You have been ambushed, by monsters 10 levels higher than you… Ok…
And you have to pick somebody to use?
I got ambushed by at least 2 Minotaurs. Thankfully, was defeated but escaped without injury.
But wtf???
I got 2 guys injured after being ambushed by 6 plaguebearers that activated all at once.
That was pretty rough, but not as rough as the next 2 travel events that knocked my tank guy down 100% of his hp (2x50%). I leveled him up which only fixed his injury, and of course I was broke after that.
The whole experience felt so cheap because it was unavoidable, so I started the next dungeon by skipping turns to recharge my bandages until he was healed fully. I’d been on the fence about whether this game was for me or not, and this nearly caused me to delete and walk away.
Yeah, that’s the funniest part, 3 stone giants with 100+ hp each, choose 2 of your level 2-3 chars to face this ambush, no option to run away. The story quests seem pretty balanced, but did they really intend for random encounters to be so hopeless?
So far almost every dungeon has felt either way too easy or way too hard, only one was in the Goldilocks zone.
It works for me now, by virtue of upgrading to iOS 11 …
So far so good. At Deathknell without much trouble. Like the changes generally, although not adapted to the market being a hand of cards.
The odd thing is causing damage in battle and getting the MISS text at the same time. I might even have got ‘miss’ and ‘critical hit’ simultaneously.
Plus, the typos. It’s/its is everywhere, and I like the enthuse/infuse mix-up 
Ch1: Bruh, why do you keep taking your armor on and off in the middle of battle?
Ch2: Action Points, son, now step diagonally past me and give some red juice to that vampire knight that is diseased and on fire and stop asking so many questions.
3 Likes
Yeah, the ambushes are stupid because they don’t seem to be even close to your own level.
You can “flee,” though, by just opening the option menu and exiting the dungeon.
This is a very fun game, but there seems to be quite a few bugs, or at least situations where item abilities have been changed, and the game text doesn’t reflect it. A couple that I’ve noticed are:
The Vampiric Bite ability doesn’t gain health, but does do a lot more damage than the text says.
Soul stealer weapon is supposed to do x3 of the caster’s intelligence as damage. Mine doesn’t do anything like that. I think it might be linking to strength.
Overall though, an incredibly fun and atmospheric game. I’ve got 70% of the way through the main quest so far.
Another patch dropped this morning, but I haven’t downloaded it yet - no wifi at work - so can’t vouch for it. Some on TA reporting it fixed their issues, some still broken. Devs are pretty responsive there, insofar as bug fixes, upcoming features, etc.
I’m immensly enjoying my full elven party, even more than my first complete playthrough.
More difficult, death at every corner, some super tense moments.
Absolutely loving it.
The patch fixed my broken save. Just finished the first campaign. At first I wasn’t sure about the game - thought the mechanics might be a bit too simple - but about halfway through things really clicked and I started to really enjoy it. My characters picked up a few abilities that felt really interesting tactically, and the overall theme really grabbed me.
At its best it almost feels like a tabletop game - it’s very immersive. The odd room can be a bit dull if the arrangement of enemies isn’t interesting but there’s a lot of very exciting and satisfying moments. I originally held back from buying the extra characters, but now I’d really recommend it. It really opens up the variability of the game. I think I’ll be playing this one for a while.
2 Likes
Something about this game just isn’t doing it for me like I had hoped. I think it looks great and I haven’t had any bugs or gameplay issues of note, but I have a couple thoughts:
First, the lack of gold is very apparent. It only took me a mission or two before I did not have enough gold to level up, let alone buy new weapons. Now, I’m not expecting to be flush with gold and have enough to buy what I want when I want, but the game quickly prevented me from feeling much of a sense of progression. I know that gold is available randomly for completing a dungeon, but at best, if I’m really lucky, I might get 500 - not enough to level up or buy something worth buying. More typically, I receive 100-200 for grinding out a mission. Of course, I could spend real money for more gold…it is cynical to see the slow in-game income as tied to the ability to make in-app purchases?
Second, I don’t see much in the realm of tactics. There are no penalties at all for waiting, or for slowly moving around for optimal positions, so every single mission I’ve played pretty much boils down to setting up and letting the enemies come to me, preferably through a bottleneck. Positioning means almost nothing in this game. On top of that, I can take as much time as I want between rooms to regroup. In the original, there was a threat of overwhelming odds every time I chose to end my turn, giving me a sense of urgency. In the Tyrranid Invasion, the overwatch ability made movement and positioning far more important. The game plays the exact same for me every time I open a door.
Third, the UI issues. Nowhere that I’ve found is it explained exactly what stats do what and how they effect combat. I also can’t stand that when I’m shopping, I can’t see what I have equipped. How am I supposed to know if the weapon I am looking at is better than one I already have?
There are some positives here. The game runs really smoothly and I like the selection of heroes. Sometimes then don’t seem differentiated enough, but I can chalk some of that up to the way I’ve customized. Still, the system is almost too flexible as I can, for example, give a melee hero a gun that essentially has the same effect as a sorceress spell. When my melee hero can suddenly do ranged 3x3 damage with fire, he kind of loses his identity as as a sword and shield melee hero.
Personally, my biggest enjoyment in a strategy RPG is building my characters. Final Fantasy Tactics is the pinnacle of the genre for me and I can spend dozens of hours leveling through each job in any given character, enjoying their growth and enjoying the effect they have on the battlefield. I feel very little progress in this game; each dungeon run feels the same and character growth is glacially slow, not because of XP, but because of an incredibly high gold requirement.
