Here are some things i noticed while playing DoS2 on PS4.
I really liked the game so i thought i would share my experience and few issues i encountered throughout my gameplay.
As a side note, i used different "gift bags" (//add-on features) available in the game, including the "Improved organization" which allows you to organize your loot in different bags in your inventory. Be aware that it is on PS4 so the experience might be different on PC.
Let's start with Quest log
There is 2 things here. 1. the Quest log doesn't allow you to play around with the different quests. For example at the beginning i kind of struggled finding the newest quests i unlocked recently because they don't add up at the top of the list. Being able to order the quests would have been nice for that (by importance, recency...). Also considering that the quests go by a specific name, i would sometimes end up having to move over different ones to find the one i was interested in. Another thing is that you cannot discard a quest. Now, it sounds a bit stupid but i remember not being to finish a quest because i had lost the note i was supposed to keep and i was frustrated that i wasn't able to remove this quest from my log to consider it out. 2. the "Track quest" option doesn't show you which quest is tracked in the quest log. The green flags are new quests whereas the blue one is the one you are currently on, showing the player where he is in the menu. Considering that red flags are used on the map to show you where the objective is, it would have been nice if this color was used for showing you which quest is currently tracked so you can find it more easily if you need more information about it.
The Dialogues log
You have the option to re-read previous dialogues here. Something sad though is that you cannot find lines that are being said outsides of the dialogues. For instance, sometimes your teammates would say something but you wouldn't really hear it and the lines are kind of hard to read sometimes so you end up not knowing what this character just said to you. Sometimes it is irrelevant, sometimes it is important.
The waypoints
These are ordered alphabetically which doesn't help the players remember where is what. Ordering them by novelty (newest ones on top or bottom) could help remember more easily where are the different locations as the players can remember the path he took so far.
Inventory
Something that led to different issues was the ordering bags. I don't know how effective it is on PC but on console it didn't really help me. Basically this feature adds specific bags to each character for different loot (shields, arrows, bows....) Something i was annoyed with was that i couldn't delete some to clear up the space (for example i knew i wouldn't use shields or bombs with my hunter so i didn't feel that i needed these for this specific character). You only can't give your bags to other characters.
Now i remember i had started to order my stuff a bit more but i couldn't craft arrows and used specific runes i had found earlier. I later realised that these items that were stored in my bags weren't displayed in the "add rune menu" to add them to your gear. I don't know if it was a bug but it was surely weird.
Also, when you would have placed an item in the wrong bag (here an arrow in the tool bag) you cannot directly move it to another bag or even to the unordered stuff your specific character has. Instead you had to send it to one of your other characters and then send it back to the correct bag which adds extra annoying clicks (especially on console).
Also, you can do a multi-select but you cannot drop multiple elements at the same time. Which means that if now you want to drop 3 books you don't need anymore, you have to drop them one by one, (Square => down to drop item => X => repeat 3 times)
Runes and equipment
Something i noticed is that the emphasis is not very strong on the key elements. For example, it is pretty hard to guess which item i'm currently looking at on the image above. It is because the color that shows where you are in the menu blends with the contours of the shield equipped. Another thing is the currently equipped rune on your gear (bottom right part . This information is displayed in a dark grey shade that almost gives the impression that it is a disabled feature whereas instead it actually tells you which rune is equipped on the gear.
The on/off rune icon is also kind of hard to see while playing on TV (the white dots on the bottom left corner of the chest armor and the necklace) and the difference between the two status relies only on the sign inside. Using different colors or shapes might have differenciate the two.
Then when you go in the Runes menu to add runes to your gear you can actually see if the gear is equipped or not and who carries it in its inventory if it isn't equipped. But you don't know which character has it equipped though. It is not a major issue for most item as different characters would have different equipments but it happened that 3 of my characters were carrying a shield and two of them had an identical looking one and i couldn't tell who was using what. Mentioning who is using the equipment might be useful to quickly know what runes are the best for this character.
Then comes the crafting
Back to the bags, as you can see, because you cannot delete them they are all there in the crafting system which requires a lot of scrolling (especially on console). Then another issue is that you might know that X character has the ingredient or material you need to craft something but you actually don't know which bag belongs to whom. You basically have 4 bags of each with all the same name. Adding the character's name could solve this issue.
Then you have the recipes part of the crafting. You can craft so many things but you cannot filter it. Which means that if you want to see what you actually craft you have to go through the whole menu to see what you can craft with you current ingredients/loot. Adding a filtering system that only shows what you can craft now could be useful to remove all the searching in the menu. Also there is no other filter/ordering system in place so if your desired potion start with a S or a T, then it is always gonna be at the end of the list and you can't order it differently.
Then sometimes when you craft two items in a row too quickly it would show you that you can still craft the second one even though you already made it and don't have the necessary elements anymore.
Colors
Something else i found also in relation to colors and contrasts is the color used for geomancer spells (the dark orange one at the top of the screen). It has the same active status than the 3 other types of magic (green, red and yellow ones) active on this character but the contrast is so much darker than at first it kind of looks like a deactivated category.
Here above, is an example of color and shape match. at the bottom center of the screen you have 3 cyan diamond shapes. They represent the source points. Now under each character you see cyan oval/round shapes which match these. The small detail is that the symbol used to show that you have skill points for a character is actually pretty similar to the cyan diamond (you can see it next to the skeleton character, upper right corner). It is not so much of an issue if the player knows what the source symbol means but nevertheless, other design or color could have been used to show that skill points are available.
Another issue with colors is the slight contrast difference when a character is inside or outside of the area of effect. I understand that the game is not supposed to be super easy and forgiving but, being able to correctly visualize if a character is inside or outside the zone should not lead to confusion, especially when many other things are going on on the screen already. The challenge shouldn't be in perceiving correctly the color displayed on the screen.
Quest Reward
Rewards are good ! Until you realise that you actually don't know what you should pick, if it is better than what you have now, if your warrior even has enough strenght to use it. Allowing the player to compare the different rewards to the current builds and gears would help make better decisions and not pick something unfortunate.
Merchant
While tradding with a NPC if you decide to show details, the information actually covers the whole right part of the screen. It is not a big issue but if not you wanted to check details of other items on the right you might have to remember where they were located or deactivate the "show details" to then reactivate it when you are on the other item. This information could be displayed on the right part of the screen to not cover the items.
Main menu
Whenever you start the game, the cursor is by default on "Story" (which is new game). Having the cursor set to "Continue" by default makes more sense when you have already a story going on (which will happen more often that having to start a new game) and it can reduce errors made by distracted players who just clicked immediately on story. Also the word "Story" could encompasses both a new game and continue so maybe something more clear is preferred here (New game, Start game; New story...).
That's it !
In no way, i'm trash-talking the game! I really love it and i'm just trying to discover some issues and details to make games better and more enjoyable for everyone !
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