[Sorry, guys... the ship was too boring for me to continue]

First of all, I want to say I really want to love most of the game. 90% of it feels like a major step up from the first game. The characters, the story, the places we get to explore... most of it is fantastic. The combat is more fast paced, and I love that. Exploring a dungeon or two feels great, and I love stuff like shooting an explosive barrel, have a pirate come to investigate why the barrel is on fire, and have the barrel blow up in his face. Literally.   So as I said, most of it is fantastic. Most of it. And yet... there's the ship. Ugh, the ship... Not even sure what the point in this post is, but to be honest, the ship was a game-breaker for me. I get the idea why we have one, and I like that. The ship should have been awesome. It's just... not.

 

First of all, what's the point with the ship in the first place? I get to explore a huge map with tons of islands to explore, but why should I care about any of them? Most islands I've been to have places I can click to pick stuff up (click to get fruit, click to get supplies, click to get ammo etc), and some have places where I get to fight monsters in a very tiny "arena map", if that makes sense. One mad person on a hill, a few monsters in a tiny forest, a few monsters in a slightly different forest... There are even islands with nothing on them at all, or just a tiny vendor who sells me stuff I can find in a random shop in a random town anyway. What's the point? 

 

The endless need for supplies is getting tedious too, especially as they don't really "need" anything. Supplies seems to be cheap enough, so I have yet to get anywhere close to running out of anything. Especially as there isn't really anything I feel the need to spend money on. It makes me wonder why this is even a mechanic. It's probably a big deal at higher levels, but I want to play for fun, not to struggle to survive on the world map.

 

And speaking of survival, a lot of my time at sea consist of me trying and failing to run away from attacking ships. These are far too powerful for me to even consider fighting (and waiting literally right outside port when I first got the ship....), and they are too fast for me to outrun directly. Which means I spend a lot of time looking at that shiplog and clicking "Full speed ahead" to try to get away. Even then, they get to shoot at me from time to time, and some of them hits.

 

All in all, I love most of this game, but the ship was just... ugh, no. It takes up far too much of my time in the game, and most of it is just boring. Never thought I'd miss the world map from the first game, but as it is, I've only played about 10 hours, yet I'm very reluctant to get back into the game. I just don't want to go exploring dungeons like in the first game, and never go sailing again. 

[Higher level cap!]

I get that people are used to level 99 or higher. I'm playing Hyrule Warriors on Switch, and those characters go all the way up to level 255. Which isn't much compared to Disgaea, where you can get an insane level 9999, then "reboot" the character from level 1 and start over. So yeah, the level cap here is kinda low in comparison.

 

But that said, I actually prefer a low level cap. In Hyrule Warriors, i went from level 1 to level 25 in just a few hours. Then I spent some rupees to level up a few other characters to level 15 or so. It makes them stronger, but it also makes the levels meaningless. Here, in PoE2, every level is a significant boost to your character. It might not seem like it, as you sometimes only get more hitpoints, a bit more strength and so on. But if you have 100 hitpoints in total, adding another 10 is pretty significant, even if the number is low. (These aren't actual numbers, only meant as an example.) But you often get more spells, or higher level spells. So when you do gain a level, it's going to help you quite a lot.

 

So would you rather have 100 levels, and gain something every 10 levels? Or is 10 levels enough, if you gain something every single time you gain a level? Assuming it takes just as long to get to max level either way, of course. I would rather have 10 levels that mean something, than 100 levels that feels pointless. )

[Personal Inventory vs Stash?]

To be honest, I've never understood the mentality of threads like this. No offense to anyone, of course. It's just that if you really want the stash to be restricted to camps, taverns etc, why not... restrict it to those areas? Just because the game allow you to access the stash from anywhere, it doesn't mean you have to access it anywhere. All you have to do is tell yourself you can only access it in camps, then ignore it when you're adventuring outside the camp. Simple as that.

 

Take weapons, for instance. In most games like this, if you don't specialize in a weapon, you get a big penalty for using it. But in this game, all you lose is the special "skill" that comes with it. So if you find a great pistol you aren't trained in using, go ahead and use it anyway. I know this could be a problem for some. "My priest would do a lot more damage with this, but priests don't use pistols. Angst!" Well, if your priest don't use pistols, then just... don't use the pistol? Likewise, if you only want to specialize in two weapons, yet the game "forces" you to specialize in a third, it doesn't mean you have to use that third weapon at all.

