sim-h

Keep everything but ADD : separate stealth, guns backfiring (to make handguns unreliable rather than compulsory), ability to smash open locked containers (possibly damaging/destroying contents), weapon breakability/wear and tear, encumbrance, walk mode, more companions. Job done.

I do. The industry dictates whether games like this get made. Reviews influence sales. Kickstarter is a last resort (and leads to irritating tombstones and NPCs) Opinions are opinions, but if I had read this particular review I might not have bought the game. Very much disagree with this. Games media is going the way of the dinosaurs with more and more closing shop or resorting to clickbait due to the pitifully small readership. Smart developers are banking on youtubers for coverage. Good.

Some consistency would be nice. If they'd all got 8 I wouldn't be bringing it up.

I do. The industry dictates whether games like this get made. Reviews influence sales. Kickstarter is a last resort (and leads to irritating tombstones and NPCs) Opinions are opinions, but if I had read this particular review I might not have bought the game. [edit] you can be as facetious as you like, this is a serious issue if you want to enjoy games like Pillars in future. It's an outrage, I tells you.

Just - wow. I can't believe the score Kevin van Ord gives PoE. 8/10, when he gave Dragon Age : Inquisition 9/10. AND Divinity Original Sin?!! Is he for real? PoE is not perfect, but 8/10? Something is definitely up here. Did the devs p*ss Van Ord off?? How can he say D:OS is a 'glimpse of the future' but PoE is treading the fine line between clone and homage? I lost interest in D:OS pretty quickly, the world is just too fairytale and garish, and everything is covered in either slime, fire or ice!! I'm shocked by this review. Genuinely shocked.

What if the squishy wizard is doing nothing but standing behind the warriors who are smashing the opposition to a pulp? What if he's NOT EVEN IN THE ROOM? No - it needs refinement. Just targeting based on health/squishiness is clumsy.

I agree with most of the points in the review although I don't really understand what you mean by 'threat' system - I find that the AI automatically homing in on your weakest member is slightly cheesy, and the tank (Eder) is much too capable of soaking up endless damage, so there is some balancing needed. I'd still give it 9 so far and I'm only in Act 2, things keep impressing me. Giving it 8/10 or even 7/10 - not to go off topic but can you recommend me some cRPGs that you give 9/10, in that case!!!

Thanks for the spoiler.

So, on an outdoor map there is fog of war more than about 20 metres/yards away. In broad daylight. Clear terrain. In fact these dudes are standing in a farmyard. I am within shouting distance of them - but neither party can see the other? My entire party is fanning out and loading up guns and bows, and they are invisible even that close up! This grates badly and seems a little extreme, especially coupled with the fast foe movement.

If hearing constant whisphers in your head isn't bothering some of you guys - I WORRY!

Auto-attack = run past doorway where additional huge mob then sees your characters and all attack too ARGGHHH Although to be fair - they should really hear the fighting and come anyway?? In fact every creature on the map should hear your fight and rush to the fray, if we wanted to be realistic

There is a bug in Raedric's Hold where you can get the 2xProtection Scrolls after talking to Nedmar and getting the key, and then go talk to him again after defeating Raedric and get the same thing again. It hinges on taking the dialogue option regarding that prisoner guy in the dungeons who you can release. I was able to select the option mentioning this guy to Nedmar both before and after defeating Raedric. I guess if you take that option once and get the protection scrolls something needs to be done to indicate you can't take it again... No attachments, this should be clear in the code?

Good call.

Minor Spoilers follow if you really do know nothing about the game at all... So...I've got a severely weakened party in the Stronghold after going one level too far in the Endless Paths early on (I'm talking, like, Endless Paths Level 2... ). I ordered the Brighthollow Restoration first but still have 17 hours until it completes. I've used both of my camping supplies (I'm on Hard). My only option seems to be to travel back to Gilded Vale, which takes one day. Or 7 hours longer than it would take for my resting place to finish building. DEVS - PLEASE add the 'wait' option!! If there's anything else I can do, that I've missed or don't know about, someone do enlighten me for future playthrough reference!

Is that why you don't get any better at sword-fighting by having sword fights? The Bestiary system is perfectly adequate, but let's not pretend it makes any goddamn sense, because it doesn't. You get better up to a point. Then you gain nothing further since you are not doing anything new. I'm not sure how you can fail to grasp that.

The XP Kill system seems great to me. You get XP - i.e. your character learns something - up to a point. You can use this to improve your combat skills through leveliing as a result of those XP. However once you've killed enough of the same thing, you learn nothing new. Presumably you are in the combat to work towards something else - or, if not, then maybe you just enjoy fighting. The added XP are a bonus, at the start. But don't expect your character to continuously get better just by killing the same old thing. [edit] ninjaaaa

Oh god that's even WORSE!!.

I don't have anyone on even close to 101 def - if this needs tweaking, then progression and stacking of def scores probably is what needs to be looked at

As a player who played EE versions of BG series and IWD just recently I can tell you it's not nostalgia, they're just that bloody good and worthy of occasional replays. Still not sure about PoE replayability though. THIS. So many times over. I confess I have put my latest BG1:EE all the way through to ToB (I never actually had ToB back in the day) on hold whilst I play PoE. They are waiting on Shandalar's Ice Island, where time means nothing...

Black Meadow and Magran's Fork feel smaller than the BG1 maps - but they are GREAT still. I agree BG2 was lacking in that department too, but so huge you soon were glad of that! As I noted earlier it's not the writing that's slightly lacking. In my opinion it's the voice acting doesn't add much to the writing or bring it to life particularly well. No problem with it - it's fine, just not awesome. [edit] I accept it's probably just nostalgia. Probably.

Because it's not actually all that similar to IWD. Also, IWD was probably the least well known and the least acclaimed of the IE games so it's not a very good reference point. I loved BG and BG2 but barely got started with IWD because you didn't start at level one, you 'rolled' mulitple characters up front and it was more combat-centric. I've still not played more than an hour of it - the box is on my shelf next to BG/BG2.

I agree with this - but I cannot for the life of me define WHY, when the PoE scripts are more detailed and the characters should feel more fleshed out (and *are*, actually). There are a number of threads out there on the interweb about how stellar the voice acting cast for BG were. Maybe they just had that extra something 'special'. And presumably expensive... [edit] NO DISRESPECT TO THE PoE voice actors!! (runs away...)

In many respects, but certainly not all. It still needs a bit of work to become overall 'better', but I think it will end up there, with tweaks, patches and more content.

Depends on how you define "memorable". Pillars characters talk like real-ish people, generally. BG1 characters talked like badly/over-the-top roleplayed characters from a particularly cheesy D&D game (good god the awful "I like/loathe character X!" stuff, it's cringeworthy). But because BG1 was a lot sillier, there was all the "Go for the eyes, Boo!" and so on. It's true. They are different. But you won't remember any PoE character lines in 15 years, I'll tell you that much. I do also appreciate the more 'realistic' nature of the PoE style. However when a game gives you lines you remember...well, for the rest of your life, you can't deny it's got a certain appeal. My favourite is Montaron - "What part of 'I'm a loner' do ye NOT UNDERSTAND!!" But I recently took on Shar-teel in BG1 for the first time EVER (hundreds of hours played). I think I'm in love. Now that's replayability!

Fast breathing, surely??!