Why the hype?

[SKull]

I`ve been enjoying playing PoE quite a bit. But for the life of me I can`t understand the hype over the game which seems almost hysterical to me. After having finished the game I felt pleased but at the same time slightly disappointed, perhaps because I had expected more. I do not think it is an improvement over Baldur`s Gate at all quite frankly. In some cases it`s just not as good period. When I wrote a Metacritic review to this effect, where the flood of 10s is just beyond belief, I was subjected to a comical campaign of enraged fans who not only downvoted this review - fair enough really - but made a campaign of downvoting all my other reviews also. I have never experienced anything like it on MC, not even when I trashed a WoW expansion. It is quite amazing. Anyway, just so I`ve said it, these are my three main reasons for not agreeing with the hype:

 

1: Lack of replayability. There are not enough companions for replays to have much to offer. Yes I know you can make your own party members. But I never liked to do that in the IE games. I prefer the immersion of recruiting NPCs and having party members with some sense of personality. And eight is just one playthrough and change as far as I can tell. The eight there are are good. That isn`t the problem. But the way I play these games I will never play a monk, rogue or barbarian at all because there aren`t any.

Secondly it`s not open enough compared to Baldur`s Gate. Apart from Defiance Bay there`s only really ever one place you can go at any time, unless you want to be instantly killed of course. By contrast Baldur`s Gate had like 20 areas to choose between at any time and you could deliberately spend ages doing something completely irrelevant to the main quest. And you just can not in PoE.

 

2: Obscene loading times. There are just too many loading screens and they last for ages. At least 25 seconds is my experience and it just makes exploration a pain in the butt when it should be the best part of the game.

 

3: It is not better than Baldur`s Gate. And it should be considering that Baldur`s Gate is 17 years old.

 

To me this takes the game from a 10 if these, in my opinion major, issues were not present to a 7, which was what I gave the game on metacritic when the campaign against me there started. A good game but very far from a classic. It is also not the best game in genre, which I think it should be to merit a 10. Other than that the game is fine and I said so in my review. I did enjoy my one playthrough quite a lot and do not regret buying the game. In fact I love the genre and will happily support any devs making games like this, even if the games are average, just so more might be produced in future. But it still has to be criticized fairly a and not be fawned over like some rediscovery of a species believed to be exitinct. "Look everyone it`s a dodo! Don`t raise your voices or say anything disparaging or it might die off again!"

And the honest truth for my part is that I don`t imagine I`ll be starting a new game of PoE anytime soon, because I just can`t find a compelling reason to do so. Maybe in a couple of years after a few patches and after some more companions have been added. But just how is this game a 10 when BG is better in these respects by far? What is BG then? An 11? 12? I am hard pressed to find any aspect where I think PoE is the better game. That doesn`t mean it`s bad. Just that some people seem to have lost all sense of proportion when it comes to PoE. The hype is just unbelievable. I would be curious to know just how many of the people who are now raging while downvoting my reviews on Metacritic, simply because I had the temerity to criticize obvious shortcomings with PoE, will even be playing it in a couple of weeks, once their first playthrough is done with. Frankly I doubt very much if any of them will. I know I`d rather start my 53rd playthrough of Baldur`s Gate right now.

Edited April 1, 2015 by SKull

[PrimeJunta]

I'm enjoying it a great deal more than BG and much, much more than BG2 on my first playthroughs. I'd rate P:E a solid 9, BG1 a 6 or 7, and BG2 as a raging bipolar, about 1 on my first attempt to play through it, 9 or 10 on my umpteenth once I figured out how the damn thing works.

 

Your opinion is legit of course, and any hate campaign you've suffered for it is unacceptable.

[CaptainMace]

1. So basically, there's no lack of replayability, as you admit there's a wide spectrum of party building available right at the beginning... the fact you don't want to do it doesn't mean it isn't there. You can make your PC a barb, a rogue or a monk and you'd be able to play these classes. Again, the fact you don't want to do so, for any reason, doesn't mean it's impossible.

2. Damn right. That'd be fixed though, since this problem doesn't occur on Mac afaik.

 

3. It really is. Maybe not better than BG2, in terms of encounters that is. But it's clearly better than BG1 imo. The combat system is superior and only suffers from the lack of better encounter design, which is something easily fixed by an add-on and easily improved on a sequel.

 

I'd have other things in mind to criticize though : encounter design as I said, items lack unique effect through the game, there's a lack of party vs party fights.

Although there's a damn load of bugs right now :/

I'd add a difficulty drop on Act 2 (beside the tower in Defiance Bay docks) before it becomes interesting again in Act 3.

