I had my first reload today, caused by Arhu's Sparkmaster 5000. That one is tough if you don't know what's expecting you. No screenshots ahead, but spoilers for the encounter.
Of course I noticed quickly that I needed to incapacitate it, but I had no idea that the first discharge at a party with full health would kill us all.
The second time, I took care to use everything that froze or stunned it regularly and took turns using either that or damaging it among my people, so that nothing would be in cooldown at the same time.
I'm also suspecting that there's something off about Thyleron and Evelyn, but I have trouble finding clues. I've found a few keys and such things, but I seem to need a competent rogue after all...
I also very narrowly avoided another reload in the heavily trapped basement under the abandoned house in Cyseal. I'm actually quite proud of making it through alive by careful manoeuvring and also thanks to the teleporter pyramids. Now I'll see if I can find out more about the undead there.
@JuliusBorisov , or anyone else who might see this, a word of advice please?
I've just met Wolgraff and wonder if I should take him with me. I've realized there seems to be a bit of sneaking, lockpicking and other stealthy stuff needed to continue, and my two Source Hunters would definitely let him join, considering his past.
I have two issues with this: We're level 5, he's level 3. Will that be a problem?
The other one is a roleplaying thing. I would have to leave Bairdotr behind, and I don't like ditching companions, especially ones who don't have a place to go back to and need help. However, many of my wayfarer's skills overlap with hers, and the game might be too difficult without a stealthy character. Besides, a mute man who has to steal to survive, and had his voice stolen by sorcerers as a child? How could I not take him in?
This is difficult and I know I'll have to make a decision, but I'd appreciate an opinion, especially on the aspect of the level difference and the difficulty of continuing the game without a rogue type.
I had Wolgraff in the party, obviously, so I'm not neutral: I liked his personality more than Bairdotr's one, and wasn't disappointed in the end. He's not a thug and you'll learn more if you do his quests.
However, I don't remember using sneak too much but I enjoyed his 2 daggers attacks and skills. Overall, I wanted to cover all possible skills and managed to (I even added Pyro to Wolgraff later).
I was thinking about giving pyro to someone... and I see that he's not a thug and has a touching background story.
What about the level difference? If I take him now, he'll be two levels behind us.
Edit: Decided to pick him up and he got Level 5 when he joined, so that's solved .
You're right to debate them, they're similar NPC's and you probably shouldn't take both. I'd say Bairdotr is the slightly more power-gaming choice. As boosting perception will also help with her regular attack's accuracy. Whereas it's only helping Wolgraff's initial AP load. But both characters are probably the ones you want to pump perception on, in the long run. It's a crucial stat to have high on one character.
I personally found Wolgraff a little difficult to keep alive later on in combat. But I was much more ignorant about the game when I used him. If you do use him, be sure to make heavy use of his stealth and teleporting skills. In summary, Wolgraff is probably a bit more advanced to manage than Bairdotr.
I like how this game challenges me to do things differently. With so much elemental damage and almost everything having either AoE on its own, or affecting existing clouds or natural elemental surfaces, I can't just use a few buffs, run into melee and hit everyone with swords. Also, almost every creature has its own specific damage type resistance or weakness, so what works against one group of enemies doesn't work against others. And the turn-based combat system really doesn't make me want to use a whole turn just to get closer so that I can eventually hit them with a melee weapon.
It's all about positioning, planning, acting and counteracting, and of course also taking some calculated risks. And it's very satisfying when, for example, defeating a group of seaside thugs of level 6 ( one level higher than ourselves) works without having to resurrect anyone.
I've also spent a lot of time again crafting stuff (mostly to see what works, but also to earn money) and I'm not sure why I enjoy it in this game while I don't like it in PoE. Perhaps because there are so many options and combinations to tinker with, and it's like a riddle, everything I find is like "I wonder what I could combine that with".
It's fun. Although I do have those big quests to solve, the game doesn't have an overly serious atmosphere, so it doesn't feel wrong to explore and discover and try stuff. I'm going slow (also because I have to work again) but that's okay.
But, @JuliusBorisov , of course you were right that during a first playthrough I shouldn't be too worried about reloads.
When trying to get the hang of stealth and pickpocketing (thought I might need it later, practiced in Esmeralda's shop, didn't steal anything, just looked), I suddenly found myself in a fight with Septimus and the guards, and that's not a game choice consequence that I'm going to accept, because I needed to experiment with the mechanics. So, that was my second reload.
We reached level 6 after beating the group of thugs at their camp close to the Watcher Statues (I had to laugh when one of them let me see the future). That meant some more points to spend and skillbooks to buy. I wanted to add some screenshots, but they're on my laptop and it's not with me.
The twin dungeons are somehow related to the Watcher Statues, but I haven't figured out what to do with them yet. I separated my group and pressed buttons as written on the two headstones here and there, but only managed to kill some poor rats in the process. No idea what I'm doing wrong.
Anyway, I need to sell our excess stuff and will then probably either head for Silverglen or explore the orc beach. We're not getting further in the city, and the undead at the old church (where we met two nice legionnaire zombies and agreed to take one's last will to his wife) to be seen from a distance are level 8.
I read your reports and recognize my own reactions and thoughts. D:OS won over me by its creativity, challenge and fresh ideas. PoE tried to use the old formula and rarely experimented. Both approaches are fine, it's a matter of tastes (I like the D:OS approach more).
You can explore whichever part of the map you would like if you stay out of enemies' sight. The fact the game shows you their level is very helpful to calculate and decide on what you will do next.
I'm still enjoying this game very much and have made some real progress during the last week.
We have reached level 8, but also faced some difficulties and reloads.
I liked the orc beach, which gave us the opportunity to decide to leave a grieving orc in peace and decide not to disturb their dead bodies. Gotta respect their culture.
The Black Cove was really interesting, but we faced three party wipes there, so 3 reloads. Once, we walked into an explosive mine that blasted an oil barrel (and us).
Then, a party wipe against Pontius Pirate (the name might be considered a bad pun, but I like it) and, after discovering the contraption on his ship, a very narrow victory (only Mara survived and had to resurrect everyone else) the second time.
And the third reload was against the Source Nightmare, that horrible giant spider.
We (re)united two lovely couples (the ghosts and the cats), I lost patience with the twin dungeons and looked it up in a walkthrough, where I noticed that I had it right, but confused the symbols for air and water.
Then we went on the road to Silverglen, where Arhu appeared and reminded us to solve the murder first, so I figured I had approached it too honestly until now. We stole some keys, entered some back doors and checked some basements, and bam, there we got the information and the place to look for the culprit. I knew there had been something off about that person!
