Review of the offline game

I recently completed the Path of the Oracle in offline mode, so thought it would be worth sharing a few of my thoughts on how the game plays in offline, single player mode. I only started playing when the game went GA, and have only played offline.

Beware: Spoilers!

Generally speaking, I enjoyed the narrative, even though some it was a bit rough around the edges. The Path of Love felt the most developed, although it wasn't initially obvious that I would need to switch paths until I was stronger. The scenes are all very well designed and beautiful to look at.

I found the Path of the Oracle disappointing. Once the objective to retrieve the artefacts was given by the Oracle, there was barely any additional NPC dialogue required. It became a simple grind-fest to get each page/lens and although the various Ruins were different, there wasn't a huge variety in playing through them.

The Colossus scenes weren't that interesting to play through either. I thought the puzzles in the Boreas Colossus scene didn't integrate well into the gameworld and felt unsatisfying. The Grannus Colossus was extremely difficult, even with my companions assisting, and didn't feel well balanced. I basically had to sprint through the last part of it.

I really enjoyed playing with my three companions alongside me. There were some parts of the story where it stated I would have to do something on my own (fighting the mobs in the Kobold camp was one example), but I guess this was written for the online game, as I had my companions with me and they helped me.

It would be a nice addition if the companions were developed further. For example, if they communicated with each other (and me!) more, allowed us to get better insight into their backgrounds, performed some additional actions (e.g. sitting down at a table if I'm in an inn), eating and drinking, etc.

Having the ability to be able to distribute my loot among the companions would be a nice addition and help the player avoid being encumbered when out adventuring.

It does feel that the game was released without the offline game being fully fleshed out. One of my biggest gripes is the ongoing bug that once a companion has been recruited to your party, the NPC character still remains at their initial place. This is a big immersion-breaker and should be an easy thing to fix.

There were also some towns that I needed to visit as part of the story, where the NPCs were not fully developed. I can't remember the town (I think it was beside a lake) where most of the NPCs had no name or anything worth saying.

Another immersion breaker is the lack of development in the offline world. For example, having located the child killer in Adoris, I later returned to find the children are still running scared. My actions don't appear to have made any difference. The characters in the outskirts areas are still there, long after I have completed the main quest. Why haven't they moved on?

The offline world would also benefit from having fewer empty lot spaces in the major towns. It would be better for the game to automatically place properties on them and have additional NPCs characters that live in these lots. These NPCs don't need to have elaborate back stories, but could be useful shopping fodder (if I ever get as far as setting up a vendor shop, it would be good to have customers!) and add to the general sense of a place being lived in.

All in all, playing offline is a "good" experience. Sometimes it's a "great" experience, and at others, it is obvious that the development effort has been put into the online modes. In my opinion, there isn't a huge amount of offline-only QOL enhancements that are needed to make this a great game. Hopefully the developers will be able to address these over time...

 

Everyone has their axes to grind, but for me, the game's greatest flaw is the massive lack of lore, both historical and contemporary. Especially in the main quest.

 

Thanks for sharing! I havent played offline mode yet, but intend to someday...

This is hugely important, IMO, to get that "spiritual successor to Ultima..." feel. The characters absolutely need scripts to find a seat nearby when you sit down. They need to pull out a drink and have side conversations with you. They need to criticize or support your decisions along the way. They need to express their offense when you violate one of their virtues. They need to celebrate your victories (in side dialogues) when you solve virtuous quests, etc. This is crazy simple tech that all of the early Ultima's had - why cant this be integrated into our game in 2018?

The game, online and offline, def need more of a feel that "NPCs hang out in taverns with you..." etc.

...also a very Ultima thing. I used to designate Shamino as my food carrier, Dupre as my extra weps and ammo carrier, Iolo as my gems carrier, etc. They all had a job in my group!

Also +1 to pretty much everything else you said. These are basic expectations for an ultima-like game!

 

Yeah, I'm going to wait quite a while before I do the offline experience. May not even touch it till E3 or so. Just something to look forward to in the future. Meanwhile they keep improving. Definitely agree with the advancing of the companions as pointed out by the OP and @Black Tortoise

 

Interesting and thoughtful write up, thanks for taking the time!

 

Great points, especially this one.

 

Thanks! I had to skim read a bit to avoid spoilers. I'm waiting for more polish before I dive in.

Definitely agree with the empty lots and removing duplicate companions!

 

I don't see how we can say we are on episode two with these issues.

Great write-up and constructive criticism.

 

Great write up. Like others here are saying, I'm also looking forward to playing the single player RPG game, but I' holding off until when I get a sense that its been more refined and polished, especially the quest log.

 

I would like to add more to this, What would be really cool is to be able to OUTFIT the companions from the loot drops.
Where the outfits and weapons they use are cool, over time it would be cool to customize them.
Maybe even make it where every couple levels you get awarded with a new companion slot you can fill.