Queen's Wish 2: The Tormentor

[h3]RANKING:[/h3] [table] [tr] [td] [h3][strike]AVOID | LACKING[/strike] | [b]MAYBE[/b] | [strike]WORTHWHILE | COMPELLING | UNMISSABLE [/strike] [/h3] [/td] [/tr] [/table] [h3]SYNOPSIS:[/h3] [table] [tr] [th][b]WHAT TO EXPECT:[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] Queens Wish 2: The Tormentor (QW2:TT) is a story-driven adventure, with RPG, tactical combat and strategy elements. Embark a party of four adventurers on a series of quests across a large fantasy world populated with NPCs. Become immersed in a rich, involving, multi-themed story. Discover the cause of a revolt in the Queen's (your mother) vassal kingdom. Base-build traders in forts to acquire better equipment. It's indie made, embraces a cookie cutter design, has a table-top feel with an 2D isometric view. Solo play only [/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [td][b]STATUS:[/b][/td] [td]Has received a few minor updates after its release [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]AUDIENCE:[/b][/td] [td]For fans of basic budget, feature packed RPGs that are story-driven [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]VALUE FOR MONEY:[/b][/td] [td]Difficult to argue with the price. Perhaps a small sale would be warranted for those unsure of the game's appeal [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]REVIEWED WITH:[/b][/td] [td]Game Build v1.0.2 INTEL i5 6600 3.3GHz, 8GB RAM, GTX970 @ 1GB 1920x1080 windowed, EVO850 SSD [/td] [/tr] [/table] [i]More info below....[/i] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2911419652 [h3]KEY ATTRIBUTES:[/h3] [u][b]GAME WORLD, STORY & SETTING:[/b][/u] [b]▲ [/b]The wonderfully written story weaves a rich tapestry that immerses the player in its game world [b]▲ [/b]The game world is brimming with many locations to visit, NPCs from a multitude of factions to talk to and a host of enemies to fight. Differences come through in the writing [b]▼ [/b]Its in need of better presentation of narrative and dialogue as the sheer weight of it can feel overloading [b]▼ [/b]Without a reputation gauge its hard to see the impact of the "choices matter" approach, given it's an open world [u][b]EXPLORATION & QUESTS:[/b][/u] [b]▲ [/b]Seamlessly changes from party-based exploration to turn-based combat on the same map [b]▲ [/b]Quick-travel ensures exploration does not get bogged down with to much retracing of steps [b]↔ [/b]An abundance of cookie cutter quests (100+)is driven by quantity of quality. Quests are fixed to singular locations making them streamlined, but somewhat shallow [b]▼ [/b]Quests acquisition can be gained in droves to leave the player unsure of which to pursue first , as there is clear priority order or any indication of the danger posed [u][b]BASE-BUILDING:[/b][/u] [b]▲ [/b]Seemingly a sideshow, building upgrades are a well-balanced and scaled strategic element that affords the party aspects of character customisation, inventory trading and crafting [b]▼ [/b]Strategic resources are shown through windows and tool-tips on the main map. These need a better and persistent representation through the GUI [u][b]ITEMS & INVENTORY:[/b][/u] [b]▲ [/b]A good-sized and varied inventory of 100s of items and magical artefacts, scale well when available across the breadth of most of the game [b]▼ [/b]Looting is scarce with found items mostly coming from chests. Rewards from slain opponents are minimal at best [u][b]CHARACTERS & ABILITIES:[/b][/u] [b]▲ [/b]Characters can learn up to 60x skills, mostly tactical in nature: Melee, Magic and Support. Cultural skills must be unlocked by taking special reagents to magic centres [b]↔ [/b]Only four classes are build-able at the start, which can be expanded to eight by establishing control of forts around the game world [b]▼ [/b]Since there is no depth to perk trees, so no real specialisation in a single class as in conventional RPGs. [u][b]COMBAT & TACTICS:[/b][/u] [b]▲ [/b]Tactical combat allows the interchangeable use of melee, ranged and AoE affecting perk abilities [b]↔ [/b]The meta embraces the use of perk abilities to make the difference including the use of charm, delaying, avoiding or decreasing combat potential of enemy combatants [b]↔ [/b]Resetting incomplete dungeons on exit, results in tough encounters which cannot be chipped away that remain as challenging as when untouched [b]↔ [/b]Level-scaling ensures every encounters will be as difficult whatever the player's party status [b]▼ [/b]Modifiers triggered at locations and cascading additional enemy spawns will inordinately increase difficulty against the party https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2911444055 [h3]KEY OBSERVATIONS:[/h3] [b]THE GAME[/b] ► The story is intriguing and easily QW2:TT's biggest pull. The quality of writing shines through despite there being lots to read. Bypassing text will detract from the experience. ► The game's story, themes, setup and unconventional setting makes QW2:TT stand out from other more fantasy-oriented RPGs. ► Emphasising already read dialogue and highlighting quest text would have made reading the large volume of text a lot easier. ► Exploring or travelling across the game world doesn't feel as significant or memorable as it could have been ► Character building feels restrictive due to the need to go towards meta perks. Having only two levels makes customisation feel shallow and forces multi-class builds, over powerful specialised ones. ► Even in story mode combat begins to feels like a slog at the mid-game point. Due to a mix of level-scaling encounters, cascading enemy spawns and repeatedly triggered penalties. Likely done so to appease veterans of the first game. ► The frequency of encounters at quest locations and an inability to regenerate the energy points needed to use perks forces players to look to conserve these for quest finales. Otherwise it means returning to a fort frequently and in the middle of clearing out a location. [b]ISSUES[/b] ► Being unable to see the effect of making choices makes understanding where they are leading to difficult. ► Not being able to gauge which quests were possible and failing continuously was the most frustrating aspect of the game. ► TBT combat can be fun at times, but ends up feeling formulaic for large tranches of gameplay, until new perks or inventory can be acquired. ► Base-building feels one dimensional, just about offering the necessary means to an end and not adding much other than unlocking services to their full potential. ► Dialogue, quests, combat, world locations and base-building all have some level of repetition which grows the longer the game is played. Much of this is down to the cookie cutter aspect of much of the game. ► Since the majority of XP gained is gained from resolving quests, there is very little incentive to engage enemies in combat other than to complete quests. [b]ENJOYMENT[/b] ► QW2:TT has its moments, but gets bogged down by the story telling, despite being its most engaging aspect. My interest in playing began to wane by mid-game due to the volume of text, it's repetitive nature and constantly failing quests that I had no business attempting. [table][tr] [td]For more details on [b]KEY ATTRIBUTES & KEY OBSERVATIONS[/b] check out this link:[/td] [td][h1][url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/TheIrregularGamer/discussions/0/3762227593062775183/]Full Review[/url][/h1][/td][/tr][/table] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2911936958 [h3]VERDICT:[/h3] Queen's Wish 2 delivers an immersive experience, but not a resounding one, which is why it would only rank as [b]MAYBE[/b] something to consider. It would suit players who can better handle the difficulty of combat. Those who don't enjoy a good read should try something else. [quote=]Thank you for reading. | Follow my curator[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40556040-The-Irregular-Gamer/] here[/url]. | Key provided by [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/tbtactics]Turn-Based Tactics[/url][/quote]

