(PLEASE understand I only speak for myself and don't state this post as a general rule for everyone)
I'd love to see a Pillars of Eternity 3 but I have to say there is something about PoE 2 that needs to be understood as of why it didn't perform so well.
Maybe Obsidian figured it out, but I have to say that I am an avid RPG and C-RPG gamer, and since PoE 1 (that I have finished once), I also have finished Pathfinder: Kingmaker (Almost finished a second time), Divinity Original Sin (finished twice), Divinity Original Sin 2 (Finished twice as well), Solasta (finished once I might do another run) and I am awaiting for Baldur's Gate 3 and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.
However I have to say that I tried playing PoE 2 multiple times but I always ended up not going so far and I was always wondering why is that.
Is it the setting? I actually do not dig the setting all that much to be fair, playing pirates or corsair or, ... I don't know that is something in PoE 2 that makes it feel a lot more like a game taking place in the 18th century instead of 14th that I usually don't enjoy as much. Is it the main reason ? I doubt it but it might add on to other reason why I wasn't pulled too much into playing PoE 2 compared to the other games mentioned above.
I wasn't extremely intrigued by the narrative plot starting in PoE 2. You're supposed to follow a god by the injunction of the other gods but it didn't feel you had anything too special about you. You died you're a watcher you can speak to dead people, ... it's nice but, ... I don't know it doesn't feel like you were empowered, nor are you looking to find something on your own volition. You're just told to but don't necessarily want to so I guess it failed to give me a drive.
A god killed me, I'm resurrected by a different one just to spy on that one god that woke up, ... the rest of the world seems to be ok I had no sense of urgency to drive me.
In PoE you survive an incident that killed your early companions and you want to understand what's going on and what's up with you (that event kinda does both drive empowerment since you're the only survivor so you feel special and urgency since you're feeling bad and need care quick).
In DoS 2 you are a special kind of wizard (Empowerment) and have to escape a prison (Drive and urgency).
In Pathfinder: Kingmaker there is a spy you want to pursue and kill as he lies to try to frame you (Drive) and you have to race him (urgency) to become lord of the land (empowerment).
In BG3 you are afflicted by something and you want to find a cure (Drive and urgency), but you quickly see what affects you also gives you strange power (empowerment)
In the Witcher 3 you are playing a famous monster hunter (empowerment) in the search of a mysterious Wizard and your (adoptive) daughter to save her (drive and urgency since you fear she's currently in danger).
I am only speaking about the first few hooks in the narrative because I think they give you a reason to get into the world and the narrative, then other plots or narrative hooks appear but the first few ones are extremely important IMHO to sink into the world and the rhythm of the game.
I do think this is the main reason that prevented me from really digging into the game especially since then you get to the big city Neketaka and then the initial narrative hook wasn't strong enough (for me) I was just walking down that huge city aimlessly doing seemingly unrelated quests one after another until I simply lost interest in the main quest and stopped playing.
Then, there is the game mechanics.
So unlike BG3, Solasta and Pathfinder adapting an existing system that many players already know and love, players will have to learn a new system. Which isn't a problem per say but you lose out on the dedication of some fans of those system.
D:OS and D:OS 2 have their own system too and did perform extremely well so why would there be a difference between PoE and D:OS?
I think there is the problem of:
1. Immersion:
In PoE, all stats are all over the place, some like, some don't. I'm not here to give a judgement but stats don't affect your character as most player would expect (Muscle wizard, low/average strength but intelligent Barbarian etc.) . And while some might find it fun, interesting, (I didn't hate it I still finished PoE 1), I still think that plays against PoE 2's immersion and how you relate/envision your characters.
2. Simplicity (no to confond with depth, D:OS 2 has a simple stat system but with a lot of depth in it's gameplay)
Stats in PoE are so strange and their impact isn't well represented you usually don't know what to do unless you look up guides or spend a lot of time reading everything and even then, ...
Which is best between +1 Might giving extra 3% damage or Dext giving +3% action speed ?
I think PoE system is too complicated at first sight and it really removes a lot of room for experimentation because You're never sure what you're doing.
I think the devs wanted to make a system were all stats are desirable for most characters to avoid the min-maxing but in the end there is still a lot of min maxing but it's really confusing to get into and in the end all my DPS, no matter their class, were always full perception/might. I really find it breaks the immersion and diversity of the builds you come up with. and the tanks/support were all resolve/constitution/int. So I only had 2 builds for all character I wanted to make.
And all of that simply to play with a few percentage of effectiveness without adding too much depth in the combat system (not saying PoE combat doesn't have depth, just stats don't contribute all that much to its depth but make everything confusing and unintuitive at first approach).
In the end to summarize (TLDR):
Unlike many other recent C-RPG that I have played and finished, to me PoE 2 failed in a few aspect ending up with me trying several time to play the game but never got past Neketaka (first big city):
- Initial plot line didn't drive me in, I didn't feel too involved nor empowered as a person. and it felt more like a coincidence and they could just send someone else to do the quest.
- The setting didn't feel like a medieval but more like a renaissance game (I don't dig renaissance), and I wasn't interested to be a pirate/corsair.
- The overall stats/game mechanics felt too obscure and unintuitive making every decision feeling like I am unsure and doing something wrong. I spent too much time thinking about it for no reason. (it was already something I was feeling in PoE 1 but PoE 1 it didn't have previous 2 issues mentioned.)
The accumulation of all the above was too much and I simply never really played the game.
I am sure other players will have different reasons and some player won't have any issue with the "problems" I mentioned but since the game didn't perform too well, I think it's interesting to understand why some players didn't dig PoE 2 as much as PoE 1 or many other C-RPG of the same era.
Yours Truly,
Valdarr
