I'm sorry if this has been mentioned already, but the PoE portraits are exactly the same size as those of BGEE and look awesome, all you need to do is convert them from png to bmp to use them.
oh man the fight at the end of Raedrics hold is the toughest so far. Like @bengoshi i am playing blind on hard difficulty, and it is quite difficult overall, but this one takes the cake. I've only tried once and confidently thought i was winning until the enemy popped one spell that burned every one of my party members and healed all the opponents, while other opponents ran around giving single character heals to any who needed more. Within two "rounds" my casters were knocked out and the opponents were all fully healed minus the one or two i managed to kill.
I'll have to try a new strategy tonight. I only have Cipher PC, Monk (adventurer), Aloth, Durance, and Eder in my party. I get the feeling having a Chanter or a Rogue would help as i seem to have trouble dealing enough damage in this battle. After one or two more tries i will probably come back and try again later with more exp. and/or companions.
I've also been relatively free of bugs but i am crossing my fingers the Raedrics hold bug doesn't get me. The sliding character slicken bug has made me laugh a few times. other than that just minor stuttering/teleporting characters and sound issues.
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.
Heh. Those are from Kickstarter backers. So if there's good writing in them, that's actually quite surprising. I read a few but found them to be really out of place.
I'm sorry if this has been mentioned already, but the PoE portraits are exactly the same size as those of BGEE and look awesome, all you need to do is convert them from png to bmp to use them.
The big portraits, yes. The small ones however are 76x96.
oh man the fight at the end of Raedrics hold is the toughest so far. Like bengoshi i am playing blind on hard difficulty, and it is quite difficult overall, but this one takes the cake. I've only tried once
I got to that part, looked around me to see several knights, wizards and priests and thought "Yeaaaah... You know, maybe Raedric isn't such a bad guy. Maybe we should try talking this through...". Went to fight his rival instead, which was easier (I assume) but not an easy fight either. It didn't help matters any that there were like 3 extra people there only because I had previously helped them...
I'm sorry if this has been mentioned already, but the PoE portraits are exactly the same size as those of BGEE and look awesome, all you need to do is convert them from png to bmp to use them.
The big portraits, yes. The small ones however are 76x96.
Yeah but since BGEE resizes the big portraits to fit into every portrait slot (unlike vanilla BG and BG2 where you needed multiple versions of the same image in different sizes) it doesnt matter.
I have now completed most quests in and around GV, found 3 companions and recruited another 2 from the inn. Some (optional) fights were quite tough, especially in the Temple of Eothas. I left them until later and just finished them with a full party. Looking forward to Caed nau.
I have now completed most quests in and around GV, found 3 companions and recruited another 2 from the inn. Some (optional) fights were quite tough, especially in the Temple of Eothas. I left them until later and just finished them with a full party. Looking forward to Caed nau.
I'm progressing through the Temple myself, and have nearly cleared the second level. The shadows are annoying, but I find it useful to have my fighter immediately engage with his charge skill on one of them, have the mage put the Fetid paralyze spell on another, and, if necessary, the Priest can also do a CC. It allows my character (Druid) to either go in guns blazing in wolf form, or throw some nasty AoE in there, followed by some single target mage spells and some buffs from the Priest (playing with just the 4 right now). I haven't lost a fight yet, though I have been down to my Fighter a couple times, and I've definitely used a couple of tents.
The key in this game, much more so than even BG2 or IWD, is that you HAVE to pause nearly every 2 seconds and micromanage every party member, if for no other reason than the attacks of opportunity that will rip you to shreds if you try to run away. I find it best to position and plan out the first commands with the idea of establishing as much intercept and CC as possible to avoid putting ranged characters in harms way.
I equip both my fighters with a crossbow/arblest, at the start of combat they fire off a round and then switch to melee weapons, my first volley can easily kill mages and other weaker opponents.
Update: My druid is SO much better than my poorly constructed paladin. I'm gonna go back and remake the paladin later, but I will be smarter about it!
I really want to add the paladin NPC to my party but I haven't gotten to the Bay yet... I went to the bridge and it was cut off. I want to get her early so she isn't too high level when I get her, but it seems like I gotta go through the giant temple with Kana.
