Pretty much exactly what I wanted from this sequel. The previous game of the series was fine, but it felt very small, limiting in exploration and choice and not having a party felt like a wasted opportunity.
Dragonfall fixes these things for the most part. It still doesn't really have real "exploration" in the sense of exploring a big city or worldmap and doesn't actively make you look for optional areas and "dungeons", but the hub area provides a nice homely feel and there are at least some hidden optional quests you only get by talking to the NPCs.
The party of this game is a big reason why I enjoyed Dragonfall a lot. Every member has an interesting backstory to tell and turns out to be very likable. Of course it once again falls into the trope of slowly opening up to you over the course of the game and everyone has a dark past that you slowly uncover that results in a character quest, but I'd say this formula has some merits, because you always have something to look forward to between missions and it definitely makes sense to have characters opening up to you gradually, even though it feels a little formulaic at times.
The storyline was pretty good, as well. Once again you're starting off on a quest for revenge, but you can instantly tell the story is going in a very different direction, which it does. You could probably criticize the game for it's lengthy middle section, which consists of collecting money and doing missions that are unrelated to the main story to gather it, but each of those missions was really well written and I went out of my way to do them all. Their lack of connection to the story didn't really bother me as a result.
Combat got some improvements thanks to a better UI and the new armor system adds a nice layer of depth to encounters. Overall it's pretty much the same, though. Having a set party that gradually unlocks new moves is a nice touch and I could really notice how my strategy got better and better over the course of the game. Familiarizing yourself with the moveset of each character and coming up with synergies of certain skills was pretty nice. Even if it ended up in an almost disappointingly easy final act, even on hard.
This time I went for an elf decker instead of going full combat focus and the beginning in particular was pretty rough for him. My character was barely hitting a thing and pretty frail. But it was a nice challenge and it made sense for the hacker guy to not be the toughest fighter.
What brings the game down a little is probably the amount of fights and how lengthy they can be. I enjoyed combat most of the time, but some missions definitely could trim some of the fat. The animations of enemies could also need a speed-up option, because seeing 8 seperate enemies walk towards cover isn't that exciting.
I think it would've also been a nice bonus if you could actually equip and skill your party members. I get that they should feel like their own entities, but since you're controlling them in battle I feel like that's a moot point. In a way it was nice to have them refill their items and not having to worry about it, though, so maybe it was actually for the better. Not sure.
So yeah, a great step-up from the first game. A way longer (25h), bigger game with a great cast of characters that really grew on me. You might want to start here if you want to give the series a shot.
Will definitely play Hong Kong at some point, but I don't want to burn myself out, so probably not for a while.
Dragonfall fixes these things for the most part. It still doesn't really have real "exploration" in the sense of exploring a big city or worldmap and doesn't actively make you look for optional areas and "dungeons", but the hub area provides a nice homely feel and there are at least some hidden optional quests you only get by talking to the NPCs.
The party of this game is a big reason why I enjoyed Dragonfall a lot. Every member has an interesting backstory to tell and turns out to be very likable. Of course it once again falls into the trope of slowly opening up to you over the course of the game and everyone has a dark past that you slowly uncover that results in a character quest, but I'd say this formula has some merits, because you always have something to look forward to between missions and it definitely makes sense to have characters opening up to you gradually, even though it feels a little formulaic at times.
The storyline was pretty good, as well. Once again you're starting off on a quest for revenge, but you can instantly tell the story is going in a very different direction, which it does. You could probably criticize the game for it's lengthy middle section, which consists of collecting money and doing missions that are unrelated to the main story to gather it, but each of those missions was really well written and I went out of my way to do them all. Their lack of connection to the story didn't really bother me as a result.
Combat got some improvements thanks to a better UI and the new armor system adds a nice layer of depth to encounters. Overall it's pretty much the same, though. Having a set party that gradually unlocks new moves is a nice touch and I could really notice how my strategy got better and better over the course of the game. Familiarizing yourself with the moveset of each character and coming up with synergies of certain skills was pretty nice. Even if it ended up in an almost disappointingly easy final act, even on hard.
This time I went for an elf decker instead of going full combat focus and the beginning in particular was pretty rough for him. My character was barely hitting a thing and pretty frail. But it was a nice challenge and it made sense for the hacker guy to not be the toughest fighter.
What brings the game down a little is probably the amount of fights and how lengthy they can be. I enjoyed combat most of the time, but some missions definitely could trim some of the fat. The animations of enemies could also need a speed-up option, because seeing 8 seperate enemies walk towards cover isn't that exciting.
I think it would've also been a nice bonus if you could actually equip and skill your party members. I get that they should feel like their own entities, but since you're controlling them in battle I feel like that's a moot point. In a way it was nice to have them refill their items and not having to worry about it, though, so maybe it was actually for the better. Not sure.
So yeah, a great step-up from the first game. A way longer (25h), bigger game with a great cast of characters that really grew on me. You might want to start here if you want to give the series a shot.
Will definitely play Hong Kong at some point, but I don't want to burn myself out, so probably not for a while.