This game is easily the best (or tied for best) of all Spiderweb Software Games and represents the pinnacle of what Jeff Vogel has been perfecting for 20+ years. If you're not familiar with the studio, expect great writing, hard choices, intelligent combat, and hours of play. It's tile-based, so don't expect to max out your graphics card. #1 reason to love the game: the writing and hard choices. You're a royal scion of a vast empire sent to pacify a vassal (the Rokaj). A Steam review can't capture this well, but people feel basically human. Different segments of the vassal have very different views of what it means to "be Rokaj." For some, it means being wild and independent, but others are OK with getting rich off trade. And people within each area also differ, often disliking their home culture. You have many micro decisions about how harshly to treat the vassal, to advance your empire's interests, their interests, or your own. And how you manage your complex family. Relative to QW1, your family feels a lot more human as they face some difficult choices and pressures that weren't explored much in QW1. Best improvement: the text really seems to react to your reputation. One of the best things is actually background flavor: you can go visit random farmers and gauge how people feel about you from their actions. And a lot of text changes organically -- it's not just that you have a reputation bar and unlock a new dialogue option at rank 30 or something. Other improvement: choices from the previous game matter a fair bit for the text, so it feels like you're building to something. #2 reason to love it: combat is tough and requires some care against specific situations and enemies. Sure, a lot of mobs you'll see many times, but each has its own rhythm you have to learn. And almost all the bosses have unique abilities. Best improvement: you have to intelligently manage your mana ("energy") within a dungeon as it's mostly finite. Sure, it would be fun to cast your best ability 100 times in a row, but it's more rewarding to manage a limited resource. Dungeons reset if you don't complete them, so you can't just kill half of your enemies, take a bath, and find the other half in the exact same place. That always felt lame to me, so I'm glad it doesn't operate here. Other improvements: melee is a lot more viable relative to other Spiderweb games. You don't have to dance around bosses with powerful AoE effects in 90% of cases. Quality of life improvement: you don't have to lug around 30 rusty swords to sell back home, flavor items automatically just give you gold (finally). Overall: the game cuts down on unnecessary elements of RPGs and focuses on the good stuff: writing, characters that feel real, and combat strategy with many hours of play. A couple of minor complaints * Melee still feels a bit underpowered for difficult fights as the AI doesn't maneuver to use its AOE attacks well. Often, these deal more damage than single-hit attacks, so cowardice is rewarded a bit too much. But it's way better than say Avadon * The simple skill tree has its benefits, but I found myself wasting a lot of skill points on abilities I didn't use just to get to the next tier. More abilities, especially passives, would help with this issue * Some enemies are a bit uneven still in quality even at the same level. Basilisks are really tough since they can spam AOE stun, for example, but are still sort of run of the mill mobs * Tooltips are limited and you do have to google exactly what some things do, especially for abilities outside the skill tree (what are "healing strikes"; how much does "shield ally" shield someone; is poison a "curse" or another effect)