So we solved the murder, killed the murderer (that was where we reached level 8), found more mysteries and secrets than explanations, and are now off to the old church to stop an evil cult from trying to resurrect Braccus Rex, an evil sourcerer dreaded even by Arhu.
That's where I stopped playing for the moment, after another reload caused by The Twins-By-Fire-Joined. I guess I need more arrows+spells with water damage, and stuff to boost fire resistance, and I think probably stunning the Twins and destroying that Bone Altar first is the way to go.
I really wanted to do a good documentation of my run, with storytelling and screenshots, because I was sceptical and now like this game very much and thought that maybe others might give it a try, too. However, the demands of real life don't leave me the time. So, I'm going to continue playing quietly and having fun with it, despite the fact that I "lost" several times (but then I remembered how many times I reloaded during some fights in BG the first few playthroughs) and I really have to improve my strategies. There are several things I would do differently a second time, how I would spread the skills, but I want to experience the story now and not restart again for perfectionism.
I'm really curious how this will continue, (also, what's the matter with Jahan?!), especially how the things I discover at The End of Time fit into all of it.
So, I don't think I'll continue posting regularly about this, but I might occasionally ask a question and givea summary of my impression at the end.
Difficulty: Classic
Level: 8
Reloads: 6, I think. I won't keep counting, although I will stick to the "minimal" concept.
Yeah, please do post an occasional update with your thoughts on the game! I liked the story and wasn't disappointed! You're on for a treat and many other mysteries and riddles await.
Yeah keep posting, I loved this game. I especially think it's the most fun of the recent generation RPGs to do as a no-reload/limited reload experience. Deaths felt very fair in this game, with a handful of exceptions.
Personally, I think you're in the best part of the game. The game really hits its highs in the late-Cyseal thru Silverglen area. Your characters have a wide range of abilities, the puzzles the game lobs at you have a wide range of solutions but are often complicated and multi-staged. Gear drops get much more interesting in this stretch.
Oh I was so happy when I defeated the Baron-of-Bones (had a good laugh at his Court Minstrel, an undead bagpiper singing dreadful tunes, who appropriately made Mara run away in fear ) without a reload and then the Twins-by-fire-Joined in the second attempt (the first being the one mentioned in my last post). I was proud to have learned from my mistakes, snickered at the graveyard inscriptions around the old church, failed to convince the gargoyle things to let me in and had a rather grinding time fighting them (without a reload, but using a few resurrection scrolls among the battles mentioned above).
Now I'm stuck. We have Level 9, I'm facing Braccus Rex and have already reloaded twice. I don't even survive his first round of attacks, because he pulls off his Ascension final battle memorial scenario and just shatters my whole party without us having a chance to attack back. In this game, because of the very short duration outside of combat, it doesn't make sense to buff or call your summons before you enter combat mode, they will basically just be wasted, and the fight gets triggered right after a dialogue. I could probably metagame and sacrifice one of my party to make him go ahead without us and trigger the battle, then follow with the others when they engage and then revive him, but that doesn't seem right.
I see now that I have spread our abilities too thin and it was wrong to spend our skill points at every level up (instead of saving them for the next level), otherwise I would have higher levels in the magic schools now and therefore more or better spells. I should also have prioritized constitution. I have hoarded every item that gives additional HP, stat points, elemental resistance. I still feel severely outgunned. I also don't think I have many quests left that could take me to another level before coming back. I really don't know what to do. I'd hate to restart the game and start from scratch at this point, because the story development is really interesting, but I'm not sure if I'll find a way to continue.
I'm going to edit this post later to add my party's skills and equipment to ask for an opinion if there's something obvious I could or should change, or if it's just a lost cause.
Braccus Rex is one hell of an encounter, it's a difficult task. If you want to fight him now (without continuing in the story and returning later), then you can do as I did: make sure your characters don't stand in one place so that they all could be wiped by his first attack. In my case, 2 of the characters weren't hit by that attack.
Don't worry about restarting - you don't have to do that. Very soon you'll be getting an option to freely respec your party.
@Arvia My strategy for Braccus Rex is to summon a spider or two next to him before his first turn and get the party away from him. This way, he'll likely use his initial Meteor Swarm on the spiders instead of the party. After that, he won't be able to use that ability for quite a few more turns, so quickly get rid of the other enemies.
The good news is, when YOU gain the ability to cast Meteor Swarm, it's just as overpowered.
Ah, so it was a meteor swarm? Felt like something that should be forbidden by Geneva conventions. Unless I use it myself, of course. Okay, then thank you both, I'll take your word on it and keep trying. But maybe tomorrow, before I bite into my laptop
Rex was probably the hardest fight in the game for me too. My advice is to do your best to separate your main characters prior to triggering the dialogue with him and thus the battle. And pack plenty of resurrection scrolls, of course.
As Julius says though, there's also an enormous amount of content you can do instead in the Silverglen area. And come back with a level or two (and maybe wearing some fire res gear).
Rex was probably the hardest fight in the game for me too. My advice is to do your best to separate your main characters prior to triggering the dialogue with him and thus the battle. And pack plenty of resurrection scrolls, of course.
As Julius says though, there's also an enormous amount of content you can do instead in the Silverglen area. And come back with a level or two (and maybe wearing some fire res gear).
It just doesn't feel natural story-wise to do other quests before fighting him. Minor stuff to get better gear, okay, but Silverglen? Everything suggests I need to stop Braccus before going for the Immaculates. But if it turns into an Abazigal-with-Ascension kind of battle (which took the better part of a weekend the first time) I might actually change my mind about the importance of roleplaying.
I guess I can justify going back to get more stuff for fire resistance, then split up the group and send Wolgraff ahead in sneak mode to trigger the fight, because he won't survive the first turn either way and takes the least effort to heal after Resurrection. I didn't even check their resistances because Wolgraff's insta-death didn't permit me to examine them with Loremaster skill. But at least from @JuliusBorisov 's report of the fight I now know that I shouldn't waste attacks on Braccus (except for stunning him, of course) because he's invulnerable.
Hmm. Maybe I could use an invisibility scroll (I have one), get close enough and try to hit him out with one of those nice arrows that create a stunning cloud of electricity, or with Blitz Bolt? But he probably has a mechanic that triggers the dialogue even when someone invisible approaches. I'm going to keep trying.
One thing you can do is just have one character approach to trigger the dialogue, let that person die to meteors. Then resurrect them and pull them back so not to trigger a fight again. And then maybe save/reload from that point if your party dies. This is what I did the first time I beat him, iirc.
