Awathorn

AJ did a good review on PoE. 8/10 and positive attitude is fair assessment of Pillars. Nailed it on the story part. Don't bother. Really, don't. Terrible characters, drab surroundings, recycled environments, mediocre story, annoying main char, mainstream combat. I'm still shocked how DA series devolved over time.

Agreed. Would bang, would not marry. But then how is that different from number of rpgs from the last decade or so? Still, it is the first game, made with limited resources. With proper funding and less stuborness and reinventing the wheel from dev team... could be a great game in the future. Wow, just think what would PoE look like with 1M llfunding.

Wait, people actually like Endless paths? 15 bland levels of ordinary enemies, mediocre design, no puzzles, with a decent background story and a stupid ending (THAT boss, how original). No wonder we're getting served with worse and worse games every year.

This no xp for killing would make so much sense if Obsidian actually crafted a game with smart and engaging stealth system and complicated quests, choices and puzzles. After completing the game I must say it is very...mundane in that aspect. And with a few exceptions you kill pretty much everything while exploring and doing quests. So, another "briliant" idea failed. Fixing what is not broken.

Stronghold should be removed in future games. Resources wasted on a feature without real substance or connection to the game. Stronghold would make sense if you could act as a lord, have economy, have troops, interact with the rest of the world in that capacity, but that's a different genre.

Give us something for killing enemies. Idea: 1) Killing different enemies fills out the blanks in your bestiary. Upon completing the page, party members get small damage bonus when fighting that beast. and more importantly... 2) When using weapon type, party members get damage and speed bonuses after some time. Like a weapon XP. Everyone can use whatever they want, no need for weapon groups, focus, specialization or any weapon talents. No real XP for killing enemies, but fighting makes you better at... fighting. So, if a character deals XXXX damage to xaurips with sword, he will be better at fighting xaurips and better with swords. After going through the whole game with a bow, character will achieve mastery with that weapon, but will still be level 12 or whatever, like the rest of the bunch, just slightly more powerful (if a player took the time to complete all the quests, clear out wilderness areas etc). Resting: Away with current system. IE style rest back into play, but more punishing. Rest wherever and whenever you like, small chance of interrupt in wilderness areas, huge chance for interrupt in uncleared parts of dungeon, small chance of interrupt in clear parts of dungeon. Do dungeon designs with resting places in mind. Who wants to SAVE/LOAD their way through the game, so be it. Remove resting bonus in inns. Makes no sense. Maybe add a longer period before becoming fatigued after resting in proper bed. Come up with some minigames (Witcher style) if you can't think another way to make inns relevant. Rolling dice (how appropriate), fighting bare handed, playing cards with gods painted on them, having bards recite poems when you talk to them, drinking beer and getting some flavor information about the world from the innkeeper.

Is this game good. YES! Did I expect more? Yes. Do I regret spending my money? No. (+) - decent story and writing - beautiful visuals - excellent music - fun combat, most of the time - possible success will bring us more games like this, maybe even BG3 one day (-) - weird or just bad mechanics and design choices - game brings nothing new to the table - story is decent but not that great, same goes for overall writing, companions etc. - sometimes reminds me not of BG and PST, but other more recent, less successful games - some bugs - some half-done features ruining the experience (ex. Stronghold)

Enjoyable - all of them except Durance. Best one - Durance. Durance is well written and real. Grieving Mother well written but unreal. Aloth boring and seen before. Same goes for Eder, but he has good vo and down to earth charm. Sagani has good background story but boring character. Hirasomething is funny at the times but nothing more. Kana is cool to have around, likable, but the concept feels unoriginal. Pallegina has the looks but she is undeveloped and uninteresting. Characters that sounded lame before the release are great. Characters that I liked before the release are lame. Oh, and that talking chair in the stronghold is just...ugh. Who wrote that and why!?

