Wormerine

What dispositions do you have? I am pretty sure she responds well to “passionate” and maybe “honest?”

But, no one recognises that my character is at level 5 and he struggles with Naga, not to mention a dragon.

I think you are on to something, though I don’t think the blame is purely on the audience not being able to accept what PoE truly is. While I love those games to death, to some degree they always rang false to me. While trying to fulfill expectations one might have from IE games I don’t think they are truly free to pursue their own goals. Brilliance of Baldur’s Gates was that the player progression and RPG systems where smartly tied to the overarching narrative: you are a son of Bhaal and death follows you. No matter if you want to be good or evil you kill a lot of stuff, fulfilling the prophecy and your role. You kill Sarevok because you are a better murderer then he. As you near to having a shot in claiming the throne, you become more powerful, killing more and more powerful stuff. While mostly a pulpy adventure, there is a subversive cleverness in the story, which simply makes it all work. All better Bioware game do this: KOTOR, Jade Empire, all manage to tie your growth with the story of the game. Obsidian also leaned into this one multiple occasions. PoE, unlike so many post-BG RPGs, doesn’t follow this arc, but still has the gameplay. We kill stuff in hundreds, grow in power and move from killing wolfs and boars to mythic creatures. Yet, little of it is acknowledged in the narrative. There is some stuff in the lore (souls growing stronger etc.) but none of it is related to the main game. I would say that character growth happens purely in game space, and isn’t really acknowledge by game’s world. I do like that mere mortal can’t challenge a God. But that expectation isn’t challenged by the game either. Expectations are there: both because of tradition and existing gameplay systems, but the game doesn’t even acknowledge such possibility. The problem isn’t that we can’t challenge Eothas, but that after 20 levels and major in-game growth, game refuses to respond to it.

I don’t see an issue with this one: there has been no sign of intelligent alien life, beside humans. In OW aliens meddling in human affairs is just as far fetched as it is currently in ours. The reason why the concept of alien is far fetched, isn’t that they are from outer space, but that there is no recorded evidence of other intelligent life forms.

The problem is that Swen seems to be making games he wanted to make, while Josh was making RPG using systems he wasn’t personally invented in. I doubt Obsidian will continue doing PoE in this way if it doesn’t sell, and developers would rather do something else.

Overall I agree, except thanks to following Outer Worlds pre-release more closely, and didn’t have such high hopes or expectations, as devs did state whenever given a chance that it is a smaller title. If anything, I was presently surprised in some aspects.

And a bit more critical thinking would reveal that there is no Microsoft logo around the game, as its developed via pre-acquisition deal with 2K’s Private Division. not that I want to join the crowd of doomsayers.

Some positives first: 1) I do like the theme. I loved “Honey, I shrunk the kinds” when I was a wee lad, somI see some appeal here. Even outside the nostalgia, the setting has a lot of potential to do cool and relatable stuff 2) I am not into typecasting devs. I don’t believe that if devs are good in making particular genre of games, this is the only genre they should ever do. Typecasting is a constant problem in any media: be it film, music, writing, gaming. Creatives should be allowed to be creative, and doing things outside the usual wheelhouse can be refreshing for both audiences and makers. How will we get interesting new ideas, if all everyone is allowed to do, is the thing they did well before? I mean one of my favourite studios is Klei, and they rarely do the same thing twice. I could use Invisible Inc2 at some point, though... that said: I can’t say I am thrilled, nor interested. The obvious problem of branching out is that your usual audience might simply not like the other thing you do. Not to say that I won’t become interested in this game. Supergiant’s Hades is a game in a genre I rarely care about, and it is in sub-genre of this genre which I dislike. Still, it is a Supergiant game through and through, and it convinced me to eventually buy it, and to be honest I enjoy it - there is enough Supergiant in there for me to enjoy. And it also game to me an early impression of “cash grab couple years late to the party”. Hopefully, it will be the same with this. For now, good luck to the dev team, and I am waiting for what’s next. though I must say: between speculation about future of POE series and this, Microsoft acquisition sounds like a difficult thing to shrug off as “things will continue unchanged.”

You do know those are different team? According to multiple sources there are three teams working at Obs at the moment. I didn't expect new announcement so soon, but I can't say I am not curious. EDIT:Not to mention that ToW is a game from beyond aquisition. It would make sense for Microsoft to reveal what we might expect from the studios they bought up, even if the projects aren't quite near completion.