So guys... I could use some advice Gonna have: Wood Elf Female- Druid who does damage and shapeshifts Aloth- wizard. who does crowd control stuff Eder- fighter. main tank. Point and punch, and most importantly, take punches (yo Adrian, I did it!) Durance- priest. healing and buffing guy Pallegina- paladin. buffing/leadership and tanking/fighting
Leaves me one spot. I'm between Kana the chanter and the dwarven ranger (she looks awesome!) Don' t know which one I should take. Just got Kana, and he seems really interesting, but I think I'm gonna take him in my next game along with the halfling druid and the cipher.
Which should I take: A. Kana, navi avatar amaua chanter or B. Sagani, dwarven ranger with awesome wolf animal companion (can't wait to meet her)
Does anybody think it's a little absurd that in Pillars of Eternity you have a stash filled with junk like hides ears and shrubbery however you can only carry 4 camping supplies?
Does anybody think it's a little absurd that in Pillars of Eternity you have a stash filled with junk like hides ears and shrubbery however you can only carry 4 camping supplies?
I'm playing on a hard difficulty and can only carry 2 of them:) And yet I still find it more than enough. I can always retreat to an inn/my stronghold to rest freely.
As for the "junk", I wouldn't call it that way. It can be very handy if used before a seemingly hard fight.
For example, when my rogue detected Raedric surrounded by nearly 10 bodyguards every party member ate the appropriate food and beverages. They helped a lot in the battle.
Does the game stop giving you free camping supplies after the beginning? I haven't found any in ages.
You find them in crates here and there, but they can also be bought for ~75 copper at various vendors.
Yes, I confirm that there're camping supplies on many maps. I've actually made a habit that as soon as I find one, I rest - either the moment I take the supplies or a little bit later when an area is better explored.
By the way, the price for camping supplies can be lower than ~75 copper (~64) if you complete a task for a seller:)
I have been saving mine after hearing about how rare they are... I wrote down where they are on the map (for example, the Eothesian temple) in case I need one in the future.
I have been saving mine after hearing about how rare they are... I wrote down where they are on the map (for example, the Eothesian temple) in case I need one in the future.
Am I being paranoid?
Most of the time being paranoid is the only way to survive in these games...
I have been saving mine after hearing about how rare they are... I wrote down where they are on the map (for example, the Eothesian temple) in case I need one in the future.
Am I being paranoid?
Most of the time being paranoid is the only way to survive in these games...
Agreed, I've been going one hallway, one forest swath at a time, utilizing stealth in new areas. Just got into the swamp area, had two fights (including one against soulless husks of children infused with feral animal spirits, now THAT is creep factor) that were a pushover. Then I ventured north and ran into two giant forest striders, and they wiped me out. Hardly any distance between them on the map, majorly different fights.
Do I... a. go for extra first level spell talent or b. go for Scion of Storms (20% more LIGHTNING! damage)
Option A seems very useful, but Option B seems very metal. Not sure if it applies to my wildstrike too though, since that is also shock damage, or just to my spells (my most common spell is the Fake Call Lightning)
Thanks @elminster ! Should I go lightning or something else? I'm gonna check out the rest of the druid spells to see which damage type is best.
edit: one thing I've notice about this game, that I dislike, is that area of effect spells SUCK unless they are only for foes.
Unless you are playing on Expert mode, the red section of your AoE is where the damage takes place. In many instances you can get position and spare your comrades. Sometimes it's beneficial to LET your AoE hit your tank characters if it is gonna hit enough enemies and they can take the punishment. You can also prepare them for it with potions, food, or Priest buffs.
The reason this is a thing in this type of game is that it is meant to, as best as possible, recreate a real role-playing experience. If this was actually happening, the flames shooting out in a wave from your hand wouldn't automatically pass by you, nor would the lightning storm you and the target were standing right in the middle of. It's annoying (and I agree it get to me sometimes as well) because most games have eliminated friendly fire entirely. But not Divinity: Original Sin and Pillars of Eternity
It's worth remembering that unless you are playing on one of the brutal difficulties, your character isn't going to die when they pass out unless they were already extremely low on health. You can afford to let half your party go down if the end result is that the enemies are eliminated. The Endurance/Health system takes some getting used to, but there are benefits.
I wasn't referring to "friendly fire", more so the difficulty of aiming them. The enemies move quickly in this game, and some characters have very small areas of effect.
