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jp's Dungeons & Dragons Tactics (PSP)

[September 29, 2011 10:17:04 PM]

I was excited to play this game because I've sort of lost track of where D&D is at. I'm an old school player for whom 2nd edition was new (and cool)! So, 3rd, 3.5 and whatever it is they're up to know was simply a big unknown. I've even lost track of the campaign settings. I think the latest edition was set in a world called Eberron, but I have no idea what's interesting/special about it. Sure, I've heard things (good and bad, mostly good) but I never really paid attention to the details. Nor have I played the game (or read any of the books) in a long, long time.

So, Dungeons & Dragons Tactics seemed like a nice entry point to sort of catch up. See where things are at with the game. And whoah. I think I missed the tutorials because I jumped straight in and felt like I was floundering in the deep end. I was having no trouble clearing the stages, but I was definitely lost when it came to deciding on skills, spells, equipment, and all that fun stuff. I appreciated the fact that I could have let the game automatically take care of level advancement and so on, but I really wanted to bite into it. I wasn't expecting to feel THAT ignorant. It didn't help that the interface was a bit clunky (for example, you can't really compare things against each other, so, when deciding which armor to wear you have to go back and forth quite a bit), but still. I can't shake the feeling that had I been up to speed with the paper and pencil game, I wouldn't have had issues. Now that I think about it, it felt kind of good in a way. It was like playing an RPG when I was a kid (no manuals or strategy guides!). You have to figure everything out for yourself (or not), and simply go with it. You end up with a game experience that is much more personal and, if you make it over the hump, much more meaningful and fulfilling. After all, you'd spent a significant amount of effort to figure something out that wasn't self-evident.

I was starting to get into the game, in fact, when an unfortunate thing happened. 2/3 of the way through a mission (M1.4 - The Elfwoods) when the game crashed. Sigh. Re-start...and then it crashed again (at another point in the mission). Re-start, and crash again. That's it, I'm done. Bleagh.