So is this game actually good?

[Malcador]

Definitely worth the $90 the version I got retails for. Not so much the amount I donated, but I knew that would be the case.

[sendoa]

I'd gladly pay again to rebuy this game. It has it flaws (which not?) but I'm sure most of them will be solved with future patches. I love it so far and I'm grateful for having the opportunity of playing it. Willing to pledge for a second episode )

[rkade8583]

 

 

Game is mediocre at best. It's not even a half what was actually promised and the excuses for such state are borderline insulting.

Well since you've been both bashing the game and trolling Obsidian on these boards for years before release, this is a shocking statement.

 

Well this should be perfect for him to spill his guts. Centralize it, y'know?

Edited April 5, 2015 by rkade8583

[Pawel.pc44]

The people who complain are those who compare this to Baldur's Gate 2 and expected it to be just like that game, as far as I can see. There are many "problems" with the game that can actually be translated to "something is different".

 

If you weren't a hardcore fan of BG2 when it came out, you'll likely enjoy this game very much. It's certainly worth its price.

 

And if you'll allow me to address some of your points:

- The story is better than that of BG2

- The classes are diverse and interesting and comparatively balanced which is a good thing

- The characters are more realistic than the ones from BG2 and I like them very much

- The writing is very good

- The system is fun and rewarding

 

All in all, the reception of the game was very positive. Even the people who complain about the game mostly do say that they overall enjoyed the experience. 

 

This. Furthermore, PoE system is much better than AD&D which was really boring and shallow.  BG2 was too much simplified and linear. Maybe if there were no Fallout and Fallout 2 I would like it. Fallout 2 is still unbeatable king of cRPG.

[iLurk]

- The game's system sucks

Don't hate it but I hope they improve on it in a patch, expansion or at least in the sequel.

 

- The characters are lame

Better than BG1's but not as good as BG2's, and not many choices but its not really a fault.

 

- Too small world

Probably because of Unity.

 

- Too few quests

Wish if there was more but its not lacking, some quests were good and some were not.

 

- Choices don't matter

A lot of the quests are flavor and the multiple choices were for the personality, choices don't differ much most time.

 

- The music sucks

Music was great, having more than one track for combat and areas was great.

 

- The writing sucks

Perception effecting observing and missing details of NPCs was a nice touch but wish if it mattered more. please improve.

 

- The keep sucks

It sucks. After reading the update by Tim Cain, I was pumped for this but its a huge let down. please improve.

 

- The "endless" dungeon sucks

Not as good as Durlag's Tower or Watcher's Keep and the end boss was a joke.

 

​Overall the game is pretty good but hope they keep on improving it.

Edited April 5, 2015 by iLurk

[View619]

Backed the game at the $20 tier, iirc. After playing the released version, I actually feel bad about that. The game is definitely worth the full price tag.

 

If I had to compare it to the BG series, it's much better than BG1 ever was and not as good as BG2.

Edited April 5, 2015 by View619

[rkade8583]

Thank you, iLurk, for going point-by-point. We may not all agree but we all should be seen.

[KingNee]

I backed it low tier and got more than my money's worth. Even if I don't agree with plenty of their design decisions such as real time with pause vs. turn based. I can't enjoy the spectacle of battle if I have to pause it every few seconds.

 

Also, to release it without proper pathfinding / combat AI was a mistake, imho. Plenty of times enemies didn't aggro properly and I had to fight a big mob 3 times because some of them didn't react. My chars would stop attacking for no reason, they'd refuse to initiate attacking for no reason and they'd get stuck on a pebble trying to go around a teammate. The close quarter battles were painful when the graphics painted a 3 man wide doorway but the AI would only let one guy through at a time. 

[Gallenger]

I gave 50$ and would give 50$ again.  This game is *great*

 

The game was sold as a "spiritual successor" to the IE games which is something we've heard a lot - I really see this game as more of a IWD/Torment fusion lol.  It's got a *lot* more story and NPC exposition that I *ever* expected to see.  It also has a lot of combat that feels, situationally, a lot like IWD. 

 

I was pleased.  The game has it's little flaws here and there, but it's nothing crushing or game-ruining. 

 

Things I really, really liked in this game:

 

- Lore

- Visuals

- Music

- The NPCs

- Story

- The character classes

- Tone

- Plot

- weapons/armor system

- the fast forward/slow down system

- those text adventure thingies

 

Things I didn't like:

 

- Not being able to move items out of my stash into containers elsewhere

- Not having a rogue/true skill monkey companion

- The save/load times ballooning at the end of the game

- not being able to search without scouting

Edited April 5, 2015 by Gallenger

[Emerwyn]

I paid 25$ for the best RPG of the year. Such a steal.

 

Can't stop smiling when I think that a lot of people paid 60$ for Dying Light and labelled it as a "great RPG".

[sparklecat]

There's no contradiction, incidentally, between having complaints, even major ones, and still thinking positively of the game.