 

Point is, I think a lot of people would enjoy games a lot more if they learned to open up and be more responsible for their own fun. Think the stash should be restricted? Restrict it yourself. Is fast travel cheating? Then don't fast travel. Is PotD too easy? Don't buy or craft any healing potions, and don't get the best gear possible at all times. Make a flawed character or two. Pick the worst classes you can imagine. Play a fighter or paladin in robes with no shield. There are tons of ways to tailor the game to suit your own need and playstyle.

[3 expansions ......really?]

 

I don't know how to tell you this man but developers are not Mass Effect omnigel slathered on random objects interchangeably. The people generating art assets for DLC areas are not the people handling bug fixes. That DLC would be happening post-release was determined back in the kickstarter ages ago. This is neither odd nor unnerving.

 

I think a little more goes into making DLC, extra game, than just art assets.

 

I personally don't care when this idea was announced, it doesn't make it any better.

 

Was it also announced that the game wouldn't be finished properly on release - all the bugs, difficulties not even being balanced yet, multiclass imbalances, as well as other issues, while taking this into account?

 

 

No offense, but I think you don't understand quite how making games work. First of all, the "bugs, difficult balancing and other issues" are highly exaggerated, as usual. Sure, some people have had game-breaking bugs, but they are few and far between. Balancing is always going to be an issue. Some will always think it's too easy, some will always think it's too hard. That's why there are several difficulty levels. PotD could perhaps be a bit harder, but they are working on it.

 

But most important, the game was "content locked" a long time ago. Basically, when developers make a game, they first gather all sorts of ideas and suggestions for it, to decide what they want to do with the game, and what to include in it. After they have a good idea what it's going to be like, they get to work creating the game itself. At this point, the game is for the most part "content locked", meaning there will be more conent added for it. They can still add some things down the line, but there won't be major changes. This is part to make sure the game will be small enough to release on time, but also to give the development teams a strong focus.  If they keep adding new stuff to the game all the time, they will simply never finish it. At all. There are alway new things to add. What if we had a keep like in PoE1? What if we could have several ships, an send them off on their own missions? What if this, what if that? So the game has to be "content locked" at some point, where they know what's going to be in the game, and (rarely) add more stuff to it. But the game is still in early development at this point. There might be a working prototype, but that's about it.

 

This means that when the game nears completion, the developers can shift their focus to the DLC. The game is still weeks, or even months, away from being released, but they only need a small team to test for bugs, balancing and all that. Everyone else can work on other things, including entirely different games. That's how developers are able to support a game with patches and new content for months, or even years, and release other games at the same time. If it takes 100 people to make a game, it only takes 10 people to balance it and push out patches. The other 90 can either sit at home and watch TV, or get to work on another project. I'd rather have them work on another project.

[Recommendation for Console or PC?]

I played the first game on both PC and PS4, and to be honest, I was very surprised how well it works on PS4. Sure the game is "made for PC", but that's not entirely correct. The UI on the console version are made specifically for consoles, streamlining things and making things a lot easier to do with a gamepad. Even the controls are different, as you control your MC directly with the analog stick, rather than click on the ground where you want to go. (The others tag along in formation, as expected.)

 

Overal... I'd say it's a matter of preference. This is a long game, and I would love to lay on the sofa and play with a gamepad. And I'm going to, once the Switch version is out. The main reason why I play on PC is because the game isn't out on consoles until September. That said, I do like playing on PC too. I'm just more of a console person.

[No Endless Paths style Dungeon in POE 2?]

Dunno about any endless dungeons, but the second DLC is heavily focused on combat. Maybe we'll get an endless dungeon there?

[How awesome is walking?!]

This, right here, is why I love "mature" games like this. On pretty much every other forum I've been to, people would see it as a personal challenge to tell TC how dumb walking is (and how much better their favorite game is, for that matter.) Here, though, we have a bunch of mature people who agree walking is awesome. It's a minor thing, perhaps, but it always makes me smile when I see people who are genuinely friendly on forums.

 

Wasn't aware of the walking myself until now, but I'll be sure to use it a lot more. Always found it weird that my movement options are either charge ahead like your life depends on it, or sneak around silently. Surely there's gotta be a middle thing? And how about that, there is. Very nice.

[What do you think, should the Blessing of Berath to be changed or removed for PotD difficulty?]

