Man I loved SoT, but like others said, the gameplay was the weakest part. Not sure if that's on Obsidian or someone else, but I really hope it's vastly improved this time.
Heck, I think the only fight I even had remote difficulty on was that Al Gore fight with all the Secret Service guys.
The game was a love letter to fans, but please oh please give some more thought into the game mechanics this time around.
I still believe somewhere around the end the difficulty got massivly toned down. Simply because it makes no sense otherwise.
As it stands players will miss a lot of the bosses attack animation (which are a big point of combat in this game) unless they really, really try to drag the combat out. Which in this game isn't easy. Secondly, most bosses are set up in some way regarding resistances and such. Yet, it doesn't matter at all because you're easily beating them anyway even on hardcore. Why did they even bother then?
Honestly,I think my biggest complaint with SoT was that your character reached end game way too early; on my first playthrough, I easily reached level 15 with a few hours on the clock and had picked up the katana (which was absurdly, game breakingly good) and that was before I rolled into Canada.
Let me tell you: the game becomes far less interesting when you are rolling into endgame with the same equipment and strategies you used for the past 4 hours.
If you look at the history of Stick of Truth through their developers tweets and various things at the time, they made tons and tons of changes to the game as it progressed, more-so than your normal development, which is just par for the course.
You could tell that they had a lot planned that was scrapped. The original game was supposed to be a Skyrim type setup and the original script for it was something like 500 pages, and then after all the bullshit Ubisoft told them that the original scope was too big, buuuuut they also had to get it released. This is the curse of game dev, scope and feature creep.
So what we ended up with was a great comedy story (as usual from South Park Studios) but really diluted gameplay to meet the shipment window that Ubisoft wanted. Once I treated SoT like an interactive TV show instead of an RPG, it was much better for me and I was very satisfied with it.
I'm super stoked for Fractured but Whole (heh) and I expect it to be a holiday game next year that I will be grabbing on day one.
Getting a little tired of the "Obsidian games are buggy, unfinished product" meme.
The entire industry is like that, on some level or another. So why do only Obsidian game threads get bogged down in that debate 100% of the time?
Show me on the doll where KotOR 2 touched you.
This part, here, where the ending should be.
Why, you little minx...
Anyway, it should be noted, was LucasArts's fault for rushing the production schedule, not Obsidian's.
And Sega's fault for rushing Alpha Protocol, and Bethesda for rushing New Vegas, and...
You can only use that excuse too many times before people start looking at you as the problem
Can't speak for Alpha Protocol; bought it, but the gameplay wasn't my thing.
New Vegas was actually less buggy than FO3 for me; bonus feature: it actually had an ending. Several, in fact! Dungeon Siege 3 was completely bug free, as far as I can tell. As far as I can tell, Pillars of Eternity has no more and no less bugs than any similar western RPG of its size and complexity. NWN2 had some bugs, but it had a lot of baggage going in... (biggest bug: Based On Bastardized 3.5 Edition D&D).
This thing you're saying about Obsidian. It isn't true. It is a meme that critics decided on after KotOR 2 and have been too lazy to give a second thought to.
Of the four I've played, they've all been buggy as hell
And only one was worth actually getting through the gameplay, and it was due to writing that was done by Trey Parker and Matt Stone
It's not just buggy, I think they just make bad games as well
South Park played fine enough but like everyone here has said the combat is way too easily exploitable and thus making it Costume Quest-levels of "My First RPG"
Of the four I've played, they've all been buggy as hell
And only one was worth actually getting through the gameplay, and it was due to writing that was done by Trey Parker and Matt Stone
It's not just buggy, I think they just make bad games as well
South Park played fine enough but like everyone here has said the combat is way too easily exploitable and thus making it Costume Quest-levels of "My First RPG"
Ah, the meat of the issue. Obsidian games just aren't your thing.
I didn't enjoy Alpha Protocol, but I hesitate to call it a bad game, because I've read a lot about how far ahead of its time some of its gameplay elements were.
AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
I hope the battle system and upgrades are more fleshed out. I remember Stick of Truth having a lot of ridiculous patch combinations that resulted in dealing out tons of damage and regaining tons of HP. The game practically played itself at that point. Shit like inflict bleed + heal whenever enemy takes damage + heal whenever you heal.
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
I hope the battle system and upgrades are more fleshed out. I remember Stick of Truth having a lot of ridiculous patch combinations that resulted in dealing out tons of damage and regaining tons of HP. The game practically played itself at that point. Shit like inflict bleed + heal whenever enemy takes damage + heal whenever you heal.
Yeah the status effects were insanely powerful, especially when you got gear that buffed them. Stuff like bleed and burn could decimate just about anything in a few turns. And then you had characters like, I want to say Cartman, who could inflict those effects on the entire enemy party in one attack. (or maybe I am thinking of the Jew class, which I know could do it)
Any word yet on the PS4/Xbox One port of The Stick of Truth. Haven't played it yet, because of the censorship kerfuffle in German-language territories (which inadvertently rendered all physcial copies of the PC version useless, because it delayed the STEAM release by a month). I mean I could pick it up from the current Steam sale for like 20 bucks, but I'd really rather not. I'd be much more inclined to get it on PS4 at a similar price.
The Jew class was absurdly overpowered. Circumscythe devastated enemies early on then you get abilities like the plague that inflicted statuses on all enemies and was ridiculously easy to pull off. Status effects were so overpowered.
And Sega's fault for rushing Alpha Protocol, and Bethesda for rushing New Vegas, and...
You can only use that excuse too many times before people start looking at you as the problem
And again, good point that that excuse was rarely to never actually used by Obsidian. In fact quite the opposite, they would agree with you and have gone back to talk about what they could've done better.
Most complaints are actually originated by fans when more information about development came known.
Now the complaint that they should have done more to avoid issues is justified and true.
But, contractor realities and fan excpectations don't make it easy. For example Dungeon Siege III, they took care of avoiding bugs and not overscope, but many fans complained that that *Obsidian spark* was missing.
Nonetheless, Obsidian does have to shoulder a lot of blame and could have done things better. Ofc.
South Park is a special case in any case though, because of Matt and Trey's own learning curve and the fact that it was a comedy game which needed an entirly different approach, especially as an rpg, than most other games.
On a related note a video where Matt MacLean talks exactly about that. Really interesting watch.
HeatwaveCome, now, and walk the path of explosions with me!Registered Userregular
Man I am 100% on board for another south Park game. I only hope this new one has some actual post game content. There was nothing to do after beating the story. I wanted at least another Al Gore fight, damn it! :P
Man I am 100% on board for another south Park game. I only hope this new one has some actual post game content. There was nothing to do after beating the story. I wanted at least another Al Gore fight, damn it! :P
You need to buy three carbon credits to unlock the third Al Gore fight.
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
edited October 2017
Resurrected this thread since the game came out cuz I 'member.
New combat system is classy, and the car joke in the tutorial is up there with Wayne's World.
they really bombed on the humor this time . i've been watching some playthroughs and they dropped all pretense of funny, just going for intensely gross and offensive as they can get. it's absolutely awful.
I liked the first but this is a 100% hard pass now. I wouldn't even accept it for free
Totally forgot this was today, and reviews are all pretty positive. I'll definitely pick it up once I knock out a few of the higher profile releases I'm playing right now
they really bombed on the humor this time . i've been watching some playthroughs and they dropped all pretense of funny, just going for intensely gross and offensive as they can get. it's absolutely awful.
I liked the first but this is a 100% hard pass now. I wouldn't even accept it for free
Completely disagree. This feels just like the first game in terms of humor. The improved combat just makes it that much more enjoyable an experience.
