Ha, and I thought I was the only one who bought the game but never finished it. I was quite hyped about it when it came out but the interest fell off surprisingly soon. I never got much further over the first town. At that point I never felt a lack of urgency (I'm sick and I need to find a cure) but the dealbraker for me was combat. Prolonged, bland, boring, the engagement mechanic didn't clicked with me at all. I would actually like to get to know more about the story and the world, but with most of the gameplay time filled with such combat? Unfortunatelly, pass.
@Pecca just summarized EXACTLY what drove me away from PoE. The graphics were good, the story even seemed interesting with that whole "discover what your power actually is" start... But I have to agree with all the flaws Pecca pointed out. The combat was boring, some of the rules actually didn't make much sense to me, recovering was a pain...
While playing PoE I couldn't shrug off the feeling some stuff were there just because "hey Baldur's Gate did that!" starting with using real time with pause. There's also the fact I played Divinity: Original Sin first and really liked it so I had a point of comparison in the "try to be old school RPG" category.
I too liked PoE but I too liked Divinity OS better
I don't understand the hate that surrounds this game.
Sure, it's not on the level of BG or PS:T. But if you compare all the RPG to BG or PS:T...you will find all of them bad.
I like the combat system, it's easy and a bit naive but nonetheless entertaining and different from the usual mechanics.
I liked the story and some of the characters. I liked the main enemy also.
I think you are too harsh. Or try to compare a simple but entertaining game to other masterpieces that obviously are better.
Try playing the game as it is, like i did. Not biased, without comparing evry small thing to BG. ( because the result would always be that BG did it better than PoE ).
In short. I know that PoE can't be compared to other good RPG. But nonetheless it's good and entertaining...IF you change your mindset and stop comparing it to BG and such.
I actually do not compare it to any other game. I just disliked the combat mechanics to a point where it bothered me more than the story interested me and I stopped playing.
I use Story Time mode in PoE. I'm hard boiled like that.
For what's worth, what I really liked about the game is it's reincarnation theme. That was something I find way more attractive than Forgotten Realm's take on the afterlife.
PoE's (few) defenders seem to be very quick to accuse people of "compering to Baldur's Gate", but the truth is it's faults stand alone. It is compared unfavorably to Divinity: Original Sin (which has fun combat); it compares unfavorably to Siege of Dragonspear (which has a better paced narrative); it is being compared unfavorably to Tyranny.
I would even say that, in terms of story and atmosphere, it even compares unfavourably to Sword Coast Legends. Although SCL has worse gameplay.
How would you compare your experience of IWD:EE, IWD2 with Pillars of Eternity in terms of gameplay, story structure, narration and overall feel?
No need to be so cruel to the poor game. Compare Pillars of Eternity with its contemporaries, like Goat Simulator and The Sims FreePlay. Then it stands a chance at least, and comes across as a 'meh' game, aka something a modern well-compensated reviewer would rate ~92%.
My experience of PoE just doesn't compare to IWD or IWD2. I'd never thought 'Better uninstall this garbage, it's not even worth wasting 18 gigabytes of SSD space on' while playing the latter two. And I'll further remark that I got the game at no charge, so I'm being very lenient in my judgements of it.
I mostly like POE for the writing and characters. It admittedly makes the mistake of not making the narrative personal until 1/3 of the way through the game. The combat is alright, its not great, not awful. Some of the classes are still a ton of fun to play though.
I mostly like POE for the writing and characters. It admittedly makes the mistake of not making the narrative personal until 1/3 of the way through the game. The combat is alright, its not great, not awful. Some of the classes are still a ton of fun to play though.
Okay, so, inspired by @FatherofTwo 's new Let's Play, I decided to give Pillars of Eternity another chance today.
New first impressions:
1) Omg, voice acting. So...much...voice acting. It's kind of overwhelming. But I think it's a good thing in this game, as I was very attached to Calisca and the other guy, and was very sad when they died. And then, hearing so much voice acting from them, I am already very attached to Aloth and Eder. Aloth reminds me of Sand from NWN2, and Eder reminds me of Allistair from Dragon Age: Origins. (That is probably not an accident that the Obsidian devs used those exact two archetypes.)
