I experienced my first non-quest death in Nightmare of Druaga tonight. It stung more than I’d expected it to, probably because I never thought I would actually be dumb enough to die and lose all my items. Admittedly, this death was pretty stupid: I was on floor B17 or so (out of 20) of the Underground Caverns when I found myself up against a red knight and a land urchin. The land lrchin is one of several delightful enemies that are capable of reducing you to 1 HP with one hit, and the knight had a red aura around his feet, indicating that his blow would land before mine could. The urchin hit me once and left me with about 15HP and the Knight knocked me down to 1. At this point, I could have either escaped the dungeon with a feather or tried to heal and fight it out. Really, I had no chance with the latter plan, but I tried it anyway: I took a swig of a Fine Healing Potion and then was killed in two quick hits.
I’m actually grateful for the death now, because it completely killed my inertia and forced me to make some changes in my play style. Continue reading
D3 Publisher are honest about their design and business goals: they produce budget-priced software that takes a simple concept – often one already established by full-priced games – and build a game around it that conforms to their very limited production budgets and schedules. Other times their concepts are original and experimental (something the nature of the budget game often allows), and still other games are obvious ripoffs upon which D3 has put their own spin.