"Get the hell out of me" - [ex]girlfriend
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
edited October 2017
I'd love to play but Amazon decided to delay my pre-order that I made over a year ago -_-
Edit: Further investigation it looks like literally none of the physical PC versions shipped *anywhere*. Way to fuck this up Ubisoft.
they really bombed on the humor this time . i've been watching some playthroughs and they dropped all pretense of funny, just going for intensely gross and offensive as they can get. it's absolutely awful.
I liked the first but this is a 100% hard pass now. I wouldn't even accept it for free
Did Obsidian come back for this, or is it all Ubisoft now?
The only part I hate is not being able to decide on which three powers I want to use in combat.
Don't worry, there'll be plenty more powers coming.
You will get to start choosing your powers before combat though if you haven't unlocked that already, so there will be a strategic element coming into play down the road.
they really bombed on the humor this time . i've been watching some playthroughs and they dropped all pretense of funny, just going for intensely gross and offensive as they can get. it's absolutely awful.
I liked the first but this is a 100% hard pass now. I wouldn't even accept it for free
Completely disagree. This feels just like the first game in terms of humor. The improved combat just makes it that much more enjoyable an experience.
Humor is incredibly subjective, so I can totally see one person thinking it bombed and another person thinking its a great as the first one. I personally think the humor is weaker than the first one, but its still amusing to me.
I do think the gameplay is better than the first one, though.
Obsidian is pretty much the only reason I played the first one.
You forget, UnbreakableVow is terrible opinions made flesh.
That said while Obsidian did a fine job on the first game all indications are that the combat in this one is better.
Combat was the weakest element of the first one, for sure.
And performance, which is reportedly much better in this one
Obsidian didn't write the first game, that was all Parker and Stone, so Obsidian played the role of "makes buggy games" like they always do with none of their writing to offset it and make them worth keeping around
they really bombed on the humor this time . i've been watching some playthroughs and they dropped all pretense of funny, just going for intensely gross and offensive as they can get. it's absolutely awful.
I liked the first but this is a 100% hard pass now. I wouldn't even accept it for free
Completely disagree. This feels just like the first game in terms of humor. The improved combat just makes it that much more enjoyable an experience.
At some point it became cool to shit on South Park. I definitely don't enjoy it as much as I used to, but I don't feel like the humour has really diverged from what it's always been. I'm enjoying the new combat system very much.
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Why, you little minx...
Anyway, it should be noted, was LucasArts's fault for rushing the production schedule, not Obsidian's.
I still believe somewhere around the end the difficulty got massivly toned down. Simply because it makes no sense otherwise.
As it stands players will miss a lot of the bosses attack animation (which are a big point of combat in this game) unless they really, really try to drag the combat out. Which in this game isn't easy. Secondly, most bosses are set up in some way regarding resistances and such. Yet, it doesn't matter at all because you're easily beating them anyway even on hardcore. Why did they even bother then?
Let me tell you: the game becomes far less interesting when you are rolling into endgame with the same equipment and strategies you used for the past 4 hours.
You could tell that they had a lot planned that was scrapped. The original game was supposed to be a Skyrim type setup and the original script for it was something like 500 pages, and then after all the bullshit Ubisoft told them that the original scope was too big, buuuuut they also had to get it released. This is the curse of game dev, scope and feature creep.
So what we ended up with was a great comedy story (as usual from South Park Studios) but really diluted gameplay to meet the shipment window that Ubisoft wanted. Once I treated SoT like an interactive TV show instead of an RPG, it was much better for me and I was very satisfied with it.
I'm super stoked for Fractured but Whole (heh) and I expect it to be a holiday game next year that I will be grabbing on day one.
And Sega's fault for rushing Alpha Protocol, and Bethesda for rushing New Vegas, and...
You can only use that excuse too many times before people start looking at you as the problem
New Vegas was a better game than Fallout 3 and the majority of bugs were engine bugs that also existed in Fallout 3.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Can't speak for Alpha Protocol; bought it, but the gameplay wasn't my thing.