Nevermind, I am DEFINITELY keeping Kana. The guy is just too awesome of a personality for me to give up. I LOVE his background.
My favorite NPCs in terms of personality so far (I've met Aloth, Eder, Durance and then Kana) are definitely Eder and Kana. Keep in mind I've only been so far as the stronghold (just got it) so don't spoil much for me!
I love how simple Eder's background is, while still being interesting. On one hand he is a simple farmer, and seems like the kind of dry-witted, sun-tanned, country-bred guy you'd find in the American midwest. But then he is also a persecuted religious minority, a veteran and someone who takes an active interest in the going-ons of the world. He plays it off like he's a simple guy, but he clearly cares about some serious theology and has a nice sense of justice. Also a wicked dark humor, haha. As someone who likes Superman's background, I enjoy him.
Kana is awesome in the complete opposite way. His background is definitely not simple, I think its cool that in spite of being a physical beast he comes from an educated and well-to-do family. I can certainly relate a lot personally with huge, fairly athletic dude who is deep down really just a nerd that just wants to learn EVERYTHING. I see a lot of myself in him. I've said it a couple times on the politics thread that I am a big fan of the often-stigmatized big-g Globalization, and think that the spread of ideas, goods and customs throughout different cultures has been one of the greatest developments of the modern world and has pretty much made this the least-violent era in human history. Kana's goal of stopping his culture from becoming isolated is one that I really, really sympathize with. It is a goal that I would get behind in real life as well as in a fantasy world.
I'm looking forward to meeting the other NPCs too. So far I'm not too impressed with Aloth. Sarcastic elf mage? Seen that before a million times. His possible split personality? All mages are a little crazy, this guy ain't no Xzar yet. But I'll give it time.
Durance.... I have NO idea what to make of him. He seems to hate my character haha. Honestly I dudnno if it makes much sense roleplaying-wise for my character to let him tag along considering how openly hostile he is, but he's kind of interesting and his healing is useful in some close encounters. I'm gonna give him some more time for sure.
Have we not been introduced? Forget the golden pantaloons, I coulda imported that dagger that I bought from Winthrop with the two gold Reevor gave me...
For me, it's actually too early to evaluate because I haven't seen all of them and even those that are currently in my party are rather a mystery to me - too little time together, I think.
But right now, my most favourite is Sagani the Ranger. I like this cute dwarven lass that is so effective in a combination with my rogue. Nearly every battle we open with two simultaneous crossbow shots from the invisibility - not every enemy can survive it.
I like her personality a lot too. A cheerful but not silly. Has a family and loves them. From the north and reminds me women from my country a bit.
And her white fox (yes, it's a fox, @booinyoureyes , not a wolf) ! I love it! With her fox, there're 7 of us in the party - not six. The fox is very cute and useful in the battle. It single-handedly tanked Raedric himself till the rest of my party finished his minions.
Overall, I more or less like all the companions I've seen. But the most imprortant thing is I want to see their stories, how they develop and what they bring.
Hello everybody. At time of writing I've spent 48 hrs in game according to steam. 12 hrs spent on rogue which I scraped and the rest on my godlike cipher, only played on hard so far, so looking forward to trying some of the other game modes in my next playthrough. This is my first try at a written review so bear with me.
Short version, the game is good, really good. It plays like a modern version of bg, somewhat simplified in certain areas, somewhat more complex in others. If you enjoy bg you will most probably enjoy PoE.
Long version, I'm going to break this up into a bunch of different sections, so lets start.
The World and it's races:
Eora is a fascinating place, filled with a multitude of races, gods, monsters and places. We have the kith races which consist of the standard Elven, Dwarven, Human races and then the more interesting Orlan and Aumaua. The Orlan being pretty much furry Gnomes and the Aumaua are big baddass shark people as far as I can tell "yes I know they are not fully aquatic, but have you seen their teeth?" There are many other sentient races "Ogres probably being the most intelligent of all the races", but only these 5 are considered civilized. The 5 kith races all have subgroups, each with it's own fairly interesting history. The subgroups tend to be vastly different from each other, both in culture as well as physical traits. Then there are the Godlike, a child of any of the kith races can be born with the traits of one of Eora's many gods, most of these traits are superficial outward appearance stuff " a fiery face or feathers instead of hair." Eora works on a reincarnation system, when people die they come into the world as babies with none of their previous memories, simple enough stuff. Now lets move onto the actual game part of the game.
