Pillars is great! I am enjoying playing through without talking or reading too much about it, so I am avoiding guides, spoilers, videos, and discussions.
Looking forward to Adventure Y and Tales from the Sword Coast later this year as well! 2015 the year of the CRPG!!
Pillars of Eternity: An Interactive Novel By Obsidian Entertainment. Love it.
Also, the traditional route of class building doesn't have to apply here. I can do whatever the heck I want and get away with it somehow.
Case in point:
Why yes, that fellow in the duelist's hat and cape firing a pistola is in fact, a wizard.
Game gets an 11/10 from me for that alone
Lately I've been having trouble with my eyes and playing games just hurts now. Having this be all nice and slow and text heavy is a real good way to still be able to play the occasional game or two.
The way even the side quests unfold is actually superb storytelling, but very subtle. Without giving too much away, there is a abandoned temple in the first real village that serves as your first dungeon excursion. The door to the second level CAN be unlocked with high enough skills, but you likely won't meet them when you are ready to enter. So instead the key to gaining entrance to the second level is revealed through the notes and memories of a former young acolyte. Nothing points you in that direction, you have to look through the items you looted and your quest journal. And in doing so even opening a door becomes a victory. It is actually very reminiscent of the early dungeon with the Shade Lord in BG2. I've ran into familiar (but still unique) quests like this that deliberately pay homage to one of the classic isometric RPGs at least half a dozen times already.
Can anyone gimme some help with wizard spells? kinda a struggle. I need to protect Aloth more, he gets owned constantly.
The most powerful attack spell so far has been Fake Burning Hands, but it hurts party member, right? Other than that Fake Magic Missiles isn't as good as the D&D alternative, but I do like Fake Grease the most, especially if you have some nice heavy hitters. These small areas of effect make it hard to aim though!
...Nothing points you in that direction, you have to look through the items you looted and your quest journal...
Yes, I was a bit surprised at that...I picked up a new quest, but no hint arrows appeared to point me in the right direction. It's almost as if they expect me to actually read the dialogue and figure out where I'm supposed to go! Also, nobody had any exclamation marks to identify them as quest givers, and when I take actual hitpoint damage, it doesn't magically regenerate...call this a modern RPG??
Can anyone gimme some help with wizard spells? kinda a struggle. I need to protect Aloth more, he gets owned constantly.
The most powerful attack spell so far has been Fake Burning Hands, but it hurts party member, right? Other than that Fake Magic Missiles isn't as good as the D&D alternative, but I do like Fake Grease the most, especially if you have some nice heavy hitters. These small areas of effect make it hard to aim though!
The red area is the only one that causes damage (assuming you don't have expert mode turned on). Fine tuning the placing a little bit can spare your tank or party members if it is dropped in the right place. AoE placement seems huge in this game, and it seems one of the main reasons Expert Mode is called that is because you lose the color coordination of where the safe spots are.
Camping supplies are a real problem I don't think the feature should have been included in the game. Limited rests just adds more difficulty to an already very difficult game.
Can anyone gimme some help with wizard spells? kinda a struggle. I need to protect Aloth more, he gets owned constantly.
The most powerful attack spell so far has been Fake Burning Hands, but it hurts party member, right? Other than that Fake Magic Missiles isn't as good as the D&D alternative, but I do like Fake Grease the most, especially if you have some nice heavy hitters. These small areas of effect make it hard to aim though!
The red area is the only one that causes damage (assuming you don't have expert mode turned on). Fine tuning the placing a little bit can spare your tank or party members if it is dropped in the right place. AoE placement seems huge in this game, and it seems one of the main reasons Expert Mode is called that is because you lose the color coordination of where the safe spots are.
It also takes some guess work if the mobs are moving. I've been parking my tank and aim the aoe near him hoping the monsters will end up in that vicinity by the time the spell actually casts.
Is PoE playable and enjoyable using mouse only point-and-click? I really don't want to add any more games to my library that require the keyboard to play.