Then you can cast pre-buff or pre-summons for the fight like normal. Without having to worry about them expiring during the dialogue.
Edit to add: The water-based constitution buff is really useful. And I think should allow most level 9 characters to survive his meteor swarm.
Yes! Only two attempts later, Braccus Rex is no more. Hopefully forever, this time.
But first I'd like to show some examples of what I liked at the old graveyard.
I know some people find such things silly, but I like those details. They make me smile.
But the madman with the army of exploskeletons was... well... mad. I'm glad I had some rain scrolls with me, but that was one crazy battle.
Anyway, back to old Braccus. After the two reloads I'd mentioned above, I crafted/bought some potions and changed some peices of armor for ones with lower armor rating, but better poison and fire resistance. Then I went back and tried to sneak closer to him and summoned Nick to try to trigger the fight with him, but it didn't work. Nick came back to us because we weren't in Fight Mode yet, I couldn't separate my guys quickly enough, and while Georg and Jahan survived the Meteor Storm, they were in an akward position and didn't stand a chance.
Next attempt.
This time, I positioned Georg and Jahan to the left, not too far from the entrance (see first picture), and Mara to the right, a bit into the niche (seen on the blue dots of the small map on my first picture). Then I unlinked Wolgraff from her and sent him to talk to Braccus. The intital Meteor Swarm hit only him, the others remained unharmed, and even Wolgraff survived it. Because we were positioned so close to the entrance, the summoned enemies didn't reach us during their first turn, so I had the chance to act instead of lagging behind with healing all the time.
We summoned Nick and a spider to keep at least a few of them occupied. The Baron-of-Bones focused on Nick at the beginning, because I had summoned him as far away as possible in his direction, but the Twins-by-Fire-Joined came for Georg and Jahan.
I don't remeber exactly what I made them do in which order, but mostly they focused on stunning, freezing and attacking. Especially Braccus, but also the twins. The latter died first, but the Baron came for Wolgraff, who got stunned in the same cloud by accident, but I had stuffed him with tomatoes, potatoes and potions, so he survived it. Also, thanks to Winged Feet, the burning surfaces didn't bother him.
Mara took out the Ghoul-that-used-to-guard-the-lighthouse (nice new name) with ranged attacks and an exploding arrow after he had been crippled by Georg. Everything that takes turns away from them is good.
Jahan focused on freezing and stunning Braccus.
Then the Baron-of-Bones had to die and it was only us and Braccus Rex, until it was only us. Unfortunately I didn't take many screenshots. It's hard to catch the right moment without pause, and I tend to focus so much on the fight that I forget to hit F12 along the way.
In the end, during that successful attempt, I didn't even have to resurrect a single companion, they all survived. That was nice. I failed spectacularly the first three times, but thanks to you all at least I could learn from my mistakes.
Here's our victory.
(By the way, @JuliusBorisov, there were no protective spheres or anything. Braccus Rex had an insane amount of HP and several high resistances, but he was not invulnerable. Maybe that's only in Tactician, and I'm playing Classic.)
Then we collected the impressive loot in this tomb, although there was one chest that we couldn't open. I suppose it's one of those that The Last Chest was talking about. Maybe there's some story behind it. I'm leaving it at that for the moment. We talked to Arhu, learned more about his past and Cassandra, and then discovered another impressive room at The End of Time. We can't afford the books that the Teller of Secrets sells yet, but what we learned about our past was certainly interesting. That place, the End of Time, is beautifully made.
We went back to report to Lieutenant Selenia, bought some more gear and are now ready to go to Silverglen.
I passed the first test with the Immaculates and was given permission to go to their road to face the other tests, but the guys hanging around on the road suggested I might need more exercise first. I took them at their word and went to search for the White Witch. Now, I've successfully fought a bunch of pretty tough Immaculates yesterday, at the shore of the lake (where the Lady of the Lake speaks). They were Level 11 (fighting enemies of a higher level than us seems to give more XP?), so I'm wondering if we can handle Hiberheim or if it makes sense to keep infiltrating the Immaculates first (if they don't notice how many of them we have killed already).
I passed the first test with the Immaculates and was given permission to go to their road to face the other tests, but the guys hanging around on the road suggested I might need more exercise first. I took them at their word and went to search for the White Witch. Now, I've successfully fought a bunch of pretty tough Immaculates yesterday, at the shore of the lake (where the Lady of the Lake speaks). They were Level 11 (fighting enemies of a higher level than us seems to give more XP?), so I'm wondering if we can handle Hiberheim or if it makes sense to keep infiltrating the Immaculates first (if they don't notice how many of them we have killed already).
This is a good question. In my game, as I played without spoilers, I completely skipped Hiberheim at first which resulted in quite a few interesting fights elsewhere. But from my memory, Hiberheim has enemies of lvl 11+ so you should be good to go.
I passed the first test with the Immaculates and was given permission to go to their road to face the other tests, but the guys hanging around on the road suggested I might need more exercise first. I took them at their word and went to search for the White Witch. Now, I've successfully fought a bunch of pretty tough Immaculates yesterday, at the shore of the lake (where the Lady of the Lake speaks). They were Level 11 (fighting enemies of a higher level than us seems to give more XP?), so I'm wondering if we can handle Hiberheim or if it makes sense to keep infiltrating the Immaculates first (if they don't notice how many of them we have killed already).
This is a good question. In my game, as I played without spoilers, I completely skipped Hiberheim at first which resulted in quite a few interesting fights elsewhere. But from my memory, Hiberheim has enemies of lvl 11+ so you should be good to go.
What do you mean, you skipped Hiberheim because you played without spoilers? Is the discovery by accident? I arrived at the Rift that sends me there by searching for the White Witch (and by talking to a couple of mushrooms and a puddle of water, so my judgement might not be very sound). And I had accidentally discovered a talking well that sent me to locked doors and suggested there might be another entrance somewhere else.
Okay re-reading this, it sounds very odd...
I guess I'll stop asking and just continue to do what feels natural. After all, discovering new things for the first time is fun, and besides, there's still the option to flee a battle (although I haven't done that until now. Goes against my nature).
Well, I mean that I played without knowing which area is supposed to be "next" in the main questline, and it led to me approaching a few other fights being lower level than intended. In turn, when I decided to visit Hiberheim, I was over levelled for that area and breezed through it.
Well, I mean that I played without knowing which area is supposed to be "next" in the main questline, and it led to me approaching a few other fights being lower level than intended. In turn, when I decided to visit Hiberheim, I was over levelled for that area and breezed through it.
I thought you meant you hadn't found the area and skipped it.
