Post by Andrew - Omni Horizon CEO on Nov 16, 2015 12:18:31 GMT 9.5
Written by Joshua Kollar for TheOmegaNerd
Platform: PC | Release Date: October 20, 2015
Sword Coast Legends is an interesting Dungeons and Dragons-based game. It is, by no means, a horrible game, but it is also nothing that knocked me off my gaming chair during the playthrough. There are elements throughout that are definitely similar and inspired by that of Baldur’s Gate and Diablo, but it fails to meet the legendary status that either game impressed upon me. The RPG elements are definitely spot-on and takes me back to the days when I actually played AD&D with pencil and paper, so I was impressed with some of the character creation options despite being limited by gaming standards. There are always small nuances beyond the awe of graphics and pre-made games that allow for a wider array of creativity when the game is based on your imagination rather than locked into the harddrive space allowed by the designers.
The gameplay is pretty basic, but doesn’t play nearly as fluidly as Diablo, Torchlight, or Baldur’s Gate. I felt as if the gameplay stuttered a bit during battles and even the menus felt like they lacked a little something. I was impressed by some of the abilities to unlock when characters leveled up, but even then I felt as if there was something lacking from the bigger beasts of the RPG gaming world. I played, died quite a few times with tactics that worked a little better in the aforementioned games, leveled up and attempted to keep my characters equipped and ready with new abilities, but never felt as if I was all that passionate about my character-building. I’ve played my shares of games that kept me level-grinding just because it was addicting and fun while others lost me after the first few levels and this game falls between the gaps.
The characters aren’t so bad, really. I was getting into creating my starting character despite some weird choices including my favorite enemy. I don’t know if it factored much into the gameplay, yet, but some options felt almost pointless to include in a translation from paper and pencil to videogame. Maybe it’s just me, but even I like a few limits so as not to overwhelm my gaming when I can’t use my imagination in a pre-made game anyway. Sometimes, options are just options for the sake of make the game seem so much bigger than it really is and I just start to lose interest in toying around with creating new characters for future playthroughs.
I must admit I enjoyed some of the stereotypical dungeon-crawling music despite it being the same as most RPG games I’ve played. Not many beyond Final Fantasy have actually triggered an interest to hunt down the soundtrack and listen to it outside of gaming, but at least it wasn’t recycled dungeon music from the last few games I suffered through whilst battling orcs, zombies, and whatever manner of enemies happened to make their way into the games that wish they could be Diablo or Baldur’s Gate.
The voice-acting is mediocre at best. There were some interesting voices and lines of dialogue, but I felt as if some of the voice-acting fell flat. I smacked my head a few times during some of the silly and stupid dialogue that would have been better off on the cutting-room floor than kept to add some elements of humor which is did not reach very effectively. At times I could swear I even heard some hesitation as if the actors/actresses weren’t quite sure why they would ever say some of their lines in any world. I enjoyed some accents and some of the light cheese-filled lines, but I failed to continue interest in what most of the characters were trying to tell me as I waited for the dialogue to end so I could hack and slash my way through more dungeons.
The story suffers from some boring side-missions which sometimes feel necessary to earn experience. I, also, love to spend extra hours playing side missions to get the most out of a game and earn cool rewards, but I started to feel like saving dogs and finding lost girls was nowhere near worth the minute or hour it might take to continue for any amount of experience! This is, unfortunately, not the first or last game to have horrid side missions, but I was hoping for a little more than what so many games do these days. Run out of mission ideas? Save a cat from a tree! Experience!!!! Fable, Borderlands, and so many games I love to death have horrible little side-missions I must complete to get every ounce of experience and every little trophy just so I can feel like I accomplished everything the game had to offer, but when I look back I feel ashamed to admit I ever wasted time following through with protecting someone’s dumb dog that never really does much for the game anyway.
The graphics are decent for a game of this type. I love beautiful graphics and will sit in awe on occasion rather than play missions, but when it comes to RPG games I’m as happy with 8-bit Final Fantasies as I am with shoot-em-up realistic gore. I can’t say they’re breath-taking, but I can’t say they’re horrible. They work for the game and I’m pleased with what I see before me. It’s a dungeons and Dragons game and it looks decent for a game that imagines missions up for me to play.
I do think that the ability to Dungeon Master a game is a great attraction. I am horrible at developing levels in the few games that actually offer this option, but I am always happy to see it as an option because I’ve played some very awesome user-created scenarios in a variety of games from FPS to RPG to racetracks. I think more games should allow for user-generated content because it only adds to the replayability of any game. Any Dungeons and Dragons game without that option is not really a D&D game in my book. Luckily, this offers that choice and gets a bonus roll from me.
Overall, I’m not thoroughly impressed by the game. It is fun to play to pass some time, but I don’t know if I could see myself playing it to 100% completion. I need to be captivated by the story, laugh and cry with the characters, be able to battle with superior fluidity so I can jump from one mission to the next without skipping a beat. Offer Sword Coast Legends for free or extremely cheap and I might play it to pass the time. Charge me a decent chunk of change and I will likely pass it up for the next Diablo add-on. So many games, so little time.
I’ll take it over half the games that get pounded out like pennies, but it’s not going to captivate me until it smooths out. I can deal with some horrible voice-acting or crappy dialogue, but perk up that plot with some really witty dialogue, a spectacular plot, and some amazing fluidity and I’m down to spend hours on end leveling-up and destroying every enemy in my path until it’s time to start over again with a wholly new character. Until that happens, I just can’t bear to set aside that much time on my Elven Ranger despite how handsomely cool he might end up in a few levels.
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