Classes: Standard RPG stuff here, Barbarian, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Priest, Ranger, Wizard, Rogue and then the less standard stuff Chanter and Cipher.
The Chanter is a bard, but a bard that sings while doing other things, like firing and reloading a crossbow, also they are casters who use their chants to power their spells. The really great thing about chanters is you get to set up their chants in whatever order you want, so you could string a bunch of low level sort duration chants together to get more casts out or use the higher level longer duration chants if you just want a walking buff/debuff machine, or anything inbetween.
Ciphers are physic warriors who have a power bar, that's filled by hitting things in the face. The power bar is used to cast spells and wow are they powerful "my current cipher starts almost every fight by casting a instant AOE stun from stealth." The physic energy is recovered after every fight and to be honest I think that might need to be nerfed. So fast weapons = permanent full power bar = infinite casting.
Special mention for Wizards, because I've seen alot of people complaining that they are weak, they are most definitely not weak, squishy yes, weak no. They play as a sort of a bg mage and sorc combined where they pick spells the same way as a sorc does at level up and use them in the sorc fashion, of I have so many casts and can cast anything of that level. The mage bit comes in with a limited number of spells to chose form out of their spell pool "4 per level " and the ability to write spells into their grimoires from other grimoires you find in the world "mostly on the corpses of mages who tried to kill you" but really the wizard progression is the bg mage progression, terrible at low level, godly at high level.
NPC's Ok this is my first real problem with the game, there are just not enough joinable NPC's. They give 8 joinable NPC's, that doesn't even cover all the classes, let alone give you a choice between NPC's for each class. So no rogue, monk or barb NPC for you, yes I know you can just make your own and have them join you at a tavern, but to me a NPC with no backstory, quests or interesting dialogue is completely pointless. The NPC's that do join are great I love the banters and backstories and all of them have a quest or two, but yeah there needs to be more of them, so heres hoping for dlc.
Gameplay:
Attributes: affect dialogue choices and base dmg and defence, so nothing really special there.
Vitality: Vitality is broken up into two elements health and endurance, if health goes below zero the character is dead or gravely wounded according to your games settings. Endurance is a much smaller status bar that health, one that can be recharged during combat though spells and abilities, if endurance hits zero the character is knocked unconscious, this system is one of the things I really enjoy about the game, sometimes characters get knocked out, but doesn't have to equal a instant reload. The fight can continue without the frustration of somebody being chuncked.
Skills: Skills are broken up into stealth, athletics, lore, mechanics and survival. Anybody can upgrade any of them, so you want a stealth wizard that's doable or a fighter who opens locks and deactivates all the traps you can do that too and you know what, that's awesome. Word to the wise, give everybody some points in athletics, just so they don't get fatigued after every two or three fights. Special mention for stealth, stealth in this game is really fun because while in stealth mode detect traps is automatically on, also deactivating traps and stealing stuff does NOT break stealth.
Weapons: I haven't found anything too interesting in the weapon and armour department, I have found a bunch of uniques, but the special abilities they hold seem to be somewhat interchangeable. On the plus side you can upgrade any weapon in the game, so can keep a unique with a especially good ability relevant for the entire game.
Game Mechanics:
Difficulty and Game modes: Ok like I said in the beginning I haven't tried any game modes yet, but it's definitely something I'm doing on my next playthrough. Hard difficulty is not really much of challenge, yes there are alot of monsters, but their AI is really not set to punish you "besides shades and shadows, who will always blink to your wizard and try to eat his soul." There have been no fights that have repeatedly kicked my arse, there has been no Firkraag moment yet. " I know what your going to say, Firkraag is a easy kill no problem with the right spells and set up, but that's now after many playthroughs, i mean the that moment where you met Firkraag for the first time under leveled and under equipped and then spent the next four hours trying to kill the bastard." Hard should of been the normal difficulty for this game, because if this is hard then normal must be a walk in the park and I'm pretty sure easy just plays itself while you watch. This all might be because I'm playing a cipher and they do seem really over powered. So yeah I'm really keen on a path of the damned run for my next playthrough.
