Man!!! I've had it for two days, and I am hooked!!! I can't wait until ALFA goes live and I can play with the folks from SP that have made it in...

I'm not very far into the game yet - still chapter 1, but I like it a lot! I'm playing two games at once - One as Belisarius, the indomitable Paladin, the other as my less than lawful and often mischievous halfling rogue, Nimbul Alewine.

I'm leaning toward the rogue as my more favorite character to play, mostly because they're so versatile now in my mind. For the first quest in chapter one (before I learned that you can hire henchman) my paladin character tried to bash in every locked chest! The discovery of Tomi Undergallows has made the paladin's quest easier...But it also brings me to the only real criticism I have - Henchman Artificial Intelligence. If you don't want to know more about the game...Stop reading now!

The AI for henchmen is a little suspect. The biggest issue is with weapon selection in combat. You can only tell the henchman to use a melee weapon in combat or a ranged weapon...Nothing in between. What I mean is, if you tell your henchman to use ranged weapons in combat - that's all they'll use!!! Even if the enemy is standing in front of them!!

Kind of silly if you ask me. If I was making a change to the combat scripting, I would allow a command to use ranged weapons until an enemy closed to melee range, then switch to melee weapons - but this is just one guys opinion.

The other observation is in skill point allocation for the henchmen. Such as: If you are a rogue, your top five skills to develop should be remove traps, pick locks, hide, pickpocket, and spot or bluff. But remove traps and open locks should be priority I think. I'm harping on it, mostly because the NPC thief in the game has decent lock opening skills, but poor trap removal skills!

Anyway - those are my initial impressions. But overall I am happy with it!! anyone else have any first impressions?

Are you sure about Henchmen AI? I asked Sharwyn to use her bow, and she did. But when an enemy came close to her she immediately whipped out her Double-Bladed Sword and proceded to whup some troll ass.

Anyway, the game is almost impossible to go through without a person able to detect and disarm traps. Traps everywhere, I tell you!

Also, is it possible to give items to your henchmen? I think Sharwyn is running out of arrows and her armor really needs some changing.

Short of potions, which they gulp down immediately, you can't give anything to henchmen. When they level up, they restock and get better equipment/weapons automatically.

First Impressions: Let's see...I'm still on the first quest and so far I think the pluses definitely outweight the minuses. Some things that annoyed me a little:

1. Loss of Horizontal/Vertical Mouse Scroll---movement in those directions seem to be entirely dependent on depth chosen (arrow keys). While I really enjoy the different camera depths, I keep trying to scroll around or back up to a macro view and can't. I suppose this is one of those things you get used to.

2. The "End Dialogue" box has got to go. When one has exhausted all possible questions to ask, the simple fact that there are no more questions available should be a signal that there is no more dialogue. A small red "end" could even be placed after the last resonse if need be, but to have to go back and click on that last box is getting a little bit on my nerves. Just a thought.

3. The transparent inventory boxes----I know that one of the things that frustrated me in other games, was the fact that you couldn't see what was happening behind the inventory boxes. But....I don't know that this is any better. I'm having a hard time seeing the items---until my eyes adjust. Then, again, it could be just me.

Those are the only 3 things that have stuck out to me so far. The pluses, however, are huge---music for one and the radial menu for another. The menu is so handy and really cuts down on having to go back and forth between different portions of the screen.

I have a FEW gripes about the Single player mode like: Not being able to have more than one Henchman, not being able to equip them, and not being able to tell them where to go. It's also hard to go through the game without a thief. If I am playing as a mage or cleric I MIGHT want to take a long a strong henchman like the Barb guy. But mostlikely I'll die from stepping on some stupid trap that I didn't see, cuz I don't have a thief. So if I
do take the thief Henchman with me, I can't utilize all of his abilities like backstabbing, and setting traps. So since he can't handle fighting even the most easiest of boss battles I will most likely DIE. Other than those, I do like playing my fighter with the thief Henchman, cuz I can handle myself in melee while my thief picks everyone off with a bow...

You might want to try have the Rogue henchman join your fighter (he's right by the temple door just as you head out into the city). He's got the disable trap ability, open locks etc. I actually started out with the henchman you suggested and bailed because of the trap issue. Went back and picked up the Rogue---problem solved. However, learned very quickly to enable "stealth mode" to stop the running---my mage ran up on the knives trap before the Rogue ever had a chance to disable it. Lesson learned.

Sigh, I uninstalled the game. It's just too fun to play. It's distracting my studies for my finals. I'm dead if I flunk it.

I should never have bought this game...:D

[This message has been edited by Rhythm (edited June 24, 2002).]