Can anyone gimme some help with wizard spells? kinda a struggle. I need to protect Aloth more, he gets owned constantly.
The most powerful attack spell so far has been Fake Burning Hands, but it hurts party member, right? Other than that Fake Magic Missiles isn't as good as the D&D alternative, but I do like Fake Grease the most, especially if you have some nice heavy hitters. These small areas of effect make it hard to aim though!
I like Fetid Caress. Its a level 2 spell though but its good if you want to paralyze a particularly annoying mage.
Camping supplies are a real problem I don't think the feature should have been included in the game. Limited rests just adds more difficulty to an already very difficult game.
Enemies don't respawn, so all it really does is add to the amount of time it takes to get rested again. Especially since resting in the common room of the Black Hound (as well as your stronghold) is free.
Is PoE playable and enjoyable using mouse only point-and-click? I really don't want to add any more games to my library that require the keyboard to play.
It's quite possible to play with mouse only (though you'll need keyboard for character creation obviously) but I'm not sure I'd recommend it. Being able to pause quick can be vital and clicking the "clock" in the interface may not be fast enough. Though you could always just bind the pause key to a mouse button if you have one spare I suppose.
Yeah, it's like BG as far as playing with just a mouse. You'll be using the keyboard to pause quite a bit, unless you set it to autopause all the time and you can hotkey things although I haven't even bothered so far.
Is PoE playable and enjoyable using mouse only point-and-click? I really don't want to add any more games to my library that require the keyboard to play.
I started playing today and, until now, I only used the keyboard to pause, quickly access my inventory and saving.
Camping supplies are a real problem I don't think the feature should have been included in the game. Limited rests just adds more difficulty to an already very difficult game.
I don't know about this. One of my favorite things about the game so far is that it takes things that were either useless (rooms at the inn, food, drink) or gave the ability to enter every fight with a full spell book (unlimited resting) and makes them instill either tangible benefits or actual strategy. The fact that the progressively harder modes offer even more restrictions is going to offer even more replay value, which is something any isometric fan probably wants in spades.
The games isn't always going to be as difficult as it is now (and I agree that it is). Eventually everyone will get used to the fights, spells and combat system and the challenge will be welcome down the road.
If we believe the Steam statistics, this weekend I spent 24 hours in the game. So, one entire day has already been spent in Eora for me and I have barely noticed it.
I managed to find and take into the party 5 companions and everyone has the 4th level right now.
I'm playing on the hard difficulty completely blind an unaware of anything.
Unlike @FinneousPJ , I didn't change my mind to make a rogue and decided to make him an extremely unbalanced - insane damage and very low HP and protections in the same time.
So far, I've been completely sucked into this game. I appreciate the level of details Obsidian put into it: I adore the fact we can listen to numerous and vast NPCs' stories by talking to their souls, I like the difficulty of fights, I constantly lose myself in reading the in-game encyclopaedia and all the books and notes I find.
The thing I like the most about this game is the difference between classes and the influence any of party members has on how a battle goes.
My assassin can be easily brushed aside if I miss to pause every now and then, but if I watch everything closely I immediately feel the effect of him ripping one enemy after another. An ability to go completely invisible being between 5 enemies acts like HiPS and this is my favourite feature.
My cleric literally changes our chances. It's amazing really how important his buffing spells are. If we didn't have a cleric, we couldn't defeat spirits in the dungeon of the first town and in the game's main stronghold, even with 20 attempts.
My mage's debuffing spells (such as Blindness from the second spell level) are another battle-changing tools. This game, just as BG and IWD, encourages to use not damaging but instead crowd-control spells for the best efficiency, @booinyoureyes
My chanter sings and improves the party greatly and then he can summon 3 skeletons to u-turn a battle.
My ranger is a pew-pew-pew machine who constantly runs around the battlefield and helps to quickly dispatch the most dangerous threat.
My fighter holds the line and he's the last to become unconscious - very often only him, buffed from spells and potions, manages to win an encounter I thought I lost for good.
