I did a lot of aerial attacks. Pop up the little green guys with your weapon and hit 'em three to four times in the air then do a finisher whilst still in the air. At this point the mob should be dead or close to it. I'd usually pull out my guns at that point and roast 'em. Rinse and repeat.
The
giant spider looking things
I only ever used my guns on after dying repeatedly trying to melee them. Also they share their shield with nearby enemies so you have to take out its shield or get the other mobs away from it.
The
big troll dudes with the grenade launchers on their backs
were fairly simple. Just pull out the gun and aim for the launcher on their back.
Most important thing I can think of is again the aerial attacks. And don't get caught in the middle of a crowd. Use a Ruiner. I used them quite a bit.
Well 14 hours, minus 2 for breaks and so, straight and I just finished. It was a fun game, parts of the combat got very repetitive and there was some swarms that were just too big and long to keep interest. And what was with the one armored troll boss where the music kept repeating? did they not notice that while testing?
It'll probably take me another 15 hours to 1000/1000 the game.
I got the game last night! Really shouldn't have popped it in because it was already late and I knew I would have trouble turning it off. I went with the Bioengineer and finished the 1st level. Man towards the end of that level it got quite crazy. I gotta say it seems harder than the demo was.
How I did the first boss encounter.
GRENDL was definitely boring and too long. All i did was keep running backwards around the room popping grenade? (left trigger) shots off. It would seem doing this would kill the little flying things and after killing all of them a couple times GRENDL would drop on all fours. When he did this I would go right in and melee/ruiner his ass down. Rinse Repeat.
As a bioengineer I couldn't complete the first couple secret timed rooms Which pisses me off cuz I'm currently 4/6 on my first purple crafted set. If i had gotten those rooms I probably would be walking around in full set
The preorder armor definitley lasts until your first crafted Items it would seem. So around lvl 8. It was awesome seeing how badass you look right off the bat in the cinematics. I love shit like that.
Overall I'm having a blast with the game, I'm hoping to have sp done by end of weekend so I'll be rdy to co-op next week!
Sorry for the long post just wanted to give some initial impressions.
Tonight I got to make the big decision of whether I'm gonna go Human or Cybernetic :lol
Picked up the game last night after reading all the impressions in here. Make no mistake, their are definitely issues with the game, but I'm having too much fun to complain about them for the most part, and they seem more like nitpicks that could easily be fixed in a patch or a sequel for sure.
Combat felt a bit off at first, but now I' settling in, and mixing in the dodge/roll really makes a difference. I was getting it handed to me by GRENDL until I started dodging, then he was a piece of cake.
Not having too many issues on level 2 like some people in this thread seem to be. I've got some bad ass weapons, including a couple of nice cannons that do a lot of damage, and I've learned where to attack some of the trolls to get them to drop faster.
I have to say, I really like this setting. It's an interesting mix of mythology and science fiction, and bringing elements from the Norse mythology has been great. The Norns as AI in cyberspace is cool as hell and makes sense in the context too. Very cool stuff.
Fun game so far, and I knew I was hooked last night when I would sit down to play for "just a little bit" and two hours would go by of me saying "I'll just go a bit further". :lol
Jeez, looking through my achievement list I already have 13 achievements for a total of 210 points after the first level! Reading them makes me feel like a real bad ass already
I somehow got the "serve em up" achievement. I think I remember pounding an enemy in the air and one of the npc soldiers killed the enemy in the air! Who says the AI in this game is shit :lol :lol
None that I could see. Graphics are the same (I find them to be quite great). I don't know about frame rates and shit, but it seems like the same game, just more of it, more fun, more awesome, bigger levels, more badass moves.
As hard as the second level is for me, holy fuck this game is satisfyingly fun.
Wrapped up the first stage and called it a night. Basically: Not nearly as bad as I feared. Not nearly as good as I hoped. It kinda seems like the game could basically play itself. I probably could have died 50 times against Grendal and it wouldn't have mattered.