What do you think, should the Blessing of Berath to be changed or removed for PotD difficulty?

 

Why? If you don't like them, don't use them. They are entirely optional.

[[POTD Difficulty] Launch NOT tuned discussion thread]

I'd hardly call the game unplayable at the moment, that'd be rather silly. Also while I played the first game mainly on PoTD, it does kinda become frustrating listening to all the "hardcore, super awesome" gamers out there who always complain about games being way to easy, as if that actually proves anything. Spoiler alert: it's just a game, contrary to popular belief, playing games on higher difficulties is not a superhuman feat. Nor is complaining that games are too easy...

 

This reminds me a lot about a dicussion I had with some guy on a forum about Fire Emblem Awakening. It was my first Fire Emblem ever, and I was having problems. People gave me some great tips and how to get better at it, explained some mechanics better, and so on. Very helpful people, and I learned a lot from them. Then some random douchebag showed up, and clearly had no idea what I was talking about. The game was super easy, bordering unplayable? He had played and beaten every single game in the series (including the Japan only ones, even if he doesn't speak Japanese?), and he always power-leveled two or three characters and steamrolled everyone. Surely everyone else did the same?

 

That's not for me, though. I know PoE2 might be too easy for some people, but rather than sit all day on forums complaining about it, why not try to make your own challenges? You don't "need" a hardcore mode to have only one life. You can rather tell yourself that if a character dies, he or she is dead for good. If a companion dies, let them stay dead. Go to a tavern to get a new one if you want, but the old one is dead. Ir your MC dies, it's game over. Got injured? Live with it. Don't treat it until you see a doctor in the next tavern (aka get some rest in a tavern). Don't rest in the wild. Don't use potions. Don't use magic. Pick a weapon specialization for each character, and stick to that weapon no matter what. Rogue has two daggers? Found a better sword? Too bad, you're still using daggers only. The game let you have five people in the party, but it never forces you to. So why not have only one or two?

 

Point is, there are tons of ways to make the game a lot more challenging for yourself if you want to. The question is if you would rather sit on the forum all day complaining, or get creative and be responsible for making your own fun.

[Anyone else having trouble making a character and sticking to it?]

i used to suffer from this as well. I create a character I really like. I find a weapon I can't use, and start over with a character who can use said weapon. Then I find a new weapon I can't use, so... new character it is. Sigh... (assuming it's not a random loot weapon.) It's gotten worse over the years, with more stuff to do. Ooooh, I can intimidate you? I mean... it would be an option, if I focused more on intimidation? Hm... *new character incoming*   

 

Fortunately, I've gotten better over the years too, and know a bit more what I like and don't like. So when I got PoT2 and knew I could sail the seven seas as a swashbuckling pirate, I knew my MC had to be a swashbuckler, and my ship named Storm of Ale. Because, you know...

 

Rum! Beer! Quest and mead!

These are the things that a pirate need!

Raise the flag, and let' set sail!

I'm gonna die on a storm of ale!

 

[Can you hide pets?]

Wait, why would you want to hide a glowing cat? Nothing says "I'm more amazing than you could ever possibly comprehend" like your own spectral cat. 

 

On a serious note, just below the pet slot in your inventory is an "eye" icon, click on it and the cat will magically disappear while still providing bonuses. 

 

I'm sneaking through a dark alley, hiding in shadow, slowly sneaking up behind a victim... with a glowing lighbulb of a cat following me? Hahaha, no.

 

But on a serious note, thanks guys! Appreciate the nice response.

[Can you hide pets?]

Not sure how I feel about pets giving bonuses, but it's not something I can change either way, so I'm not going to make a big deal out of it. However, is it possible to hide the pet somehow, and still have it equipped? Having a seagull follow me is fine, I guess. Having a glowing space cat... not so much. I do want that +1 DEX bonus, though.

[The First Impressions Thread]

Finally got my ship, so I'll throw in my first impressions, round 2. (Second impressions, I guess.) I'm using a custom party with a Swashbucker (rogue/fighter) (the MC), a Priest, Warlock (barbarian/wizard) and Paladin. I don't care for companions.