The track playing during the narations in the beggining of the chapters. Minimalistic, mysterious and fantastic. Beats any IE game in this segment. Once again, well done mr.Bell. I always wait for the main theme to end before I load my game. 'Nuff said.

Another thing I find weird. In theory they made a world that isn't medieval like BGs or IWDs, but where do we see that in game? Few guns, rapier and one type of armor. Rauitai uses ship cannons. There are some Italian-merchant-like republics. That's it? Really? So, we go around and fight spirits, undead wannabes, golem wannabes, vampire wannabes, animals, barbarians, priests armed with knives and clubs.

Well, I'm definitely a "book person" and I always do the reading when I play this games (LOL, not here for the shooting and shiny visuals), so that's not it. There are different tastes, but I really struggle to see what is making the companions (well, with one or two exceptions) "deep" and "rich"? They aren't deep, they aren't interesting in "movie" kind of way and they don't have impact on the story. So it's fail, fail, fail on that account. Also, about the world. I'm a historian by profession, and I really don't see how vaguely translating nations, historical events, historical and philosophical dilemmas into simplified game world is somehow "intricate" and "surprisingly deep"... Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's terrible, but I guess I expected more after all these years.

Classes - partial success Some really interesting ideas, but most of it feels half-done. Like wizard. Why not go with less classes but more options. You choose fighter, and then make it into regular tank, ranger, barbarian or whatever through stats and talents. Better to go with 5 fully developed and wildly different classes than 20 half-done. Stats - fail Things are more confusing, less exciting and it didn't remove the weakness of previous systems. Pretty much agree with OP. Oh, and there must be a better and nicer way to present the statistics to a player. Armour - fail Steel clad wall and "naked" dudes doing damage. Good way to ruin one of the more interesting aspect of gaming. Weapons - partial success It makes some sense, it can be fun, but there is no real progression. You don't need to be good at something. I would like to see more stuff that improves character proficiency with weapon group. The way it's now you can use whatever you want, and let's say a noble knight or a former soldier just barely outshine ex-farmer in weapons use. BG1 system was very limiting and not good, but at least it was logical. 4 levels in swords beat the hell out of 0 levels in swords. Guns are cool. Talents and abilities - partial success Needs more meaningful choices and more things you will aspire. At some point of the game I just didn't know what to choose between half-useless stuff. This seems to be general direction in which games are going.

Why is the setting more interesting? Soul stuff is quite cool and meaningful, but beside that, this world is so boring, flat and one-dimensional. Same goes for nearly all companions. Just a bunch of your average regular dudes doin' their thing. And some will say that is more realistic and whatnot, which may be true (you are more likely to run into plain farmer/soldier then into half-mad ranger who talks with hamster), but it is just not fun. Especially if those realistic characters have little impact on story and serve as a talking-fighting version of (not so interesting BTW) books you read. Not once it feels important to help your companion (Aloth), not once you develop some kind of relationship. If not for Durance and Grieving mother, to some extent, talking to them would be 100% chore. And there is 8 companions. Just 8. Overall, they tried to be more serious (well, it's not that hard compared to BG), yet failed. It's the same formula over and over again, this time with the soul twist. Mix some things and voila - it's NWN2. At least BG was one of the first modern games that did all the cheesy, cliche stuff. PoE is cliche, cheesy stuff without humor. Oh, when talking about serious... This game has a number laughable ways to advance the plot or give you quests. Hello stranger, say, would you do a super secret mission and kill a child for me? Hello stranger, I just heard my father asked you to kill a child, could you kill him please, please, please? Hello cleric, I would need a bottle of poison... for my errrm, dog or cat, or something. Thanks! Hey random dude in the forest. Could you invade this castle and kill an evil lord of this land? Heya unknown foreigner in front of an inn/tradehouse/temple/whatever. Could we travel together? Yeah sure, I'll embark on a quest to rid the land of its plague and help you reclaim your sanity. Hello guard of a secret underground temple. I didn't bring my robes, can I and my party of five fully armed guys enter your fine establishment? We can? Supercool! Uhm, could I borrow your mask, oh mighty member of clandestine evil-doing organization? I can, great. I forgot mine home. Now please recite the passwords a few times... Thanx, you're the man! Hell yeah, that borrowed mask did totally fooled that mind-reading chick. And the list goes on and on... So, I really don't see how could someone sing high praises for the story and the writing, or the combat. Best parts of the game are actually visuals and music. Everything else is good, mediocre with small touches of excellent and dreadful. Just did my first run, and I'm waiting for the patch to do second, but I'm fairly confident my 8/10 for PoE would not change much. We'll see how it will stand the test of time.

