Ive just completed PoE on Path of the Damned and heres my review

[InfiniteEternity]

PROs:

 

- Great classes overall. good character creation /level up (customization isnt tho)

 

- The story in most places felt as if you wanted to hear more in most scenarios.

 

- Combat is VERY fun and its both deep and challenging in some places (talking potD here only tho)

 

- Many quality of life improvements have been made vs BG which I really liked (but also set backs)

 

- Gear and items are mostly well made but some stats on weapons and balance is way off. During my playthrough I found ONE good robe for my casters vs +20 melee weapons/armors for my fighter/rogue/barb.

 

The Disposition System is ok...atleast its more fair being Evil in PoE compared to BG where being Evil was pure HARDCORE mode and not worth it at all. And poes system is more diverse although there are still conversations I remember which didnt make sense.

 

CONs:

 

- The stat system is very bad and nonsensical. Might gives ranged +damage% Wut? Intelligence gives +melee aoe% Wut?

 

- The threat system is non existent. I know its the way the old Infinity Engine works but I hate it. ATLEAST give sword&board Fighters a 1/2 per rest aoe taunt or just 2 encounter single Taunts or...atleast some threat producing aura. Ive had a few times where I got really frustreted because scripted mobs suddenly turns around after being tanked SOLELY by the tank and the script goes after lowest health partymember and theres no way stopping it. Poor design.

 

- Most dungeons are way too short and the puzzles are a joke.

 

- The campfire Ressource system needs to go and we need free resting in ALL places instead with a chance of being waylayed, like in Baldurs Gate.

 

 -The backer souls and the tombstones over the world made me feel like the world was less plausible and...not *real* ...way too excessive.

 

I wouldve given it 9 but its an 8 overall.

 

I must say I enjoyed PoE through my play and Id love to come back in a while making a full Good Aligned party when balance/bugs/designs patches are implemented.

 

Thanks Obsidian!

[Katarack21]

PoE has the engagement system, which is more of a threat system than the BG's ever had. I'm glad they didn't go with a typical MMO-style aggro system, actually, as I always find that leads to a pretty boring set of predictable tactics. As for pulling a mob back if it leaves the tank--that's what Into the Fray is actually for. Combine it with the +1 engagement talent Hold the LIne, and you can actually hold a pretty solid number of enemys with a single tank.

[Mungri]

I'm not even aware of other games where tanking even works. Like in DDO you have to make self healing tanky survivable wizards to play the game, and its one of those ****ty MMOs where you're pretty much not allowed to die at all.

[Fuz]

Except the one on tanking (I hate the fact that everything have to revolve around "the trinity" nowadays), I agree on your points (even when you don't elaborate).
Engagement is fine, taunt would be dumb.

[takamorisan]

Agree with most of it, by the way congratulation completing it on PotD.

 

But regarding threat system, its to avoid people always use the same tunnel funnel strategy making healers almost useless, also if I'm an archer and I see a mofo throwing lightning bolts and fireballs from his fingertips, of course that I'm going to take him down first

[Caerdon]

There should be a threat system of some sort - built in as part of the enemy AI (and, in fact, I'm pretty sure there already is). I absolutely hate manual threat management. I want the kind of game mechanics where the opponent could in principle be another human player.

[Vi.king]

 

- The campfire Ressource system needs to go and we need free resting in ALL places instead with a chance of being waylayed, like in Baldurs Gate.

 

 

Restspamming after every single fight was the worst thing about Baldurs Gate. I´m glad it´s gone.

[anameforobsidian]

Disagree very heartily about resting.  Campfire supplies plus inn incentives solve the every battle is a boss fight syndrome the BG games encouraged.  The non-normal difficulties should probably have their campfire supplies raised by one though.

 

I think it would make way more sense if might and intelligence names were switched for what they did.  A mighty wizard makes big explosions.  A smart wizard hits the enemy in exactly the right place.  It would also get rid of the complaints about ranged damage.

 

I can't rightly complain about dungeon length, because the endless paths is like a mini-dungeon crawler inside the game.  Seriously, I've spent more time there then playing the overland world.  Some more puzzles might be nice.  The first dungeon is also one of the best.