Yes, potions. I appreciate that in order to survive I have to use every single of them. This is not a game where I hoard potions because the battles can be won easily. In fact, it's completely different - there were numerous occasions when only potions saved the party.
Overall, I can't praise this game enough.
The possible downsides other people name, such as "not superb voiceover acting", NPCs being not of BG2 and DAO and DAI level in terms of interactions and personality, small icons in the UI and in the interface, - are minor, to me. Because all other things more than compensate for it. The most important of them is that Pillars of Eternity feels like BG3/IWD3.
From time to time I don't actually believe I'm not dreaming and catch myself on a feeling I play a new IE game that I somehow missed before.
So far I've played for 20 hours and I'm currently in the dungeon of Caed Nua with my human fighter, Aloth, Eder and Durance. Overall the game is simply amazing, it has that great feel of discovery that I missed after playing Baldur's Gate 1 and Planescape: Torment. That being said I'll try to say my opinion about most aspects of the game so far (these may still change).
1) Character creation - I've spend an hour creating my character, so many details. I've basiacally attached myself with the character that was making. Really enjoyable with meaningful choices, though I still prefer rolling stats, compared to point buy.
2) Story - oh my, both the main story and the sideplots are absolutely fascinating, each little task has several ways of approaching it and some little twists and turns. Quite dark atmosphere compared to BG1, a bit closer to PS:T.
3) Artstyle and graphics - I'm really impressed by so many details, yet not overcomplexed style (yay, no huge shoulderpads and silly weapons). The outdoor areas are just lovely, with similar feel to BG1, though I wish those were a bit bigger, compared to the dungeons. Speaking of which, the dungeons are fun, but hopefully there are not that many as in IWD.
4) Music and sound - music is a bit hit and miss for me. Some tracks are wonderful e.g. character creation music (sad it's not on the soundtrack), but some of them are medicore, like battle music. I think the orchestral style is being overdone in games and movies. Sound similarly is good in some places and a bit meh in other. NPCs are amazingly voiced, the sound effects are great as well, but the voices of the party are a bit lackluster. Some short grunts and "yeses" when choosing characters is a bit boring.
5) Dialogues - simply amazing, echoing the PS:T style, where these were done so perfectly. Definately my favourite aspect of the game so far. I just love going around talking with everyone, there are so many options, you just play your character through the dialogues.
6) Combat - quite good so far, requires some time to get used to. Some interesting aspects, with abilities for all the classes, but very restrictive with the disengagement attacks. Though a bit chaotic sometimes with characters' fast movement (awkward to use aoe spells). The damage types vs certain enemies is great, but I wish there was ammo for ranged weapons. The recovery times are weird for me and sometimes the characters are less responsive.
7) UI - the thing that I think needs a bit adjusting. The buttons are way too small, I've pushed the slowmode several times instead of selecting all. I would also like that right-clicking (inventory) wouldn't select that single character.
8) Characters and monsters - NPCs are really well done, the way they're described and the way they look is great. I'm hoping there would be more non-monster battles, but unfortunately dungeons so far are monster-exclusive. Monsters are ok, some are well done, some are annoying.
The game as a whole is what it meant to be, the successor to the IE games and it shows that, it has it's own flavour though, very mysterious vibe. Personally I would lessen the amount of dungeons and monster encounters (IWD style) and added more wilderness and exploration with non-monster encounters and dialogues (BG1 and PS:T style). The ruins and the exploration bonuses are great though. Really enjoyable experience so far.
@Silverstar and @mlnevese , thank you. I do in fact have two programmable mouse buttons to use on my trackball mouse. While playing Baldur's Gate, I keep space for pause on one and Q for quicksave on the other. It sounds like playing PoE will be a similar control situation. Mostly point and click, with lots of pausing.
Things I like about experience handling from what I've played until now:
1) Quests do give more experience than fights. It really makes the game interesting for those who like to complete quests using stealth or any other non-violent solution.
