Is it worth suffering through The Midnight Isles to play the rest of the game?

[Haydon Jurai]

This has probably been posted a billiion times, but its so hard to find old topics easily. Maybe a year ago now, I played the game until I got a ways into The Midnight Isles chapter. I hated it. If I remember correctly:

* There was very little fighting, mostly running around. It felt like the quests in Skyrim.
* I hated having to memorize where the portals were to take me to other parts of the map. I just want to navigate straight there. Why make me remember the paths? That's what pathing logic in games is FOR.
* the fights that I had, you seemed to have to pick up on a specific way to beat the enemies, or they were nigh impossible
* You could see chests and such that you couldn't get to, until much later (based on research, when I tried to figure out how to get to an area)
* I disliked the visuals very much

I'm sure there was more I disliked, but that's what I can recall, a year later.
So, what I want to know is, if I go back to it, and suffer through this chapter, is the game good enough afterwards that I'll enjoy it again? Or does it pretty much suck thereafter?
I remember reading that the queen, or whatever she was, that took over your armies while you were gone, and totally fubars them. If that's correct, that'll be a total letdown, after building up my armies so much.

[TamTroll]

it does go back to the same style of gameplay as before you went there. so if you like that, then there's that to look forward too.

[Gracey Face]

No, it absolutely is not worth playing through the midnight isles. What is worth it is downloading a mod called toybox that lets you bypass all of the annoyances of that entire chapter.

The game does get better afterwards though, as Tam says it largely returns to the quality it had previously. Everyone hates chapter 4 to the point where I am perplexed it made it in to the game.

Also yes, the thing you think about the Queen is true. It's actually kind of annoying as she just gets away with it. There's no way to have her be punished for what she has done, the closest you get is reanimating her as a lich and on other paths you either let her off with a slap on the wrist (Aeon) or don't even do that much. And the fact that her incompetence is almost certainly the reason why the crusades have been going on for a century, and the way she's politicked her way into immortality despite being absolutely useless, just never gets adressed. It's kind of wierd to be honest. And after you give her the boot and regain control and end up winning the crusades no one appreciates it because "You're a spooky skeleton!". Yeah, I am a lich but the queen wasted the lives of tens of millions of people so she could grow a personality cult and bully a religion into giving her immortality juice. I am better than what came before.

[tiamats4esgares]

I feel like chapters 4 and 5 should've been mostly swapped. It would solve a lot of the issues with the Queen messing everything up. The flow of the game just seems to change a lot from chapter 3 to chapter 4 and then it's hard to get back to that same pace again. I was ready for things to be over after chapter 4, but yet they dragged on...

The queen messing everything up is what caused me to quit my first playthrough and not play for a long, long time.

[ShayRey]

I would say no. If only because the rest of the game doesn't live up to the quality set by Act 3 and before. Act 5 feels...kinda short and story beats like the aforementioned things in spoilers feel weirdly out of place due to not being commented on.

And then there's the Threshold Fortress. It doesn't even feel like a proper last dungeon, more like one of the stepping stones to a longer final dungeon. Areelu's True Lab felt more like a final dungeon in theming, length and sense of finality. Plus, the fight with the companions outside the fortress feels like a BS move.

To say nothing of how poor the lategame Mythic Paths feel. Yes, I am still upset over Gold Dragon's execution, and from what I've heard the evil ones certainly suffered. At least the early game Mythic Paths continue on well for the most part.

But overall, I'd say the game feels really great in the 1st half, then kinda peters out through the second half.