Edited April 6, 2015 by anameforobsidian

[Trauma_Hound]

Threat systems aren't bad, but taunt for aggro is a pretty gimpy imo ... sorry but if there's a wizard about to shove a fireball up my arse I don't care what you're yelling at me, my priority will still be to plant my blade in his neck. I think the engagement system works just fine.

[DocDoomII]

Threat systems aren't bad, but taunt for aggro is a pretty gimpy imo ... sorry but if there's a wizard about to shove a fireball up my arse I don't care what you're yelling at me, my priority will still be to plant my blade in his neck. I think the engagement system works just fine.

ARE YOU MAD?!

If some dude with a sword is insulting your mother he has to be your primary target! Never mind the Dragon Ball style Genki Dama the wizard is throwing at you!

 

/sarcasm

[Malignacious]

 

 

 -The backer souls and the tombstones over the world made me feel like the world was less plausible and...not *real* ...way too excessive.

 

 

Is there a mod yet that removes all backer "content"?

[crius]

- The threat system is non existent. I know its the way the old Infinity Engine works but I hate it. ATLEAST give sword&board Fighters a 1/2 per rest aoe taunt or just 2 encounter single Taunts or...atleast some threat producing aura. Ive had a few times where I got really frustreted because scripted mobs suddenly turns around after being tanked SOLELY by the tank and the script goes after lowest health partymember and theres no way stopping it. Poor design.

 

About the aggro system, I partially agree with you. The system use an engament system in which if you are engaged in melee combat, you suffer a penalty attack with incresed damage, if you move.

 

Now, the cons of this system is that even a minor adjustement cause a disengagemente attack instead of triggering it while you move to a certain distance.

Again, shallowness.

 

On the other side what you propose is either terrible. Grantind a "taunt" is viable in games in which you've to deal with other player who can be unaware of going to overaggro the tank. In game like this, things like taunt shouldn't exists.

 

BUT

 

Should exists an aggro table. In short: If a mage are causing enough damage to get the attention of an enemy, the enemy should go for him even if that means a disengagemente attack from our tank. And this is just "basic" AI for the combat.

The actual state of the system is that seems that there isn't any logic behind the enemy attacking the tank or another melee around him.

 

Most of the other things that I find lacking are summed in this post on RPGCodex (I'm not the author).

 

My collected criticism on Pillars of Eternity (very minor spoilers)

 

Before some non-sense about RPGCodex will start, I'll let you know that I'm not an usual user of that site. Actually I think that this is the first time which I read something up there.

 

This is a good 7/10 game but a lot of things are very shallow, not badly implemented, just not enough developer imho.

Edited April 6, 2015 by crius

[sim-h]

I agree with most of the points in the review although I don't really understand what you mean by 'threat' system - I find that the AI automatically homing in on your weakest member is slightly cheesy, and the tank (Eder) is much too capable of soaking up endless damage, so there is some balancing needed.

 

I'd still give it 9 so far and I'm only in Act 2, things keep impressing me.

 

Giving it 8/10 or even 7/10 - not to go off topic but can you recommend me some cRPGs that you give 9/10, in that case!!!

[Kal Adan]

- The threat system is non existent. I know its the way the old Infinity Engine works but I hate it. ATLEAST give sword&board Fighters a 1/2 per rest aoe taunt or just 2 encounter single Taunts or...atleast some threat producing aura. Ive had a few times where I got really frustreted because scripted mobs suddenly turns around after being tanked SOLELY by the tank and the script goes after lowest health partymember and theres no way stopping it. Poor design.

Actually that's what intelligence + some talents are exactly for: to tie more enemies to your fighter. Another way of stopping enemies from attacking party memebers is knockout abilities or abilities that increase deflection on disengagement. If anything I think non-fighters could be a bit more durable, but that's another issue.

 

- The campfire Ressource system needs to go and we need free resting in ALL places instead with a chance of being waylayed, like in Baldurs Gate.

I find the current rest system to be fine. You don't have to rest after a single combat, because health and stamina are working differently (in a better way), so there is no need for rest-spamming. Maybe it's different on PotD and there you have to use all spells on each single encounter, but I guess that's what you get for playing on the difficulty level that's supposed to be the most punishing.

