Only a few hours in, not liking it much

[skyrimer]

I'm only a few hours in but not liking it much, PoE 1 was born as a modern Baldur's Gate, PoE 1 succeded in giving us high fantasy setting in modern days, but if you put PoE 2 vs BG one on each side, they are basically two completely different games. Pirates are everywhere, trading companies, colonies explotation, caribbean themes, weird and annoying mix of italian accent and invented words that are becoming annoying fast, everything moves around tribes and casts, there's a small blue dwarfish thing companion that's so hypersexualized gay in everything he says and does it's like he's shouting "i'm a gay companion, so cool hey?, did you notice i'm gay DID YOU!?". I'm fine with gay companions, Mass Effect introduced gay reliationships and they were subtle enough if you cared for them, but this is a bit too much.

Also one of the most interesting parts of PoE 1 was that as a Watcher you could see a lot of inner conversations everywhere of so many characters, but that has dissapeared almost completely, and it's a shame since it added a lot of depth to the world and the characters. Also supposedly being a Watcher slowly made you mad, but it seems it's now perfectly fine for some reason.

Also as this is now a pirate game, there're guns everywhere, which is as far from classic high fantasy and DND setting as you can go, there was a bit of it on PoE 1 which didn't annoy much with one companion, but here it's just against classic fantasy cannon that there're so many guns everywhere, so it feels ridiculous that anyone carries only a sword with so many guns around.

So it feels so alien, so far away from classic high fantasy and BG, even though it's a ok game gameplay wise, i'm not enjoying it much, if they wanted to make a pirate RPG just ask for Sea Dogs licence and give it a go. Also ship fights were a joke, I think there was a several thousand dollars stretch goal for this, and really, all they did was a text based dull menu fighting system with 5 options to choose over and over? That's it?. I've played it just once and hated it deeply.

Same thing with the choose your own adventure text parts, in PoE 1 they were few of them and added to the whole experience, here you find them all the time and are becoming annoying, and at some points they feel like a cheap way to skip creating real maps and gameplay, like when you go in the underground on the poor part of the city, it feels like they just dropped creating that map and did a text "choose your own adventure" part instead and saved and few several thousand dollars in development.

I've read that the game is failing hard at retail, and I completely understand it. This is not what many of us old time fans of BG, IWD, NWN were expecting, at all. 

I don't know if it will improve further on, but I loved PoE since it promised BG in the modern day and succeded, this is not it. I hope they go back to full high fantasy setting in PoE3, I was a backer on PoE 2, but I know i won't support PoE 3 if it ever releases and wait to see what kind of game it is, and if PoE 3 never exists, i really don't care much.

 

[house2fly]

Being a Watcher didn't drive you mad, being Awakened did, and the Awakening got undone at the end of POE1. Anyway, if a game needs to have a high-fantasy European forest with wolves and goblins for you to get into it then suffice to say you won't like this game

[thelee]

everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but

 

 

 

here's a small blue dwarfish thing companion that's so hypersexualized gay in everything he says and does it's like he's shouting "i'm a gay companion, so cool hey?, did you notice i'm gay DID YOU!?". I'm fine with gay companions, Mass Effect introduced gay reliationships and they were subtle enough if you cared for them, but this is a bit too much.

 

serafen? seriously? says a lot more about you i think.

 

Also one of the most interesting parts of PoE 1 was that as a Watcher you could see a lot of inner conversations everywhere of so many characters, but that has dissapeared almost completely, and it's a shame since it added a lot of depth to the world and the characters. Also supposedly being a Watcher slowly made you mad, but it seems it's now perfectly fine for some reason.

 

are you insane? that was pointless filler that was a waste of utter time that was there just to fulfill some backer pledges. once i realized all those gold-plated names had no bearing on the story whatsoever i was just like "Eff this" (some friends who also played PoE1 were similarly like "Wtf").

[Frak]

That's too bad.

 

I love it. I love the pirate-theme. I love that I (most likely) in the future have to choose a faction. I love The Defiant. I love having a base like the Defiant. I love my cabin. I love the pets. I love the crew, every one o them. Even that scary cook with the alternative recipe for kith. I love the island-hopping. I love the voice acting, I love the smart comments (being an orlan and getting the commentary "he was so small" from a druggie with the retort "well, you're a dwarf", "I am?") and the dialogue. I love how the running animation is more fluid. I love the clothing, the graphics, the combat, the gone-baby-gone health bar fro POE1. I love the shanties. I love the -ing gods, those ****ers.

 

It's a shame you didn't like it. I would like for more people to like the game, as good sales would make POE3 more likely.

 

But I love it! To me this is heaps better than POE1. This POE goes to 11!

 

Edit: Oh yeah. I forgot the companions. You can probably guess how I feel about those. Except Pellagina! She needs to be feathered and tarred. Valians are the worst.

