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After a marathon session yesterday I finally finished Ascension Peak at the crack of dawn. Having had some hours to mull things over, I'm really happy to have played the game, enjoyed almost everything about it, but am totally disappointed, even mad, about the endgame. Here's some of my thoughts:
PLEASE NOTE: There are major endgame spoilers in note 3 and 4.
1) Whether it's the PC conversations, little graphic touches, or the different ways you can go about dealing with the factions...a lot of thought and effort seems to have been put in by the development team.
2) The storyline for most of the game is a little weak, IMO, most notably in creating any sense of dread/hatred/support(?) for the Dark Savant. He's the ultimate baddie, but I never developed a strong sense of just WHY we were wandering around, collecting things and wanting to stop him. Yes, I understand, stop Ascension, stop destruction...the story just didn't strike me as particularly strong or well developed through the game.
3) After putting a lot of effort and thought into how to play the alliances, I opted to get the Umpani and T'rang to ally. Maybe it was just my game, but I thought it was such a letdown to go through all the work and then never see them again when I went to Ascension Peak. Looking back, NOT having any of the races present through the endgame sequence almost makes me feel like they were a plot device to earn XP. Did it matter that they were allied? Did it matter the Black Ship was shot down? Did it matter I killed the Rapax King? What about the Mook? Nothing, nada, zilch...grrrrr.
4) Ok, the endgame...I am really pissed off now that I think about it. After the weeks of really enjoyable gaming, I get one of 3 options to deal with Mr.Savant. That seems fair...they seem different enough. BUT, the two 'successful' approaches give you the identical floating view of the Forge and a little story how you either a) make Dominus a happy place for all involved, or b) make the universe a happy place for all involved with Phoonzang's help, because, oops, Dominus and all your pals never existed. And Bela? Well just what the heck is he doing here anyway? The moment you beat the DS, he's gone. Ho hum... At least choosing the Dark Savant ending is a little more satisfying graphically and narrative-wise; seems like more effort went into that one than the others. The bottomline is that I really don't appreciate how hours and hours of playing end in a few lines of text that hardly tie together any of the actions you took while playing and don't bother to give you something interesting to look at or think about. I'm not expecting Diablo-like cutscenes, but come on...they totally could have done various scenes in-engine from various points of view depending on your choice (especially where you save Dominus).
Sigh...I didn't play this game to see how many critters I could bash or how god-like I could make my PCs stats. I did play it to enjoy a world and storyline that I was adventuring in. To me, a poorly done endgame in an RPG is a major flaw...if it were a shooter/RTS/etc then I wouldn't care as much, but this style of game depends so much on sense of involvement and story elements. I'm going on a limb here, but did Sirtech run out of time/money before it finished the game? I certainly hope that is the reason.
Oh well. Like I said, I really enjoyed playing up until yesterday and would recommend the game to others. But, I think the endgame will ultimately spoil my satisfaction with the game. Now, I'm off to start my next party!
Gastro
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