2) Game play during the role-playing parts of the game, and exploration mechanics, is almost identical to Baldur's Gate. I can't help but be impressed by the care that went into an (at least attempted) duplication of BG style.
3) The personalization of the story is pretty good for as early in the game as I am. I lost two friends, I saw a strange ritual, I passed out, and now, all of a sudden, "I talk to dead people", and/or detect people's past lives. The new "power" does not feel good, it feels like a sickness. And the first "safe" town I come to is hanging people like me. Yikes. Okay. The spirit of the hung dwarven woman tells me exactly who I need to find and talk to for further info. The urgency for my character is then well-established, although I know I am nowhere near strong enough to go straight for the main quest. So, the criticism of the pacing of the main story is probably valid.
Or is it? I'm not sure. I think that @Shandyr may have a point that most of us are evaluating PoE through unfair BG-tinted glasses. Did we really think BG was perfectly paced the first time we left Candlekeep and got killed by wolves, or headed straight for the FAI as the game told us to do and got slaughtered by Tarmac? Yet we played on. It was a different time, and most of us were much younger.
4) The combat, as I learn it better and better, doesn't strike me as that different from BG. I had a BG run going the couple of weeks before I decided to play PoE today, and I left that BG run (at least temporarily) because I was getting bored by the repetitive combat.
5) This one's a minus. I decided to play as a priest of Eothas. This gave me an instant connection to Eder. But the dialogues so far give me no chance to tell Eder that I am Eothas' priest. We are both adherents to Eothasian religion, and I am living proof that Eothas is not dead after the false prophet and the "Saints' War", as I am still receiving spells. Since the game made the lore surrounding Eothas and the "Saints' War" such an important game world point, and the apparent cornerstone of Eder's character, there should be some special dialogue for priests of Eothas. It would only take a few extra lines available for Eothasian priests, that need not significantly impact the game, to make playing the Eothasian role more satisfying. Perhaps there is more later. (Please don't spoil me. )
6) I already have a big old gay man crush on Eder.
@BelgarathMTH Yeah Eder NEVER leaves my party, he is awesome. There are a lot of unique dialogue options that change based on race, class, stats, and background. Not having a unique interaction with Eder seems like a missed opportunity, but I bet there will be several unique responses to your character down the line.
It's really the stronghold/endless paths, which you will encounter a little later on, that kill the story momentum. I suggest you skip them, since it sounds like the main plot will interest you.
The endless paths do have a story on their own though, and it was a fun end-game challenge. It affects the pacing in the same way Tales of the Sword Coast does for BG.
The endless paths do have a story on their own though, and it was a fun end-game challenge. It affects the pacing in the same way Tales of the Sword Coast does for BG.
I didn't notice a story worthy of the name. Just levels full of monsters to fight, leading to a fight with a big boss. Which is fine in a game with fun combat, but when fighting is a chore there is really no pay-off.
Of course, when I played through BG for the first time there was no TotSC, and that content remains completly avoidable. It's not sitting slap bang on a choke point in the main plot.
The endless paths do have a story on their own though, and it was a fun end-game challenge. It affects the pacing in the same way Tales of the Sword Coast does for BG.
I didn't notice a story worthy of the name. Just levels full of monsters to fight, leading to a fight with a big boss. Which is fine in a game with fun combat, but when fighting is a chore there is really no pay-off.
Of course, when I played through BG for the first time there was no TotSC, and that content remains completly avoidable. It's not sitting slap bang on a choke point in the main plot.
My biggest issue with the endless path is that it was developed alongside the main game, I don't know how much effort they spent on it, but it should have been much less important than focusing their resources on the main game. They could have left that for an expansion or a DLC, if anyone was interested.
The endless paths do have a story on their own though, and it was a fun end-game challenge. It affects the pacing in the same way Tales of the Sword Coast does for BG.