I think whatever problems people had with the demo are well ingrained into the core structure of the game. Personally, I don't find many problems with the game at all. So, uh -- I guess if anything changed... It isn't particularly noticeable?
Hmmm.... I'm not sure what I'm missing on Level 2 that makes it so hard. Sure, I've died a few times, but only because I haven't found a way to heal other than the random health orb drops, and attrition will get you eventually. But I've been making fairly quick and easy progress through that level so far.
Only found one of the secret rooms at this point and walked right through it as well. I'm like a Level 15 Champion, decent items so far.
"Wait until you start the ice forest. The platform BB is talking about was insanity x5 and the secret rooms are even harder."
I think he was saying he just doesn't like that there isn't a penalty for dying. You could die once or you could die fifty times and it's still the same outcome. You still get the loot and you don't lose anything for dying so much.
I've noticed some differences. The graphics seems a little more smooth. The most noticeable area I noticed this was when you are on that floating platform going up to see the main dude in the flashback cutscene. In the demo that was a little choppy and the background to me didn't look near as nice as it does now. But that might be due to my coloring and brightness settings.
I definitely think there is an improvement in speed with the menus. They still aren't lightning quick but they don't stutter at all like they did for me in the demo.
I played up to the boss fight, stopped where I think is right before it, and since I'm a defender I managed to not die yet. When you say "died 50 times" did that equate to about an hour of just watching the damn Valkyrie come down and review you? That shit almost made me not buy this, is it any better in the final?
I've noticed some differences. The graphics seems a little more smooth. The most noticeable area I noticed this was when you are on that floating platform going up to see the main dude in the flashback cutscene. In the demo that was a little choppy and the background to me didn't look near as nice as it does now. But that might be due to my coloring and brightness settings.
I definitely think there is an improvement in speed with the menus. They still aren't lightning quick but they don't stutter at all like they did for me in the demo.
Got my level 17 champion deep inside the Ice Forest right now. It was pretty hard to put the game down. That was the latest i've stayed up in a while.
Some of the huge battles on the round platforms are crazy... the one I remember the most was 2 trolls: one hammer and one with the gun and giant tank on it's back, one of those drider dark elves and tons of regular dark elves and goblins.
When I first learned how to climb up on the trolls' back and then the little balance minigame in the demo I had no idea why exactly they implemented that but now I know. It is pure awesome when you watch someone else do it in co-op.
If your only complaint with the demo was that it was too easy, go buy this game now.
I played up to the boss fight, stopped where I think is right before it, and since I'm a defender I managed to not die yet. When you say "died 50 times" did that equate to about an hour of just watching the damn Valkyrie come down and review you? That shit almost made me not buy this, is it any better in the final?
I don't go to any other boards (most gaming related stuff is blocked at the office). What is the reaction like elsewhere on the internet? I was kind of surprised to see some of the folks on my friends list playing it last night (not gaffers), and anecdotally it sounds like it's selling well.
Nope. The Valkyrie stuff is still in, and while it's cool the first time or two, it gets real old when you die regularly.
Got my level 17 champion deep inside the Ice Forest right now. It was pretty hard to put the game down. That was the latest i've stayed up in a while.
Some of the huge battles on the round platforms are crazy... the one I remember the most was 2 trolls: one hammer and one with the gun and giant tank on it's back, one of those drider dark elves and tons of regular dark elves and goblins.
When I first learned how to climb up on the trolls' back and then the little balance minigame in the demo I had no idea why exactly they implemented that but now I know. It is pure awesome when you watch someone else do it in co-op.
If your only complaint with the demo was that it was too easy, go buy this game now.
Yeah I noticed things looked better too. Wonder if they did some more optimization between the demo version and the final game.
Yea, I believe there were some tweaks between the demo and final build. The only other thing I noticed between the two was the framerate seemed to be locked down a bit better.
eznark said:
I don't go to any other boards (most gaming related stuff is blocked at the office). What is the reaction like elsewhere on the internet? I was kind of surprised to see some of the folks on my friends list playing it last night (not gaffers), and anecdotally it sounds like it's selling well.