Edited April 1, 2015 by CaptainMace

[PBJam]

I am enjoying this game and plan on playing it many times

[Maviarab]

All I can say is...you must be new to Metacritic.  The site is a cesspool for paid reviews and 12 year old trolls.

 

as for the game, I not very far in myself, real life is keeping me from really getting stuck into it, but so far I am enjoying it more than BG but not as much as BGII...but again, I still have much much more to see ad have high expectations from the game.

[SeekDWay]

I enjoy the game and I plan to replay it. I don't share your opinion about having 0 reasons to replay the game.

 

But... I agree the game feels average and combat is a bit meh.

 

I'll still give it 9/10, wanna know why? Because there wasn't a game this good for a long long time. My expectation have dropped to abyssmal levels and this game, as flawed as it is, is just what I wanted to play. And there is your answer. Yes BG was better, but since then expecation for this kind of games have dropped severely.

[Mungri]

I like how this game has loads of forest areas to explore like BG1, rather than BG2 being mostly based in one city.

[Jean-Luc]

Why the hype?

 

Because people are enjoying the game. Simple enough. 

[TheisEjsing]

I do not think it is an improvement over Baldur`s Gate at all quite frankly. In some cases it`s just not as good period.

 

 

See this is the problem. You're stating your opinion as a fact. Don't do that. Nobody should trash your review obviously, you're entitled to your opinion, but that's what it is. Your opinion. And how can you even ask what the hype is about? The hype is about the first IE style game in many years. People have missed a new experience like the ones we fondly remember and returns to. 

 

 

 I would be curious to know just how many of the people who are now raging while downvoting my reviews on Metacritic, simply because I had the temerity to criticize obvious shortcomings with PoE, will even be playing it in a couple of weeks, once their first playthrough is done with. Frankly I doubt very much if any of them will. 

 

Another problem. ^ You pose speculation as an argument for your opinion. Your doubts are of no importance here. The hype lives on with the joy people get from the game.

If you don't want to play another round, why don't you just start your 53th run of BG 2?

Edited April 1, 2015 by TheisEjsing

[Katarack21]

...you could deliberately spend ages doing something completely irrelevant to the main quest. And you just can not in PoE.

I spent something like 46 hours doing side quests before I ever did a single quest in Defiance Bay.

[synfrei]

3: It is not better than Baldur`s Gate. And it should be considering that Baldur`s Gate is 17 years old.

 

Why everyone compares it with Baldurse Gate ? When Baldurs Gate released back in the days of my childhood i did not compared it with other games, I loved playing it.

 

I cant understand why you can not just be satisfied that a game this days is available which goes back to the roots of Roleplaying Games like Icewind Dale or Baldurs Gate.  i dont know a game which is like Pillars of Eternity in 2015...

 

I have now a part of my childhood back and the game it self feels like a game like Baldurs Gate. It feels how i liked a game 17 years ago! thank you

[Spivo]

For someone who prefered BG1 to BG2 (the whole god level, demons and drows, omg I've always hated the drow design), this game is very close to BG1 in feel for me.

Add to this that I know most of BG like my own pockets, to a degree where playthroughs gets boring to fast, this is just what I was looking for.

 

It has many flaws, but nothing a few patches, and/or mods wont fix. So far my biggest irritation is how little stealth matters, and how much mechanics matter.

I also hope they introduce more companions, and give them more scripted things to say like Xzar for example, or Edwin.

But again, I think they will expand on things, I really do.

 

And I also view the game in comparison to what else is available on the market, and either it's stuff I have played, or very bad games.

So for me, this is a 8 so far, with foundation for a 9, or even 10, with the "right" tweaks and add-ons.

[Stun]

1: Lack of replayability. There are not enough companions for replays to have much to offer. Yes I know you can make your own party members. But I never liked to do that in the IE games. I prefer the immersion of recruiting NPCs and having party members with some sense of personality. And eight is just one playthrough and change as far as I can tell. The eight there are are good. That isn`t the problem. But the way I play these games I will never play a monk, rogue or barbarian at all because there aren`t any.

That's a weird criteria for replayability, not enough companions. You must have hated Planescape Torment (only 7 in that game). Not to mention the Icewind Dales, which had a grand total of NONE.