Combat: combat is standard bg stuff, pause, set commands, watch your dudes kill the things, repeat. With one big difference and that's the 'Disengagement Attack' basically if anybody is engaged in melee combat and decides to flee, their combatant gets a free hit in. The 'Disengagement Attack' has made combat a much more static thing for me, only repositioning once the current foe is dealt with. It must be said, it's still possible to kite with your mage, if you have the right gear and or spells.
Resting: I really like the way resting has been implemented in this game, a rest gives your party a full heal and debuff and resting at inns with in fact give your party a buff that lasts for the next few rests. To rest outdoors you have to use camping supplies " limited to max 2 on hard, don't know how many on other Difficulties" so this limitation forces you to go that extra mile before resting, more often that not I find myself hording those 2 precious camping supplies, only resting once I've found a replacement camping supply.
Game speeds: There are three speeds the game can run in, half speed, normal speed and double speed. Double speed is a godsend for me, because I use stealth most of the time I'm pretty much anywhere and stealth cuts your walk speed in half. Double speed counteracts this perfectly, thus making my preferred game play style not a horribly painful affair. Also the speed automatically goes back to normal once combat starts, which makes it have no real down side from my perspective.
Graphics, Artstyle and Sound. The game is beautiful, " as long you leave out the character models in the inventory and level up screen, their faces creep me out". The level design is amazing, looks like everything is part of some epic fantasy painting. The portraits work well adding to that classic RPG feel the game has. The voice acting is great, I just wish there was more of it, there is alot more than there in the bg series, but come now it's 2015 there is no reason not to have all the dialogue voiced.
So all in all, I love this game it gets a solid 8.5 out of 10 in my book. I fully expect to get hundreds of hours of game play in over the next few years.
A very interesting game. I tend to disagree with the previous comment on the game difficulty. I believe it was influenced by the backers and this community usually has a lot of experience with various roleplaying games. I like the level of challenge offered by the game but I am quite sure that this game can discourage many newcomers to the genre.
Another comment is on the non linearity in the difficulty : I was a bit surprised by the change of difficulty related to several battles that come in sequence. For instance Od Nua lvl 6 and Lvl7 are no challenge after the level 5. In contrast your young party that just conquered its stronghold might quickly hit the wall if you decide to immediately build the warden's lodge and go after the bounties. One part of the explanation is my own lack of understanding of all the game mechanics but I am convinced that it does not explained everything.
Just picked up Kana and am now in control of the Keep, I have to admit that Chants are the first thing that have me confused in this game. The simple buff part like the Bard is obvious, but the way they string together and how they interact has me flummoxed at the moment.
Yeah, I don't know if I find it too easy on normal, it's more just how variable it is. I've had some fights I found tough, but as I've gone on I find I'm just auto attacking the vast majority of fights. Also, tanks become a bit crazy once you're fairly high level imo. I just blew a boss type fight terribly where everyone but Eder wiped quickly. I went out for a smoke and came back just in time to see him finish off the fight on his own. ^^
Comments
I'll have to try a new strategy tonight. I only have Cipher PC, Monk (adventurer), Aloth, Durance, and Eder in my party. I get the feeling having a Chanter or a Rogue would help as i seem to have trouble dealing enough damage in this battle. After one or two more tries i will probably come back and try again later with more exp. and/or companions.
I've also been relatively free of bugs but i am crossing my fingers the Raedrics hold bug doesn't get me. The sliding character slicken bug has made me laugh a few times. other than that just minor stuttering/teleporting characters and sound issues.
The key in this game, much more so than even BG2 or IWD, is that you HAVE to pause nearly every 2 seconds and micromanage every party member, if for no other reason than the attacks of opportunity that will rip you to shreds if you try to run away. I find it best to position and plan out the first commands with the idea of establishing as much intercept and CC as possible to avoid putting ranged characters in harms way.
I really want to add the paladin NPC to my party but I haven't gotten to the Bay yet... I went to the bridge and it was cut off. I want to get her early so she isn't too high level when I get her, but it seems like I gotta go through the giant temple with Kana.
So guys... I could use some advice
Gonna have:
Wood Elf Female- Druid who does damage and shapeshifts
Aloth- wizard. who does crowd control stuff
Eder- fighter. main tank. Point and punch, and most importantly, take punches (yo Adrian, I did it!)
