Game bargains thread

[Bobchillingworth]

Current Humble Bundle is quite good. Crusader Kings II is part of the deal.


I've now got a copy of Galactic Civ II I don't need- I'll gift it to someone for some Steam Cards :P

[T-hawk]

Torchlight II on sale on Steam for $5. Thinking about grabbing that one, any opinions on it?

(Not that I care about $5, but the mindspace investment of delving into a new game.)

[Bobchillingworth]

I enjoyed it for a while. Lots and lots of loot to collect, quite a few dungeons and zones to clear. It starts to get really repetitive though over time though. Not a lot of enemy diversity (the vast majority are based around a few archetypes) and you'll only ever want to use a handful of active skills while investing most of your points in passives, which means most battles involve mashing the same few keys over and over again. I've never played any other diablo-esque game tho, perhaps they're all like that.

[NobleHelium]

The value in Diabloesque games is in the class skills. If the game allows you to try various combinations of builds from the class skills and you get fun from that, that's where most of the replay value is going to be. The actual monsters and killing is always going to feel repetitive very quickly, that's basically how the games are designed. Often these games give you additional replay value by putting in items that fundamentally change one or two class skills, allowing you to create a radically different character build from that.

Alternatively if you derive enough enjoyment from getting loot, that's the other source of attraction for people. Loot never worked for me though, it's only when the loot changes the gameplay that makes things interesting.

[Nystul]

The value in Diabloesque games is in the class skills. If the game allows you to try various combinations of builds from the class skills and you get fun from that, that's where most of the replay value is going to be. The actual monsters and killing is always going to feel repetitive very quickly, that's basically how the games are designed. Often these games give you additional replay value by putting in items that fundamentally change one or two class skills, allowing you to create a radically different character build from that.

Alternatively if you derive enough enjoyment from getting loot, that's the other source of attraction for people. Loot never worked for me though, it's only when the loot changes the gameplay that makes things interesting.

The reason the combat is lacking in many Diablo II clones is in large part because of the advanced skill systems and loot systems in such games. Balancing combat for all of the permutations is pretty much impossible. One of the Torchlight devs was quoted along those lines, basically saying that his idea of balance was to throw so many possibilities at the player that you are always trying something new. Well that can be fun, sometimes for hundreds of hours. But there isn't much nuance to it.

When we played Ironman Diablo back in the day, it was pretty much the opposite experience. Your skill tree was swing a weapon. Your equipment was usually basic with incremental upgrades to damage and armor. Ironically in this stripped down form the game had its greatest depth.

[Bobchillingworth]

There's certainly no shortage of skills or ways to set up your character in Torchlight, although some playstyles are obviously superior to others. You can only respec your last three skill points though, so if you get tired mid-campaign of destroying every mob using the same few abilities you're out of luck.


The Co-op is fun, when you can get it to work. I played through the main campaign twice, one attempt with a friend. Unfortunately the game doesn't allow the use of Steam for matchmaking, necessitating the use of the terrible Runic Games servers, which frequently meant having to spend ten minutes exiting and relaunching multiplayer so that we would both appear in the same lobby. I can't imagine trying to get establish regular games with a team of four people.

[Brian Shanahan]

Paradox sale over at Steam at the moment, was actually on all weekend, but I was too busy to look at it until now. There are some very nice discounts if anybody's interested.

[Bobchillingworth]

GoG has started its Fall Sale, with free games just for visiting.

[haphazard1]

Rogue Legacy for $2.99 (USD) at both GOG and Steam right now, for anyone who has not tried this wonderful game.

And as Bobchillingworth noted, tons of deals going on at GOG right now. Flash sales popping up regularly.

[antisocialmunky]

Well, Civ: BE is 30% off.