Jarmo

On a related note, will be fun/not fun to see how Wasteland3 will do. Backed the first one myself, but not this second one and won't buy at full price either. Probably will pick up at a discount a year later when most of the bugs have (hopefully) been fixed. Because the first one was kinda ok. Less so than PoE1, but kinda ok. (and didn't bloody include any lever guns, despite having one centrally shown in the cinematic trailer) Expecting lower than expected sales, but hopefully I'm wrong and hopefully it's a big improvement over the first.

Hadn't even heard of it but looks interesting and promising. Thanks. Looks like I still have Divinity OS installed, so I'll probably try to get into it again next.

Did pretty much all the quests that popped up, except there was some "area surrounded by wrecks" that I should investigate, but by then I had the option of sailing into endgame so did that instead. Also, about quarter of the map still covered by fog, didn't do more than the first two "map the area" quests. And I had a high diplomacy character, suprising how big chunks of combat could be avoided by just talking. And yeah, didn't like the combat and looking at the forum and discussions of how "feature-x" actually works, it seems I'm not the only one finding the system overly complex. "inspired", "focused", "empowered", "hardened", whatever. I just kept the difficulty on easy and mostly let the battles autoplay. Sped up things considerably. So of the DLC's SSS is definitely not for me, of others.. kinda maybe.

... aaand roll credits. Done. For now. Mostly happy with the game. A bit shorter than expected, but thats no problem. Also, there seems to be 3 DLC, if I replay (and there was bunch of stuff left undone and bunch of choices for replay value) I'll probably grab them at a discount. Maybe turn based next time and maybe learn the nuances of combat mechanics as well. But then, maybe I'll try DOS or DOS2 instead. (Started DOS at one point but then quit early on). And rats, ended up screwing things up for Pallegina again.

Companion Combat AI is a big thing, doing stuff and casting spells instead of standing around waiting for my input is just great. I get a feel the quest dialogues are more robust, I feel I can just jump into a conversation, pick appropriate choices (for my character) and it all works out. In PoE1 I somehow felt it's more mandatory to save before interaction, because unless the right choices are made the quest fails or breaks. (Might be totally wrong here, but that's the feel I got) The general feel of the game is lighter. The setting helps, after the dark plague ridden despair sadness in PoE1, PoE2 is like a light breeze of fresh sea air. There's a lot stronger feeling of agency. I choose what to do (even if I do actually choose to do everything).

Backed both of them, PoE1 for significantly more than PoE2, which I barely prepurchased. And it took me until last week to actually start playing. I did like PoE, but didn't love it. Seemed to me, the differences from D&D mechanics were mostly there to be different. The combat system, a big unintuitive confusing pile of depth, that required more investment in time to master than I was really willing to spend on it. Kind of learned it for PoE1, but not bothering in PoE2, this time I'm just lowering the difficulty. And all the "grants dweeel, if surrounded by enemies and bleeding from an ankle wound" magic items just add to the complexity. A simpler intuitive system would have served me much better, and I'm betting most of the audience as well. Might be a minority opinion amongst those who read this, but that's the majority of the minority who bought the game. That said, I'm liking PoE2, actually more than PoE1.

Halfway through PoE2 now. I'd say it's somewhat less angsty, not so "life is hard and then you die". Still a bit overly complex set of rules and item/spell effects. The setting is lighter and more colourful, south sea isles instead of grimdark tolkien. But it's still mostly the same thing.

Met with Pallegina, she was kinda not happy at the results of having gone with my advice in POE1. That's the kind of stuff I wanted make sure I got right. -- ... and then a few hours later, I ran into Adaryc. And I still have no recollection of who he was and what was his thing in PoE1.

Didn't though. Why? That's one of the few things I do remember, murdering a bunch of lumberjacks or something so he could get it's revengis. One of the not easiest choices. Anyway, off the beach and in the first village (already forgot it's name) promised to do stuff for the spanish mayor (who's name I can't remember). Recruited the lantern babe, I'll try to learn her name before the game is over.

Well now I've been watching youtube recap and browsing PoE wiki for character names for about an hour and I'm about 1/3 through the questionnaire. Maybe half of the points I have no recollection of, even when reading the relevant wiki, some I maybe just missed.

Might do that instead of trying to remind myself who was who and what was that village called, but what does that mean in terms of what companion is does what and who I get to start with? Or anything? I did care about the companions and got to pretty good endings with many of 'em. But that's not to say I'd remember the name of the sharp tooth fella, or the angry priest.

So I started got around to it, kickstarter backed and stuff. How long ago did I finish PoE1, don't even remember. I thought I remembered the playthrough or major plot points, not so. Don't have the old saves either, don't even have the computer. 1st try. So go right it, play ghost thingy until the table. Then presented with "choose how the first game was" and choices like: 1. bad bad bad. 2. engmdmnmythh opiate. 3. light dime thiin. 4. something. And I have no idea what these would entail. The choices are totally useless. Luckily there's a tooltip or something saying I can also make my own choices from the "options menu". ... and there's no way I can see how to back out and go to options menu. Why can't I just click something and start giving the choices? They clearly thought somebody might need that, hence the tip, but no way to back out. Task Manager - End Task. 2nd try. Yay! Let's start giving the input. ... aaand the choices are given with super brief questions, clearly assuming I stopped playing PoE1 about fifteen minutes ago, or replayed it a billion times and it was the most meaningful and important story of my life. Like: In eargherytrhirion: 1. Maggrrtshine lived 2. Maggrrtshine died. 3, Maggrrtshine became thglkl. And... was that the annoying priest that Avellone wrote? Or was he a shaman.. or druid? Or was that someone from the DLC? Give me pictures, give me background, I can't remember these fantasy names after years pause. I remember what happended to Eder and kind of remember what went with Aloth, and that feathery paladin, but hell if I remember the village names or the companions names. I need to find some kind of plot summary or something. So now can I back up, go back to menu? No. Task Manager - End Task. Not the best start, but I'll be back.

So re-skinning would be sufficient. Seems like a good thing.

So, impressions of PoE, reasons why not finish the playthrough and bazillion posts about gender equality. Firstly: Yeah, have to agree with you. Secondly: Well.. I did finish PoE, finally, last summer. Here's what I thought about it back then. http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/86994-a-kickstarter-backers-first-playthrough-and-some-thoughts/ On the other hand, I still haven't finished Dragon Age: Inquisition, or gotten more than 2 hours into Witcher 2. And yeah, that's two incomplete playthroughs of PoE for me, neither time did I touch the mercenaries and master boss superwizard quest, the first playthrough skipped much of side content and white march. While the second play skipped to white march and didn't continue the main plot to twin elms (this latter play was the more enjoyable one BTW).

1. Dragon Age: Origins 2. Knights of the Old Republic 3. Neverwinter Nights (because of fan made modules)