u/aeralure

So I loved BG3. Plan to play it again, but I have had DoS2 in my backlog for years. Played it a little bit, didn’t go too, far, forgot what happened and made a new character yesterday. I was ready to give up after a few hours though, due to the constant AoE, enemies throwing fire and poison. I’m always on fire in combat. It’s not even the difficulty, it’s more the annoyance.

I’m thinking of starting over again. What might be a way to play the game? How do you play with the constant AoE? Is there a way to extinguish it as a melee class? Admittedly no idea what I’m doing but I’m finding the AoE a problem and BG3 was more tactical and less AoE (though I used it on my run when I played a Druid).

Do you need to play DoS2 a certain way? A certain class? Am I missing something about the AoE that will make the game more fun?

I’m thinking about starting over as a water/ice mage, the whole floor is lava (literally) thing is bothering me that much lol. Any thoughts appreciated!

Pros (for me):

• The visuals are great, for the style it is going for.
• Combat is fun. There's a little bit to it. Maybe just enough.
• Parries feel good to land.
• No animation to stop and pick up items (there are a lot).

Cons (for me):

• Enemy variety is too low.
• Enemy density is too low.
• Silent protagonist.
• Forced slow-walk areas.
• Repetitive ally dialogue (I'm playing in Japanese though so audibly not as much of an issue).
• The demo is too easy.
• The world is too linear for an open-ish world.
• Exploration is at a minimum.
• Drops and finds seem somehow unexciting. Maybe its because you don't have access to crafting yet, so picking up crafting items feels pointless, or maybe its because you can't equip things when you find them. Or possibly because its too easy and it doesn't seem to matter anyway.
• Very little world interactivity (boxes and vases don't have anything, no players in the zones except for some cut scene events). Can't talk to random NPCs in town (though I suppose this is minor, it just underscores very limited interaction with the world).
• No weapon weight (a Con, but certainly not a deal breaker, as I enjoyed God Eater and other action RPGs).

That's about all I can comment on from the demo, as far as I have played. I was really looking forward to it, and I enjoy parts of it, but certain Cons all in combination with each other means I won't get it at launch, despite the fact that I LOVE this direction for the franchise in terms of its games and I want this to continue. I'm just not finding it compelling to play. It's hard for me to put "Why?" to words, but maybe this:

Too much emptiness and just running around. Fighting enemies of the same type way too often, and they don't seem to drop anything useful (?). If I am going to fight the same enemy type often, I want a compelling reason, like rare drops occasionally (Diablo, PSO, MH). Maybe there are. The way the game is set up so far I completely cannot tell and am not that invested in the loot (that is a problem for me). The bosses here and there are fun.

Let's say I play it just for the boss combat and the story. Well, I can't really do that either, as the MC is a silent protagonist (unless this changes when you can make a character?). I am not invested in the game as I thought I would be, when they are trying to focus on the story and the MC is completely not involved. Maybe Death Mode would help, but that should be available at the start of the game and not only after you beat it. At least there would be stakes and some excitement maybe, but I'd have to see what higher difficulty is like because so far its also too easy.

I will wait until after release to see if there are significant updates, as opposed to preordering, so I suppose I am somewhat disappointed. I want to love it. Truly I do. I'm just not that invested given some issues I have which I take a lot of care to say are just issues "For Me." Ymmv.