Edited November 9, 2018 by Frak

[Grimo88]

I'm only a few hours in but not liking it much, PoE 1 was born as a modern Baldur's Gate, PoE 1 succeded in giving us high fantasy setting in modern days, but if you put PoE 2 vs BG one on each side, they are basically two completely different games. Pirates are everywhere, trading companies, colonies explotation, caribbean themes, weird and annoying mix of italian accent and invented words that are becoming annoying fast, everything moves around tribes and casts, there's a small blue dwarfish thing companion that's so hypersexualized gay in everything he says and does it's like he's shouting "i'm a gay companion, so cool hey?, did you notice i'm gay DID YOU!?". I'm fine with gay companions, Mass Effect introduced gay reliationships and they were subtle enough if you cared for them, but this is a bit too much.

 

Also one of the most interesting parts of PoE 1 was that as a Watcher you could see a lot of inner conversations everywhere of so many characters, but that has dissapeared almost completely, and it's a shame since it added a lot of depth to the world and the characters. Also supposedly being a Watcher slowly made you mad, but it seems it's now perfectly fine for some reason.

 

Also as this is now a pirate game, there're guns everywhere, which is as far from classic high fantasy and DND setting as you can go, there was a bit of it on PoE 1 which didn't annoy much with one companion, but here it's just against classic fantasy cannon that there're so many guns everywhere, so it feels ridiculous that anyone carries only a sword with so many guns around.

 

So it feels so alien, so far away from classic high fantasy and BG, even though it's a ok game gameplay wise, i'm not enjoying it much, if they wanted to make a pirate RPG just ask for Sea Dogs licence and give it a go. Also ship fights were a joke, I think there was a several thousand dollars stretch goal for this, and really, all they did was a text based dull menu fighting system with 5 options to choose over and over? That's it?. I've played it just once and hated it deeply.

 

Same thing with the choose your own adventure text parts, in PoE 1 they were few of them and added to the whole experience, here you find them all the time and are becoming annoying, and at some points they feel like a cheap way to skip creating real maps and gameplay, like when you go in the underground on the poor part of the city, it feels like they just dropped creating that map and did a text "choose your own adventure" part instead and saved and few several thousand dollars in development.

 

I've read that the game is failing hard at retail, and I completely understand it. This is not what many of us old time fans of BG, IWD, NWN were expecting, at all.

 

I don't know if it will improve further on, but I loved PoE since it promised BG in the modern day and succeded, this is not it. I hope they go back to full high fantasy setting in PoE3, I was a backer on PoE 2, but I know i won't support PoE 3 if it ever releases and wait to see what kind of game it is, and if PoE 3 never exists, i really don't care much.

Cool.

[msyoung]

As background I have played Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate, all the Diablos, all the Fallouts, Skyrim and several other games. I am now playing my fifth time through this game and each time it has been different, it is determined by the character you create and your interactions with your companions. The quests for your companions don't trigger if they are not in your party or you don't talk about it with them. So each time it has been different. I did not notice that Serafin was gay and that is probably because I was not looking for it, and it wouldn't matter if he was. If that bothers you don't have him in your party. There are places that you have to make ethical decisions and what you choose will determine what happens later in the game.

 

All the games I mentioned earlier, I have not played them five times. Skyrim was three times and Diablo 3 was four times (but that was because there were no other new RPGs).

[house2fly]

I don't recall much in the way of sexual comments from any of the companions, except Tekehu who's a horny drunk. I think Serafen and Maia have both made a comment or two, but certainly nothing much in the latter half of the game

[protopersona]

Except Pellagina! She needs to be feathered and tarred.

 Pretty sure she's already been feathered.

[Yonjuro]

 

Except Pellagina! She needs to be feathered and tarred.

 Pretty sure she's already been feathered.

 

 

 Yeah. At first, I thought that she was an avian godlike, but she probably just annoyed a bunch of people. 

[Boeroer]

 there's a small blue dwarfish thing companion that's so hypersexualized gay in everything he says and does it's like he's shouting "i'm a gay companion, so cool hey?, did you notice i'm gay DID YOU!?".

You didn't pay much attention because you obviously confused the straight small blue dwarfish thing companion with the gay big blue sharkfish thing companion.

 

I hope that's a gayme changer for you...

 

 

 

Also one of the most interesting parts of PoE 1 was that as a Watcher you could see a lot of inner conversations everywhere of so many characters

I really hope you don'nt mean gold plated backer npcs. Because if you do I seriously have to question your taste in... anything?

Edited November 9, 2018 by Boeroer

[Messier-31]

Being a Watcher didn't drive you mad, being Awakened did, and the Awakening got undone at the end of POE1. Anyway, if a game needs to have a high-fantasy European forest with wolves and goblins for you to get into it then suffice to say you won't like this game

 

The quote "No sleep for the watcher" means that being a watcher makes you mad.

 

Adaryc was only a watcher, afraid of becoming mad.

Maerwald was both a watcher and awakened, gone mad.

Aloth is only awakened, not mad.

[xzar_monty]

Well, just the other day in another thread, someone pointed out that apparently some CRPG players are very conservative and have a very narrow comfort zone.