2) Exploration experience. I always thought character should get experience for knowing the world. I would like to see some experience when a new fact about the world is learned by the characters, though, although I have not completed any of the bestiary entries, so it may be the case after all.
Yeah, if your character has a solid Stealth score and you manage not to attract an attention of enemies (don't get in their line of sight), you can simply go and open nearly all the world map areas without ANY fighting.
And opening (reaching) every new area will bring you the experience.
Things I like about experience handling from what I've played until now:
1) Quests do give more experience than fights. It really makes the game interesting for those who like to complete quests using stealth or any other non-violent solution.
2) Exploration experience. I always thought character should get experience for knowing the world. I would like to see some experience when a new fact about the world is learned by the characters, though, although I have not completed any of the bestiary entries, so it may be the case after all.
You only get experience from monsters (and I guess maybe you don't get any from humanoids??) until you fill up the information in the beastiary. At that point they stop giving EXP. And in a very real way that makes sense.
So far I've played for 20 hours and I'm currently in the dungeon of Caed Nua with my human fighter, Aloth, Eder and Durance. Overall the game is simply amazing, it has that great feel of discovery that I missed after playing Baldur's Gate 1 and Planescape: Torment. That being said I'll try to say my opinion about most aspects of the game so far (these may still change).
1) Character creation - I've spend an hour creating my character, so many details. I've basiacally attached myself with the character that was making. Really enjoyable with meaningful choices, though I still prefer rolling stats, compared to point buy.
2) Story - oh my, both the main story and the sideplots are absolutely fascinating, each little task has several ways of approaching it and some little twists and turns. Quite dark atmosphere compared to BG1, a bit closer to PS:T.
3) Artstyle and graphics - I'm really impressed by so many details, yet not overcomplexed style (yay, no huge shoulderpads and silly weapons). The outdoor areas are just lovely, with similar feel to BG1, though I wish those were a bit bigger, compared to the dungeons. Speaking of which, the dungeons are fun, but hopefully there are not that many as in IWD.
4) Music and sound - music is a bit hit and miss for me. Some tracks are wonderful e.g. character creation music (sad it's not on the soundtrack), but some of them are medicore, like battle music. I think the orchestral style is being overdone in games and movies. Sound similarly is good in some places and a bit meh in other. NPCs are amazingly voiced, the sound effects are great as well, but the voices of the party are a bit lackluster. Some short grunts and "yeses" when choosing characters is a bit boring.
5) Dialogues - simply amazing, echoing the PS:T style, where these were done so perfectly. Definately my favourite aspect of the game so far. I just love going around talking with everyone, there are so many options, you just play your character through the dialogues.
6) Combat - quite good so far, requires some time to get used to. Some interesting aspects, with abilities for all the classes, but very restrictive with the disengagement attacks. Though a bit chaotic sometimes with characters' fast movement (awkward to use aoe spells). The damage types vs certain enemies is great, but I wish there was ammo for ranged weapons. The recovery times are weird for me and sometimes the characters are less responsive.
7) UI - the thing that I think needs a bit adjusting. The buttons are way too small, I've pushed the slowmode several times instead of selecting all. I would also like that right-clicking (inventory) wouldn't select that single character.
8) Characters and monsters - NPCs are really well done, the way they're described and the way they look is great. I'm hoping there would be more non-monster battles, but unfortunately dungeons so far are monster-exclusive. Monsters are ok, some are well done, some are annoying.
The game as a whole is what it meant to be, the successor to the IE games and it shows that, it has it's own flavour though, very mysterious vibe. Personally I would lessen the amount of dungeons and monster encounters (IWD style) and added more wilderness and exploration with non-monster encounters and dialogues (BG1 and PS:T style). The ruins and the exploration bonuses are great though. Really enjoyable experience so far.
I second everything you said. My character is a Pale Elf, and I'm told that I hail from a southern polar area called The White that Wends. The name is sinister and whimsical at the same time, and really that's how I would describe the entire atmosphere. I want to visit these places some day. This is a recognizable fantasy world, but it's also clear that something is very wrong, I hesitate to call it quite Lovecraft-ish, but there are elements of that.