Still, I just would like to one more time, remind that discussing player experience after finishing the game is fairly irrelevant, as we are not discussing whenever PoE1 is better then PoE2. We discuss why whole bunch of players who bought PoE1 didn't buy PoE2. What their experience would be if they played the game, isn't of importance. Sometimes good things don't sell, sometimes bad things sell. I think it is fair to say, that PoE2 didn't blow people's socks off enough to have a positive word-of-mouth, but that shouldn't matter: it is a sequel to the game which sold well, and if people would want the sequel they would give POE2 a go, even if it had some downsides. You know how people threaten reviewers when their favourite game, which they didn't play get's lower score then they wished for? I doubt criticism like "the story didn't grip me as well as before" would make a dent, if audience from PoE1 was actively interested in PoE2. I would go so far, as to say that PoE1 must be the reason why PoE2 didn't sell. One might blame new setting, and minor changes the game made, but I just don't believe that if someone enjoyed PoE1 thoroughly, they wouldn't give PoE2 go. I think it is fair to say, that setting of PoE2 shouldn't feel or look alien to someone who engaged with PoE1, beyond: "screenshots remind me of Baldur's Gate".

Bike simulator! Finally.

ME2/3, Witcher3, Dragon Age2, Inquisiton are all story driven direct sequels asking you to import your safe if you have one. Perhaps, the import feature is a bit too indepth, but then again, someone would need to buy it to get to this point. I am sure there is a portion of players who played PoE1 and never finished, and decided it is not worth bothering with the sequel. I would imagine it would be more due to dislike of PoE1, rather then "Wow, PoE1 was awesome, but I never finished, so I will not try the new shiny sequel".

Maybe this is all a manufactured drama in order to boost sales of PoE3 #wishfulthinking

That is an interesting point. it does indeed seem, like streaming is a way for people to engage with games. I can’t imagine PoEs being very engaging streaming games - in-depth combat mechanics, lengthy conversations, somber tone, all seem like a horrible fit for a stream. I couldn’t imagine playing it with a friend, not to mention thousands of passive viewers waiting to be entertained. “YOLO!” Nature of something like D:OS2 might make for a better viewer experience, and invite more younger audience in. I can’t talk about Cohh’s streaming habits. Does he often do multiple playthroughs of the same game? that still however, doesn’t address discrepancy between PoE1 and PoE2 sales, and none of them seem very streamable.

Interesting, for me that was the reason I didn’t care for D:OS2. Without objectives and characters to cared for I was wondering aimlessly doing things, and completing quests but never caring one bit, about what was happening. It was a game about walking around, doing chores and stuffing meat into my elf’s mouth. It was a game with so many options, that nothing felt worth doing. I mean first quest, is to get out of the prison, which should be exciting, but whenever you move you stumble into so many easy ways out of prison. nothing felt earned, and made me wonder how this prison hold its prisoners with so many holes in its security. It was the first RPG where I dreaded entering a new city, as every NPC would have something to say, but none of it was interesting. You could kill an NPC but it would have no impact as ghost thing was there to still talk to him. but maybe it just my taste. It’s a bit like Skyrim to me: “You can climb every mountain!”. Yeah, but why would I, if there is nothing interesting on top. Give me one memorable quest line with couple interesting ways of progressing, instead of bunch of boring stuff. however, this game had an amazing marketing. Trailers for this game beam with fun, humor and character. I did find PoE trailers unappealing even to someone actively interested in the game.

Any of those points though (I agree with some, and strongly disagree with others), are relevant only to people who bought And played the game. none of the things you mentionEd a person who didn’t play the game could have an opinion about. there is also another thread on precisely the same topic already.

As someone who bought the game and spent 400h with it, I cannot say why would someone wouldn’t do that.

That’s a practical approach, which I approve of, though as I tend to replay RPGs, I don’t mind playing on day1, if the game is in good state, I have been waiting for it for a while, and I have a gap in my gaming schedule.

Cinematic trailer expressing ideas, not actual gameplay. I mean, I didn't even expected it to be in the game.

Aside from one clue registering (learned password which I couldnt use, until I learned it from a difference source), I had a pretty smooth experience. Oh, and at one point an NPC joined in on a conversation, even though she left the room.

Another article you mean? This one is from September 2019, while the development of PoE2 finished in May...

Thief didn't do many things right, but it's custom difficulty setting is something I would love to see more of.

That's true. I didn't really understand PoE1 mechanics, until I tackled Adra Dragon and got wiped without mercy. Only then I actualy reviewed my builds/equipment and learned basic stuff, like armor, item buffs not stacking and started to use more then three spells.