 

In any case, to each his own. Though I'm not sure what companion #'s have to do with a game's replayability. Party banter, I presume? Must be. Because the only other thing that companions bring to the equation is their actual class roles, but the Adventurer's hall already covers that.... and it covers it better, since it allows you to create class combinations that the NPCs in this game can't match, like, say, a party of 6 ciphers; or a 5 monk, one wizard party. Or something even more crazy, like 6 Rangers. Yeah. 6 Rangers. That's a permanent 12 member party right there! (Can't do that in Baldur's gate!)

 

 

I'm contemplating an All Barbarian party on my next playthough. I wanna see how effective Carnage is when 6 people are doing it at once. lol

 

 

Actually.... Good God. Now that I think about it, PoE has so much replayability that the notion is currently Blowing my mind. Excuse me for a moment.

Edited April 1, 2015 by Stun

[Namutree]

Go ahead and make a rogue, monk, or barbarian main pc to play those classes.

 

The game has replay value. Just amp up the difficulty and bring along the three companions you didn't roll with last time. Build the other two. Did you finish the endless paths and all the quests in the game. If not go ahead and do those this time. Also check out the IE mod if you haven't already to mix up your play experience. Also I recommend waiting a month or so for a few patches.

 

You are 100% correct about the damn loading times. That is easily PoE's biggest flaw for me. This might be due to my laptop or whatever though.

 

Is PoE better than vanilla BG1? Yeah, it is. Let's not forget that the npc's in BG1 had almost no personality, there was little weapon variety, and the actual game system was a broken super exploitable mess. Only with mods and the "Tales of the Sword Coast" expansion did BG1 really become awesome. Let's wait for PoE to get an expansion and more patches before deciding which game was better for it's time. 

[SeekDWay]

 

...you could deliberately spend ages doing something completely irrelevant to the main quest. And you just can not in PoE.

I spent something like 46 hours doing side quests before I ever did a single quest in Defiance Bay.

 

I have completed one quest of the main story line after the into for 20 hours now. :D

Edited April 1, 2015 by SeekDWay

[Oxford_Guy]

You've completed the game already? WTF! It's going to take me months!

[MattSanderson]

Yeah, that's pretty fast. I'm about 20 hours in and am just on my way to Defiance Bay (after just finally beating the Eosathasian temple quest in Gilded Vale, that hive of scum and villainy).

[Jimmious]

Comparing PoE with BG2 or Planescape:Torment is unfair in my opinion. They're the two pinnacles of the IE, BG2 for the sheer amount of amazing encounters and battles and Torment for the atmosphere/setting/plot.
If you compare though with the other IE games, PoE is already better and more enjoyable in my opinion, which is a great achievement. We can only expect more and better now

[Zwiebelchen]

I`ve been enjoying playing PoE quite a bit. But for the life of me I can`t understand the hype over the game which seems almost hysterical to me. After having finished the game I felt pleased but at the same time slightly disappointed, perhaps because I had expected more. I do not think it is an improvement over Baldur`s Gate at all quite frankly. In some cases it`s just not as good period. When I wrote a Metacritic review to this effect, where the flood of 10s is just beyond belief, I was subjected to a comical campaign of enraged fans who not only downvoted this review - fair enough really - but made a campaign of downvoting all my other reviews also. I have never experienced anything like it on MC, not even when I trashed a WoW expansion. It is quite amazing. Anyway, just so I`ve said it, these are my three main reasons for not agreeing with the hype:

 

1: Lack of replayability. There are not enough companions for replays to have much to offer. Yes I know you can make your own party members. But I never liked to do that in the IE games. I prefer the immersion of recruiting NPCs and having party members with some sense of personality. And eight is just one playthrough and change as far as I can tell. The eight there are are good. That isn`t the problem. But the way I play these games I will never play a monk, rogue or barbarian at all because there aren`t any.

Secondly it`s not open enough compared to Baldur`s Gate. Apart from Defiance Bay there`s only really ever one place you can go at any time, unless you want to be instantly killed of course. By contrast Baldur`s Gate had like 20 areas to choose between at any time and you could deliberately spend ages doing something completely irrelevant to the main quest. And you just can not in PoE.

 

2: Obscene loading times. There are just too many loading screens and they last for ages. At least 25 seconds is my experience and it just makes exploration a pain in the butt when it should be the best part of the game.

 

3: It is not better than Baldur`s Gate. And it should be considering that Baldur`s Gate is 17 years old.

 

1) There is plenty of replayability ... it just depends on what you expect of the game. And this is really a matter of taste. I play this game for tactical RTwP combat. And this game definitely has that. I look forward to my first Ironman playthrough as soon as the most critical bugs are fixed. PotD is also a great addition to this game. I enjoy the balancing on PotD so far. Painfully hard, but never unfair. Well done.

