Beat on Heroic difficulty. The entire game was very difficult with the sheer amount of damage enemies could do and their huge hp pools. I had to do a lot of kiting and running away, circle strafing around, and even using a gun to whittle enemies down enough to where I could survive fighting in melee. The slower hard hitting enemies were better killed by kiting with a gun, large groups of projectile enemies were too dangerous to melee, and other times I sniped a ranged enemy to prevent aggoring more. Pulling too many enemies, or aggroing more as I tried to maneuver around, was a serious issue. Katarina made it even worse by running off and pulling on her own. I tried out all of her AI settings but nothing would stop her from pulling, so I left her in passive ghost mode. After a few maps I started letting her fight in ranged mode after I had engaged enemies, and switching her back to ghost after every fight.
Survival was a huge issue so I prioritized advancement that would keep me alive. I put every ability point in body for melee damage, defense and hp. Katarina had all of her points in luck because the tool tip says "increased your magic find", so I assume that would be the only way I could benefit from a passive ghost girl. All her skill points went into passives for me. I spent my early skill points unlocking all the skills I wanted to use, and then proceeded to max them 1 at a time. The basic attack with its inherent lifesteal was my main attack. Sometimes I used lighting strike to attack but I would inevitably need to heal more; mostly I used the rage power to make it stun enemies for damage avoidance. At one point I found a group of breeders that infinitely spawned brain spawns. I literally could not kill them fast enough to counter the spawn rate, and had no real area damage. It was so bad that the game's frame rate dropped noticeably. I eventually managed to move around enough to target the breeders, but that one fight took about half an hour or more. I then invested in the circle of flame skill to get some area damage and prioritized killing breeders, but this infinite enemy thing never happened again. Maybe it was a one time bug? I used mystic shield to keep me alive in tough fights, the healing spell, and ghastly shape to get out of traps and try to create some distance. It was not until late game that I actually had to buy healing potions.
Another huge annoyance was the targeting system. The game auto chooses what to attack, and this takes away a lot of the enjoyment that I personally have for this style of game. Even back to the original Diablo, my favourite class was the rogue and using the mouse to aim accurately, leading shots and overall giving the game more of a shooter feel. As well as the tactics behind targeting specific enemies, like in Diablo 2 when my paladin would smite 1 enemy to knock them away so my zeal could be focused on fewer targets. Auto targeting just does not allow the same level of precise tactical play, and this style of game does not seem suited to consoles. I assume this game would be much better on PC. But even worse were the boss fights which required targeting specific things while infinitely respawning enemies made that far more difficult than it needed to be. The spider leviathan mini boss was like that. The drill worm major boss, and the final boss. All were incredibly annoying and tedious affairs that I would not care to repeat. I had to look up how to defeat the final boss after almost an hour tediously tanking everything and wearing him down with my meager fire circle and occasional hit, after his hp restored. What the hell? Oh the area is bigger with things to destroy along the edge. Game could have told me! Then came the very tedious prospect of running around damaging every spawner and tower until the enemies caught up and ruined targeting. Staying alive was not the hardest part of these fights!
After beating the game I tried out scenario mode. I was level 29 and about half way to 30, so I grinded the Orichalcum mines to level 30. Along the way I decided to change up my build since I had not tried out flowing combo. I liked the sound of that because it sounds like zeal from Diablo 2, and was not impressed with lighting strike (because it would drain my mana too quickly and did not do enough damage to offset the liftsteal of the basic attack), and fire circle (again low damage and I disliked having a cooldown). Of course a more warrior skill would do better than a magic skill on a character that put 0 points into willpower. Flowing combo is great with a massive boost to my damage, and the faster lifesteal from my other sources help offset not using the basic attack. Just like zeal though, it does best against single targets and it can still be useful to use the basic attack to focus down a single enemy in a group. I can use it constantly without worrying about mana, unless I use mystic shield; then I have to chug mana potions or switch to basic attack. The only scenario I managed to beat was the one where you had to simply destroy all the barrels. Easy. The time limit ones are not happening. The ones about not dying, not going below half health, and not losing blood (?) could be doable with enough patience, but why would I when the barrel one is guaranteed? I have no intention of playing any more, or getting any Glory points. The tower defense mini game is a far cry from Deathtrap. I completely ignored the forging and alchemy systems. Some of my items have essence space and the system seems like gems from Diablo 2, but I just don't want to fool around with it.