I'm not even sure why I asked if I'd be okay to go there now. Until now, just exploring worked fine. I think I got insecure about possibly "failing", after the experience with Braccus, which, in the end, wasn't impossible, either.
I guess I've been playing games where I know every encounter for too long.
You're at the stage of the game which is most accommodating for open world style play. Generally you can judge any segment of the game by simply walking slow and mousing-over the enemies before you aggro them. But you're at enough of a level now where the level differences do not matter as much. So it's quite possible to take down things two or three levels above your party. And it's also possible that some encounters a level or two below you will still contain surprises that could kill you.
As I said above I found the Silverglen section the best part of the game, exactly for this reason. You can go wherever your nose leads you.
My hair will turn grey over King Boreas. That's a tough nut. I'll have to review all our skills and maybe change a few of them. Too bad I didn't know what the elemental room at the End of Time was about, or I would have picked one that's more useful, as in, suits Jahan's skills. And I have to get weapons without elemental damage for all of us, because we keep healing him partially with our attacks.
Also, the sentinels in the prison were mean. They are rotating, so I thought that observing their movement pattern allows me to get past them, but that doesn't work, it doesn't matter which way they face, they cover the whole area. And fried us on lava, of course.
I used an Invisibility spell to get past them, then the pyramids. As for King Boreas, I can't provide much advice as I was over-levelled for the fight. In case you start getting grey hair, maybe you can switch to another region and return back here later?
Yeah, an invisible Wolgraff carrying one of the pyramids was the second thing I did. Should have done this right away, my mistake that I thought the fact that they change where they're facing has a meaning...
Hmm, I guess I could come back later. Goes against my nature, but to stubbornly die again and again doesn't make much sense, either. The problem is that both Mara and Jahan are infected with Rot. I don't have the first Blood Stone anymore, I used it when I found Thelyron because I thought I could save him, didn't know then that he was incurable.
Anyway, the Rot doesn't seem to affect anything except that I have to heal us frequently. Maybe I'll try to fight old Boreas just one last time and then go back to Silverglen to do something else first, before I turn completely grey.
- did the laundry
- cleaned the bathroom
- killed King Boreas
Without getting grey hair, it seems.
I had decided to go to the Immaculate training or whatever dungeon, back where the goblins are, but after fighting a level 15 goblin (because, ahem, his pack animal asked us to) and then a bunch of really nasty level 14 spiders, in an area where their whole family still seems to be hanging out, I decided that maybe Boreas wasn't so bad after all.
So, equipped with potions of different elemental resistances and weapons that DON'T heal him with elemental damage, I used summons (Nick, spider, and an Undead Decapitator from a scroll), ignored his summoned elementals for the most part and focused just on dealing purely physical damage to him and keep my guys alive. That worked, in the end, although I used quite a lot of consumables. I freed the other elemental kings and am going to thaw the ice that holds the White Witch.
I'm glad that annoying fight is over and look forward to discovering how the story continues.
We're still level 12. I'm really keen on the next level up, because I really want to boost Jahan to level 4 hydrosophist or aero-thing to unlock the master spells.
Edit: My main mistake with Boreas had been Jahan. I had wasted turns before trying to stun or blind Boreas, which never worked, but the spells also dealt elemental damage, which healed Boreas.
I've done it! I've finished the game. What a journey it has been!
I will probably post more screenshots illustrating the final events in the game later. I had to reload in the final battle (to better protect non-controlled characters I had to save), so it's not a no-reload run, but I'm still glad how it all ended. For example, I managed not to get a game over even once while exploring dungeons - something I thought would be impossible at the start of the run. My scouts died a lot, though.
Before starting DOS1 I had about 50 hours in DOS2, where I got acquainted with this type of games, and which hooked me from the first seconds. I was very sceptical about DOS2 when it launched, but I liked the trailer and decided to try. The TB combat had been something that I had been afraid of, but since I tried DOS2, I never looked back.
@BelgarathMTH asked about a review after I finish the game, so I'll try to summarize my feelings.
First, the things which could be better:
1) end-game items - after lvls 16/17, it stopped being important which new items I can find/buy - as due to crafting and constantly searching for good equipment I already had all 4 party members equipped with what I would call ideal items in terms of enchantment
2) companions' stories - while I liked the overall stories of Jahan and Wolgraff, and of 2 other characters, they still weren't as deep as the stories in DA:O; I still enjoyed banters between Jahan and Wolgraff, but I wish there could be more dialogues with your companions
3) personality traits choices - sometimes it was really difficult to understand what trait exactly will this or that choice affect (in the end, I had very close trait scores in Bold/Cautious, for example).
4) "rock, paper, scissors" games - I see how players could be upset by getting their luck screwed. I took all the variants I got as they came, but I wish I could replay a few outcomes (usually when they ended with me not being able to persuade someone not to fight). I'd prefer a more traditional way of getting guaranteed results if you improve your Charisma
5) since the chances of getting enemies stunned/frozen/knocked down/blinded/petrified/charmed etc depend on your ability scores, after mid-game I could safely crowd-control the majority of enemies. I know the developer addressed this in DOS 2 by introducing armors, which you should go through first before being able to apply a status effect.
6) dungeon puzzles - I enjoyed them a lot in this game. They reminded me of Might & Magic games where I had to search for a button on a big wall, but I would decrease the amount of puzzles in the final part of the game. When I entered the Source Temple after completing an interesting puzzle I expected fighting, not another set of puzzles.
7) lucky charm - I wish it worked more like Magic Find in Diablo 2. The more you improve the skill, the better items you get, and more of them. In DOS1, though, all the additional items you could loot were more of ingredients/arrows/money - that type of thing. I know it's improved in DOS2.
But all that is not harsh criticism. These are more things I would personally approach differently.
Now, the things I liked:
1) TB combat - sorry, but it's like love from the first sight. I couldn't imagine I would become such a fan when I thought about trying DOS2 for the first time. The TB combat allowed me to fully control everything happening in the game, with all the consequences being real consequences of my good and bad actions.
2) an ability to retreat from the battle - after PoE it was such a revelation how rewarding it can feel when you can approach the same fight differently if you see that you're going to have a bad time, without reloading. Especially playing blindly.
3) voice-over work - I know there're people who don't like full VO. But this game is voiced by amazing actors. Sometimes I just enjoyed listening to the voices of Icara or Anni, without even reading.
4) combat design - there was no fight like another in this game. The TB combat is slower than RtwP, and designers had to do a lot not to include similar fights. Of course, when I got close to the end of the game, I saw everything already, but then I enjoyed my high-level spells. Even the final battle in the game introduced something that wasn't used before.
