of these people 110% have it coming, instead of something deeper, but I guess budget to blame and all in the end. It seems like the game's been doing pretty well at least, always potential of another game later. I watched those developer diaries leading up to launch and they were definitely going for the whole "by killing them you kill their potential for goodness and WON'T YOU FEEL GUILTY ABOUT THAT," and I can sort of see that sometimes but then you can have a single conversation with like a solid third of the roster and can't possibly take seriously the notion that they're in any way a net benefit to society. It's better to think of it from the standpoint that it's really not Jonny's place to be Judge Dredd and being such diminishes him personally.
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Jun 13, 2018 19:38
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i like that deaths contribute to instability regardless of if it was "deserved". if people, even people i know are crooked, start turning up dead im not going to feel better about my neighborhood. it's not how civil society works. the problem is that pesky ludonarrative dissonance. those hunters have friends and family too. a few dozen corpses laying about should also tank stability i suspect nonviolent runs were possible at one time but they just ran out of time to make them work
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Jun 13, 2018 20:16
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FunkMonkey posted:Every act will involve a major decision regarding the pillar of the community that will have an impact on the district after you rest, and the game will prompt you. You don't need to rest to keep going, but that's a good opportunity to so you can see how the world changes according to your decisions. What weapons/skills where you using? I just started chapter five and I've got a max level two handed mace, but I'll still die fairly easily at level 24 vs level 30's. Especially the vampire enemies. EDIT: Case in fight this boss fight at the begining of act 5. Sword can two shot me, pistol can kill me within seconds. RIP me Edit2: Hey, you can rest before that fight, so I spent the 17K xp and got to level 29. Between boosting health, my ultimate, bloodmine, and coagulate I was able to alternate between the mace and the saber/shotgun combo to kill him. EDIT3: lol I'm a monster So I turned McCullum into a vampire. I'm sure that won't bite me in the rear end Soonmot fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Jun 13, 2018 |
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Jun 13, 2018 20:45
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I finished this the other night, and while I enjoyed it overall (even the combat, getting in to a good rhythm of slicing/stunning/biting people felt cool), I was a little disappointed in the whole "deciding to drain people for power" aspect. You get enough exp from quests and the tiny trickle from combat that I was never really tempted to kill anyone. I did end up drinking racist landlord and priest, just because I promised myself I wasn't going to go for a no-kills playthrough the first time. I almost wish drinking blood was the ONLY source of exp, and doing a no-kills playthrough would be the equivalent of a level 0 naked Dark Souls run. It would have been more fun (or at least more vampirey) to really NEED to drink blood and then have to agonize over the choices.
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Jun 13, 2018 21:22
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El Cid posted:I finished this the other night, and while I enjoyed it overall (even the combat, getting in to a good rhythm of slicing/stunning/biting people felt cool), I was a little disappointed in the whole "deciding to drain people for power" aspect. You get enough exp from quests and the tiny trickle from combat that I was never really tempted to kill anyone. I did end up drinking racist landlord and priest, just because I promised myself I wasn't going to go for a no-kills playthrough the first time. I almost wish drinking blood was the ONLY source of exp, and doing a no-kills playthrough would be the equivalent of a level 0 naked Dark Souls run. It would have been more fun (or at least more vampirey) to really NEED to drink blood and then have to agonize over the choices. Yeah it wouldve been cooler if say, all XP was halved, and by drinking a named characters blood youd get more XP and it would “activate” the xp you already by doubling it or something
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Jun 13, 2018 21:38
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VanillaGorilla posted:Side quests are, mechanically, very same-y and simplistic. The overall narrative gets submerged by Chapt. 3 and there's no real "drive" to the main story, so the game really just feels like a management game. Yeah, I'm feeling this right now. The story seems to be taking a page from Remember Me by having abrupt boss fights against dudes you've seen maybe once before. Fergal, Mary, and Doris were all potentially interesting characters, but they all just show up and then they're gone. It worked better in Remember Me since that game was broken into distinct levels. Here, the boss fights just feel like sidequests that you keep stumbling into. The romance between Lady Ashbury and John also feels a little...unmotivated. I get that this is Edwardian England, but they have the sexual chemistry of a bowl of cornflakes. Soonmot posted:What weapons/skills where you using? I just started chapter five and I've got a max level two handed mace, but I'll still die fairly easily at level 24 vs level 30's. Especially the vampire enemies. The medical saw and Charlotte's stake are good for vampires because of their speed/blood gathering. I use heavier weapons on Priwen dudes. Never really touched guns. Is there a "best" gun?