Durance- priest. healing and buffing guy
Pallegina- paladin. buffing/leadership and tanking/fighting
Leaves me one spot. I'm between Kana the chanter and the dwarven ranger (she looks awesome!) Don' t know which one I should take. Just got Kana, and he seems really interesting, but I think I'm gonna take him in my next game along with the halfling druid and the cipher.
Which should I take:
A. Kana, navi avatar amaua chanter or
B. Sagani, dwarven ranger with awesome wolf animal companion (can't wait to meet her)
As for the "junk", I wouldn't call it that way. It can be very handy if used before a seemingly hard fight.
For example, when my rogue detected Raedric surrounded by nearly 10 bodyguards every party member ate the appropriate food and beverages. They helped a lot in the battle.
So, don't hoard consumables, use them!
By the way, the price for camping supplies can be lower than ~75 copper (~64) if you complete a task for a seller:)
Am I being paranoid?
Agreed, I've been going one hallway, one forest swath at a time, utilizing stealth in new areas. Just got into the swamp area, had two fights (including one against soulless husks of children infused with feral animal spirits, now THAT is creep factor) that were a pushover. Then I ventured north and ran into two giant forest striders, and they wiped me out. Hardly any distance between them on the map, majorly different fights.
Do I...
a. go for extra first level spell talent
or
b. go for Scion of Storms (20% more LIGHTNING! damage)
Option A seems very useful, but Option B seems very metal. Not sure if it applies to my wildstrike too though, since that is also shock damage, or just to my spells (my most common spell is the Fake Call Lightning)
edit: one thing I've notice about this game, that I dislike, is that area of effect spells SUCK unless they are only for foes.
The reason this is a thing in this type of game is that it is meant to, as best as possible, recreate a real role-playing experience. If this was actually happening, the flames shooting out in a wave from your hand wouldn't automatically pass by you, nor would the lightning storm you and the target were standing right in the middle of. It's annoying (and I agree it get to me sometimes as well) because most games have eliminated friendly fire entirely. But not Divinity: Original Sin and Pillars of Eternity
It's worth remembering that unless you are playing on one of the brutal difficulties, your character isn't going to die when they pass out unless they were already extremely low on health. You can afford to let half your party go down if the end result is that the enemies are eliminated. The Endurance/Health system takes some getting used to, but there are benefits.
My favorite NPCs in terms of personality so far (I've met Aloth, Eder, Durance and then Kana) are definitely Eder and Kana. Keep in mind I've only been so far as the stronghold (just got it) so don't spoil much for me!
I love how simple Eder's background is, while still being interesting. On one hand he is a simple farmer, and seems like the kind of dry-witted, sun-tanned, country-bred guy you'd find in the American midwest. But then he is also a persecuted religious minority, a veteran and someone who takes an active interest in the going-ons of the world. He plays it off like he's a simple guy, but he clearly cares about some serious theology and has a nice sense of justice. Also a wicked dark humor, haha. As someone who likes Superman's background, I enjoy him.
Kana is awesome in the complete opposite way. His background is definitely not simple, I think its cool that in spite of being a physical beast he comes from an educated and well-to-do family. I can certainly relate a lot personally with huge, fairly athletic dude who is deep down really just a nerd that just wants to learn EVERYTHING. I see a lot of myself in him. I've said it a couple times on the politics thread that I am a big fan of the often-stigmatized big-g Globalization, and think that the spread of ideas, goods and customs throughout different cultures has been one of the greatest developments of the modern world and has pretty much made this the least-violent era in human history. Kana's goal of stopping his culture from becoming isolated is one that I really, really sympathize with. It is a goal that I would get behind in real life as well as in a fantasy world.
I'm looking forward to meeting the other NPCs too. So far I'm not too impressed with Aloth. Sarcastic elf mage? Seen that before a million times. His possible split personality? All mages are a little crazy, this guy ain't no Xzar yet. But I'll give it time.
Durance.... I have NO idea what to make of him. He seems to hate my character haha. Honestly I dudnno if it makes much sense roleplaying-wise for my character to let him tag along considering how openly hostile he is, but he's kind of interesting and his healing is useful in some close encounters. I'm gonna give him some more time for sure.
What characters do you guys like?
What? I might need it for the final battle!
But right now, my most favourite is Sagani the Ranger. I like this cute dwarven lass that is so effective in a combination with my rogue. Nearly every battle we open with two simultaneous crossbow shots from the invisibility - not every enemy can survive it.