I didn't notice a story worthy of the name. Just levels full of monsters to fight, leading to a fight with a big boss. Which is fine in a game with fun combat, but when fighting is a chore there is really no pay-off.
Of course, when I played through BG for the first time there was no TotSC, and that content remains completly avoidable. It's not sitting slap bang on a choke point in the main plot.
My biggest issue with the endless path is that it was developed alongside the main game, I don't know how much effort they spent on it, but it should have been much less important than focusing their resources on the main game. They could have left that for an expansion or a DLC, if anyone was interested.
My thoughts exactly. For about the same amount of work the could have added around half-a-dozen wilderness areas to explore.
Its not a "choke point" the main story has you explore one level, and I'm not even sure its part of the endless paths so much as just the stronghold basement. There is actually a lot of story to the endless paths. Every floor tells a story of its own, its just not spelled out for you. You find colonies people established, a xaurip religious center, not to mention the first exploration party whose steps you follow, finding notes of their progress as you descend. A lot of it is hidden or implied, but its there. I kept going out of a desire to find and learn all these stories hidden along the way.
That's what I mean by a choke point. You have to do the first level, you have to do seven levels if you want to find out that one character's personal story is a waste of time. Ulgoth's Beard is on the edge of the map, there is no reason to ever go there unless you want to. But having forced this stronghold on you you feel an obligation to clear the rats out of the celler. I read all the notes, but still didn't care why there where rats in my celler, I just wanted them gone. Which would have been fine if I could have smashed through them Diabolo style, but combat in PoE is difficult, which makes it slow and, since one group of pseudo-kobolds is much like another, repetative. Durlag's tower is full of puzzles, and the island you spend more time talking than you do fighting.
The thing about sudequests is they should be relatively short encounters thst you can deal with "along the way" of the main plot. This is especially important early on, whilst the plot is still gaining momentum. You can put more involved side quests late in the second act, once things are established. Not only are the endless paths and stronghold encountered before the plot has really got going, there is the keep sidequest which is also a sizable distraction from the main story. I'm well aware that BG2 made a similar error and got away with it. That doesn't mean you can expect it to work every time.
Nothing makes you explore the endless paths. The first seven levels are only required in a SIDE QUEST much like the paths themselves. There is no reason to go there if you don't want to.
You have been forced to take on a stronghold. The basement is full of monsters. Can you, in good concience, just ignore them?
Add to that, without meta-game knowledge, you wouldn't know that there is nothing of relevence down there.
To be fair, without meta game knowledge, would you embark on a big epic journey at all? How do you know you actually have watcher powers and aren't just crazy? How do you know that you won't just drop dead from some desiease or starvation out in the wilderness? I personally don't seek out monsters to kill or empires to overthrow unless I know I'm playing a game.
Comments
I don't understand the hate that surrounds this game.
Sure, it's not on the level of BG or PS:T. But if you compare all the RPG to BG or PS:T...you will find all of them bad.
I like the combat system, it's easy and a bit naive but nonetheless entertaining and different from the usual mechanics.
I liked the story and some of the characters. I liked the main enemy also.
I think you are too harsh. Or try to compare a simple but entertaining game to other masterpieces that obviously are better.
Try playing the game as it is, like i did. Not biased, without comparing evry small thing to BG. ( because the result would always be that BG did it better than PoE ).
In short. I know that PoE can't be compared to other good RPG. But nonetheless it's good and entertaining...IF you change your mindset and stop comparing it to BG and such.
For what's worth, what I really liked about the game is it's reincarnation theme. That was something I find way more attractive than Forgotten Realm's take on the afterlife.
PoE's (few) defenders seem to be very quick to accuse people of "compering to Baldur's Gate", but the truth is it's faults stand alone. It is compared unfavorably to Divinity: Original Sin (which has fun combat); it compares unfavorably to Siege of Dragonspear (which has a better paced narrative); it is being compared unfavorably to Tyranny.
I would even say that, in terms of story and atmosphere, it even compares unfavourably to Sword Coast Legends. Although SCL has worse gameplay.
