Whoop-dee-doo, the end. Congrats. [Ending Disappointment]

[Gentlefish]

That's basically my impression of the ending of TL2. You see...

----SPOILERS BELOW. You have been warned.----



I expected that before you fought the Alchemist, he'd do a monologue of some kind, giving you a step-by-step outline of his quest to destroy the core or whatever. But no, he just pops out of the floor and you kill him. There's not even a cinematic afterward, and the fight was unnervingly easy.
The Nether Lord, on the other hand, definitely deserved his place as the final boss. It was pretty challenging, and I even died on my first try. However, it was still anticlimactic. You stick Ordrak's heart in the core to lock it, watch a very short cinematic and... That's it. No old-fashioned credits roll, no fanfare. Just a portal back to town and congratulations from a few NPCs. I suppose with something like this no one other than those immediately present would know what just happened, but... There could have been something. Was anyone else disappointed with the ending, or is it just me?

[Befitzero]

Well seeing that the first one didn't have much of a story or for that matter a decent ending I didn't expect much in the story department for this one. Still for the price I'm not going to complain this and the first game has always been about the loot and mods so that was my reason for buying it.

But I agree the story overall was pretty meh but at least the gameplay made up for it.

[Gentlefish]

Mm, true. I never actually finished TL1 (got close enough to know what was going to happen, though), so maybe that's part of why I was surprised.
...I dunno. I still feel they could have made the ending more interesting. xD

[Everyone's a Captain Kirk]

Yeah, the ending was a little "Meh" I would have liked to talk the the Alchemist a little before killing him.

[cowinspace]

Whilst it would have been nice to have a little dialog, the alchemists actions were explained in the cinematic. He had been corrupted by the netherim into working for them (perhaps through his emberblight, or through manipulation of his search for a cure). Not exactly tolkien but it was at least consistent, the netherim required a powerful relic to destroy the clockwork heart and this came in the form of ordraks heart. It's power diminished they somehow convinced the alchemist that if it was powered it could cure the ember blight. By the end he is perhaps more akin to the dwarven automatons and completely under the control of the netherlord. Nice and simple so as to avoid gaping plot holes. I would have liked to see the vanquisher and destroyer more though.

[Schmidli]

The Netherlord is way easier than the Alchemist... I killed Netherlord on NG++ in 14 seconds.

[Gentlefish]

Originally posted by cowinspace:

Whilst it would have been nice to have a little dialog, the alchemists actions were explained in the cinematic. He had been corrupted by the netherim into working for them (perhaps through his emberblight, or through manipulation of his search for a cure). Not exactly tolkien but it was at least consistent, the netherim required a powerful relic to destroy the clockwork heart and this came in the form of ordraks heart. It's power diminished they somehow convinced the alchemist that if it was powered it could cure the ember blight. By the end he is perhaps more akin to the dwarven automatons and completely under the control of the netherlord. Nice and simple so as to avoid gaping plot holes. I would have liked to see the vanquisher and destroyer more though.

Alright, yes. To be fair, all was explained in the end. xD But like you said, a little dialogue would have been nice, as well as seeing more of the other two original characters.

Originally posted by Tyronis:

The Netherlord is way easier than the Alchemist... I killed Netherlord on NG++ in 14 seconds.

Really? That's weird... Maybe it helped that I had someone cooperating with me on the Alchemist. But that doesn't make sense due to difficulty scaling... Weird.

[TacDrol]

Sure, the ending might be somewhat boring, but people don't play these games for the ending and I'd prefer have them spend most of their resources on gameplay rather than cinematics, story writing and voice acting.

[ElziEpsilon]

I have mixed feelings about the fight with the Alchemist. On one hand, a short monologue would have added a lot of flavor to the most imortant battle in the game, plotwise. Back in the first game, Alric said at least one or two sentences before summoning Ordrak. On the other hand, I kind of like how the Alchemist doesn't screw around - a threat appears and he just proceeds to attempt to take you down. He probably doesn't even know who you are, except maybe for something the Ezrohir might have told him about the demon who tore through their army. On the third hand, it's surprising that you even manage to catch up with him. Considering how much headway he had on you, it almost feels like he was waiting inside the room you fight him in. I would have liked to hear some justification for that, like "He was having doubts" or "The Netherim were putting up heavy resistance to hide the fact that they were on his side from him, in case he got suspicious".