BG1 had far superior story, writing and art. World is more open, but you're never in danger of pointless wandering around (ahem, Skyrim...). Gameplay is a bit clunky, but then again, BG1 didn't have million PC RPGs to look upon and borrow stuff. Later on, I would change PoE combat and magic for BG combat and magic any day. Just compare: BG1: You ran from your home in the middle of the night, your "father" is murdered, you're left helpless in the wilderness with no idea who is behind it, what is the plot, who is your enemy. It's all mystery. Just get to the FAI. PoE: You are random traveler in caravan. Some tribesmen kill people you barely know. Wind you've never heard of happens. Get into the cave, get out of the cave. People you've known for five minutes die. You see people doing same ritual, you feel strange, you need to find THAT guy. BG1: First companions are (heya it's me) Imoen, crazy Xzar and Monty. Dude tries to kill you. First time you play the game, you die (BG1 did this assassin/bounty hunter things very well) . Later, you stumble upon Khalid, Jaheira and... Minsc. PoE: First companions Eder and Aloth. One is the most boring dude ever, other is even worse. Can you even quote any of PoE companions? BG1: Clearing the Neshkell mines. PoE: Clearing the Temple of Eothas. BG1: Boo PoE: Piglet BG1: Getting the Longsword +2 (!!!) PoE: Getting your first x1.15 damage, +3% whatever, when you fall under 50% endurance you get +20 to X, Y, Z defense, weapon BG1: Acquiring first ordinary Plate mail, selling it for vast amount of gold or using that rare (in the early game) stuff PoE: Selling 30 suits of armor for some random coin

This game is seriously over-hyped. OK, we've waited ages for this release, and yes, we haven't seen this type of game for a long time, and we all love the reading, atmosphere and nostalgia, but really... Don't get me wrong, it is a (very) good game all around (not even that buggy), but it's does things same or worse than BG1/2. Giving it 10/10 is pure comedy and fanboy-ism. Excluding complexity of the combat, Witcher or even DAO were better (OK DA series went downhill really fast after that...). Then again, games much worse than POE got a ton of praise and positive reviews, so a little hype is not so bad for the businesses. Now, IF this goes well commercially, IF Obsidian consider doing partial overhaul of various mechanics and IF they get a more original idea for the next storyline, then I'm really looking forward for the sequel. Oh, I hate the loading screens too (especially when you need to rest in your stronghold). Two reasons: 1) waiting, waiting, waiting; 2) BG1-style drawings would be so much nicer than this IWD-style pictures.