The NPCs who are simply in place to have you read their soul....some of the most evocative writing I've seen in a video game. As soon as you click on the yellow NPCs, the game transfers from the screen to your head. They aren't necessary to complete anything, but they are EVERYWHERE if you want flavor.
Comments
Looking forward to Adventure Y and Tales from the Sword Coast later this year as well! 2015 the year of the CRPG!!
Also, the traditional route of class building doesn't have to apply here. I can do whatever the heck I want and get away with it somehow.
Case in point:
Why yes, that fellow in the duelist's hat and cape firing a pistola is in fact, a wizard.
Game gets an 11/10 from me for that alone
Lately I've been having trouble with my eyes and playing games just hurts now. Having this be all nice and slow and text heavy is a real good way to still be able to play the occasional game or two.
The most powerful attack spell so far has been Fake Burning Hands, but it hurts party member, right? Other than that Fake Magic Missiles isn't as good as the D&D alternative, but I do like Fake Grease the most, especially if you have some nice heavy hitters. These small areas of effect make it hard to aim though!
The games isn't always going to be as difficult as it is now (and I agree that it is). Eventually everyone will get used to the fights, spells and combat system and the challenge will be welcome down the road.
Or the sixth.
Oh, and that one time when I played rogue a few months ago...
http://kotaku.com/pillars-of-eternity-characters-crippled-by-ridiculous-i-1694367618
It's not a huge deal and by the looks of it they are going to come out with a patch later this week that will resolve it plus some other tweaks.
http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Pillars-Eternity-Bug-Causing-Serious-Problems-70984.html
Thundercats, hooooooo!
I managed to find and take into the party 5 companions and everyone has the 4th level right now.
I'm playing on the hard difficulty completely blind an unaware of anything.
Unlike @FinneousPJ , I didn't change my mind to make a rogue and decided to make him an extremely unbalanced - insane damage and very low HP and protections in the same time.
So far, I've been completely sucked into this game. I appreciate the level of details Obsidian put into it: I adore the fact we can listen to numerous and vast NPCs' stories by talking to their souls, I like the difficulty of fights, I constantly lose myself in reading the in-game encyclopaedia and all the books and notes I find.
The thing I like the most about this game is the difference between classes and the influence any of party members has on how a battle goes.
My assassin can be easily brushed aside if I miss to pause every now and then, but if I watch everything closely I immediately feel the effect of him ripping one enemy after another. An ability to go completely invisible being between 5 enemies acts like HiPS and this is my favourite feature.
My cleric literally changes our chances. It's amazing really how important his buffing spells are. If we didn't have a cleric, we couldn't defeat spirits in the dungeon of the first town and in the game's main stronghold, even with 20 attempts.
My mage's debuffing spells (such as Blindness from the second spell level) are another battle-changing tools. This game, just as BG and IWD, encourages to use not damaging but instead crowd-control spells for the best efficiency, @booinyoureyes
My chanter sings and improves the party greatly and then he can summon 3 skeletons to u-turn a battle.
My ranger is a pew-pew-pew machine who constantly runs around the battlefield and helps to quickly dispatch the most dangerous threat.
My fighter holds the line and he's the last to become unconscious - very often only him, buffed from spells and potions, manages to win an encounter I thought I lost for good.
Yes, potions. I appreciate that in order to survive I have to use every single of them. This is not a game where I hoard potions because the battles can be won easily. In fact, it's completely different - there were numerous occasions when only potions saved the party.
Overall, I can't praise this game enough.
The possible downsides other people name, such as "not superb voiceover acting", NPCs being not of BG2 and DAO and DAI level in terms of interactions and personality, small icons in the UI and in the interface, - are minor, to me. Because all other things more than compensate for it. The most important of them is that Pillars of Eternity feels like BG3/IWD3.