I’ve probably rambled a bit, but the bottom line is that I probably personally give the game a C. I like it, and I’ll pick it up from time to time, but I don’t really know what the game is trying to be. Is it a board game? It’s moved beyond that a little. Is it an RPG? Yes, but it is fairly light compared to others. Is it a tactical game? Maybe, but I don’t see much depth in that regard. Maybe this isn’t fair, but I’d rather play a game like Final Fantasy Tactics ad nauseum over a game lie this for some great tactical RPG grinding. There are plenty of others that I enjoy more, as well, including possibly the first Warhammer Quest.
4 Likes
This kind of sums things up for me too… I was so excited for it, and it kind of feels like a bit of a let down gameplay wise.
I really miss the ambushes from WHQ1, which I know some people hated; however, without them, there’s no reason to progress through the dungeon. I can literally stand at a door and spam the end turn button until all of my stuff has cooled down, then go into the next room with fresh items (not that I do, but… )
The graphics are very cool and the lighting is top notch, but the gameplay is pretty repetitive. I hate saying it, considering my level of anticipation for this one… I’d rate it a little higher, at a B or B-, and it will live on my iPad forever, mostly by virtue of having 256gb, but it’s definitely not GOTY material.
3 Likes
It’s funny; I kind of hated the random encounters last game because they would sometimes just pound me. Now that they aren’t around, I see their purpose. Maybe there is a middle ground with random encounters that aren’t 100 freaking necromancers?
1 Like
Haha… I see what you’re saying. I always felt a huge sense of accomplishment after killing off 8 quadrillion black orcs! I think maybe my biggest gripe with WHQ2 is that it doesn’t feel like a challenge at all. Really, the only times I’ve wiped is because I’ve forgotten to bring a health potion, or the guy with the potion is blocked in in the back and can’t get to the knocked down person to heal them. And wait - someone gets an injury? I’ll just transfer all of their gear to my other character or six of the same class that I’ve accumulated…
I see over on TA people gaming the characters to make it harder - ie, let’s play with 4 glade guards, or restrict myself to only melee combat. I shouldn’t have to game the difficulty - the game itself should do that.
3 Likes
I think there needs to be a balance between too many random encounters and none. I was annoyed by them in WQ1, just because it didn’t seem like I could move sometimes without having one, which really sucked when I was trying to heal and stuff.
But none just gets boring.
I do think the fact that you can buy gold is a real black mark against the game, because it makes it obvious that the levelling up problems are intentional to get you to buy gold.
1 Like
I remember not being able to afford to level up in WHQ1 also, and hating that mechanic. Why can’t I just level up automatically when I hit the required xp?
2 Likes
Yeah, i would get stuck with a level in WHQ1 as well, but it seemed a lot less egregious. I don’t remember, but I think the level cap was low, like around 6. On top of that, there were more classes to play, so I’d just switch to a new class. Also, I don’t remember getting stuck too often where I couldn’t level a single party member up or buy a weapon; in WHQ1, if I couldn’t level up, it is usually because I chose to buy some gear instead. In this game, I have to play 3-4 missions for a single piece of gear, and more for a single character level up.
I don’t know.
To me gold in the game is the most balanced thing in the game.
I rember the very same complaints about gold (and the gold iap) in WHQ1.
Same in Hunters.
I think nobody has even bought the gold iap, yet everyone was able to play.
After a while the gold iap discussion vanished.
My last WHQ hardcore run clocked 43 hours, and I had like 100K gold.
In WHQ2 you end both campaign around level 6 (more if you play many white quests, I had one run at 13) in way less hours…there was nothing I couldn’t afford.
You get 200-400 gold per dungeon (not counting events, there is one worth 500 gold alone).
Which can buy you 1-3 level ups at level 1.
With 3-4 quest run, you can level up a single level 10 character (which is WAY ahead the game difficulty) or buy a top tier item (or, of course, several minor items are almost all the skills).
Seems fair to me.
I find appropriate you are broken after you buy a top tier item, or level up some characters. (Btw the need for gold in leveling up come from the boardgame).
On the contrary, imho XP are WAY too generous.
Cap in WHQ1 was 8 with Averland, 6 without it, and it required way more hours to reach. (Not really fair to compare a game with 1 years of expansions to a game out since not even a week, but you get the point).
I think being able to afford something super cool in 2-3 dungeons is perfectly fair…how would change that?
Game is already easy as it is…if you are given more gold too to buy everything in the shops…
I think that now that the base is set, a lot of things can be added…many were mentioned as possibile for future plans, or I personally suggested them (things like outdoor tilesets, ambushes, traps, escort missions, etc…)
Potential is imho huge.
Just my 2 cents…again I’m curious…how much gold would you think ‘fair’ for each dungeon?
Actually, @Pitta, one thing you said intrigues me.
I actually would be ok with XP beings lower, requiring longer to level up, if they are keeping the gold cost for leveling up the way it is.
The frustrating thing is to have everybody ready to level up, sometimes even two levels, but not have enough money to do it.
That being said, you finished the campaign at Level 6? Then maybe we’re spending too much time trying to level and not enough at actually doing the campaign.
I’m at level 4 (with one character at 5, I think), and I’ve only done 3 or 4 story quests. I was thinking I needed to get stronger before continuing.
1 Like