Hmmm.... I'm not sure what I'm missing on Level 2 that makes it so hard. Sure, I've died a few times, but only because I haven't found a way to heal other than the random health orb drops, and attrition will get you eventually. But I've been making fairly quick and easy progress through that level so far.
Only found one of the secret rooms at this point and walked right through it as well. I'm like a Level 15 Champion, decent items so far.
I can see it being easier as a champion but as a commando its really rough. Ballistic immunity enemies and the commandos crappy melee don't mix well. There were times where I had to play just about flawlessly just to survive.
What's the deal with that whole Nidhogg explanation in cyberspace in the first level? I'm assuming its something you have to go back to after I've unlocked some other power in cyberspace.
I can see it being easier as a champion but as a commando its really rough. Ballistic immunity enemies and the commandos crappy melee don't mix well. There were times where I had to play just about flawlessly just to survive.
Yeah, I suppose Class and equipment can make a big difference. I went Cybernetic when asked to make the choice, and picked up a couple of bad-ass cannons along the way that have really helped out my ranged combat a lot.
Speaking of the cybernetic stuff, after making my choice, I didn't really gain anything that I could tell. I explored the room a bit, and found the tank in the middle of it that let you purchase items, but I didn't see any kind of cybernetic upgrades or anything. Did I miss something?
I forget which atform it is in the ice forest, but its surrounded by tanks/drums or something. Make sure you blow those up because it drops a secret platform down with some wicked gear in the chest up there.
"Wait until you start the ice forest. The platform BB is talking about was insanity x5 and the secret rooms are even harder."
I think he was saying he just doesn't like that there isn't a penalty for dying. You could die once or you could die fifty times and it's still the same outcome. You still get the loot and you don't lose anything for dying so much.
I'd say there is. My combo meter drops and I get tin foil loot. As far as I know, you get better loot if you kill a big enemy with a higher combo meter.
And no, it wasn't watching the Valkyrie for an hour. It wasn't actually fifty times. The only really frustrating thing that's happened so far was making it to NINETY-SIX Efficiency (I'm Human) and dying.
I don't find it bad at all. Yeah, it takes a few seconds to get back into the mix, no biggie. Also, it's cool (though bad) to see the Valkyrie come in for the other player in co-op or (worse yet) two Valkyries coming down. :lol
Some of the huge battles on the round platforms are crazy... the one I remember the most was 2 trolls: one hammer and one with the gun and giant tank on it's back, one of those drider dark elves and tons of regular dark elves and goblins.
That was awesome. I really liked the ice forest, except for the boss.
How many challange rooms are there in the iceforest. I found 2, and I passed 1.
I was so pissed when I died. Basically I had little health left and I was in mid-air juggling this goblin. I needed health bad. So just as the health orb dropped I got hit by an arrow from those spider dudes.
Speaking of those spider dudes, has anyone found a sound way to take them down? I always end-up using my ruiner on them.
The only really frustrating thing that's happened so far was making it to NINETY-SIX Efficiency (I'm Human) and dying.
I'm human as well. How do you build up efficiency?
Union Carbine said:
I don't find it bad at all. Yeah, it takes a few seconds to get back into the mix, no biggie. Also, it's cool (though bad) to see the Valkyrie come in for the other player in co-op or (worse yet) two Valkyries coming down. :lol
I made a big mistake. I was looking forward to playing this all day yesterday, and just about the time I was ready to pop it in, I get paged from work. System problems, so I'm on the phone and VPN from about 8:30pm until 1am or so solving shit.
So then comes the mistake... instead of going to bed, I decide "hey, I'll just pop it in and play a little -- just a little". I finally managed to force myself to stop at 3:30am, and had to get up at 6:30 to come into work and finish cleaning up the mess from yesterday.