 

On the plus side:

 

- Pretty much finished up on the first island, and still haven't had a need to rest at all. This isn't all good, as it does tend to make things a bit too easy. But I think the good more than outnumbers the bad. Because I don't need to rest, the game flows much better in dungeons, as I don't have to go back to town to sleep every ten minutes. But it also means it's "safe" to let the priest and warlock use spells automatically, and I can play with all my skills a lot more than I ever did in Pillars 1. I don't need to concerve skills anymore, but let rip whenever I feel like it. Plus, I noticed that when my priest gained a level and got rank 2 spells, I could use them immediately without resting. Very nice. Yes, it does make things a bit easy, but also very convenient, and you can turn up the difficulty to counter the, uh, difficulty anyway.

 

- The world feels alive. I was walking down the streets, when two NPCs started talking to each other - fully voiced. Very nice. It also surprised me when I was on the docks and saw a ship sailing past. Not sure why such a small detail was so impressive, but I loved it. It makes the world feel alive.

 

- Voice acting is very, very good. True, that jerk in the first town sounds ridiculous at first, like the actor was trying his best to make the worst Italian accent possible. Normally, I would laugh at how bad it is. But it didn't take long before I noticed everyone talks like that in the town, and it somehow fits the town. And just like that, very bad turned into very charming. Besides, I've met people who aren't from the island, and they all sound fine. So it's just the people on the island, not the voice actor. Can't fault the game or that. )

 

- So far, I haven't had that annoying "TAKE NO PRISONERS!"... when smashing a barrel like in Pillars 1. Hahaha.

 

- Interrupting the gameplay with a lot of dull text in a book all over the screen should be boring, but even this works. The writing and voice acting is very nice, and when the story stops the gameplay to tell me stuff (entering a new area on the world map, meeting another ship etc), I pay attention. Baldur's Gate was supposed to feel like a table-top RPG on your computer, and these small text-bits really feel like it's the dungeon master telling me what's going on in better detail than would be possible in the game itself.

 

- The game runs a lot better than it did in beta on my computer. Was expected, but still very nice to see.

 

 

On the negative side:

 

- When I select a skill in the level up screen, the text appears under the cursor. Not a huge deal, but gets annoying, and makes the text hard to read.

 

- "Everyone" knows I'm the Watcher who pretty much saved the world in Pillars 1, yet they all treat me like an f'ing errand girl. I get why I'm stuck looking all over the island for various stuff, but it does get a bit annoying. It makes me thing nothing from Pillars 1 matters. And if it doesn't matter, why aren't we playing a new character in an all new story? Even Baldur's Gate 2 was a direct sequel to Baldur's Gate 1, and you still started back at level 1.

 

- Hopefully not a spoiler, but god there are a lot of traps in the dig site... Fortunately I'm a swashbuckler, so it wasn't a problem for me. But if I hadn't had a rogue or some sort with me, I could see this getting incredible annoying.

[Sneak Attack doesn't work on Pistols/Ranged?]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean, but I think Backstabbing works with pistols, but only if you are very close. No idea if Sneak attack is the same.

[Almost all negative Steam user reviews are due to bugs]

It's too early to post a review IMHO (unless you hit a game breaking bug that can't be solved by reloading an earlier save). 

 

Personally, I think it's too early, even if you run into bugs like this. The reason is that there will always be bugs in games like this, and some more severe than others. But if you look at the feedback and notice very few (if any) complain about these game breaking bugs, they will probably not be much of an issue with a new player. I would still mention it in a review, but it's not something I would focus on. However, if there are a lot of people complaining about a game breaking bug, it's worth mentioning in the review - but it's also very likely Obsidian is aware of the bug, and are working hard to solve it. So in this case, I would wait until at least the first patch before posting the review. That way, the bug could have already been solved.

 

Though speaking of reviews, I obviously don't read every single one I find on Steam. When I'm interested in a game, I first check the overal review (in this case, it's Very Positive) to see how most people find the game. If it looks promising, I can later dig into the various reviews and see what people are focusing on. Boring characters, boring story, boring this, boring that? Maybe for some, but not for all of us. Boring companions? I use a custom party anyway. Simple combat? Nah, it's near identical to any other game in the genre, including Torment: Tides of Numenera, which didn't even have all that much combat in it. Bad graphics? A quick screenshot will tell me otherwise. Point is, a game breaking bug can be very frustrating and annoying if you find one, but it might not be a big deal for 99% of the players, and it could be fixed in the next patch anyway. )

[The First Impressions Thread]

So I walked around inside a cave, found a skeleton walking around, and decided to try knockdown. Next thing I know, the skeleton literally explodes, my character went with a rather cheery "Oh, THAT gotta hurt!", and I almost fell off the chair from laughing so hard.

