I've been playing this game for two weeks now, and both to test out this my-blog thing and because I just can't seem to keep shut anymore, I'll post some random thoughts about the game this far.

First off, my Gaming History. First roguelike I really got into was ADOM. Have beat that a number of times, played it many more and lurk around the forums there. I also played angband/vanilla, beat 2-3 times. And I beat "old" ToME. (Not void, though). Tried nethack, got a potential winner going but lost interest.

I also have played MUD a fair bit (DURIS, Land of Bloodlust), but stopped about 5 years ago. Time invested and no save-whenever-feature didn't mix with married life. Oh yeah, I also played Diablo II a lot...tried out hardcore mode there as well.

So. Te4. It is a bit of a love-hate relationship. I love to play it, so therefore I hate that I play so much, because I've less time to do other (real-life) stuff. Hopefully this will improve and the game become a bit more dull once I learn all there is.

I love way the game progresses. For the first time, I feel like I am living in the story, that I complete missions (with appropriate end-of-level-bosses from my old 90's arcade games) to advance, and not just grinding. Other of the roguelikes I've listed, the main goal is to "improve so that you are strong enough to win". Here it is more "you will improve as you progress". Bonus exp and items from bosses is probably the reason why this is so. Simple, but brilliant. You _could_ grind if you need something particular or just a bit more exp, you _could_ skip certain areas and bosses and still progress, so the freedom is still here.

I love the "regular" items. You have 3 kinds of 2-handers, 3 kinds of melee weapon (not too sure what difference they have), some exotic weapons (havent bothered much with them) and "daggers". Metal and leather armors. And then 5 levels of metal/leather they can be built out of. And that is great. Its very intuitive to understand how good an item will be, no need to remember 50 different types (just different by name) of gear. And then different enchantments to spice things up, of course.

I love the skill advancement system. Better than old ToME (and Diablo II) because you are not totally screwed if you choose wrong skills to invest in. Gain 4 levels and you can suddenly be master of _something_ new.

I love how the skill work. It would seem that someone responsible have played Diablo II as well. Reason I love this is just as much that my _enemies_ have to use skills too. No "double breath - death" from a single enemy, because IT will have a cooldown to struggle with as well.

On the topic of enemies, I love them. Far too many games have too many kinds of enemies, to the point of boredom. I mean, read silmarillion and lord of the rings again. How many different kinds of enemies are there? 15? (orc warrior, orc scout/archer, uruk-hai, troll (mabye two different kinds), snow giant, evil man, mumak, warg, crebain, "undead", ringwraith (dread?), dragon, balrog/maia) So instead of making 325 different kind of foes (leads to a lot of lacklustre names and descriptions and abilities on foe number 150+) you have orc warrior level 10 or mountain troll level 15. Great. Love that.

-More later, time ran out.