5) progression - it was unbelievable how it felt when each new item and skill I acquired, the party became more and more powerful.
6) quests - I liked the quests in this game! They were not ordinary, involved some detective work, always a mystery, and the game actually didn't forget to provide an answer to any question I had. I liked how the very first task of investigating the murder actually resulted in the major events in this game, how important that murder was. A new player, or even those who spend 20 hours in the game, won't see it.
7) environment combat - this was a true revolution for me. I first saw it in DOS 2 and was stunned that there can be something invented in these isometric games after dozens of years.
8) music - I bought the soundtrack and this is one of the rare cases when I actually listen to it outside of the game. Music is so good here.
9) crafting - I usually struggle to use all those potions in BG, or use alchemy in Skyrim. In this game, it was so fun. I didn't spoil myself and found all the recipes by trial and error. Crafting and blacksmithing helped a lot to make my party better.
10) humor - yeah! I liked fun moments when they came. Probably because I think that when you can smile among all the darkness it makes the whole experience more touching. I didn't like the PoE's always serious, always dark tone. It can become dull if it's all grey and bad everywhere.
Overall, I don't think I had as much fun as I did in DOS1 since DA:O. Of course, I came to the game from DOS2 (but not from the end or even middle of the game, just from the start), so I already knew what to expect, more or less. I'd give this game 9/10.
Having finished DOS1 a few days ago, I finally dared to read the reports from the first two pages of this thread. Having played only on Classic, not Tactician difficulty, some battles were probably a lot easier, but they were challenging enough for me as an inexperienced player.
I'd say I reached the point where I was safely in control of the battles late in the Silverglen/Luculla Forest areas, and started to feel slightly overpowered in Hunter's Edge and Phantom Forest, when our initiative was so high and INT/DEX/STR so boosted on the characters who needed it, that I could safely stun, blind, charm or knock down several enemies during the first round, while our own defense either through skills or equipment was high enough to avoid or quickly counter most status effects.
My learning curve was most affected by the late realization that there is no dirty fighting. Enemies are enemies and kills are kills, and it doesn't matter if I use "dishonorable" witchcraft or scoundrel skills. They're a tool just like a crossbow and a sword.
Looking at the review in the post I quoted, I can almost completely agree with the points of things I would have improved or changed.
-I felt the same that late game items didn't add anything any longer, because through crafting or collecting I preferred weapons and armor that gave additional attribute points (strength, dexterity, intelligence, perception etc) or protection from certain status effects over a few more points of armor or damage.
-I'd also have wished for a bit more dialogue/banter with the companions, and even between the two source hunters, who only exchanged short remarks about important incidents now and then.
- Absolutely agree on the personality traits. It was a bit complicated to see which affects what. Several times a certain personality trait would have been advantageous for my character (like pragmatic for crafting bonus), but the dialogue choices just didn't resonate with me so I picked whatever sounded right and sometimes got rather mixed results. I didn't really mind the rock/paper/scissor thing, though. It's not ideal but it didn't bother me too much. (Talking of enemies here, not interaction between my two source hunters. Between the two of them I always picked either agreeing options or let them do the rock-paper-scissors thing to throw a coin when I couldn't decide which option was better.)
- Concerning puzzles, I sometimes enjoyed them and sometimes found them tedious, I guess that depended on the time I had. Sometimes when I have an hour between work and sleep, I really don't feel like spending it all to figure out how to open that door. Some puzzles were great, some were all about having high perception to discover that hidden button or lever, and some were just pressing things in a particular order, but without any logic behind it or clue to follow. I would have preferred some riddle to solve and logical order to follow instead of coincidentally finding out the right combination. And sometimes I was just too tired to see the obvious solution.
As for the positive aspects, I can 100% put my signature under the points quoted above.
A few notes on some details: I was skeptical about TB combat at first (wanting to form an opinion on that, coming from the BG3 informations, was one of the main reasons why I tried this game) but learned to love it. It's not an immersive form of combat, but in those isometric games it's about the story outside of combat, and I've learned to separate experiencing the story from the strategical situation of the battles. Hitting pause all the time breaks immersion, too, and approaching combat like a board game and having full control over all actions and reactions without losing track of anything was a good experience for me and helped me to plan my actions more carefully and calmly.
Crafting, voice-over, the discovering/detective nature of the quests, combat, music, humor... full agree on what @JuliusBorisov wrote above.
I do realize some people find this game too silly, goofy, over-the-top. Maybe they didn't get far enough into the game. There were silly elements that made me laugh, some of them maybe exaggerated to some people, but some parts were really deep and philosophical, and in some otherwise really grim, dark and bloody situations the comic style of the monsters and the lighthearted humor strewn in made the situation bearable. That's how life is, to me. You cry, you laugh, you find humor in the darkest moments. Fully agree on the contrast to PoE. I was playing that before and needed a break because it was just too dark. I'll eventually finish that too, but the smiles among the seriousness are what comes closer to how I see life. Touching gestures and a smile in the darkest moments, and a silly joke while death is looming, it's all part of human nature and belongs together. But I do understand that some people want a more consistent atmosphere. It's a matter of personal taste.
It was a great experience, and I hope I will enjoy DOS2 as well. I think I'm ready to try Tactician difficulty, with a bit of experience how the game works, and hopefully when I start playing it I'll find some time to post my run.
Comments
It always says I can't have more than one summon at a time, I thought that meant for the whole party, but it's one per caster?
Edit: For lockpicking, until now the lockpicks I found plus a ring with +1 to it were enough to open what I need without spending a point.
The second time, I took care to use everything that froze or stunned it regularly and took turns using either that or damaging it among my people, so that nothing would be in cooldown at the same time.
I'm also suspecting that there's something off about Thyleron and Evelyn, but I have trouble finding clues. I've found a few keys and such things, but I seem to need a competent rogue after all...
I also very narrowly avoided another reload in the heavily trapped basement under the abandoned house in Cyseal. I'm actually quite proud of making it through alive by careful manoeuvring and also thanks to the teleporter pyramids. Now I'll see if I can find out more about the undead there.
Difficulty: Classic
Level: 5
Reloads: 1 (Arhu's Sparkmaster5000)
I've just met Wolgraff and wonder if I should take him with me. I've realized there seems to be a bit of sneaking, lockpicking and other stealthy stuff needed to continue, and my two Source Hunters would definitely let him join, considering his past.
I have two issues with this: We're level 5, he's level 3. Will that be a problem?