 

Other than that, I'm really enjoying the game. I had to use a grappling hook to reach a woman early on, which impressed me quite a bit. I know it's not a huge thing on its own, but it shows a bit how creative the game can be. Or finding a pond inside the cave I mentioned, and wondering if I should swim (potentially to my doom) underwater, or try to scout ahead for pockets of air before committing to the dive. The only thing I could complain a bit about was me not noticing I wasn't using a weapon set (have two sets equipped, but a third unlocked), so the boar I found took forever to kill. Turned out I was punching it with my fist, rather than saber. And speaking of sabers, I found a magical one that looks far more than a torch, and can only be used in the off-hand. Kinda weird, and a bit annoying as I use a saber in the main hand, and dagger in the off-hand. But it's no big deal, really.

[Backer Beta First Impressions]

First of all, I'm a big fan of games like this, and I'll gladly admit I'm a cliché and started with Baldur's Gate back in those days. Have played cRPGs before that too, but BG was the first game of this style I played. And now, here we are. Pillars 2, the beta. And don't worry, I'll keep it simple.

 

THE GOOD:

 

- Easy to use interface. Very easy to figure out what everything is and does, without being too streamlined for its own good. I like it. It gives me a good impression that I'm playing a pen and paper RPG, but still makes it easy enough to get into for newcomers. There's your weapon slot, there are your quests, here is your spellbook, and so on. Easy to use, and doesn't feel cluttered with all sorts of useless info, yet also deep enough to not feel too restricted.

 

- Two classes makes a third class. This might be a small thing, but I like how picking a priest and barbarian made me a shaman. I could have wanted this to be clearer, perhaps especially during character creation. At first, I didn't even notice that I was a shaman, so it was confusing to be both a barbarian and priest, yet the stats told me which one was useful for a class I'm not playing. Also, when looking at the character sheet, I want to be a Shaman only, and ignore both barbarian and priest levels. Don't get me wrong, we do need them when leveling up, and I should still have access to them. But personally, I think being listed as a Shaman is good enough. Listing it as Shaman, Barbarian and Priest together is just confusing.

 

- Spells work really well in combat. Granted, I haven't played Pillars 1 on PC in ages, though I loved it on PS4. But I do like how I can simply select a spell level, then see all the avaliable spells. Like the UI in general, it makes it easy to find what I'm looking for, without feeling too restricted or crowded. Nice work. And just for the record, I installed Pillars 1 last night, so I'm going back in there today. I'm intrigued how the UI there works in comparison. Haven't played the PC-version in ages.

 

 

THE BAD

 

- I created a female dwarf as my main character. Why, then, do I still have access to all the male faces? It's not a huge problem, but I would strongly prefer having only faces of the correct gender appearing. So if I make a female character, I should have female faces only. And if I make a male character, I should have male faces only. I'm fine with enabling this under options, though.

 

- What am I supposed to do? As in, what is the point in the beta? I don't have quests or a mission. No one tells me anything what to do. Every area I can go to are too high level for me. I still managed to sneak past one, but couldn't find anything to do there, either. The only thing I managed to do in town was to release a couple of things from a cage, and lost reputation because of it. Oops...

 

- When I create a character, it's was difficult to figure out how to get back to the main menu. I found that little X in the top right corner, but I would have prefered a Back-button in the lower left, or at least easy to find. Same goes for the options menu. How do I return to the main menu from there?

[Can we really play the whole game with just one character?]

I'm not usually one that bothers go on forums, but in this case, I'll make an exception. The reason is I've been looking forward to Pillars of Eternity since it was first announced, and I was really looking forward to going back to an old-school Infinity Engine-game again. With a new engine, but still. However, recently a friend told me about an interview with Obsidian, where it was said the game can be finished with just one character, as each class has skills to make the rest of the classes not quite as necessary. So a fighter can heal, and stuff like that.

 

The question is: Is this true? I really, really hope not. The main reason why I loved Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Greyhawk; Temple of Elemental Evil and so on was because a group was essential. Not one class could solo the game on its own. To me, and just about everyone I've talked to, that's the core of games like this. And with PoE being old-school and all that, how can it ignore the whole core of the genre? If we can finish the game with just one class, we're left with a dialogue-heavy Diablo. No one wants that. I hope.