[Mungri]

Its not really cheesy. When you fight an AI mob, which one do you target first - the full played warrior swinging a sword or the squishy wizard in a robe throwing fireballs at your whole group? The AI does the same if it breaks past engagement.

[Evange]

I totally agree with you on the stat system. I know the developers were trying to avoid min-max but it kinda ruins the RP factor...I had to enchant Might bonuses for my Wiz and Druid items after I realised that Might affects spell damage too. 

 

Not to mention high Int barbs too. Lolwut 

Edited April 6, 2015 by Evange

[DocDoomII]

I totally agree with you on the stat system. I know the developers were trying to avoid min-max but it kinda ruins the RP factor...I had to enchant Might bonuses for my Wiz and Druid items after I realised that Might affects spell damage too. 

Might is not "strength" like in all other games with stats.

[Katarack21]

There's a *lot* of talents designed to deal with that situation, in fact. There's a second-level cipher power that you target an ally with, and it both deals pierce damage to a close enemy and pushes that enemy back a few feat. I use that pretty regularly to break engagment so my priest can run away, and then use Into the Fray from my fighter to pick them back up.

I use the same spell to push enemies into traps and/or Wall of Fire, too.

[sim-h]

Its not really cheesy. When you fight an AI mob, which one do you target first - the full played warrior swinging a sword or the squishy wizard in a robe throwing fireballs at your whole group? The AI does the same if it breaks past engagement.

 

What if the squishy wizard is doing nothing but standing behind the warriors who are smashing the opposition to a pulp? What if he's NOT EVEN IN THE ROOM?

 

No - it needs refinement. Just targeting based on health/squishiness is clumsy.

[Mungri]

The only problem with rolling a barb is choosing between 19 con and 19 int, or 20 con and 18 int.

 

Barbarians need brains. Its totally apt that I roll a barbarian and he knows everything about engwithian ruins at the start of the game.

[DocDoomII]

Having high Int doesn't mean you know everything.

Lore is about knowing.

[Mungri]

 

Its not really cheesy. When you fight an AI mob, which one do you target first - the full played warrior swinging a sword or the squishy wizard in a robe throwing fireballs at your whole group? The AI does the same if it breaks past engagement.

 

 

What if the squishy wizard is doing nothing but standing behind the warriors who are smashing the opposition to a pulp? What if he's NOT EVEN IN THE ROOM?

 

No - it needs refinement. Just targeting based on health/squishiness is clumsy.

Except that doesn't happen. You want to kill the weakest target first in the majority of cases.

[Emerwyn]

I pretty much fully agree with the OP, had a very similar experience, also in PotD difficulty.

 

That said, the game is trying to innovate with the attribute system, which per se isn't a bad thing, it just need to be better implemented than it was in PoE.

 

Other than that, I missed more endgame challenges. I beat the Endless Paths in Act 1 and then I found out that was it as far as it goes for challenging optional dungeons. The loot from clearing that dungeon also were quite disappointing, considering some of the best loot of the game should be contained in there imo. I don't want to spoil, but I'll say none of the items were equipped by any of my 10 characters, mostly because I already had better.

 

There's also the bounty quests, which to be fair, I enjoyed for the fun and challenge, but in my opinion it'd be better if they didn't reward so much XP (causing parties to out-level the game's content afterwards) and should reward rare crafting materials and unique items instead.

 

 

I'd probably rate the game closer to the 9 than the 8, but all in all it was well worth it.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Emerwyn

[Bhazor]

This is a first edition RPG. Of course its systems are going to be horribly unbalanced. Look at how long it took D&D to get to which ever edition is your favourite.

Generally I like the system, I like that each point in each attribute has an immediate practical effect for every class. I like that it is based on real time rather than some esoteric turn based system cludged into real time. I like the seperate per rest/per encounter system. I like that every class has a ton of active abilities and feats unlike in old D&D where fighters just had one action they'd repeat every turn.

 

But yes. There is plenty of room for improvement in PoE 2.0.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Bhazor

[Katarack21]

This is a first edition RPG. Of course its systems are going to be horribly unbalanced. Look at how long it took D&D to get to which ever edition is your favourite.

You mean Pathfinder, right?