Hello to the community of Obsidian
I am not much of a hardcore gamer myself, but I become one if the game is actually good. I grew up playing baldur's gate because it was one of the most exceptional pieces of work i have ever seen when i was a boy. Seeing the trailers for Pillars of Eternity for the first time gave me doubts; is this going to be a rip off? Is this going to be an inferior version of an existing masterpiece that is Baldur's Gate? Thankfully, trying the game proved my doubts wrong, because Pillars of Eternity is an AWESOME GAME that is not only ORIGINAL, but corrected some of the "MISTAKES" i didnt like about Baldur's Gate series. I am going to list some points here which i like about this game and hope the developers will not mess up when making expansions or sequels
Things I seriously like (With lots of comparison to BG and IWD)
1. New rounds system - I like how armor and dexterity affects attack speed, whereas tanks in bg felt a little too overpowered
2. New per encounter abilities - No more resting after each fight just to get back that lay on hands skill
3. New health system - Again, less resting in between fights and no "god mode" where fighters can stay awake forever with a ring of regen
4. New class accuracy/deflection settings - This might be a minor issue to most, but I didn't like how rogues and monks in bg have lower accuracy vs a clumsy front line tanking fighter, it just didnt make sense
5. Old art design + modern rendering - Games do not need intensive graphics to look good. They just need to look appealing. Bg never looked too appealing to me (Mostly due to stiff looking characters) but Pillars of Eternity did an excellent job here (Mostly due to more lively looking characters)
6. Ranged weapons does not need ammo
7. Lots of meaningless items (pets, capes, helmets)
8. Limited experience from combat - This seemed like a strange one at first, but it not only makes perfect sense but also adds on to roleplay value. There is only so much one can learn from killing the same monster over and over again, so exp earning stops after a certain number of kills feels justified. Furthermore, this removes the player's urge to kill anything in sight just to gain that few experience points, thus adding more weight to diplomatic/stealthy approaches in handling potentially hostile foes
9. Limited resting supplies - This forces the player to make the best of combat
10. ****loads of weapon and armour types - More please, including expansions featuring asian or middle east equipments would be very welcome
However, there are a few things I do not like. Some might disagree but I am open for discussions. These are not bugs, just game rules that I find strange
Things I seriously wish changed
1. Might affects magic power? I never understood the logic behind this.
2. No aggro system - Obsidian I understand you are following bg. Hoever, this is year 2015, they didnt have an aggro system back then because no one thought of it, but still not having it now in a strategy RPG game just feels ridiculous
3. Mages have too few spells
4. Rangers feel kinda useless - I THINK the ranger is designed to be a dps class, but all he/she gives is an average ranged class supported by a mediocre pet companion (that suffers fatigue easily) which dies frequently, rendering the ranger herself mediocre with the debuff. With the current high dps rogue class, there is absolutely NO REASON to pick the ranger class, aside from times where the useless pet could be sent to draw enemies out for hit and run tactics. Under most circumstances, hit and run is not needed for a well balanced 6 man team, the rogue's dps highly overpowers the ranger, the chanter's pets highly overpowers the ranger's pet, what exactly is the ranger here for???
5. No custom/standard ai scripts - This would be nice to have so I won't need to spam pause for every single fight. That should be reserved for the big fights. I dont need the game to test my sense of strategy for practically every single fight, my character should be allowed to make a few important combat decisions on his own, and me stepping in only under difficult or unusual circumstances
All in all, Pillars of Eternity is a game that needs spawns of its own. For once, Obsidian did not make a game that feels like an "unauthentic" sequel to another game, but one that is both AWESOME and ORIGINAL! With the awesomeness of this game and Obsidian's experience at making better sequels to games, this game needs not one expansion but maybe 2 or 3! This is because, in my opinion, the original game does not seem to have enough content. It follows baldur's gate one in terms of exploration and baldur's gate 2 in terms of exciting storylines, but does not have the content of exploration like in bg1 or the depth of story like in bg2. Overall it feels like a game that wants to give the feel of exploration, but is really restricting you to follow its main story line which just spans across 3 acts between several places. 80 game hours might sound enough at first sight but great rpg games need to have either a vast world of exploration or a deep storyline. If Pillars of Eternity wants to do both, then it needs to do WELL at both, right now the story ends too fast and exploration is somewhat limited.
Maybe the game could have one expansion that adds lots of new places or dungeons and sidequests to explore, and another to further enhance the story? A sequel is definitely welcome but I would like to see the developers do justice to its original game first. Its your fault Obsidian for making such a good game that I have to make this request
What does everyone else think?