The game has excellent setting and enemy design, and decent story. The gameplay leaves a bit to be desired when compared to PC Diablo clone games and I was not impressed with the 2 other classes locked behind dlc. The menu UI was an abomination, especially the inventory. But otherwise the game was quite well designed with lots of player friendly info.
7.3/10
I am sure the PC version would be higher (7.5 to 7.7) if I fixes the targeting issues.
Here are my final stats:
Body: 247
Dex: 35
Will: 16
Luck: 27
Hp: 2006
Mp: 197
Rage: 70
Defense: 1015
Spellpower: 181
Physical resist: 306
Poison resist: 508
Elemental resist: 562
Perks: 2nd chance (free death), elementalist (+ magic damage and resist), natural healer (+ heal spell and potions), scavenger (poison resist and magic find), veteran hunter (free level up), master (free skill points), drinker (poison resist and + potions), teacher (+ skill points), survivor (hp and hp regen), bully (+ body and sell price).
Skills:
Strike: 10/10, 1 heavy strike (bonus damage rage attack), 1 furious strike (+ rage on kills), 1 lifesteal
Lightning strike: 1/10, 1 shocking strike (paralyze rage attack)
Parry expertise: 10/10, 1 evasion, 1 parry mastery
Bash: 1/10. Not used
Fury: 1/10
Flowing combo: 5/5, 1 devastating blows (+ damage for rage attack), 1 extended combo
Body building: 2/5
Shoot: 1/10
Rage: 1/10
Elemental damage: 1/10
Full resistance: 5/5
Aura of defiance: 10/10. 1 imperviousness
Hunter's rejuvenation: 4/8
Arcane healing: 3/10
Mystic shield: 1/10
Ghastly shape: 1/10
Katarina skills:
Stroke of terror (paralyze): 1/10
Withering kiss life steal): 1/10
Spectral boon (attack speed for Van) 5/10
Empowering presence (damage for Van): 8/8
Incorporeal defense (defense for Van): 10/10
Otherworldly senses (magic find): 1/10
Gift of resistance (resists for Van); 8/8
Equipment:
Mystic sword: level 28 yellow, +20% weapon damage, +3 weapon damage, 9 spellpower. Enchant: 8 lightning damage
Dreadlock carbine: level 28 yellow, +16% weapon damage, 10 poison damage, 5 rage. Enchant: +4 weapon damage
All resistance plates: level 15 unique. 48 physical resist. 41 element resist, 46 poison resist, 11% damage reduction, 25 essence. Enchant: 38 hp
Hat of the fox: level 19 unique. 4% attack speed, 8 dex, 9 body, 10 rage, 50 dodge, 50 physical resist. Enchant: 39 element resist.
Exorcist cape: level 26 yellow, 38 item defense, 55 hp, 10 luck, 9 body. Enchant: 35% crit damage.
Leather belt: level 29 yellow. 31 mana, 5 mana per hit, 36 physical resist, 63 element resist, 10 spellpower. Enchant: 6% attack speed
Orichalcum laced gloves: level 29 yellow, +75% item defense, 7 body, 46 poison resist, 36 physical resist. Enchant: 55 element resist.
Orichalcum played boots: level 27 yellow, 12 essence, 9 body, 51 element resist, 54 poison resist, 8 dex. Enchant: 5 rage.
Rune medallion: level 25 yellow, 16% gold find, 58 poison resist, 7 mana per hit, +5% ice damage, 9 spellpower. Enchant: 6 hp per hit.
Glyphstone ring: level 22 yellow, 7 poison damage, 7 spellpower, 8 body, +1 mana per level. Enchant: 7 luck
Jeweled silver ring: level 29 yellow, 8 dex, +4% fire damage, 60 element resist, 8 hp per hit. Enchant: 16 dodge
Scarecrow hat: level 30 yellow, 1 mana per level, +4% lightning damage, 10 body, 9 spellpower, 2 hp per level. Enchant: 9 will
Katarina equipment:
Eastwood. 303: level 21 unique, 30 essence, 6 dex, 8 poison damage, 45 physical resist, 6% attack speed, inactive (356/500 kills). Enchant: 17% crit damage.
Light plate: level 26 yellow, 9 body, +99% item defense, 1 mana per level, 34 physical resist, 32 item defense.
Sapphire pendant: level 25 yellow, +4% fire damage, 27 mana, 61 element resist, 45 poison resist.
Jeweled silver ring: level 25 yellow, +4% poison damage, 28 mana, 9 lightning damage.
Jeweled silver ring: level 25 yellow, 9 luck, 9 fire damage, +5% fire damage.