The other one is a roleplaying thing. I would have to leave Bairdotr behind, and I don't like ditching companions, especially ones who don't have a place to go back to and need help. However, many of my wayfarer's skills overlap with hers, and the game might be too difficult without a stealthy character. Besides, a mute man who has to steal to survive, and had his voice stolen by sorcerers as a child? How could I not take him in?
This is difficult and I know I'll have to make a decision, but I'd appreciate an opinion, especially on the aspect of the level difference and the difficulty of continuing the game without a rogue type.
However, I don't remember using sneak too much but I enjoyed his 2 daggers attacks and skills. Overall, I wanted to cover all possible skills and managed to (I even added Pyro to Wolgraff later).
What about the level difference? If I take him now, he'll be two levels behind us.
Edit: Decided to pick him up and he got Level 5 when he joined, so that's solved
You're right to debate them, they're similar NPC's and you probably shouldn't take both. I'd say Bairdotr is the slightly more power-gaming choice. As boosting perception will also help with her regular attack's accuracy. Whereas it's only helping Wolgraff's initial AP load. But both characters are probably the ones you want to pump perception on, in the long run. It's a crucial stat to have high on one character.
I personally found Wolgraff a little difficult to keep alive later on in combat. But I was much more ignorant about the game when I used him. If you do use him, be sure to make heavy use of his stealth and teleporting skills. In summary, Wolgraff is probably a bit more advanced to manage than Bairdotr.
It's all about positioning, planning, acting and counteracting, and of course also taking some calculated risks. And it's very satisfying when, for example, defeating a group of seaside thugs of level 6 ( one level higher than ourselves) works without having to resurrect anyone.
I've also spent a lot of time again crafting stuff (mostly to see what works, but also to earn money) and I'm not sure why I enjoy it in this game while I don't like it in PoE. Perhaps because there are so many options and combinations to tinker with, and it's like a riddle, everything I find is like "I wonder what I could combine that with".
It's fun. Although I do have those big quests to solve, the game doesn't have an overly serious atmosphere, so it doesn't feel wrong to explore and discover and try stuff. I'm going slow (also because I have to work again) but that's okay.
But, @JuliusBorisov , of course you were right that during a first playthrough I shouldn't be too worried about reloads.
When trying to get the hang of stealth and pickpocketing (thought I might need it later, practiced in Esmeralda's shop, didn't steal anything, just looked), I suddenly found myself in a fight with Septimus and the guards, and that's not a game choice consequence that I'm going to accept, because I needed to experiment with the mechanics. So, that was my second reload.
We reached level 6 after beating the group of thugs at their camp close to the Watcher Statues (I had to laugh when one of them let me see the future). That meant some more points to spend and skillbooks to buy. I wanted to add some screenshots, but they're on my laptop and it's not with me.
The twin dungeons are somehow related to the Watcher Statues, but I haven't figured out what to do with them yet. I separated my group and pressed buttons as written on the two headstones here and there, but only managed to kill some poor rats in the process. No idea what I'm doing wrong.
Anyway, I need to sell our excess stuff and will then probably either head for Silverglen or explore the orc beach. We're not getting further in the city, and the undead at the old church (where we met two nice legionnaire zombies and agreed to take one's last will to his wife) to be seen from a distance are level 8.
Difficulty: Classic
Level:6
Reloads: 2 (Arhu's SparkMaster5000, stupid mistake trying to learn pickpocketing)
You can explore whichever part of the map you would like if you stay out of enemies' sight. The fact the game shows you their level is very helpful to calculate and decide on what you will do next.
We have reached level 8, but also faced some difficulties and reloads.
I liked the orc beach, which gave us the opportunity to decide to leave a grieving orc in peace and decide not to disturb their dead bodies. Gotta respect their culture.
The Black Cove was really interesting, but we faced three party wipes there, so 3 reloads. Once, we walked into an explosive mine that blasted an oil barrel (and us).
Then, a party wipe against Pontius Pirate (the name might be considered a bad pun, but I like it) and, after discovering the contraption on his ship, a very narrow victory (only Mara survived and had to resurrect everyone else) the second time.
And the third reload was against the Source Nightmare, that horrible giant spider.
We (re)united two lovely couples (the ghosts and the cats), I lost patience with the twin dungeons and looked it up in a walkthrough, where I noticed that I had it right, but confused the symbols for air and water.
Then we went on the road to Silverglen, where Arhu appeared and reminded us to solve the murder first, so I figured I had approached it too honestly until now. We stole some keys, entered some back doors and checked some basements, and bam, there we got the information and the place to look for the culprit. I knew there had been something off about that person!
So we solved the murder, killed the murderer (that was where we reached level 8), found more mysteries and secrets than explanations, and are now off to the old church to stop an evil cult from trying to resurrect Braccus Rex, an evil sourcerer dreaded even by Arhu.
That's where I stopped playing for the moment, after another reload caused by The Twins-By-Fire-Joined. I guess I need more arrows+spells with water damage, and stuff to boost fire resistance, and I think probably stunning the Twins and destroying that Bone Altar first is the way to go.
I really wanted to do a good documentation of my run, with storytelling and screenshots, because I was sceptical and now like this game very much and thought that maybe others might give it a try, too. However, the demands of real life don't leave me the time. So, I'm going to continue playing quietly and having fun with it, despite the fact that I "lost" several times (but then I remembered how many times I reloaded during some fights in BG the first few playthroughs) and I really have to improve my strategies. There are several things I would do differently a second time, how I would spread the skills, but I want to experience the story now and not restart again for perfectionism.
I'm really curious how this will continue, (also, what's the matter with Jahan?!), especially how the things I discover at The End of Time fit into all of it.
So, I don't think I'll continue posting regularly about this, but I might occasionally ask a question and givea summary of my impression at the end.
Difficulty: Classic
Level: 8
Reloads: 6, I think. I won't keep counting, although I will stick to the "minimal" concept.
Personally, I think you're in the best part of the game. The game really hits its highs in the late-Cyseal thru Silverglen area. Your characters have a wide range of abilities, the puzzles the game lobs at you have a wide range of solutions but are often complicated and multi-staged. Gear drops get much more interesting in this stretch.
Now I'm stuck. We have Level 9, I'm facing Braccus Rex and have already reloaded twice. I don't even survive his first round of attacks, because he pulls off his Ascension final battle memorial scenario and just shatters my whole party without us having a chance to attack back. In this game, because of the very short duration outside of combat, it doesn't make sense to buff or call your summons before you enter combat mode, they will basically just be wasted, and the fight gets triggered right after a dialogue. I could probably metagame and sacrifice one of my party to make him go ahead without us and trigger the battle, then follow with the others when they engage and then revive him, but that doesn't seem right.