[raubrey]

I think since T2 was presented more story-like than T1 so expectations might be higher when in actuality I think T1 was better.

And T1 vets probably know (as mentioned) T2 isn't a game to play for a good storyline (albeit it wouldn't tale a whole lot to improve it, in my mind).

As for the boss battle, T1's was far harder and more fun (and I don't even like boss battles) ... I have a screen shot of it but it doesn't do it justice as I was running around on many screens trying to stay alive and kill baby dragons in small groups :D

[Everyone's a Captain Kirk]

When it comes to the Alchemist talking to you at the end. I would have liked to hear how he justifys his actions. A speech from a crazy man telling you that he burned towns, killed people, and endagered the entire world, for the greater good. That would have been epic.

[Lavian]

You know, his journals actually justify his actions in act 1.

I do agree he should have had some lines though. Nonetheless, I actually thought he was the most interesting boss battle due to the field it's on.

---------------------SPOILERS BELOW--------------------





He's attempting to rind the world of Emberblight by ridding the world of ember using the power of Ordrak's heart. The heart alone lacked the power to do so, so he draws power from the Guardians. He syphons power off of more than one Guardian because he doesn't want to kill them or potentially throw off the balance of the world. He wears his crazy looking armor and staff to shield him from the corruption of the heart. He's insane, but he thinks he's doing the right thing and attempting to rid the world of a terrible disease in which the symptoms of are insanity and death.

[Everyone's a Captain Kirk]

Originally posted by Lavian:

You know, his journals actually justify his actions in act 1.

I do agree he should have had some lines though. Nonetheless, I actually thought he was the most interesting boss battle due to the field it's on.

---------------------SPOILERS BELOW--------------------





He's attempting to rind the world of Emberblight by ridding the world of ember using the power of Ordrak's heart. The heart alone lacked the power to do so, so he draws power from the Guardians. He syphons power off of more than one Guardian because he doesn't want to kill them or potentially throw off the balance of the world. He wears his crazy looking armor and staff to shield him from the corruption of the heart. He's insane, but he thinks he's doing the right thing and attempting to rid the world of a terrible disease in which the symptoms of are insanity and death.

Yeah, I read all the journals and did all the sidequests and stuff. But I want to hear it from him.
How he justifys his most recent actions. How far he has fallen into madness. And if he regrets anything he has done. As I said, he thinks he is doing this for the greater good.

[Lavian]

Originally posted by :PC: R_Man:

Yeah, I read all the journals and did all the sidequests and stuff. But I want to hear it from him.
How he justifys his most recent actions. How far he has fallen into madness. And if he regrets anything he has done. As I said, he thinks he is doing this for the greater good.

Well, it's not like he's doing anything that deviates from his journals. He could also justify the rest of his actions with being in a rush. I agree though. That would have been nice to hear from his mouth.

[Matthew]

Given the choice between Diablo 3's forced upon you style and Torchlight 2's "it is there if you search for it" style, I prefer TL2's. Not to turn this thread into a D3 vs. TL2, but the example is simply too perfect too ignore. The appeal behind aRPG's is a big picture fast food version of an RPG. The genre was never really intended to be a deep character study with three-dimensional characters.

That being said, there should have been more involvement with the Alchemist. Keeping the antagonist in the shadows is only effective when you are trying to keep an element of fear and mystery, which TL2 obviously does not: The game flat out tells you who and what the bad guy is right from the first cinematic.

TL2 should have gone more of a comic book/super hero route. Have the antagonist constantly in your face throughout the game. Have him appear after every failed attempt to save a Guardian. He doesn't have to be the stereotypical cackling mad scientist type; he can simply look back and give a line like, "Can't you see I'm on your side?"

[Gentlefish]

Whoa, this really turned into a discussion. I like it. :D

I did read the journals, but like a lot of people said, hearing it from the man himself would have been nice. Also...

Originally posted by matthewameluxen:

TL2 should have gone more of a comic book/super hero route. Have the antagonist constantly in your face throughout the game. Have him appear after every failed attempt to save a Guardian. He doesn't have to be the stereotypical cackling mad scientist type; he can simply look back and give a line like, "Can't you see I'm on your side?"

That would have been neat.