If you reduce replayability on companions alone, then yes, there's not much to be found, but I see plenty of reasons to at least run 2 more replays: playing with a custom party on ironman, checking out the companions I haven't used in my first playthrough, trying different RP dispositions, etc.

 

2) I have 3 second loading times with the game installed on SSD. It's not the game's fault that you aren't going with the time.

 

3) I think it is definitely better than BG(1). BG had basicly zero companion depth and no decisionmaking at all. Your attributes almost never affected dialogues, etc. ... I can't even understand how anyone can possibly find BG better than PoE. The writing is better, the mechanics are better (okay, BG used an established ruleset and didn't have flexibility here), there are meaningful decisions, the RP-freedom is way better (with stats, skills and disposition affecting dialogue). BG2 was better than BG in most of the critical aspects, but still PoE is imho slightly superior. The saving grace for BG2 is the pure amount and quality of content. PoE simply is way shorter than BG2 and doesn't deliver the same feeling of epicness. Still both are great games no RPG fan should miss out.

 

PS: I never replayed BG. It was just a boring and tedious grind for me. BG2 was different; I played that at least 20 times over the last decade.

Edited April 1, 2015 by Zwiebelchen

[drunetovich]

They hate you for not liking things they love, it is that simple.

Walk into the biker bar and proclaim how you hate the bikes, see how that will end for you.

Welcome to real life chum.

I think the guys here went so far as create a list of critics that gave a bad score to PoE, so that vengeance would never stop.

UPD: Yeah, just checked - you made it there, congratulations, you are on the list.

Edited April 1, 2015 by drunetovich

[Strydent]

Yea, I thought the game was way too short and I thought I did a fair ammount of side quests too.

 

I remember many a game in the past playing for weeks well into the wee hours of the morning after getting home from work, took me three days for this one (36 hours total on first playthrough) Great game however, just felt like I only played maybe half of it.

 

As far as replayability however, it's there for sure (Different choices for background story, reactions from NPC's and companions, different main char classes) but I never thought that simply respecing your char was exactly something that added to the "replayability factor" To me that's simply something you do if you completely mess up your party which is easy to do with limited levels and broad choices.

 

Not sure what any of that has to do with the hype, but there you go =P

[stkaye]

3: It is not better than Baldur`s Gate. And it should be considering that Baldur`s Gate is 17 years old.

 

 

Well, look, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and you're definitely entitled to yours OP. 

 

But I think it's strange to expect PoE to be better than Baldur's Gate. The comparison itself is fair - this is a game that explicitly sets out to recapture some of the spirit and style of the Infinity classics. But how could exceeding and improving upon those games possibly be a meaningful measure of PoE's success?

 

I mean, the Baldur's Gate games are two of my favourite videogames ever. There is nothing that has drawn me back in so frequently and so satisfyingly as the BGs.

 

For me, deciding that PoE isn't worthy of hype because it isn't "better" than two of the best games ever made is like saying that Interstellar isn't worthy of acclaim because it isn't "better" than 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

[Sylvanpyxie]

Considering this a brand new world, with brand new lore, created on an engine that Obsidian were fairly unfamiliar with, I'm quite impressed.

 

Pillars of Eternity, for me personally, has had a stand-out story line that has blown other RPGs out of the water and that's really all I wanted when I backed Obsidian. Is there room for improvement? Certainly, mostly in gameplay and other mechanics. But there was room for improvement when the first Baldur's Gate game came out, and it's gameplay was certainly improved through various expansions and sequels.

 

I for one am loving my time with Pillars of Eternity and I've been planning my next play-through since I hit Gilded Vale.

Edited April 1, 2015 by Sylvanpyxie

[Azjenco]

I haven't played it, yet, so I'm not sure how much weight my comment holds. I am extremely excited to get my hands on the game though. I don't really try to compare games to BG2 or Torment, since they are to me the two greatest games, CRPG and otherwise, ever created. I love them, but I'll approach PoE with an open mind. I'll hold it to its own merits and I'm sure I will love it.

[kat7ra]

the reason for the hype is stated in your post.

BG was 17 years ago... and the people who loves these games have been starved for a loooong time.

I haven't completed the game yet, so I can't give it a score, but remember that a lot of these metacritic scores were in before they'd played the game much at all. Fanboys and starved communities makes for good hype.

I am enjoying the game so far, and I would maybe agree on a 7 at the moment, but end game content, endless paths' lower levels and story/npc stories might change it for better or worse.

But yeah, the people were starved man, like so starved they praised D:OS as an amazing game.