81 hours later, my thoughts on PoE

[Gilker]

Hello !

 

i just finished the game a few days ago and i'm ready to give my thoughts on this amazing game.

 

first of all, i really enjoyed the game, the first 3 days i almost played it non-stop. if i have to give it a mark, it would be a solid 8.5/10 (i would rate BG I 8.5/10 too, BG II 9.5, icewindale 1 8/10 and icewindale II 7/10).

 

good points :

 

- story : i found the story appeling, well writen, it kept me hooked until the end of the game.

 

- descriptive writiing : loved that writing describing gesture, atittudes of the characters and surrounding environnements.

 

- music : overall good music. nothing truelly awsome (i think at kuldahar tree theme, bhaal pocket plane theme) but still great and fitting well the lore. it helped my immersion a lot.

 

- graphics : stunning, almost all maps look really good and detailled, i like the characters when zommed in too. magical effects on weapons are really cool, some armor look awsome ! speels look good too, too bad they severely damage visibility in combats

 

- combat system : suprisingly good. i first thought that the new combat system will fail hard, but i works, even if it needs more balance and visibility. i even like the engagement/disengagement system which i first thought was complete bull****.

 

- companions : durance and eder are two amazingly written companions, some of the other may needed some more depth, but they are still quite interesting

 

- lenght : i was expecting around 60hours, so 80 hours on my first playthrough is really good.

 

- ennemy AI : i was pleased to see that foes often targetted my wizard and charmed first my highest DPS character. i haven't had high expectations for AI so i think it's quite a good work.

 

bad points :

 

- needed a little more balance and polishing : some early bugs where game breaking, some were really annoying (that insect plague killing all my companions permanently AFTER an easy fight made me rage quit a few times). the game still need some balance and polishing,  but i can understand that a game that complex can't be perfect at day 1.

 

- hard to discriminate companions and even companions/foes when there are a few spellcasters involved into battles. i often spend 10-20 seconds to figure out where my companions where located exactly (after 20 second of carfull looking : "ho, altoth is in the middle of the melee, that not good!")

 

- loot : loot in that kind of game is very VERY important ! when i talk about bad loot, i mean there is not a single awsome weapon/armor/ring/amulet though the entire game. i will remember forever the first time i picked up carsomyr, celestial fury, forged the crom fayer, the red dragon scale armor, bought the vecna dress, firs time i read the description of the gaxx ring... there nothing close to that in PoE and that's a shame. that an issue that can be adressed very easily in the next game or addon, pleae think about it . the bottom less loot box was a very good idea, but i disliked the TON of xaurip's garbage loot, make it some coins and it will be fine.

 

- difficulty curve : hard at the beginning, easy cake after on hard settings. we definitely need less XP reward as i reached the level 12 for all my party long before going to the ormes. enemies need some specific immunities too (fighting a dragon that's on is back almost all the fight is ot fun), so we have to think during encounter and not only using the same spell and tactics for the beginning to the end of the game. dragons need to be mutch MUTCH more dangerous,

that feather dragon was a joke, the adra one was ok

.

 

- powefull enemies : i miss overwhelming ennemies, the kind that wipes your party in a few seconds if you don't play it right. no fights like kangaxx, no powerfull wizard, even the last fight was easy without knowing what i was doing exactly.

 

- classes balance : give me some reasons to take a ranger/paladin over a cipher/rogue/druid ? somes classes need some buff and other some nerf (no more bouncing fireball doing 6X150 damage).

 

- pathfinding : better than IE games for sure, but having our frontline blocked in the back in narow place is VERY annoying, especially when disengagement attack don't let you switch places when it happends.

 

- companions interactions : i feel like it lacks a little bit of banthers between companions, there are some quite funny indeed, but a little more would have been appreciated.

 

thats a lot of red, but again, i loved the game, i really enjoyed those 80 hours. i seriously think that it's some great material for a 9.9/10 game in the future.

 

feel free to discuss

Edited April 11, 2015 by Gilker

[Hassat Hunter]

 

 

the bottom less loot box was a very good idea, but i disliked the TON of xaurip's garbage loot, make it some coins and it will be fine.

This is because a lot of backers heavily (and loudly) cried out for "What you see is what you get" loot, which ends up selling 100 armors to the nearest vendor combined with the infinite stash.

 

Worse that they don't stack and make vendors list huge, and this seems to affect savegames too. Find a vendor, selling your stock, then killing it is a good idea, *shrug*