So, my impressions:
The cinematics didn't bother me much in the demo, but I'm watching them all the way through again on my first playthrough and they really are poor. Animation is bad, framing is bad, expressions are wooden, voices are serviceable. The intro movie with GRENDL-1 coming into the bar started ok, but just went downhill fast. I like the reference to Hrothgar's hall, but that's about all I liked. The slo-mo portions were trying to be elegant and cool, but come off as just plain slow and really poor. The flying buzz-saw minions are more silly than scary. I have a strong feeling I'll be glad to skip the cinematics in future play, but we'll see how the story shapes up.
(I'm going to be generous with the spoiler tags from here on out)
So then I'm back at the beginning of the demo level, impatient to move on to something new. The pre-order armor is nice and lasts until about level 8, as others have said. I'm playing a Defender and was worried about clearing the arenas as they gave me a little trouble in the demo, but use of
my laser spider
and
ruiners as needed
let me clear them with relative ease. I just try to make sure
my combo level is maxed
before entering an arena so
I can slide around as quick as possible and drop a ruiner or two
.
I was surprised when the second troll (at the room where the demo stopped)
dropped without me touching him. I deployed my laser spider to keep him busy while I took out the two missle goblins, I came back around to face him, and he was gone! But then, I've maxed out the spider.
So then, I face the door where the demo ended and I had this odd sense of enjoyment when it opened and let me through. The rest of this level was good, and ramped up the difficultly just slightly from the demo portion. The
ice goblins
were a nice change of pace, and something to watch out for. There was a location where a number of
fire goblins (?? I think? they exploded when dying, anyway) were rushing through a doorway, I had a nice set of pistols and
all I had to do was
stand back and lay into them, when one would go down and explode, he'd take another one or two closest to him out as well
.
I was wary of the GRENDL-1 fight, since some here indicated trouble, so I played conservatively and had little trouble, but then again:
A) I'm a Defender, and
B)
I ran way like a girl and dodged like a mofo
I led him all around until
all the destructible walls were gone, I thought maybe the ceiling would fall in on him.
Then I tried
leading him through the fire that shot up from the floor
but that did nothing. So finally, I just
lay into him with my pistols until they stopped doing damage, then I'd throw in some fierce attacks and finishers, rinse, repeat,
and he went down after a few minutes. No deaths for me, but I was down to less than half life after the fight.
I didn't notice what he dropped for some reason... I need to check my inventory again. Then it dumps me into the hub world, I try to wander around a bit but it forced me to visit the cybernetics lab and make the infamous choice. I found this really disappointing. I felt like it should have felt more significant -- I thought the other gods were trying to convince Baldur to become more cybernetic? Where was that? There was no dilemma! Just choice A or choice B.
I was glad to see you could wander around the cyber lab and 'read' some of the screens to get extra info on the game, such as equipment state and so on. However, I think all of that should be accessible from the main menu as well -- at least after you find it the first time in the lab; I don't want to trek all the way back there to refresh my memory on things.
And that's where I made myself stop. I wanted to keep playing, which is a good sign. Yes, there are rough edges -- plenty -- but the game is fun, and in the end that's all that needs to be said. I'm level 10 after two hours of play time (no cinematics skipping), and have all the blueprints for the dragon set, or whatever it's called, although I'm short the cash to craft them all just yet. I'm two pieces short, I think. I love the Defenders resistance to knockdown -- it saved me a few times -- and I managed to avoid dying even once on the first level. 190 achievement points, so far.
I'm looking forward to playing more tonight, but am making myself promise to get to sleep by 1am!!
Mainly lurk here. I was wondering how you get rid of the purple haze/spider thing in cyberspace. It must some incredibly easy, and I am having a brain fart. I push on it but nothing happens. Any tips would be great?
I don't think there is a 'best' class, but the Defender has some skills that reduce and/or reflect damage, so you can basically tank your way through -- scooping up health drops -- without too much worry of dying. Err... at least on the first level! I'll see about the second level tonight.
BenjaminBirdie said:
Also, are defenders able to use Sheild/Weapon sets? They seem to be permanently blocked for my Berserker.
Depends a lot on how you want to play it. People have been having problems with the commando on certain types of enemies. All of them have pluses and minuses. The guy who wrote the strategy guide put up a blog post on his favorite builds that I found useful.