I see now that I have spread our abilities too thin and it was wrong to spend our skill points at every level up (instead of saving them for the next level), otherwise I would have higher levels in the magic schools now and therefore more or better spells. I should also have prioritized constitution. I have hoarded every item that gives additional HP, stat points, elemental resistance. I still feel severely outgunned. I also don't think I have many quests left that could take me to another level before coming back. I really don't know what to do. I'd hate to restart the game and start from scratch at this point, because the story development is really interesting, but I'm not sure if I'll find a way to continue.
I'm going to edit this post later to add my party's skills and equipment to ask for an opinion if there's something obvious I could or should change, or if it's just a lost cause.
Don't worry about restarting - you don't have to do that. Very soon you'll be getting an option to freely respec your party.
The good news is, when YOU gain the ability to cast Meteor Swarm, it's just as overpowered.
As Julius says though, there's also an enormous amount of content you can do instead in the Silverglen area. And come back with a level or two (and maybe wearing some fire res gear).
It just doesn't feel natural story-wise to do other quests before fighting him. Minor stuff to get better gear, okay, but Silverglen? Everything suggests I need to stop Braccus before going for the Immaculates. But if it turns into an Abazigal-with-Ascension kind of battle (which took the better part of a weekend the first time) I might actually change my mind about the importance of roleplaying.
I guess I can justify going back to get more stuff for fire resistance, then split up the group and send Wolgraff ahead in sneak mode to trigger the fight, because he won't survive the first turn either way and takes the least effort to heal after Resurrection. I didn't even check their resistances because Wolgraff's insta-death didn't permit me to examine them with Loremaster skill. But at least from @JuliusBorisov 's report of the fight I now know that I shouldn't waste attacks on Braccus (except for stunning him, of course) because he's invulnerable.
Hmm. Maybe I could use an invisibility scroll (I have one), get close enough and try to hit him out with one of those nice arrows that create a stunning cloud of electricity, or with Blitz Bolt? But he probably has a mechanic that triggers the dialogue even when someone invisible approaches. I'm going to keep trying.
Then you can cast pre-buff or pre-summons for the fight like normal. Without having to worry about them expiring during the dialogue.
Edit to add: The water-based constitution buff is really useful. And I think should allow most level 9 characters to survive his meteor swarm.
But first I'd like to show some examples of what I liked at the old graveyard.
I know some people find such things silly, but I like those details. They make me smile.
But the madman with the army of exploskeletons was... well... mad. I'm glad I had some rain scrolls with me, but that was one crazy battle.
Anyway, back to old Braccus. After the two reloads I'd mentioned above, I crafted/bought some potions and changed some peices of armor for ones with lower armor rating, but better poison and fire resistance. Then I went back and tried to sneak closer to him and summoned Nick to try to trigger the fight with him, but it didn't work. Nick came back to us because we weren't in Fight Mode yet, I couldn't separate my guys quickly enough, and while Georg and Jahan survived the Meteor Storm, they were in an akward position and didn't stand a chance.
Next attempt.
This time, I positioned Georg and Jahan to the left, not too far from the entrance (see first picture), and Mara to the right, a bit into the niche (seen on the blue dots of the small map on my first picture). Then I unlinked Wolgraff from her and sent him to talk to Braccus. The intital Meteor Swarm hit only him, the others remained unharmed, and even Wolgraff survived it. Because we were positioned so close to the entrance, the summoned enemies didn't reach us during their first turn, so I had the chance to act instead of lagging behind with healing all the time.
We summoned Nick and a spider to keep at least a few of them occupied. The Baron-of-Bones focused on Nick at the beginning, because I had summoned him as far away as possible in his direction, but the Twins-by-Fire-Joined came for Georg and Jahan.
I don't remeber exactly what I made them do in which order, but mostly they focused on stunning, freezing and attacking. Especially Braccus, but also the twins. The latter died first, but the Baron came for Wolgraff, who got stunned in the same cloud by accident, but I had stuffed him with tomatoes, potatoes and potions, so he survived it. Also, thanks to Winged Feet, the burning surfaces didn't bother him.
Mara took out the Ghoul-that-used-to-guard-the-lighthouse (nice new name) with ranged attacks and an exploding arrow after he had been crippled by Georg. Everything that takes turns away from them is good.
Jahan focused on freezing and stunning Braccus.
Then the Baron-of-Bones had to die and it was only us and Braccus Rex, until it was only us. Unfortunately I didn't take many screenshots. It's hard to catch the right moment without pause, and I tend to focus so much on the fight that I forget to hit F12 along the way.
In the end, during that successful attempt, I didn't even have to resurrect a single companion, they all survived. That was nice. I failed spectacularly the first three times, but thanks to you all at least I could learn from my mistakes.
Here's our victory.
(By the way, @JuliusBorisov, there were no protective spheres or anything. Braccus Rex had an insane amount of HP and several high resistances, but he was not invulnerable. Maybe that's only in Tactician, and I'm playing Classic.)
Then we collected the impressive loot in this tomb, although there was one chest that we couldn't open. I suppose it's one of those that The Last Chest was talking about. Maybe there's some story behind it. I'm leaving it at that for the moment. We talked to Arhu, learned more about his past and Cassandra, and then discovered another impressive room at The End of Time. We can't afford the books that the Teller of Secrets sells yet, but what we learned about our past was certainly interesting. That place, the End of Time, is beautifully made.
We went back to report to Lieutenant Selenia, bought some more gear and are now ready to go to Silverglen.
I passed the first test with the Immaculates and was given permission to go to their road to face the other tests, but the guys hanging around on the road suggested I might need more exercise first. I took them at their word and went to search for the White Witch. Now, I've successfully fought a bunch of pretty tough Immaculates yesterday, at the shore of the lake (where the Lady of the Lake speaks). They were Level 11 (fighting enemies of a higher level than us seems to give more XP?), so I'm wondering if we can handle Hiberheim or if it makes sense to keep infiltrating the Immaculates first (if they don't notice how many of them we have killed already).
This is a good question. In my game, as I played without spoilers, I completely skipped Hiberheim at first which resulted in quite a few interesting fights elsewhere. But from my memory, Hiberheim has enemies of lvl 11+ so you should be good to go.
What do you mean, you skipped Hiberheim because you played without spoilers? Is the discovery by accident? I arrived at the Rift that sends me there by searching for the White Witch (and by talking to a couple of mushrooms and a puddle of water, so my judgement might not be very sound). And I had accidentally discovered a talking well that sent me to locked doors and suggested there might be another entrance somewhere else.
