Verde

Overall, I think it was the jarring tonal shift from castles to pirates, the lack of marketing, and the negative publicity on certain aspects, like weak main story, and marriage to old cRPG tropes and mechanics. I have about 500 hrs logged in PoE2 and I think it's one of the more replayable cRPGs, but it was filled with constant glitches and a feeling of never settling in on the new tone and setting.

Lots of other great suggestions in here. x - you will have to let us know about Pathfinder.

I really couldn't get into DOS2, because of the quirky humor, weird questing, and camera. I may give it another try though. I appreciate the level of detail.

I've gone through the gauntlet of Pillars 2, Tyranny, and now Torment: ToN, and I wanted to offer brief thoughts on each. Keep in mind this is my subjective opinion, however I do believe they are some objective thoughts in here (such as Torment's combat compared to the others). - Overall I feel like Pillars 2 and Tyranny are more enjoyable than Torment, because Torment is really a visual novel with much worse combat. If you like reading you may enjoy Torment more, but be warned - it is REALLY weird. Like take the Forgotten Sanctum DLC and make it weirder, and make that the whole game. - Tyranny was ingenious in the way they handled action and consequence. I thought they integrated it seamlessly within the game - it never felt "gamey" to me. I think the replayability is an illusion though - it's worth trying out different decisions, but the game is quite linear. I think PoE2 actually has more replayability that any cRPG I've played, maybe close to BG2, only in that PoE2 has a top tier character building system. - Pillars 2 has the best graphics and combat by a mile for me. Clean and weighty. However, as we all know, the main story is rubbish and the factions are all morons. However I applaud Obs for adding the book of Woedica, which provided SOME explanation for God's childish behavior. I think the biggest disappointment I had with Pillars since Day 1 were the bugs, some deeply rooted in core mechanics and quests. - Torment is...just an odd game. I like a lot of the ideas, but I don't see how anyone can play a combat-focused character. It's not just that the combat is slow - you only get a tiny amount of actions each round - the character abilities and equipment are just terrible. How many years in the future? +2000? And we are still using bladed weapons and wooden shields? And bullet-weapons that can barely hit? I feel like they missed the mark tremendously on anything related to equipment and combat. The abilities are just not varied, exciting, or powerful. A hook? 2000 years in the future and a grappling hook is an ability?Heck you can't even switch you companions gear (minus weapons). So to sum up my ramblings - PoE2 and Tyranny are both very quality cRPGs, two of my favorite, whose strengths are almost opposites. I'll give both 9/10. If PoE2 had less bugs, and more believable factions tying into the main story, I'd give a 9.5. If Tyranny had better combat with less difficulty spikes, with more opportunities to solve conflicts peacefully, I'd give it 9.5. Torment is not worth the price tag of $50...it really should be $20 in my opinion. A weird, questionable romp through an alternative universe with rich lore, but complete falls on itermization and combat (which yes, you are forced into several times throughout the game) with little to no replayability. The game feels like it forces you into an Intelligent Nano to avoid the combat and exploit the power of the Intelligence stat in conversations. I'll give it 7/10.

Boeroer it's time to admit Pillars 2 is lackluster in every department but combat. Luckily for those who enjoy the combat its 70% of the game. My final rating = 7/10. Tyranny on the hand is carefully crafted, engaging, and not completely bug ridden (except for hilariously undercooked Bastard's Wound) DLC. I know you will go to the grave defending Pillars 2, but it could have and should have been much better.

Random dude?! Understatement of the Year haha.

Have you played Tyranny?

Freezing Rake and Wall of Many Colors, both are incredibly powerful and can be buffed +PL with Eye of Wael and White Witch Mask. I would certainly qualify them as gamechangers.

Soulblade But really, Trickster is one of the strongest single classes imho so consider going that route.

Multi? Prob Trickster/Soulblade. But I'd much rather bring a single Trickster or Ancient.

I'd give Pillars 2 a few awards - Best CRPG Combat, Best Graphics. And maybe something along the lines of Best Skill Trees. Every class is a new experience and multiclassing expands it while single class provides some really powerful skills. Writing though? I dunno. I think writing or lack there of is a weakness of PoE2. Show don't tell. Also I played Unavowed and than game has some awesome writing and it is an Adventure game lol.

Not to be rude, but with all the work the dev team is doing with bugs and console release, I doubt their concern is salvaging people's no rest runs.

I still hope for a PoE3 but I will wait until buying to see if it's less buggy.

Have you played Pillars? Good God the romances are half assed and downright insulting haha. Obs is playing to their strengths.

That proves nothing except for the delusions of exclusivity.

It's going to be a very derivative game I'm betting. Like you played it all before.

Deadfire is for the hardcore pirate plunderers

Sounds like a cool band duo.

It's a hard fight but it's cool you have options to resolve "peacefully". I mean the entire DLC is building up the boss fight.

Oh I prefer to [try and] write creatively, regardless of its legitimacy

Well that's simply gamers getting creative to help ease the pain of the worst ending ever But I did spawn my fav meme - "Hey brah, heard you didn't want to get killed by synthetics..."

Like fighting Karenn in Nekataka eh?

I don't think anyone is expecting a perfect game, but for a game to have severe mechanical bugs a year out is unacceptable. I wonder what type or pressure Obs had to release a turn based mode?

In many respects, my sense was that White March was intended as a nostalgia trip down Icewind Dale lane, which had a quite a bit of filler combat. I didn't have an issue with that, even though the XP system is (mostly) no longer oriented toward rewarding battle.Still, one of the thing I remember about WM is how tighter it was over base game. I replayed it twice and I can remember individual encounters, I think the only area which I found to be a grind was the final 3rd level of Durgan's Battery in WM1 - with repeaded spirit encounters. Other than that I remember it being quite varied. I replayed WM a couple of weeks ago. I agree it's good, but for chrissakes they should have dropped at least 50% of the battles on the outdoor maps. That was such a poor design choice: the maps are full of beasties that necessitate meaningless fighting (i.e. almost no loot, essentially no xp) that just takes your time. Also, the fights made some things look hard to believe, like, how has that villager been able to get into that ice hole in the first place, with that amount of monsters around? And so on. Otherwise: yes, WM is very good. That was my biggest gripe with PoE1 in general which they did a good job of remedying in Deadfire.

Speaking to the animancers messes up the quest entry too...it won't complete.