Thea 2: The Shattering

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Butterknife
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Thea 2: The Shattering

Post by Butterknife »

Steam Page

This comes out in a few days, 11/30/2018. I've watched a couple of the gameplay videos the dev team has produced and it looks promising -- a lot like the first one, with the exception of a revamped battle system and a more nomadic-looking map portion (instead of the original's one-city). Graphics have been updated a little bit as well, but for me the new battle stuff and the map changes look more interesting.
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Archinerd
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Re: Thea 2: The Shattering

Post by Archinerd »

Thanks for the heads up. I enjoyed the first one, even with the weird combat system.
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Baroquen
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Re: Thea 2: The Shattering

Post by Baroquen »

Yeah, I just stumbled on this game in the last week too. I enjoyed the first one, so almost certainly will be picking this up sooner rather than later. Might even make another go at the original. I think it's still on the drive.
Butterknife
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Re: Thea 2: The Shattering

Post by Butterknife »

So I played for about 3 hours and can post some first impressions.

The game is definitely "early access" in the traditional sense. The game systems are all in place but the game is really buggy. I had a crash in the first 10 minutes, and there are some oddities in the interface and so on. Steam got stuck trying to download an update for the game and I had to uninstall/reinstall so I thought I would come type this up. Definitely a Beta for all intents and purposes, so I would really recommend people hold off on buying it right now.

That being said, I was able to get the game for $20 (10% off + a 10% off coupon for owning Thea 1 I assume). I am actually really enjoying the game. The changes are definitely making the game more fun overall than Thea 1. The biggest improvement I have seen is actually the elimination of a lot of the micromanagement. Not having to worry about a settlement + the exploration party, combined with having a much smaller group of people means that the early game at least is far less micromanagement intensive, which is really good. Instead you can focus on who you want to equip that new set of armor on, or how to allocate your gathering. I like the simplification of the crafting system and that the game presents more information now on the benefits of each weapon type and so on.

The fighting system is definitely simplified. I still haven't reached a firm conclusion on whether or not it is better but initially I am leaning toward it being better. Less complicated may ultimately mean less interesting, but it is a lot easier to get into the game now. I can't even remember all the rules for the original version, but the sequel is more straightforward when it comes to the combat.

(OK -- I just finished downloading the game and now Steam is showing "Content File Locked" as an error whenever I try to run the game. STAY AWAY. I'd call this an Alpha build at best, way too early to be Early Access. I'm not going to request a refund ... yet)
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dbemont
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Re: Thea 2: The Shattering

Post by dbemont »

I backed this in KS and so have access to the game, but have been pretty distracted by Deity Empires the past few days. However, I just loaded it up and tried a few turns. So far, it runs okay for me, and I am pleased that they have added some tutorial information at the start -- way back, when I checked in, I was pretty confused.

I'll probably wait a bit to dive in very deep, but I am optimistic.
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Baroquen
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Re: Thea 2: The Shattering

Post by Baroquen »

I picked it up, with the sale plus Thea 1 coupon. Haven't played it, as I might try a round of Thea 1 or fiddle with Battle Brothers (plus DLC) first. But I'm looking forward to playing. Thanks for the impressions from those who have tried it already.
Butterknife
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Re: Thea 2: The Shattering

Post by Butterknife »

Well, I've put in about 12 hours now and I think I can offer a more refined opinion.

The weird issue I was having with the "Content File Locked" error turned out to be my anti-virus, so if that happens to you look there. The game is far more stable than my initial impressions. There appears to be quite a bit of content in the regular game, even though it is obviously still early access with many gods not being implemented and so on. I still think most could get 10+ hours out of what is currently there, though.

I was able to explore the entire starting island and build a ship to travel to the next one. In my first game I could never find a second island, but in my second game I found it. Unfortunately something bad happened (trying to avoid spoilers) while I was traveling to the second island and by the time I got there everyone was dead except for a little child, at which point I abandoned the game.

If you enjoyed Thea then this game is a definite improvement on the formula. There is still some wonky UI issues (you have to click one too many times on several things) but other than that the game is in decent shape for early access. There were a lot of interesting quests and stories, outcomes were randomized and there were lots of interesting items to craft and trade for. I will probably put it aside for now and pick it up again in 6 months when it is out of early access.
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