I like her personality a lot too. A cheerful but not silly. Has a family and loves them. From the north and reminds me women from my country a bit.
And her white fox (yes, it's a fox, @booinyoureyes , not a wolf) ! I love it! With her fox, there're 7 of us in the party - not six. The fox is very cute and useful in the battle. It single-handedly tanked Raedric himself till the rest of my party finished his minions.
Overall, I more or less like all the companions I've seen. But the most imprortant thing is I want to see their stories, how they develop and what they bring.
At time of writing I've spent 48 hrs in game according to steam.
12 hrs spent on rogue which I scraped and the rest on my godlike cipher, only played on hard so far, so looking forward to trying some of the other game modes in my next playthrough.
This is my first try at a written review so bear with me.
Short version, the game is good, really good.
It plays like a modern version of bg, somewhat simplified in certain areas, somewhat more complex in others.
If you enjoy bg you will most probably enjoy PoE.
Long version, I'm going to break this up into a bunch of different sections, so lets start.
The World and it's races:
Eora is a fascinating place, filled with a multitude of races, gods, monsters and places.
We have the kith races which consist of the standard Elven, Dwarven, Human races and then the more interesting Orlan and Aumaua. The Orlan being pretty much furry Gnomes and the Aumaua are big baddass shark people as far as I can tell "yes I know they are not fully aquatic, but have you seen their teeth?"
There are many other sentient races "Ogres probably being the most intelligent of all the races", but only these 5 are considered civilized.
The 5 kith races all have subgroups, each with it's own fairly interesting history.
The subgroups tend to be vastly different from each other, both in culture as well as physical traits.
Then there are the Godlike, a child of any of the kith races can be born with the traits of one of Eora's many gods, most of these traits are superficial outward appearance stuff " a fiery face or feathers instead of hair."
Eora works on a reincarnation system, when people die they come into the world as babies with none of their previous memories, simple enough stuff.
Now lets move onto the actual game part of the game.
Classes:
Standard RPG stuff here, Barbarian, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Priest, Ranger, Wizard, Rogue and then the less standard stuff Chanter and Cipher.
The Chanter is a bard, but a bard that sings while doing other things, like firing and reloading a crossbow, also they are casters who use their chants to power their spells.
The really great thing about chanters is you get to set up their chants in whatever order you want, so you could string a bunch of low level sort duration chants together to get more casts out or use the higher level longer duration chants if you just want a walking buff/debuff machine, or anything inbetween.
Ciphers are physic warriors who have a power bar, that's filled by hitting things in the face. The power bar is used to cast spells and wow are they powerful "my current cipher starts almost every fight by casting a instant AOE stun from stealth." The physic energy is recovered after every fight and to be honest I think that might need to be nerfed. So fast weapons = permanent full power bar = infinite casting.
Special mention for Wizards, because I've seen alot of people complaining that they are weak, they are most definitely not weak, squishy yes, weak no. They play as a sort of a bg mage and sorc combined where they pick spells the same way as a sorc does at level up and use them in the sorc fashion, of I have so many casts and can cast anything of that level. The mage bit comes in with a limited number of spells to chose form out of their spell pool "4 per level " and the ability to write spells into their grimoires from other grimoires you find in the world "mostly on the corpses of mages who tried to kill you" but really the wizard progression is the bg mage progression, terrible at low level, godly at high level.
NPC's
Ok this is my first real problem with the game, there are just not enough joinable NPC's.
They give 8 joinable NPC's, that doesn't even cover all the classes, let alone give you a choice between NPC's for each class.
So no rogue, monk or barb NPC for you, yes I know you can just make your own and have them join you at a tavern, but to me a NPC with no backstory, quests or interesting dialogue is completely pointless.
The NPC's that do join are great I love the banters and backstories and all of them have a quest or two, but yeah there needs to be more of them, so heres hoping for dlc.
Gameplay:
Attributes: affect dialogue choices and base dmg and defence, so nothing really special there.
Vitality: Vitality is broken up into two elements health and endurance, if health goes below zero the character is dead or gravely wounded according to your games settings.
