The change to an iso view is surprisingly good. This DLC has an action RPG vibe and it works for the most part. I was pleasantly surprised.The change to an iso view is surprisingly good. This DLC has an action RPG vibe and it works for the most part. I was pleasantly surprised. This is the best of the DLCs.
There are some missteps along the way but nothing too bad. The first issue is that the camera is a little too far back resulting in issues with navigation and the character themselves. In several cases you have to precisely jump and/or double leap to another platform but the camera is soo limited that you cannot even see where you are supposed to go until you try it. It is literally off screen. The ability to zoom in and out a little would have been nice, especially during combat.
The ARPG elements like crafting, loot and progression aren't really that good. There is way too many things to collect that are there just to add a variety rather than any useful purpose. On more than one occasion I was stuck moving forward in the main quest because I didn't have X of arbitrary item Y. In some cases it told you where to find them, in others it doesn't. But in all cases it is random meaning I wasted time. The devs just went overboard with the loot-style system. The weapons themselves, while upgradeable, provide absolutely no usefulness. I kept the same gear the entire game.
The changes to support "gem" insertions into powers to unlock benefits is an ARPG thing that really adds no value either. I didn't even bother beyond adding the ones that increased health, stamina and mid-air use. A standard leveling system would have been better. This just seems like a re-used system from the base game that doesn't fit in. The powers themselves are standard from the original game.
One issue I did have with the powers is that even when getting to the last altar to complete the game and unlocking all other areas there were still areas on the map that it says I needed to make an offering for but there was no altar to do so.
Perhaps the biggest issue is the micro-transactions. I don't mean the pay to get version but the "use X items" version. In every ARPG you unlock fast travel locations to allow you to quickly get back to an area without having to go through the same enemies again. Furthermore the game saves at high points. In the DLC everything is manual, can only be done at altars and cost items. If you don't have them then you cannot fast travel or save. This is ridiculous and clearly was added to justify all the items. There is absolutely no benefit in this design. It even cost me several hours of gameplay.
At some point midway in the DLC I got into the bottom of an area that had infinitely high mountains on all sides (this is actually really, really common). I couldn't get out of the area because I didn't have enough stamina (even at max) and there were no plateaus to regen on. I was stuck and had no choice but to reload. Since I wasn't near an altar I lost hours of work in vaults, quests and cleared areas. This is just plain ridiculous.
The story is good though, compared to some of the other DLCs. But it is really a little too long. It could have been shaved in half and still be worth the money. It just droned on and on doing the same things over and over. The fun wore off hours before I was done.
Overall the best DLC of the lot. It gives me encouragement that the series could work as both an ARPG (with tweaks to make it work like a standard game) or as a brawler like the original.… Expand