Okay re-reading this, it sounds very odd...
I guess I'll stop asking and just continue to do what feels natural. After all, discovering new things for the first time is fun, and besides, there's still the option to flee a battle (although I haven't done that until now. Goes against my nature).
I thought you meant you hadn't found the area and skipped it.
I'm not even sure why I asked if I'd be okay to go there now. Until now, just exploring worked fine. I think I got insecure about possibly "failing", after the experience with Braccus, which, in the end, wasn't impossible, either.
I guess I've been playing games where I know every encounter for too long.
As I said above I found the Silverglen section the best part of the game, exactly for this reason. You can go wherever your nose leads you.
Also, the sentinels in the prison were mean. They are rotating, so I thought that observing their movement pattern allows me to get past them, but that doesn't work, it doesn't matter which way they face, they cover the whole area. And fried us on lava, of course.
Hmm, I guess I could come back later. Goes against my nature, but to stubbornly die again and again doesn't make much sense, either. The problem is that both Mara and Jahan are infected with Rot. I don't have the first Blood Stone anymore, I used it when I found Thelyron because I thought I could save him, didn't know then that he was incurable.
Anyway, the Rot doesn't seem to affect anything except that I have to heal us frequently. Maybe I'll try to fight old Boreas just one last time and then go back to Silverglen to do something else first, before I turn completely grey.
- did the laundry
- cleaned the bathroom
- killed King Boreas
Without getting grey hair, it seems.
I had decided to go to the Immaculate training or whatever dungeon, back where the goblins are, but after fighting a level 15 goblin (because, ahem, his pack animal asked us to) and then a bunch of really nasty level 14 spiders, in an area where their whole family still seems to be hanging out, I decided that maybe Boreas wasn't so bad after all.
So, equipped with potions of different elemental resistances and weapons that DON'T heal him with elemental damage, I used summons (Nick, spider, and an Undead Decapitator from a scroll), ignored his summoned elementals for the most part and focused just on dealing purely physical damage to him and keep my guys alive. That worked, in the end, although I used quite a lot of consumables. I freed the other elemental kings and am going to thaw the ice that holds the White Witch.
I'm glad that annoying fight is over and look forward to discovering how the story continues.
We're still level 12. I'm really keen on the next level up, because I really want to boost Jahan to level 4 hydrosophist or aero-thing to unlock the master spells.
Edit: My main mistake with Boreas had been Jahan. I had wasted turns before trying to stun or blind Boreas, which never worked, but the spells also dealt elemental damage, which healed Boreas.
Having finished DOS1 a few days ago, I finally dared to read the reports from the first two pages of this thread. Having played only on Classic, not Tactician difficulty, some battles were probably a lot easier, but they were challenging enough for me as an inexperienced player.
I'd say I reached the point where I was safely in control of the battles late in the Silverglen/Luculla Forest areas, and started to feel slightly overpowered in Hunter's Edge and Phantom Forest, when our initiative was so high and INT/DEX/STR so boosted on the characters who needed it, that I could safely stun, blind, charm or knock down several enemies during the first round, while our own defense either through skills or equipment was high enough to avoid or quickly counter most status effects.
My learning curve was most affected by the late realization that there is no dirty fighting. Enemies are enemies and kills are kills, and it doesn't matter if I use "dishonorable" witchcraft or scoundrel skills. They're a tool just like a crossbow and a sword.
Looking at the review in the post I quoted, I can almost completely agree with the points of things I would have improved or changed.
-I felt the same that late game items didn't add anything any longer, because through crafting or collecting I preferred weapons and armor that gave additional attribute points (strength, dexterity, intelligence, perception etc) or protection from certain status effects over a few more points of armor or damage.
-I'd also have wished for a bit more dialogue/banter with the companions, and even between the two source hunters, who only exchanged short remarks about important incidents now and then.
- Absolutely agree on the personality traits. It was a bit complicated to see which affects what. Several times a certain personality trait would have been advantageous for my character (like pragmatic for crafting bonus), but the dialogue choices just didn't resonate with me so I picked whatever sounded right and sometimes got rather mixed results. I didn't really mind the rock/paper/scissor thing, though. It's not ideal but it didn't bother me too much. (Talking of enemies here, not interaction between my two source hunters. Between the two of them I always picked either agreeing options or let them do the rock-paper-scissors thing to throw a coin when I couldn't decide which option was better.)
- Concerning puzzles, I sometimes enjoyed them and sometimes found them tedious, I guess that depended on the time I had. Sometimes when I have an hour between work and sleep, I really don't feel like spending it all to figure out how to open that door. Some puzzles were great, some were all about having high perception to discover that hidden button or lever, and some were just pressing things in a particular order, but without any logic behind it or clue to follow. I would have preferred some riddle to solve and logical order to follow instead of coincidentally finding out the right combination. And sometimes I was just too tired to see the obvious solution.
As for the positive aspects, I can 100% put my signature under the points quoted above.
A few notes on some details: I was skeptical about TB combat at first (wanting to form an opinion on that, coming from the BG3 informations, was one of the main reasons why I tried this game) but learned to love it. It's not an immersive form of combat, but in those isometric games it's about the story outside of combat, and I've learned to separate experiencing the story from the strategical situation of the battles. Hitting pause all the time breaks immersion, too, and approaching combat like a board game and having full control over all actions and reactions without losing track of anything was a good experience for me and helped me to plan my actions more carefully and calmly.
Crafting, voice-over, the discovering/detective nature of the quests, combat, music, humor... full agree on what @JuliusBorisov wrote above.
I do realize some people find this game too silly, goofy, over-the-top. Maybe they didn't get far enough into the game. There were silly elements that made me laugh, some of them maybe exaggerated to some people, but some parts were really deep and philosophical, and in some otherwise really grim, dark and bloody situations the comic style of the monsters and the lighthearted humor strewn in made the situation bearable. That's how life is, to me. You cry, you laugh, you find humor in the darkest moments. Fully agree on the contrast to PoE. I was playing that before and needed a break because it was just too dark. I'll eventually finish that too, but the smiles among the seriousness are what comes closer to how I see life. Touching gestures and a smile in the darkest moments, and a silly joke while death is looming, it's all part of human nature and belongs together. But I do understand that some people want a more consistent atmosphere. It's a matter of personal taste.
It was a great experience, and I hope I will enjoy DOS2 as well. I think I'm ready to try Tactician difficulty, with a bit of experience how the game works, and hopefully when I start playing it I'll find some time to post my run.