Hard mode is too easy.

[Caerdon]

Easy with the spoilers there, the Master's gender definitely counts as one.

[Luckmann]

Yeah.

 

I think they really stuffed up with the motivation for the player. The game did not make me care about the Dyrwood at all. Their method was basically - here's a whole bunch of Lore ... cool, well that was a bit of a long winded tell don't show, and I still don't care. Being a Watcher and being Awakened isn't even a bad thing, and there are examples of people who are Watchers and/or Awakened in the game that live with it without issue. Seeing souls is cool and useful, I can do quests that I wouldn't have been otherwise able to do ... why do I care about chasing Thaos to make it stop? They did a really bad job at making the player feel as if they were going crazy. TBH it sounds like the MotB Spirit Eater mechanic without the Spirit Eater mechanic, there's absolutely no agency to it whatsoever.

 

 

All of the acts feel really disjointed. Act 1 is basically, I went to see a guy and he was crazy and I had to kill him. Act 2 was I did a bunch of things for people in Defiance Bay and went out to some ruins in the Wilderness, walked around in a circle and saw some past lives, figured out what the cause of the hollowborn is, then went to the top of a tower in Defiance Bay and turned off a machine. Then I witnessed a scene at the end of the Chapter and none of the actions I took during that chapter made any difference to the outcome whatsoever, kind of like Mass Effect 3's ending. Then in Act 3 I went to Twin Elms and was like wow, I just don't care anymore. I already figured that the gods weren't really gods, but I don't care about that, and I don't care about Engwithans either, or about Thaos. Who honestly thought this was a good story with good pacing ? There was all this talk during the Kickstarter about making sure the player cares about what's going on, but they utterly failed to do so for me, for the first time in any of their games that any of them have made that I have played

 

Suffers from "trying hard to be good", which is the opposite of doing a good job.

 

 

When I went to the Temple of Woedica in Defiance Bay, I suddenly realized that I was treating the Leaden Key as enemies, despite the fact that I really have no reason for doing so. I was like.. "Wait.. why am I doing this?". By then, I already know what caused my state, sorta, based on what I was told by Maerwald and others, and Maerwald's insanity was the result of a very unique set of circumstance, him killing himself and countless others that his previous incarnations cared for, so..

 

..I can't even attempt to just go up to the Temple of Woedica and be like "Hey guys, I'm looking for some Woedicans that I think can help me." or, actually, just frigging KNOCK on the door to the Sanctum. I found myself treating these people as antagonists based on really, really flimsy reasoning, and at that point, much of my motivations just evaporated.

 

I ended up sneaking in in a hood, and data-mining her head for some stuff that the Leaden Key has going on, but.. what does this have to do with me? Why am I even investigating this? Why is everything made out as if I'm antagonistic towards the Leaden Key and the Woedicans, like I know that they have some sinister plot going on that I for some reason ahve to stop, despite the fact that it doesn't seem to concern me at all, based on what I know, when I don't, and there isn't?

 

I'll probably finish the game at some point and I like many things about the game, but I'm a bit disappointed at the storytelling itself. The pacing is off and it feels like key points (no pun intended) are somehow missing in-between the sequences. The combat is almost invariably tank-and-spank and the level rate feels incredibly high.

 

Edited April 12, 2015 by Luckmann

[Zorfab]

Agreeing with Luckmann here. Motivations of the main character are very flimsy for what he actually ends up doing until you are very far in the game already. I like mysteries, but you can´t dangle ghost carrot in front of players face for 20 hours before you let it materialize and let him bite it. Well, you can... But there is a cost.

Edited April 12, 2015 by Zorfab

[luzarius]

I just tried path of the damned for the first time.  Calisca misses A LOT and my rogue dies fast.  If I play on hard, then it's way too easy.  Not sure what to do.

[View619]

I just tried path of the damned for the first time.  Calisca misses A LOT and my rogue dies fast.  If I play on hard, then it's way too easy.  Not sure what to do.

 

Stick to POTD until hard mode difficulty is adjusted? If there's only one challenging difficulty level and you want a challenge, you don't really have a choice.

[Legbiter]

I must suck at this, normal is about my speed while I figure out which spells and talents are good.

[luzarius]

I must suck at this, normal is about my speed while I figure out which spells and talents are good.

 

you'll figure it out trust me, the journey to getting good is a lot of fun. at first i was horrible at this game

[Cronstintein]

 

3.3% finished the game!

Or maybe people just didn't think it was worth finishing, like me. I assure you I have zero problem with the difficulty.

 

 

I have to say I'm falling into that camp.  I'm waiting to see if there are some difficulty patches or mods before I go for the final leg.  I'm not in any great rush to finish it right now.  I tend not to replay games after I finish them so I'm going to wait and try and have an optimal experience.  I haven't even replayed BG2 and that was my favorite game of all time (although a decade later, I'm seriously considering it since PoE has gotten me in the mood).