 

The keep is terribly implemented and arguably goes beyond pointless into being a net negative.  XP is handed out much too generously and you end up vastly overlevelled unless you skip large parts of the game.  Hard mode is not sufficiently hard, thanks to this.  Balance otherwise still needs some work.  Defiance Bay feels too small, IMO; I'd have preferred one huge, densely packed city, rather than this ~4 significant interior spaces per map thing.  I think there's a bit too much pointless, unavoidable combat in some areas that make clearing out the truly large maps - the dungeon ones - tedious.  I'd very much have liked to see my personal character build choices more reflected in conversation - I can't discuss Waidwen or Eothas with Eder when I'm a priest of Eothas?  Pallegina apparently doesn't have anything to say about you being a godlike?  Dispositions being noted in conversation was very well done, but it feels like otherwise they dropped the ball.

 

It's still fantastic.

Edited April 5, 2015 by sparklecat

[Volourn]

Yes.

[Voss]

I paid 25$ for the best RPG of the year. Such a steal.

I think that says more about the state of the industry than anything else.

 

It was... decent.  It has a lot of system and mechanical areas that need a lot of work, the central story is... poor to the point of nonsensical, and the companions are extremely underwhelming.  But yeah, it is better than the absolute trash that has released in the last year.  But I certainly don't find it on the same level as BG 1 or 2 or Torment.  A pale echo, at best, especially given that most of the story elements simply recycle the less interesting navel-gazing plot elements of those games.  It has a lot of potential that could be developed, but a lot of irrational development decisions got in the way.

Edited April 5, 2015 by Voss

[SeekDWay]

The game is good, good but not perfect. I love it, but I understand that there are still some people that are hunting for the perfect game that has that perfect thing that is just perfect for them.

 

I'll start with the negative stuff, beucause I feel these are more personal disappointments rather than failures in the game design (keep excluded).

 

Cons

 

Most party members feel like lifeless loredumps, most of the time.

Here, I said it there are points in the game where I just want top skip whatever they are saying because some random book, npc, kickstarterupdate, whatever had told me that tens of times already or I just don't give a **** about it. Yeah, I understand they want to push the setting but chaining everything to it is just dumb. Party members seem intent to give you a lecture on lore your character should already be familiar with. Some of conversations in this game feel like reading Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2). I loved that book (been reading Brandon Sanderson since forever), but it had these flashbacks and sidestories about the "crab" people, which were so heavily foreshadowed that by the end of the book I started skipping them. Oh and when I reread the book and tried reading them I found out that indeed there was nothing there just recycled loredump. It's the same in PoE, it's like they were afraid that you will miss something that was central to the plot so they had to repeat it tens of times. There, rant is over. This is the thing I hate about this game and I understand that my taste can be a "little" ****ed up.

 

Attributes+Combat Mechanics

The character stats are just retarded, some of them are so infinitely better than the rest that it makes you wonder who put them there in the first place. There are some spells and abilities that make no sense. For instance in a particular tier of wizard spells thare is a spell that deals 50 AoE damage and a spell that disables enemies for 10 seconds, it doesn't take an expert in game design to understand which one is better. I hope they patch these at some point because as it is, some of them are entirely pointless to some classes (even if you are not min maxing which I don't do).

 

The Keep

The keep sucks.

 

Pros

 

Writing

Almost all coversations in the game are really fleshed out and feel like reading a really good book, something which I haven't seen in RPGs since ages ago.

 

Choices

OK, I understand people want to choose if they want to kill Star Child and to pick their own RGB. I don't. Choices in this game are refreshing, NPCs react to the way you are doing stuff rather than what you're doing. The game feels like BG2 with a lot of personal flavour to it and this is what I paid for. I never expected to decide the fate of the galaxy in the first place!

 

Area Design

I love the area design, especially most areas where you have 2-3 ways you can approach or finish them. Exploring feels rewarding and entertaining. Yes, battles are a bit eeeh and for some reason you have to sneak to spot hidden stuff, but I find most areas fun all the same. I haven't finished the dungeon so I can't comment on that.

 

Quests

The quest have this little Obsidian quirk where most of them are ****ed up, which tends to get old but they give you plenty of different ways to resolve the situation. I love that.

 

 

7.5/10 (80)

Would buy again.

Edited April 5, 2015 by SeekDWay

[wanderon]

I pledged about 3 times what I might have spent on a single copy for  2 copies - beta access and some fluff and would cheerfully do so again to get another game of this style & quality - the game exceeded my original expectations on almost every level!    

[Osvir]

I love it and I feel I paid enough, and would pay more, and would support another Kickstarter or a sequel.

But I have a current gripe with it...
- Restarting a new game could be more ease-of-use. Having made some 20, probably 25, recreations, going through the Prologue over and over and over again... doesn't feel as efficient as it could be.

- After having created a lot of characters now.... Character Creation could've been better. Something I brought up in the past (December 2014). EDIT: Darn, I removed it from my dropbox lol, oh well (Compressed all of the Character Creation screens in one screen).

That's pretty much it. Yeeep. Totally waiting for that "Skip Prologue" Mod.