From time to time I don't actually believe I'm not dreaming and catch myself on a feeling I play a new IE game that I somehow missed before.
1) Character creation - I've spend an hour creating my character, so many details. I've basiacally attached myself with the character that was making. Really enjoyable with meaningful choices, though I still prefer rolling stats, compared to point buy.
2) Story - oh my, both the main story and the sideplots are absolutely fascinating, each little task has several ways of approaching it and some little twists and turns. Quite dark atmosphere compared to BG1, a bit closer to PS:T.
3) Artstyle and graphics - I'm really impressed by so many details, yet not overcomplexed style (yay, no huge shoulderpads and silly weapons). The outdoor areas are just lovely, with similar feel to BG1, though I wish those were a bit bigger, compared to the dungeons. Speaking of which, the dungeons are fun, but hopefully there are not that many as in IWD.
4) Music and sound - music is a bit hit and miss for me. Some tracks are wonderful e.g. character creation music (sad it's not on the soundtrack), but some of them are medicore, like battle music. I think the orchestral style is being overdone in games and movies. Sound similarly is good in some places and a bit meh in other. NPCs are amazingly voiced, the sound effects are great as well, but the voices of the party are a bit lackluster. Some short grunts and "yeses" when choosing characters is a bit boring.
5) Dialogues - simply amazing, echoing the PS:T style, where these were done so perfectly. Definately my favourite aspect of the game so far. I just love going around talking with everyone, there are so many options, you just play your character through the dialogues.
6) Combat - quite good so far, requires some time to get used to. Some interesting aspects, with abilities for all the classes, but very restrictive with the disengagement attacks. Though a bit chaotic sometimes with characters' fast movement (awkward to use aoe spells). The damage types vs certain enemies is great, but I wish there was ammo for ranged weapons. The recovery times are weird for me and sometimes the characters are less responsive.
7) UI - the thing that I think needs a bit adjusting. The buttons are way too small, I've pushed the slowmode several times instead of selecting all. I would also like that right-clicking (inventory) wouldn't select that single character.
8) Characters and monsters - NPCs are really well done, the way they're described and the way they look is great. I'm hoping there would be more non-monster battles, but unfortunately dungeons so far are monster-exclusive. Monsters are ok, some are well done, some are annoying.
The game as a whole is what it meant to be, the successor to the IE games and it shows that, it has it's own flavour though, very mysterious vibe. Personally I would lessen the amount of dungeons and monster encounters (IWD style) and added more wilderness and exploration with non-monster encounters and dialogues (BG1 and PS:T style). The ruins and the exploration bonuses are great though. Really enjoyable experience so far.
1) Quests do give more experience than fights. It really makes the game interesting for those who like to complete quests using stealth or any other non-violent solution.
2) Exploration experience. I always thought character should get experience for knowing the world. I would like to see some experience when a new fact about the world is learned by the characters, though, although I have not completed any of the bestiary entries, so it may be the case after all.
And opening (reaching) every new area will bring you the experience.
Now when the game is out, use this thread for discussing anything WITH SPOILERS. If you don't want any spoilers, use another thread: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/4792/pillars-of-eternity-no-spoilers
I second everything you said. My character is a Pale Elf, and I'm told that I hail from a southern polar area called The White that Wends. The name is sinister and whimsical at the same time, and really that's how I would describe the entire atmosphere. I want to visit these places some day. This is a recognizable fantasy world, but it's also clear that something is very wrong, I hesitate to call it quite Lovecraft-ish, but there are elements of that.
The NPCs who are simply in place to have you read their soul....some of the most evocative writing I've seen in a video game. As soon as you click on the yellow NPCs, the game transfers from the screen to your head. They aren't necessary to complete anything, but they are EVERYWHERE if you want flavor.
By the way, I hope the patch is coming soon- Many ppl are complaining about the game-breaking bugs. I guess I've been lucky... If anyone is interested, the topic is here, on Obsidians site:
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/73757-list-of-bugs-that-everyone-should-know-about-game-breaking/page-2