[Mungri]

I spent a really long time rerolling. Now I'm finally doing act 3 ... After countless act 1 and 2 games.

[Ohioastro]

 

Yeah.

 

I think they really stuffed up with the motivation for the player. The game did not make me care about the Dyrwood at all. Their method was basically - here's a whole bunch of Lore ... cool, well that was a bit of a long winded tell don't show, and I still don't care. Being a Watcher and being Awakened isn't even a bad thing, and there are examples of people who are Watchers and/or Awakened in the game that live with it without issue. Seeing souls is cool and useful, I can do quests that I wouldn't have been otherwise able to do ... why do I care about chasing Thaos to make it stop? They did a really bad job at making the player feel as if they were going crazy. TBH it sounds like the MotB Spirit Eater mechanic without the Spirit Eater mechanic, there's absolutely no agency to it whatsoever.

 

 

All of the acts feel really disjointed. Act 1 is basically, I went to see a guy and he was crazy and I had to kill him. Act 2 was I did a bunch of things for people in Defiance Bay and went out to some ruins in the Wilderness, walked around in a circle and saw some past lives, figured out what the cause of the hollowborn is, then went to the top of a tower in Defiance Bay and turned off a machine. Then I witnessed a scene at the end of the Chapter and none of the actions I took during that chapter made any difference to the outcome whatsoever, kind of like Mass Effect 3's ending. Then in Act 3 I went to Twin Elms and was like wow, I just don't care anymore. I already figured that the gods weren't really gods, but I don't care about that, and I don't care about Engwithans either, or about Thaos. Who honestly thought this was a good story with good pacing ? There was all this talk during the Kickstarter about making sure the player cares about what's going on, but they utterly failed to do so for me, for the first time in any of their games that any of them have made that I have played

 

 

I cared more than I usually do with games, so I think it's a you thing honestly.

 

 

 

Yea, there are people who develop an intense dislike for something and who then need to have their opinion validated by attacking every aspect of the game.  I'll take the PoE story over the paper-thin Baldur's Gate one any day of the week, thank you very much. 

[sparklecat]

Easy with the spoilers there, the Master's gender definitely counts as one.

 

You realise that just mentioning this gives it away, right?

 

[Luckmann]

 

 

Yeah.

 

I think they really stuffed up with the motivation for the player. The game did not make me care about the Dyrwood at all. Their method was basically - here's a whole bunch of Lore ... cool, well that was a bit of a long winded tell don't show, and I still don't care. Being a Watcher and being Awakened isn't even a bad thing, and there are examples of people who are Watchers and/or Awakened in the game that live with it without issue. Seeing souls is cool and useful, I can do quests that I wouldn't have been otherwise able to do ... why do I care about chasing Thaos to make it stop? They did a really bad job at making the player feel as if they were going crazy. TBH it sounds like the MotB Spirit Eater mechanic without the Spirit Eater mechanic, there's absolutely no agency to it whatsoever.

 

 

All of the acts feel really disjointed. Act 1 is basically, I went to see a guy and he was crazy and I had to kill him. Act 2 was I did a bunch of things for people in Defiance Bay and went out to some ruins in the Wilderness, walked around in a circle and saw some past lives, figured out what the cause of the hollowborn is, then went to the top of a tower in Defiance Bay and turned off a machine. Then I witnessed a scene at the end of the Chapter and none of the actions I took during that chapter made any difference to the outcome whatsoever, kind of like Mass Effect 3's ending. Then in Act 3 I went to Twin Elms and was like wow, I just don't care anymore. I already figured that the gods weren't really gods, but I don't care about that, and I don't care about Engwithans either, or about Thaos. Who honestly thought this was a good story with good pacing ? There was all this talk during the Kickstarter about making sure the player cares about what's going on, but they utterly failed to do so for me, for the first time in any of their games that any of them have made that I have played

 

 

I cared more than I usually do with games, so I think it's a you thing honestly.

 

 

 

Yea, there are people who develop an intense dislike for something and who then need to have their opinion validated by attacking every aspect of the game.  I'll take the PoE story over the paper-thin Baldur's Gate one any day of the week, thank you very much.

 

 

Baldur's Gate pulled me in for the mystery, and the pacing was amazing, with reveals and hints and so on and so forth. In PoE, I'm really having a hard time feeling just as to why I'm doing what I'm doing. I genuinely wanted to continue and see what was going on in Baldur's Gate, not because of some grand plot or to save myself or someone else, but because I was involved in something somehow for reason I didn't understand, and the breadcrumbs lead me up and down the sword coast.

 

It didn't start as some big conspiracy, or something major at all, it slowly grew into it from personal motivations.

 

I'm not feeling that in PoE at all. Why am I even doing this? Up to Caed Nua, it all made sense to me, I had a clear motivation, I wanted to learn more, but past that it got flimsy and then it decided to just evaporate once I reached Defiance Bay.

