I've written a run-down of my experiences after completing my first game. Beware of spoilers, obviously. The adventures of Ostafel, Dwarf Fighter begins after many false starts, and quite a few restarts (oops - you've run out of lives!)

Learning Curve

Not too difficult to pick up, though it took me longer than I care to admit to figure out how to bind hotkeys. Of course, even now there are still many other mechanics I've yet to figure out. (Grrr, disarm, how do you work?)

Class: Why a fighter?

It was the only class with which I could survive the first dungeon. Okay, so I'm rubbish at the game, however, the fact that alternate classes require different strategies piques my interest - and bodes well for future games. Make no mistake however, though it wasn't my first choice, playing a fighter was fun. By the end, I grew to love the skills, especially the Shield Offense and Warcries Techniques. In hindsight, I did fumble a lot over skill placement. (e.g. getting both heavy & massive armor mastery). Furthermore, were it not for my Movement Infusion, I would never be able to catch ranged opponents. Perhaps I should have invested in Combat Techniques?

Quests & Dungeons

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As this was my first complete game, I ended up skipping a number of dungeons. As I played, I completed quests that seemed interesting to me at the time. In fact, this led to the bizarre situation of collecting 7/10 staves, jumping on the anti-magic bandwagon, then subsequently scaring off the apprentice when I tried to approach him again. Though I technically "failed", the quest hung around in my quest log until the end of the game. Speaking of which, even when I entered the final tower, I was unaware that it was the end-game until I saw the portal. Challenging the bosses at level 43 was a nasty affair; luckily, the clearly visible runes tipped me off: so, thank-you game design, the fight was tough enough even after disabling the 4 runes straight-away! Overall, the tower, while lengthy, was nevertheless enjoyable, and there's nothing like a room full of demons to keep you on your toes. Disarm is terrifying.

Shiny Loot

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Transmogrification Chest is fantastic. I enjoy looting but dislike cluttered inventories in RPGs, so this was a great way to deal with the junk. But what's junk? When push came to shove, I often had trouble deciding if it was better to have +Stats vs. +damage or vs. +resists. Also, because of my anti-magic affiliations, I had to pass up many significantly better items: most notably in the weapon department. My end-game weapon only had 36 Power. In hindsight, I'm none too pleased with my decision, though I suspect it may have been a worthwhile trade-off had I made better use of the Anti-magic tree.

Misc: Interface, Graphics, & Sound

Being able to use a mouse is a blessing - games that require the numpad makes playing on my laptop...discouraging. The layout of the game is very accessible. In combination with a pleasant-looking tileset, and interesting soundtracks: wow, what an incredible journey!

Memorable Highlights:

Rescuing the merchant from the assassin den, assaulting the orcish stronghold with the paladins, and the "lightning storm" at Derth.

***That's enough out of me, thank you for reading. I'd welcome any feedback on what I should have or could have done better, in addition to any other classes that would be easy to pick up next. And of course a huge thank you to Darkgod, for creating such a fantastic game!