New Vegas was actually less buggy than FO3 for me; bonus feature: it actually had an ending. Several, in fact! Dungeon Siege 3 was completely bug free, as far as I can tell. As far as I can tell, Pillars of Eternity has no more and no less bugs than any similar western RPG of its size and complexity. NWN2 had some bugs, but it had a lot of baggage going in... (biggest bug: Based On Bastardized 3.5 Edition D&D).
This thing you're saying about Obsidian. It isn't true. It is a meme that critics decided on after KotOR 2 and have been too lazy to give a second thought to.
Of the four I've played, they've all been buggy as hell
And only one was worth actually getting through the gameplay, and it was due to writing that was done by Trey Parker and Matt Stone
It's not just buggy, I think they just make bad games as well
South Park played fine enough but like everyone here has said the combat is way too easily exploitable and thus making it Costume Quest-levels of "My First RPG"
Ah, the meat of the issue. Obsidian games just aren't your thing.
I didn't enjoy Alpha Protocol, but I hesitate to call it a bad game, because I've read a lot about how far ahead of its time some of its gameplay elements were.
In fairness, I think a lot of people think Obsidian games are really good despite being, well....buggy and unfinished.
Bethesda gets a lot of shit too, "We'll wait for them to release the game so the community can fix it" and such, and it's not exactly unearned either.
Yeah the status effects were insanely powerful, especially when you got gear that buffed them. Stuff like bleed and burn could decimate just about anything in a few turns. And then you had characters like, I want to say Cartman, who could inflict those effects on the entire enemy party in one attack. (or maybe I am thinking of the Jew class, which I know could do it)
I don't think there was a single enemy immune.
Sparrow Prince was immune to everything.
And again, good point that that excuse was rarely to never actually used by Obsidian. In fact quite the opposite, they would agree with you and have gone back to talk about what they could've done better.
Most complaints are actually originated by fans when more information about development came known.
Now the complaint that they should have done more to avoid issues is justified and true.
But, contractor realities and fan excpectations don't make it easy. For example Dungeon Siege III, they took care of avoiding bugs and not overscope, but many fans complained that that *Obsidian spark* was missing.
Nonetheless, Obsidian does have to shoulder a lot of blame and could have done things better. Ofc.
On a related note a video where Matt MacLean talks exactly about that. Really interesting watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulDQ3oMR3vg
Steam / Origin & Wii U: Heatwave111 / FC: 4227-1965-3206 / Battle.net: Heatwave#11356
You need to buy three carbon credits to unlock the third Al Gore fight.
New combat system is classy, and the car joke in the tutorial is up there with Wayne's World.
edit: Cartman's Journal is.....something.
I liked the first but this is a 100% hard pass now. I wouldn't even accept it for free
Completely disagree. This feels just like the first game in terms of humor. The improved combat just makes it that much more enjoyable an experience.
Edit: Further investigation it looks like literally none of the physical PC versions shipped *anywhere*. Way to fuck this up Ubisoft.
EDIT: Taken.
Did Obsidian come back for this, or is it all Ubisoft now?
Don't worry, there'll be plenty more powers coming.
You will get to start choosing your powers before combat though if you haven't unlocked that already, so there will be a strategic element coming into play down the road.
"Thankfully?"
Obsidian is pretty much the only reason I played the first one.
You forget, UnbreakableVow is terrible opinions made flesh.
That said while Obsidian did a fine job on the first game all indications are that the combat in this one is better.
Humor is incredibly subjective, so I can totally see one person thinking it bombed and another person thinking its a great as the first one. I personally think the humor is weaker than the first one, but its still amusing to me.
I do think the gameplay is better than the first one, though.
Combat was the weakest element of the first one, for sure.
And performance, which is reportedly much better in this one
Obsidian didn't write the first game, that was all Parker and Stone, so Obsidian played the role of "makes buggy games" like they always do with none of their writing to offset it and make them worth keeping around
At some point it became cool to shit on South Park. I definitely don't enjoy it as much as I used to, but I don't feel like the humour has really diverged from what it's always been. I'm enjoying the new combat system very much.