Edited April 5, 2015 by Osvir

[Wulfburk]

Best new game i played for the last 4 years 

[RedSocialKnight]

It's completely freaking me out that the poll options are not meaningful answers to the question in the subject line.

 

Q: Is it fun?

A: Yes, I did.

 

[redsocialknight's brain]: AAAAA THE WORLD MAKES NO SENSE

[Yellow Rabbit]

Negativity on forums is rather deceptive thing. People having nothing to complain about don't go to forums, they spend time actually playing the frigging game

 

Anyway, I'll go by points from your OP trying to give my vision on them.

 

- The story is weak

Story lacks epicness, true, and people loving BG may find this to be a weakness. Writing is pretty decent, though.

 

- The classes are either too balanced (from the chans) or not balanced enough (here)

Some classes (howdy, wizard!) seem to have problems on concept level, balancing skills/stats around isn't going to help them. Others are fine, imo.

 

- The game's too easy

Depends on who you ask. It was basic complaint about BG and IWD as well - game either too easy or too hard.

 

- The game's system sucks

It's a little clunky, but considering that this is first working (presented to public, anyway) sample of ruleset hastily built up for the game - it's great! I'm sure it'll be improved in sequel.

 

- The characters are lame

They're neither really colorful nor loud, unlike their counterparts from BG series. Doesn't make them lame. Some of them are pretty interesting personalities, actually, feel like living people.

 

- Too much voice acting

Yep. Or, rather, it's mixing pretty badly with text descriptions and ends up distracting instead of mood setting.

 

- Weak ending

Nope.

 

Too small world

- Comparing to BG2 - absolutely. But it really isn't appropriate comparison.

 

- Too few quests

Quests are plenty, but majority of them are secondary, and that makes balancing xp on crit path a tough job to do.

 

- Choices don't matter

They do, but not as often as I'd prefer.

 

- The music sucks

The music is awesome! ...for the first 5... okay, 10 hours. After that you're gonna remember about sound sliders in menu.

 

- The writing sucks

Again, depends on who you ask. Some people seem to have hilariously opposing images of what is a good writing.

 

- The keep sucks

I liked the feeling of building it up and making thrive, so there's that. Mechanically and gameplay wise, yes, it sucks. A lot.

 

- The "endless" dungeon sucks

It's a dungeon crawler in miniature. It supposed to do exactly what it does.

 

That said, I thought I'm past period when you play games through all night thinking "just 10 more minutes and enough for today", but Pillars of Eternity proved me wrong. Absolutely loving it!

[Luckmann]

No, I feel I paid what the game is worth.

Which is to say, I actually didn't pay anything.

But more to the point, either way, to answer the topic, yes, the game is actually good. The reason you are seeing people upset over A, B and C is that the game does have some significant issues, and people naturally have a tendency to discuss issues instead of non-issues, simply because when something isn't a problem... why would they discuss it?

But yes, the game is good. Great, even. In some regards I would go as far as to say that it's amazing. This easily gets lost in the discussions, but the game is actually quite good.

Obsidian has made some highly questionable decisions in the past week, which begs the question as to which direction the game  or franchise will take in the future, but there is a tremendous potential in the basic game itself, and it ultimately could go either way, but there is definitely something here, and the game itself is definitely good, yes.

[Daemonjax]

The game is really good, and definitely worthy of at least two playthroughs on hard (once as a dps character and once as a tank for different starting attributes).  After that I'd wait for the mod-scene to develop further.

 

The artwork is definitely top-notch and inspired, and the same goes for the voice-acting that's present.

 

I'd definitely pay the same price again for a worthy sequel/expansion.

Edited April 5, 2015 by Daemonjax

[Atheosis]

I feel bad for people who can't enjoy such an awesome game. 

[barakav]

I think that this game is awful because there aren't any toilets anywhere..

 

And you can't sit or walk or even dance like in MMOs .And you need to save in case your charecter will die, and it doesn't have a first person shooter mode ,and you have to read like a stupid nerd, and the devs are transphobic lunatics who let all kinds of psychopaths murder children while playing this darn thing ,it's too violent...

 

And as usual those 10% that hate this game and mostly for stupid reasons are those who make most of the noise in the forums.

 

(Of course some posters do present some good criticism)

Edited April 5, 2015 by barakav

[Volourn]

"People having nothing to complain about don't go to forums, they spend time actually playing the frigging game "

 

That's weird.  The reason I originally started going on the net and posting on forums is ebcause I played BG1 and enjoyed it and wanted to share that with others who liked the game.  Over a decade, I've become more bitter, cold, and evil. :D

 

 

"I feel bad for people who can't enjoy such an awesome game."

 

And, they likely feel bad for people who can enjoy such a crappy game.

\

 

OMGZ! People like different things than you! OH NOES!!!!!!!!!!

[Holofaust]

The results of this poll are hilarious and only serve to illustrate that a very small minority makes up the vast majority of discontent on this forum. People love to bitch. Here I am bitching about people bitching.