gunman78

And BG2:SoA has just 23 world map locations. So what? It's not a very good measure of a game's scope, let alone quality. Of course it's not a measure of quality, just saying that these game worlds alone dwarfs PoE's. Not bringing into discussion the amount of writing. However more wilderness locations for PoE wouldn't have helped much because what would they have to offer? More trash mobs to kill for no experience and more generic uninteresting loot? The length of PoE is actually right as by the end it was starting to drag, the amount of filler combat becoming a choir. I gave up exploring the dungeon under my fort at level 11 below because of boredom. The three underground levels of Durlag's Tower are infinitely more interesting and atmospheric that the 100 levels made of four rooms and three mobs in PoE.

Baldur's Gate or Arcanum are a totally different league. Even the world map in these games is twice as large. I have quickly counted locations on the world map and there are (I may have missed a few): 30 in PoE 50(55) in BG(expansion) 64 in Arcanum

I think it has to do with the decline that started in 2000s when 3D graphics became the norm for most of the games, unfortunately for RPGs too. 3D graphics meant a lot of effort put into visual effects (and let's be honest, at the begining of 3D gfx cards the landscapes looked horrible compared to 2D pixel art) at the expense of game mechanics and complexity. About the Fallouts, I'm not judging F:NV because I haven't played it, but FO it's a lot about atmosphere and tactical combat. With isometric map, you can plan an ambush at a door then count how many steps you need to take to cover around the corner of the house, before starting the fight. A FPS style engine is more superficial in terms of tactical combat since it's harder to predict in advance how long it would take to reach point X or if the enemies are going to come through point Y. And let's not forget the style, since you mentioned it. To make a wild comparison, it's like a homage band to an old school heavy metal band, dressed in glam rock style. From your mentioning that you weren't into isometric games until PoE I take it you are young, but the golden age of computer games was in the 90s, before today's AAA titles and big companies. Hell, by isometric I understand tile based maps, not hand drawn landscapes like in BG/PoE.

I voted 3/5. I enjoyed it at least in the beginning. By act 3 it started to drag on me, I will have to take a break to find motivation to finish it. The same happened with Divinity: Original Sin, so it's hard to say which one is better in my book. While the combat system is way better in D:OS, the story and the universe are getting a lot worse after Ciseal, to the point of being boring, so I didn't finish it either.

The game is good but nowhere near the classics (BG, Arcanum, Fallout). The combat system is ok, not much better than BG's. The disengagement system only matters at the lower levels, when your party becomes powerful it devolves into the classic BG select all, have one tank at the front and all shooters in the back. Your tank also has so much health than you can disengage him at will. The spells are quite poor, with only several of them worth using. The majority of them are uninspired and copy pasted with a minor increase in effect or damage. When picking new spells sometimes I was struggling to pick the one that seemed most useful. The skills are also a major letdown. It is well known by now that only mechanics and a little athletics matters, the rest are dump. At least they could have added the crafting / smiting as a skill instead letting any character enchant weapons and scribe any kind of scrolls. The writing and the lore of the realm feels like meh. At the beginning it appeared interesting, by chapter 3 I wasn't paying much attention to conversations, just skipping them as fast as I could. Overall this game feels like jack of the trades, master of none. It tried to balance everything but there is nothing memorable or innovative about it. At the opposite, look at Arcanum: ****ty combat system (****ty x10 if you play in real time) but the character development and how it blends into the game world in terms of reactivity is mind blowing.

When playing on ironman mode, I guess it's impossible to fight all mobs the first time you encounter them. And playing on POTD difficulty with reloads seems rather dull, what's the fun of fighting tons of monsters that gives almost no reward and reload the same battle over and over again until you win? I'd rather play on normal / hard but with ironman mode - is more thrilling. You encounter a mob but you are not sure you can win the battle - do you risk or come back later?

I have noticed this before - I don't remember where, but I have just saw undead Raedric killing himself. He was near death and engaged in melee, and cast a fireball right at his feet. AI should never cast hazard AoE spells near them, especially when near death.

Eder died and I picked up his equipment after the battle was over. I have distributed his items among the party members, and some in the stash. After I have traveled across a couple of areas I have noticed that those items have disappeared from the equipped slots, and those from the stash as well. But their effects remained on characters that were equipped with them, under the name "[charname] Attack" In the attached screenshot you can observe the ghost effects of a Minor Ring of Defense and a Girdle of Blunting that were equipped on a hired NPC and then vanished.