Some praise

[ISC]

I dont know if we have any praise threads among all the panic over bugs and rage over disappointed expectations, but I have to say that I do love what Obsidian has done with PoE this far.

 

Yes, the IE mod significantly improves the experience.

Yes, there are a lot of small balance issues, the combat system has some wonky aspects and there are a few things I disagree with the devs decisions on.

Yes, this is the first time ever I have had to stop playing a game due to bugs (or one specifically - the duplicates).

 

But really, the game behind those surface flaws is beyond my expectations in just about all categories. One thing is writing, environments, art and music, which most people probably agree is about as good as it gets in a game - and full of dat IE feel. But I actually enjoy really gameplay mechanics, combat and character-building, at least as much as I did in the IE game. It works, it more than works (I never thought it would be very meaningful to swap between ranged and melee weapons for example, just a simple thing like that, which is just about never meaningful in any game). PotD is as far as I've come quite challenging but rewarding.

 

All in all a very excellent game thus far. Now, just make it playable...

[Cronstintein]

Writing is an interesting thing to try and critique.  I'm not sure where to even begin but I will say that I've played a LOT of rpgs over the years and this one has me reading the side-lore stuff that I almost always skip. 

 

It's partly the writing and partly the lore, which is kinda tied to design, not sure where that line is drawn.  But I like how it feels like this area has history from before the PC exists that is actually interesting.  The Godhammer and the religious/political stuff in the first village is all pretty cool.

 

  And also, although I'm sure this will eventually change, I really like how so far my PC isn't saving the entire universe from destruction.  Something weird happened and I'm trying to figure out what's up.  Good!  I don't want to get bogged down in super-heavy nonsense if my playing experience is going to be mostly wandering around getting into misadventures.