My first thoughts on the demo

[CyberGooch]

I saw TQ at E3 on Wednesday, and it looked pretty cool, saw I grabbed the demo and played last night. Couldn't get it to install at first because of the Windows not on C: drive issue, but did a regedit to temporarily change the windows path and all was good. I've heard that issue has been resolved.

-First thing I was going to whine about was the small inventory, but it sounds like there are a few larger bags you get as you play through the game, so it gets larger..that's good.

-I've got to spend more time with the various keys for checking ground loot, as it seemed like alt wasn't working sometimes. There were ground items that weren't showing up. I've since read about the other keys as well, so will look into that further.

-This has been mentioned by others, but it would be nice if there were some indication of item value when you're out in the field. I mean I know that the color code of the rare items etc. means that they're worth more, but it's annoying to warp back into town and discover that the giant armor suit you've been lugging around is worth 1 gp.

-When I portal back into town, it seems like the yellow "talk" diamonds are on again over the heads of npc's, but when I talk to them they say the same things they said before.

-The Essences are cool that can be applied to weapons and armor, but I would love it if they could be removed and re-used on other items later. I always feel like I'm wasting them using them on low level items, but if I don't use them, I just end up carrying them around waiting for some uber item to use them on.

-I'd like to see a stash as others have mentioned. Sounds like that may be added later.

I found myself initially reaching for the camera rotate keys, but realized it doesn't. This was mildly annoying at first, but I realized later that I didn't really miss it. It would be much more of an issue if you couldn't see around things, but the transparency effect of trees and such seems to work fine in this regard.

Stuff I liked a lot:

-Enchantments that stay on permanently. Nothing is more annoying to than having to constantly recast an enchant on a weapon. I love the fact that I have a choice of having it on or not, but when it's on it STAYS on. And it makes sense that a portion of your magic is used towards this.

-NO ARROWS! My, how I hate having to constantly worry about how many arrows I have left. Thank you for doing away with this.

-Excellent graphics. On a whim I went back not too long ago to play Diablo 2 again. Ouch. I'm not normally one that cares about eye candy that much, and I've always felt that the game is much more important than how pretty it is, but it's sure nice to see graphics like this. The characters moving through the grass are very cool, and it's just got a nice feel to it in general.

-Portals! I like that you don't have to waste any inventory space on a portal gem or use scrolls etc., it's just in the interface.

-Nice map. Easy to read, looks good, pans.

-Viewable at night. The first time I saw the sun going down, I thought "crap, day for night cycle" because I don't like stumbling around on too-dark screens. But the moonlight feel is bright enough and looks good. And the long shadows that fall across the ground at sunrise and sunset look awesome.

-Repurcahse! This is nice. If you're not paying attention and you sell the wrong item, you can buy it back without losing money in the same session. This is good.

Overall, I enjoyed it and I'm sure I'll be buying it when it's out. The best sign that I was having fun with it was when I realized I'd capped out levels for the demo at 6 and was like "@#$%" becaue I wanted to keep going. (Couldn't get that first summoned creature.)

Good job guys...looking forward to it!

-Eric Gooch
Lighting Artist
Insomniac Games