First of all I did really enjoy this game, so I bought and finished The White March 1 & 2 as well. I did a completionist playthrough of the game with all optional bosses and side quests and bounties. So I've played 108 hours on this first playthrough. I've played with a full party of story companions, with my main character being a Wizard. I wouldn't have done that if I thought the game was bad. But there were a few things which were really annoying:
1. So many loading screens
The countless loading screens are really annoying. Enter a new area of the city? Loading screen. Enter a house there? Another loading screen. Go to the 2nd floor of that house? Yet another loading screen! Seriously? With today's technology you can have a huge world seamlessly with very little to no loading screens so this was quite ridiculous. I understand having one when going from one major area to the next but for every single house or even just a different floor in the same house? That's just ridiculous. To be clear, I didn't get the super long loading screens bug, but they were long enough (5-10 sec) to be really annoying due to the high frequency.
2. Party AI is completely useless
I found that if I don't constantly give commands to the companions they will be completely clueless. They kill their current target which I commanded, then instead of attacking the next closest target they will just stand around watching paint dry. I must micro-manage them. Thankfully I do like micro-managing the combat in this type of game so it was not too bad for me but I can understand this being a game breaking experience for many others.
If I do ever start a 2nd play-through, I will put the game on an SSD and hope that makes problem 1. less annoying.
What was your experience with these issues?
How is Pillars of Eternity 2 in this regard? Have they improved on this at all?