 

I'm deliberately trying to avoid spoilers here, I made a post a little bit earlier with spoiler tags, if anything is unclear.

 

So it's hardly just Sensuki.

 

I just tried path of the damned for the first time. Calisca misses A LOT and my rogue dies fast. If I play on hard, then it's way too easy. Not sure what to do.

Really wish there was a PotD mode but without the blanket 50% enemy "cheat"-boost.

 

I hate it when the AI cheats, so I really liked the idea of PoE:s difficulties being about the number of opponents and encounter design and such, so that the opponents are actually always the same; lions will always be lions and elder lions always elder lions and so on and so forth. It's dependable and, for lack of a better word, it feels "real", it's consistent.

 

But Hard is really easy and PotD is so much harder because hurrr inflated numbers hurrr.

Edited April 12, 2015 by Luckmann

[Caerdon]

 

Easy with the spoilers there, the Master's gender definitely counts as one.

 

You realise that just mentioning this gives it away, right?

 

Gives what away? I've no idea what you're talking about. Just seemed to me like a knowing an antagonist's gender beforehand would be a spoiler.

[Matt516]

 

 

 

Yeah.

 

I think they really stuffed up with the motivation for the player. The game did not make me care about the Dyrwood at all. Their method was basically - here's a whole bunch of Lore ... cool, well that was a bit of a long winded tell don't show, and I still don't care. Being a Watcher and being Awakened isn't even a bad thing, and there are examples of people who are Watchers and/or Awakened in the game that live with it without issue. Seeing souls is cool and useful, I can do quests that I wouldn't have been otherwise able to do ... why do I care about chasing Thaos to make it stop? They did a really bad job at making the player feel as if they were going crazy. TBH it sounds like the MotB Spirit Eater mechanic without the Spirit Eater mechanic, there's absolutely no agency to it whatsoever.

 

 

All of the acts feel really disjointed. Act 1 is basically, I went to see a guy and he was crazy and I had to kill him. Act 2 was I did a bunch of things for people in Defiance Bay and went out to some ruins in the Wilderness, walked around in a circle and saw some past lives, figured out what the cause of the hollowborn is, then went to the top of a tower in Defiance Bay and turned off a machine. Then I witnessed a scene at the end of the Chapter and none of the actions I took during that chapter made any difference to the outcome whatsoever, kind of like Mass Effect 3's ending. Then in Act 3 I went to Twin Elms and was like wow, I just don't care anymore. I already figured that the gods weren't really gods, but I don't care about that, and I don't care about Engwithans either, or about Thaos. Who honestly thought this was a good story with good pacing ? There was all this talk during the Kickstarter about making sure the player cares about what's going on, but they utterly failed to do so for me, for the first time in any of their games that any of them have made that I have played

 

 

I cared more than I usually do with games, so I think it's a you thing honestly.

 

 

 

Yea, there are people who develop an intense dislike for something and who then need to have their opinion validated by attacking every aspect of the game.  I'll take the PoE story over the paper-thin Baldur's Gate one any day of the week, thank you very much.

 

 

Baldur's Gate pulled me in for the mystery, and the pacing was amazing, with reveals and hints and so on and so forth. In PoE, I'm really having a hard time feeling just as to why I'm doing what I'm doing. I genuinely wanted to continue and see what was going on in Baldur's Gate, not because of some grand plot or to save myself or someone else, but because I was involved in something somehow for reason I didn't understand, and the breadcrumbs lead me up and down the sword coast.

 

It didn't start as some big conspiracy, or something major at all, it slowly grew into it from personal motivations.

 

I'm not feeling that in PoE at all. Why am I even doing this? Up to Caed Nua, it all made sense to me, I had a clear motivation, I wanted to learn more, but past that it got flimsy and then it decided to just evaporate once I reached Defiance Bay.

 

I'm deliberately trying to avoid spoilers here, I made a post a little bit earlier with spoiler tags, if anything is unclear.

 

So it's hardly just Sensuki.

 

I just tried path of the damned for the first time. Calisca misses A LOT and my rogue dies fast. If I play on hard, then it's way too easy. Not sure what to do.

Really wish there was a PotD mode but without the blanket 50% enemy "cheat"-boost.

 

I hate it when the AI cheats, so I really liked the idea of PoE:s difficulties being about the number of opponents and encounter design and such, so that the opponents are actually always the same; lions will always be lions and elder lions always elder lions and so on and so forth. It's dependable and, for lack of a better word, it feels "real", it's consistent.

 

But Hard is really easy and PotD is so much harder because hurrr inflated numbers hurrr.

 

 

I would love to see another difficulty level that has the additional-er enemies of PotD, but without the stat boost. I'm also a huge fan of "don't just turn the numbers up with difficulty".

[LadyCrimson]

Thread post limit.

Since this seems a consistently utilized topic I'll go ahead and create a part 2 shortly.