I had thought that Jeff Vogel reached the peak of excellence when he wrote the Avadon trilogy. Oh, how wrong I was. Queen's Wish 2 has all the complications of politics, action, family dynamics, careful selection of skills, a sprawling world that continually unfolds... It's intricate and well made. While some of the younger gamers might not appreciate the graphics, I find the style to be nostalgic and the story itself to be immersive. I look forward to part 3!

I bought this immediately after playing the first Queens Wish and I think this one is better. The Rojak is wonderfully built, especially the culture. If this is your first Spiderweb Software game, I would recommend the first Queens Wish (The Conqueror) first, but the civilizations and stories that they build are really unique. There's not a typical orcs vs elves situation in any of his games. This is just really great fantasy writing combined with really great tactical challenges.

If you like well-written classic RPG's in the mode of Ultima or Baldur's Gate - this is one for you. I've played several of spiderweb software titles and enjoyed them all.

Recommended for the grognards who want an old school CRPG experience... but with caveats. THE GOOD - A pretty nifty story with some intriguing twists and turns. - A pretty large world to explore -- but not too big that it feels empty. - Excellent combat system. - Can't beat the price. You get a lot of adventuring for just a few bucks! THE NOT SO GOOD - The dialogue system is clunky. A lot of times you need to weed through the trees just to get key dialogue choices (to conclude a quest, for example) - An anemic bestiary. You're gonna fight the same ten or so enemy types thoughout the game. - The base building really is flimsy. It's really just to unlock better equipment options, and that's about it. - The game gets downright unfair in a lot of the fights. If you are not a gamer who carefully deploys and tracks buffs in your combat, you are not going to have a very good time with the boss battles. - A LOT of reading. Again, the story is good, but there's no voice acting so you need to read reams and reams of dialogue. Worse, be ready to read the same stuff over and over because dialogue choices arent removed once you use them in the conversation. All in all, it's a pretty good romp due to the story and very nice combat system. However, there's quite a few clunky interface choices. Feels like this game would have been a home run if it just had more development time put into it. But still, worth a play.

ffs. this is much worse than i anticipated...I think i will have to avoid any game that spawns blobs/slimes for a very very long time...its unfortunately a really bad game...combat is terrible. I promised myself not to buy the sequel but just wanted to give another chance with the series, I should not have...

