Dark crypt way tooooo hard....and only one chance to enter
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Re: Dark crypt way tooooo hard....and only one chance to ent
I was thinking of something closer to an interesting tactical choice that you could get. It's probably the toughest encounter that you would hit pre-Dreadfall, and one of the most dangerous at-level in the entire game.
Re: Dark crypt way tooooo hard....and only one chance to ent
Maybe I'm weird, but as someone who just lost a very promising character to the dark crypt, I really like how it's currently designed.
There are plenty of games with optional side quests. In almost all of them, it's foolish to not take every side quest you can.
There are plenty of games that offer a "good path" and an "evil path." Most of them scrupulously balance the gameplay and game rewards between the two paths so that the distinction becomes more about flavor and plot than about ethical dilemmas or gameplay choices.
I love that in ToME, by contrast, there's this optional side quest where the right decision, from the perspective of optimal gameplay, winning strategies, etc., is absolutely to run away screaming. I love that, for this "good path" option, the risk absolutely outweighs the reward. After all, other than a random item, the reward is just saving an innocent woman's life and stopping an evil that would never threaten or trouble you personally, and how can that compare with some extra talents or artifacts?
I don't know that I'd want to play a game where every quest and plotline offered these kinds of dilemmas (the result could be good as a work of art, but I'm not sure how much of a replayable game it would be, and I like my games more escapist than that), but the fact that ToME has the occasional element like this helps elevate it above being just another roguelike.
There are plenty of games with optional side quests. In almost all of them, it's foolish to not take every side quest you can.
There are plenty of games that offer a "good path" and an "evil path." Most of them scrupulously balance the gameplay and game rewards between the two paths so that the distinction becomes more about flavor and plot than about ethical dilemmas or gameplay choices.
I love that in ToME, by contrast, there's this optional side quest where the right decision, from the perspective of optimal gameplay, winning strategies, etc., is absolutely to run away screaming. I love that, for this "good path" option, the risk absolutely outweighs the reward. After all, other than a random item, the reward is just saving an innocent woman's life and stopping an evil that would never threaten or trouble you personally, and how can that compare with some extra talents or artifacts?
I don't know that I'd want to play a game where every quest and plotline offered these kinds of dilemmas (the result could be good as a work of art, but I'm not sure how much of a replayable game it would be, and I like my games more escapist than that), but the fact that ToME has the occasional element like this helps elevate it above being just another roguelike.