Endurance is a much smaller status bar that health, one that can be recharged during combat though spells and abilities, if endurance hits zero the character is knocked unconscious, this system is one of the things I really enjoy about the game, sometimes characters get knocked out, but doesn't have to equal a instant reload. The fight can continue without the frustration of somebody being chuncked.
Skills: Skills are broken up into stealth, athletics, lore, mechanics and survival. Anybody can upgrade any of them, so you want a stealth wizard that's doable or a fighter who opens locks and deactivates all the traps you can do that too and you know what, that's awesome.
Word to the wise, give everybody some points in athletics, just so they don't get fatigued after every two or three fights.
Special mention for stealth, stealth in this game is really fun because while in stealth mode detect traps is automatically on, also deactivating traps and stealing stuff does NOT break stealth.
Weapons:
I haven't found anything too interesting in the weapon and armour department, I have found a bunch of uniques, but the special abilities they hold seem to be somewhat interchangeable.
On the plus side you can upgrade any weapon in the game, so can keep a unique with a especially good ability relevant for the entire game.
Game Mechanics:
Difficulty and Game modes:
Ok like I said in the beginning I haven't tried any game modes yet, but it's definitely something I'm doing on my next playthrough.
Hard difficulty is not really much of challenge, yes there are alot of monsters, but their AI is really not set to punish you "besides shades and shadows, who will always blink to your wizard and try to eat his soul."
There have been no fights that have repeatedly kicked my arse, there has been no Firkraag moment yet.
" I know what your going to say, Firkraag is a easy kill no problem with the right spells and set up, but that's now after many playthroughs, i mean the that moment where you met Firkraag for the first time under leveled and under equipped and then spent the next four hours trying to kill the bastard."
Hard should of been the normal difficulty for this game, because if this is hard then normal must be a walk in the park and I'm pretty sure easy just plays itself while you watch.
This all might be because I'm playing a cipher and they do seem really over powered.
So yeah I'm really keen on a path of the damned run for my next playthrough.
Combat: combat is standard bg stuff, pause, set commands, watch your dudes kill the things, repeat. With one big difference and that's the 'Disengagement Attack' basically if anybody is engaged in melee combat and decides to flee, their combatant gets a free hit in.
The 'Disengagement Attack' has made combat a much more static thing for me, only repositioning once the current foe is dealt with.
It must be said, it's still possible to kite with your mage, if you have the right gear and or spells.
Resting: I really like the way resting has been implemented in this game, a rest gives your party a full heal and debuff and resting at inns with in fact give your party a buff that lasts for the next few rests.
To rest outdoors you have to use camping supplies " limited to max 2 on hard, don't know how many on other Difficulties" so this limitation forces you to go that extra mile before resting, more often that not I find myself hording those 2 precious camping supplies, only resting once I've found a replacement camping supply.
Game speeds:
There are three speeds the game can run in, half speed, normal speed and double speed.
Double speed is a godsend for me, because I use stealth most of the time I'm pretty much anywhere and stealth cuts your walk speed in half. Double speed counteracts this perfectly, thus making my preferred game play style not a horribly painful affair.
Also the speed automatically goes back to normal once combat starts, which makes it have no real down side from my perspective.
Graphics, Artstyle and Sound.
The game is beautiful, " as long you leave out the character models in the inventory and level up screen, their faces creep me out". The level design is amazing, looks like everything is part of some epic fantasy painting.
The portraits work well adding to that classic RPG feel the game has.
The voice acting is great, I just wish there was more of it, there is alot more than there in the bg series, but come now it's 2015 there is no reason not to have all the dialogue voiced.
So all in all, I love this game it gets a solid 8.5 out of 10 in my book. I fully expect to get hundreds of hours of game play in over the next few years.
I tend to disagree with the previous comment on the game difficulty.
I believe it was influenced by the backers and this community usually has a lot of experience with various roleplaying games.
I like the level of challenge offered by the game but I am quite sure that this game can discourage many newcomers to the genre.
Another comment is on the non linearity in the difficulty :
I was a bit surprised by the change of difficulty related to several battles that come in sequence. For instance Od Nua lvl 6 and Lvl7 are no challenge after the level 5.
In contrast your young party that just conquered its stronghold might quickly hit the wall if you decide to immediately build the warden's lodge and go after the bounties.
One part of the explanation is my own lack of understanding of all the game mechanics but I am convinced that it does not explained everything.