For the King II Review (Nellynoway)
Game's good. Essentially the first game but with more content and extra combat tactics. However, I cannot possibly fathom some of the UX and UI decisions that have made it into this final release. Here are my biggest gripes:
- The amount of missing tooltips. Some elements have tooltips that expands into details whilst holding shift (this is nice). Some elements have tooltips without being able to see important details (not nice). Some elements are completely devoid of tooltips (confusing bs).
- If you're confused about something, there's an encyclopedia in the esc menu. But it is a complete mess with a badly implemented search function. And good luck looking something up you don't know the name of because the thing you're confused about doesn't have a tooltip to inform you of its name.
- Graphics overlaying other important graphics or numbers. As often as you want a tooltip or overlay describing something, just as often will an unwanted overlay be present which cannot be closed down, and this is sometimes covering up other characters' information.
-Clunky menus in multiplayer. Wanna bring up your inventory? You almost always end up opening someone elses. Wanna sell items with your homies? Selling something closes down other players' menus so it's like a little tedious race between players to sell something as multiple interactions across characters apparently cannot be handled simultaneously.
- The camera. No mouse dragging the map, it can only be moved with WASD. Often when you click someone or something the camera will spring to a new position. Camera also seems somewhat unresponsive at times, especially in multiplayer.
- Cluttered design. With the new double row feature, a lot more information fills the screen in combat. Sometimes enemies disappear behind other enemies as the battle camera is static. Placement of things such as buffs/debuffs seems very inconsistent, and the lack of info about these status effects is another UI nightmare.
There is a lot to unpack from this launch. Despite all its flaws me and the boys had some fun. The core game still has a lot to enjoy and ranting about the design became a running joke. I really want to see the user experience and design get some love so that it will become a sequel worth recommending.