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Jun 13, 2018 21:51
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It's almost like the game presents a humanist perspective that any killing is wrong...
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Jun 13, 2018 21:56
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At least for a few of those it makes sense that killing them would destabilize things even though they're arguably bad for the community. The hospital is presented in-world as being supremely understaffed, so killing off its only ambulance driver and a third of its nursing staff is going to result in fewer people getting medical treatment during a horrible pandemic. The Wet Boot Boys are obviously bad, but they're also the only thing keeping the docks from being overrun by skalds. etc. etc. I think during normal times eating many of the characters you meet would be an unmitigated good for the community, but this is a city that's barely holding together during an apocalyptic plague so it kinda needs every healthy person it can get.
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Jun 13, 2018 22:10
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buglord posted:I was hoping there would be more...finesse..with the conversations? The characters in this game are generally interesting, but it feels odd that I can straight up accuse people I just met of various crimes and misdeeds, and then just continue conversation as if nothing happened. West End NPC spoilers: *scary vampire voice* "You are POISONING your husband who is my BEST FRIEND from CHILDHOOD!" "Yes. Yes I am." "Ok, glad we got that settled." By the way, there is a dude in the far NW of the map who will fortune tell random character hints for you. So if you really can't get one without killing a dude, that's how you do it.
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Jun 13, 2018 22:17
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Toxic Fart Syndrome posted:It's almost like the game presents a humanist perspective that any killing is wrong... Unless they're nonhuman or walking around with a bowler and a bandito mask, screw those fuckers, drain 'em dry. Soonmot posted:What weapons/skills where you using? I just started chapter five and I've got a max level two handed mace, but I'll still die fairly easily at level 24 vs level 30's. Especially the vampire enemies. I'd have to check precise numbers, but basically max stamina, followed by max health, followed by bite passives. I used the cudgel and priwen stake for the near entirety of the game.
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Jun 13, 2018 22:27
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Baby Babbeh posted:The Wet Boot Boys are obviously bad, but they're also the only thing keeping the docks from being overrun by skalds. etc. etc. Oh maybe I should have thought about that more before I chomped the leaders. Oops.
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Jun 13, 2018 22:29
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I don't particularly mind that the fabric of neighborhoods is fragile even when you cut out the parasites. It works far better than, say, the Witcher's attempts at the same kind of relativism. The settings are similarly bleak and corrupt, but one game is unfailingly cynical and the other shoots for a kind of daring, bullheaded optimism. Vampyr's full of ego tripping bullies and petty thugs but you can't really say it has contempt for any of its characters, whereas the Witcher is wall to wall grotesques and / or sociopaths. In large part this is due to Vampyr's relative humorlessness, which makes playing the game kind of a slog but contributes to the success of the project in gestalt, I guess. The problem with Vampyr is its level / encounter design and pacing. It would have been so much more palatable with a hub-and-spoke layout like Bloodlines', if not a full-on linear adventure game structure, but everything's gotta have sprawl these days if they're going to sell for retail price.
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Jun 14, 2018 02:26
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i'm just now farting around in the hospital and game seems pretty drat good so far. i kinda like the combat in its simplicity and i appreciate having Bloodspear as a "just gently caress off" button. is there any point to gathering Hints if i'm not planning on eating these people though? like i'm 99% sure i'm not ever gonna even consider munching down on Mother Theresa over here.
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Jun 15, 2018 06:46
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precision posted:i'm just now farting around in the hospital and game seems pretty drat good so far. i kinda like the combat in its simplicity and i appreciate having Bloodspear as a "just gently caress off" button. Hints still give XP so you're still incentivised to do as much as possible even if you don't much on anyone. Dying gives 5 pity XP. For some reason dying 'resets' you but keeps all the ammo and blood you wasted. I have no idea why this was seen as a good idea by the devs.
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Jun 15, 2018 07:10
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precision posted:i'm just now farting around in the hospital and game seems pretty drat good so far. i kinda like the combat in its simplicity and i appreciate having Bloodspear as a "just gently caress off" button. bewilderment posted:Hints still give XP so you're still incentivised to do as much as possible even if you don't much on anyone. Hints also unlock more dialogue options and solutions to quests, so you have an incentive to find them all if you're a completionist. On the other hand, some of the "hardest" hints to find unlock "sub-optimal" solutions so min-max at your own risk! As for the death mechanic: I'm okay with it. It makes dying painful enough that I want to avoid it, but doesn't break my game by making it impossible to continue when I do get murdered.
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Jun 15, 2018 07:50
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