Compare Pillars of Eternity with its contemporaries, like Goat Simulator and The Sims FreePlay. Then it stands a chance at least, and comes across as a 'meh' game, aka something a modern well-compensated reviewer would rate ~92%.
My experience of PoE just doesn't compare to IWD or IWD2.
I'd never thought 'Better uninstall this garbage, it's not even worth wasting 18 gigabytes of SSD space on' while playing the latter two. And I'll further remark that I got the game at no charge, so I'm being very lenient in my judgements of it.
Also, what are differences between 2nd edition ruleset vs. 3rd vs. PoE general system design (combat, stealth and magic)?
Which do you prefer the most and why ?
New first impressions:
1) Omg, voice acting. So...much...voice acting. It's kind of overwhelming. But I think it's a good thing in this game, as I was very attached to Calisca and the other guy, and was very sad when they died. And then, hearing so much voice acting from them, I am already very attached to Aloth and Eder. Aloth reminds me of Sand from NWN2, and Eder reminds me of Allistair from Dragon Age: Origins. (That is probably not an accident that the Obsidian devs used those exact two archetypes.)
2) Game play during the role-playing parts of the game, and exploration mechanics, is almost identical to Baldur's Gate. I can't help but be impressed by the care that went into an (at least attempted) duplication of BG style.
3) The personalization of the story is pretty good for as early in the game as I am. I lost two friends, I saw a strange ritual, I passed out, and now, all of a sudden, "I talk to dead people", and/or detect people's past lives. The new "power" does not feel good, it feels like a sickness. And the first "safe" town I come to is hanging people like me. Yikes. Okay. The spirit of the hung dwarven woman tells me exactly who I need to find and talk to for further info. The urgency for my character is then well-established, although I know I am nowhere near strong enough to go straight for the main quest. So, the criticism of the pacing of the main story is probably valid.
Or is it? I'm not sure. I think that @Shandyr may have a point that most of us are evaluating PoE through unfair BG-tinted glasses. Did we really think BG was perfectly paced the first time we left Candlekeep and got killed by wolves, or headed straight for the FAI as the game told us to do and got slaughtered by Tarmac? Yet we played on. It was a different time, and most of us were much younger.
4) The combat, as I learn it better and better, doesn't strike me as that different from BG. I had a BG run going the couple of weeks before I decided to play PoE today, and I left that BG run (at least temporarily) because I was getting bored by the repetitive combat.
5) This one's a minus. I decided to play as a priest of Eothas. This gave me an instant connection to Eder. But the dialogues so far give me no chance to tell Eder that I am Eothas' priest. We are both adherents to Eothasian religion, and I am living proof that Eothas is not dead after the false prophet and the "Saints' War", as I am still receiving spells. Since the game made the lore surrounding Eothas and the "Saints' War" such an important game world point, and the apparent cornerstone of Eder's character, there should be some special dialogue for priests of Eothas. It would only take a few extra lines available for Eothasian priests, that need not significantly impact the game, to make playing the Eothasian role more satisfying. Perhaps there is more later. (Please don't spoil me. )
6) I already have a big old gay man crush on Eder.
It's really the stronghold/endless paths, which you will encounter a little later on, that kill the story momentum. I suggest you skip them, since it sounds like the main plot will interest you.
Of course, when I played through BG for the first time there was no TotSC, and that content remains completly avoidable. It's not sitting slap bang on a choke point in the main plot.
and most of the content i feel is in act 2.
The thing about sudequests is they should be relatively short encounters thst you can deal with "along the way" of the main plot. This is especially important early on, whilst the plot is still gaining momentum. You can put more involved side quests late in the second act, once things are established. Not only are the endless paths and stronghold encountered before the plot has really got going, there is the keep sidequest which is also a sizable distraction from the main story. I'm well aware that BG2 made a similar error and got away with it. That doesn't mean you can expect it to work every time.
You have been forced to take on a stronghold. The basement is full of monsters. Can you, in good concience, just ignore them?
Add to that, without meta-game knowledge, you wouldn't know that there is nothing of relevence down there.