- Sort out the inventory. This infinite thing is handy but stupid. Also, it is funny how you can't wear cloaks and amulets at the same time. At least make cloaks an cosmetic option. You did it with helmets (weird...). - XP for killing enemies. I understand the logic for removing it, but it is, again, stupid. You're an adventurer, exploring and killing brings you XP, make you better at what you do. It is far more convincing that you'll become better at fighting by killing 100 xaurips, then by talking to one and resolving quest. This way, after the first time we play the game there is really no reason for us to stray out of the must-do path. Nothing to gain (as money isn't a problem), much to lose (real life time, in game resources etc). BG did the opposite. First time it was all about discovering and advancing story, every next time it was about uncovering every single detail in the game (and it was rewarding). Hence the replay-value. I still do my annual Let's play BG/TOSC/BG2/TOB. Can't see myself doing the same with PoE after I try out few more interesting classes. - Stronghold system. Think it out properly or remove it completely. - Companions. Less companions, more companion character and development. Maybe even go with five man party? Blasphemy! - Classes. Think them out, redefine them, make them more unique and playable. - Statistics. You need to stick with a single way of presenting the numbers, and it needs to be more understandable. Sometimes it is comical to see wall of random words and numbers. Even BG did this much, much better. - Story. Can we skip on moments like "Hey sorry, I forgot to wear my mask, can I borrow yours, even if this is the first time you see me? I really need to be present on super-secret meeting of this clandestine evil-doing organization no one has been able to infiltrate for centuries, so I can advance the main plot. Thanx bro!" in the future? Also, I have a feeling Obsidian is doing the same story development over and over again. Didn't work for me in NWN2, doesn't work now. It a decent story, but just doesn't pack a punch like some other do because it has been done countless times. - Humor. Big part of IE games. Almost non-existing in PoE. Some goes for more extensive party banter. - Resting. Remove this rest mechanism that has no logic but to restrict players in very cheap and time consuming way. - Combat. Visual improvement so we can actually see what is happening when there is many combatants. Companion AI. Needs to go slower. Not in "slow motion" way. - Magic. Present system and spells are just... boring. Especially compared to IE games. And... fireball, fireball, fireball! - World. It seems like we're reading same rudimentary stuff over and over again, without knowing the basic thing about how this world looks like, what the map looks like, is there some history besides one uprising, and one dead God... Also, needs to be more populated and real. Sometimes, when you walk the city it looks like an perfectly clean empty scene. I know devs are doing this from the begging, but in all IE games it felt like you are important, but it's still a small corner of the world. In PoE it feels like whole world is composed from two cities, two villages and two barely present foreign entities. - Voice acting. This on/off thing is not working.

I was not optimistic about music before the release, but the moment i entered the game for the first time, my opinion changed. Not the powerful BG soundtrack (does have some BG resemblance from time to time though), but great ambient piece really adding to the game. I absolutely love some tracks and how they match the atmosphere of different areas and moments in the game. As somebody already said, one of the best, if not the best part of PoE. Transition between tracks in-game needs work. Too many abrupt changes and silent parts.

After 20-30 hours in game, I kind of agree with OP. Game looks beautiful, it has a lot of things designed specifically to induce IE nostalgia, music is quite good, VA decent, portraits and general art direction good (with a few exceptions), story is fine (nothing great though) even if the game is full of copy-paste moments from earlier games. All that said - I really don't know what were they thinking with classes, races, combat and other mechanics. It's not terrible, but it certainly isn't good or great. With the notable exception of cipher, every other class is badly done, half-done or just mediocre. Combat is one big pause-pause-pause cluster****. Wizard spells are boring and for the most part unusable (unless you want to damage your own guys). After all the discussion about engagement system, we have enemies that just ignore that stuff. Uninspiring, half useless talents and abilities (again), unimpressive weapons. On top of all that - PoE has to have one of THE most awful statistics presentation ever. I have no idea what does what, what to compare, what to do. Plus this, minus this, attacks this, of this, of that, adds this, +1, +3%, 19.3 seconds. It's not even presented in the same way always. And people said D&D was weird. And then, there is stuff that is just annoying. Half-done world, weird language (pwgra), generic names, badly written books (This was... This led to... This...), camping supplies, totally unnecessary fb-games-like-stronghold, helms do nothing, you can wear amulet OR cloak etc. I like the game, but except graphics, there is nothing here that would make it superior or equal to IE or some modern RPGs. It is a playable game, it is a beautiful game, it is a decent story (if a bit cliche) and that's all. Feels like they were looking more into some other games, instead of... let's say BG. Not counting the visual style, PoE just reeks of some later, less successful, more or less known efforts.