11 марта 26-го года вышел эпилог, и полку завершённых серий с этим прибыло. Собственно, то, какой следовало бы быть первой [b]Queens Wish[/b], если бы она хотела быть хорошей игрой. Политическая составляющая на этот раз интереснее. Да, это та же "земля друидов vs земля воинов vs земля волшебников" из первой части с другими названиями, но в этот раз они составляют целую нацию, а не корчат враждующих особенных снежинок на море-океане-острове Буяне. Общая структура у наблюдаемого бардака есть, подковёрная грызня и неоднозначность выбора показана лучше. За нас уже решили, кому позволяется воровать и каким малым народностям можно применять к женщинам традиционные ценности, куда не ходить и при какой погоде надевать шапку, и ждут от нас вовсе не мыслей по этому поводу, а великие строки: [i][code]В мои лета не должно сметь Своё суждение иметь.[/code][/i] В сравнении с QW1, где героя просто выпинывали на мороз в бумажной короне из бургер кинга, дабы он волновал себя проблемами индейцев, это прогресс. Подземелья теперь интереснее: да, зачистка всё ещё больше похожа на рутинную работу у станка, чем на настоящее приключение, способное присниться хотя бы в ту же ночь, но манеры их исполнения стали вариативнее, а обоснования для личного посещения склада местного дворца культуры ассенизаторов самим Королевичем — достовернее. Ресурсы больше не запасаются, их надо тратить сразу же. И если ресурсов для полной отстройки всех зданий хватит при условии тотального разорения всей карты и верной политики в отношении аборигенов, то на крафты и способности может и не хватить [strike](опустим, что половина их и нафиг не упала)[/strike]. Такая мелочь, как крошки опыта или скудная награда этими самыми ресурсами, приносит результаты: если в первой части любое боевое столкновение с рядовыми противниками сулило раздражение от впустую потраченного времени, то сейчас необязательные для посещения уголки локаций вызывают не скуку, а интерес. Почти до самого конца. Диалоги через волшебный Скайп с членами семьи теперь гвоздь повествования — в игре их стало раза в три-четыре больше, при этом написаны хорошо и не надоедают. Но поскольку триггеры их появления привязаны к сюжету, который подаётся редко и большими кусками, то бывает, что персонаж три раза подряд говорит с нами разным тоном и в разном состоянии. Но ради них, и текстов вообще, и стоит главным образом браться за игру (опять же, в отличие от первой части). Много других приятных изменений: новые спрайты декораций очаровательны, больше способностей и ненапряжных паззлов, более свободная карта путешествий. Но QW2 всё ещё оставляет несколько пресное послевкусие: события первой игры ни на что не повлияли; в страну Ро не хочется возвращаться или знать о её будущем, игрока она утомит не меньше, чем Королевича; в мире игры нет нераскрытых загадок и он не способствует мечтам о том, что за его пределами. Далее пара слов об эпилоге. От полноценной третьей части, из опасений нерентабельности, Джефф отказался, и решил уместить её в три часа. [spoiler] Наёмники в эпилог не переносятся, это одиночное приключение, отстройка городов также, к счастью, отсутствует. Исследование и бои сведены к минимуму, в центре внимания — исключительно общение с семьёй. Из плюсов, у серии теперь есть твёрдое, логичное и с некоторой точки зрения трогательное завершение. Можно начинать её, не опасаясь опередить автора в любви к собственной игре. Из минусов, эпилог как составная часть игры, в которую он включен, не воспринимается — на события в ней ссылок почти не даёт, слишком тяготит проникновением в ещё одну новую страну уже после того, как игрок измотан основной сюжетной линией.[/spoiler] Решение скорее выигрышное, надо ли было в третий раз отстраивать страну и все эти магазинчики с нуля, если то, что хотелось сказать, можно сказать так кратко? Резюмируя и повторяясь, желания — ни королевского, ни геймерского — возвращаться в этот мир у вас не возникнет, но свою долю удовлетворения и чувства завершённости тут найти теперь точно можно.

If you like this style of game, then certainly check out the title. The use of the forts that you have to build up is a nice variation. The game is very narrative dense so a bit more reading than some players might like. Seems like the NPC interactions can have a broad effect on game play (I'm trying to be "good" on my first foray, but would be intrigued to play the "no, i won't do anything to help" path. Overall, a good addition to Spiderware games.

Great game, even better than original.