[Prince of Lies]

Everyone else has pretty much addressed the other stuff, but:

 

Also as this is now a pirate game, there're guns everywhere, which is as far from classic high fantasy and DND setting as you can go, there was a bit of it on PoE 1 which didn't annoy much with one companion, but here it's just against classic fantasy cannon that there're so many guns everywhere, so it feels ridiculous that anyone carries only a sword with so many guns around.

 

 

Pillars of Eternity had plenty of guns. The DLC had an entire questline around cannons.

 

Deadfire was always marketed as a pirate-y, "age of discovery and colonialism" game since the beginning. Heck from the steam homepage:

 

Pursue a rogue god over land and sea in the sequel to the multi-award-winning RPG Pillars of Eternity. Captain your ship on a dangerous voyage of discovery across the vast unexplored archipelago region of the Deadfire.

 

Pillars of Eternity 1 definitely tried to capture that nostalgic BG1 feeling- but Sawyer implied from the beginning that he wanted to explore non-traditional fantasy settings and storytelling. Honestly- I think that's one of Deadfire's biggest strengths

[xzar_monty]

Quite possibly its biggest strength. I'm very happy without dungeon crawls, for instance. This side of the game works really well.

Edited November 9, 2018 by xzar_monty

[Boeroer]

Sadly, it obviously doesn't attract that many customers as the usual kind-of-middle-age fantasy setting.

[Prince of Lies]

Ehhhhh…… I think the issue isn't that the setting that didn't attract customers- but a lack of a more robust marketing strategy.

 

As a marketing professional, if I were to posit a reason for Deadfire's lack of a break-out success- it would be a lack of visibility. Regardless of medium; if no one hears about it, no one is going to buy it.
 

[abaris]

It took some time to grow on me, but that was rather due to my lack of understanding of the game mechanics rather than being a bad or boring game.

[Boeroer]

Ehhhhh…… I think the issue isn't that the setting that didn't attract customers- but a lack of a more robust marketing strategy.

 

As a marketing professional, if I were to posit a reason for Deadfire's lack of a break-out success- it would be a lack of visibility. R

egardless of medium; if no one hears about it, no one is going to buy it.

I don't really think that's mutually exclusive.

[Prince of Lies]

Oh, definitely not. Marketing is never a zero-sum sort of deal.

 

However, it is definitely true that if two products/services are essentially the same the one that gets seen by more people will sell better than the one the gets seen by less people.

[bugarup]

I would prefer to believe the problem is indeed in (non-existent) marketing rather than target audience's majority being so ultra-conservative that they would only buy generic fantasyland stuff -- you know, vaguely English countryside, Scottish dwarves, snooty elves, D&D rules and similar banalities. Because you can improve marketing.

 

As for the OP, I'm not sure he's not some sort of halfway decent parody. 

[xzar_monty]

So, did Obsidian advertise Deadfire significantly less than PoE1? I'm genuinely curious, because I really don't know. And if the answer is yes, does anyone know the reason for it?

[Boeroer]

Oh, definitely not. Marketing is never a zero-sum sort of deal.

 

However, it is definitely true that if two products/services are essentially the same the one that gets seen by more people will sell better than the one the gets seen by less people.

No, I meant that this statement:

 

 

 

 I think the issue isn't that the setting that didn't attract customers- but a lack of a more robust marketing strategy

 

isn't correct. You could say that you believe the marketing strategy was a bigger issue than the unconventional setting. But why shouldn't the setting be an issue as well? Those two don't rule each other out as reasons not to buy the game.

 

I still think that my statement (basically "A Pirates of the Carribean setting attracts less CRPG players than a classic medieval one") is sound.

[house2fly]

 

Being a Watcher didn't drive you mad, being Awakened did, and the Awakening got undone at the end of POE1. Anyway, if a game needs to have a high-fantasy European forest with wolves and goblins for you to get into it then suffice to say you won't like this game

The quote "No sleep for the watcher" means that being a watcher makes you mad.

 

Adaryc was only a watcher, afraid of becoming mad.

Maerwald was both a watcher and awakened, gone mad.

Aloth is only awakened, not mad.

being a watcher and awakened both is the problem. When you talk to Adaryc and tell him you're awakened he goes "oof that must be rough"

[thelee]

So, did Obsidian advertise Deadfire significantly less than PoE1? I'm genuinely curious, because I really don't know. And if the answer is yes, does anyone know the reason for it?

Anecdotally, I heard way less buzz with Deadfire than with PoE1.

 

The reason? Beats me. Possibly hubris.

[Boeroer]

I think because it wasn't as exciting news as PoE's "Obsidian makes a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate". I don't think that Obsidian put more money into advertising PoE than they put into advertising Deadfire. But PoE was the first, the fresh one and thus generated more "free" media coverage - as does Kickstarter compared to Fig. Between PoE and Deadfire we had some other party based CRPGs and a whole small "Renaissance" happened. Deadfire was expected, it didn't surprise anybody (positively). Less excitement leads to less coverage. And it's also a sequel. Sequels often suffer from less interest. Not always, but often.