2 Major Cities? Obsidian.... I think you know you stretched the 'truth'

[Tuckey]

@Arsene Lupin

 

Thats why they need to move pillars to unity 5.

[Bryy]

 

Sigh.....the things people complain about.

 

Yeah complaining about a stretch goal that encouraged us all to PAY EXTRA MONEY FOR, that was half bake delivered is sooo shallow a thing to complain about... ~sarcasm~

 

You're acting like the content was already there.

[Hassat Hunter]

I dislike major cities in these games, personally... so I'm not bothered. I always quit BG when I actually got to BG.

 

But I may be in the minority...

 

Dunno, but I think Baldur's Gate went from great to awesome reaching the city.

And BG2 was pretty awesome in the city and then dropped to below mediocrity upon leaving it (not the country but the Act-change to the Asylum).

 

YMMV of course.

[jools1980]

Personally, I'm not really bothered about their promising and not delivering: I never was into the pre-release hype or announcements, thus I was entirely unaware of such a promise to begin with. Yet, I am a little disappointed with Defiance Bay (I haven't gotten to Twin Elms yet).

 

Premise: I am a big fan of urban environments in RPG, and I wet-dream about a city-only RPG being released, some day. I am quite happy with how much time the player is given the chance to spend in Defiance Bay, for example, and yet this is exactly what bring a couple of issues out in the open.

 

Defiance Bay is a nice town, well rendered, with a lot going on in terms of quests, city dynamics, differently-"flavoured" districts, Yet, all these aspects don't really run deep, nor far. The city ultimately feels a little "empty": there aren't that many people about, not as many and as "busy" as I'd imagine in such a large and regionally-important city, which thus feels "dead", after a short while.

 

What also gripes with me is that the whole town boils down to 5 districts/areas (a couple of which are quite limited, content- and size-wise), plus interiors and dungeons (which aren't that many, either): that isn't really much, to be honest, especially considering how shallow those areas feel after a short while. The districts lack "life", people doing things or even just being there.

 

The feeling is that there are more backer-ghosts than actual citizens in DB. Reactivity to the world's events isn't much either: I would have appreciated some more comments (chat bubbles or background banter or customized "greetings" in conversations) reflecting the influence of the PC's actions.

 

Considering the amount of quests going on in the city (quite a few, and which involve quite some backtracking between the five districts), those areas get a bit "trite" very soon and their limited number kind of begins coming across as a shortcoming.

 

In all fairness, I would have been happy with a single major urban hub in the game (and, because of what I just mentioned, I can't force myself to accept DB as a candidate), and the inevitable subsidiary hamlets/villages (Gilded Vale/Dyrford, etc).

Edited April 16, 2015 by jools1980

[FlintlockJazz]

I do think the game needs a  "Trademeet", for some reason having that extra hub that wasn't a full city but was large enough to be a densely packed town with it's own questlines and random stuff just seemed to add so much to BG2 for me.  Not sure why, just did.  Possibly be because it was a hub for several different quests like Athkatla was but was also small enough that you felt like you were making a difference without being too small that it felt important itself.

Edited April 16, 2015 by FlintlockJazz

[Luj1]

Obsidian promised two major cities.... what they delivered was one major city (Defiance) and one half-baked city..... they know in their hearts they didn't make good on their promise. I still love the game, but I was excited to have two large cities to explore and Defiance Bay felt well-developed in most respects (a little light on the random, smaller encounters and hidden secrets but overall good) but the second city? Pfah.

 

Great game - but I'm not going to not call out Obsidian - especially if you hype this as a major selling point and then don't deliver.

OP is right.

 

Defiance bay isn't even as big as some mega-city is supposed to. Zones are small with few locations. Baldurs gate and City of Neverwinter are far larger and these are ancient games with a lot lower budgets. I'd say they didn't deliver in this regard.

 

And what is this second mega-city supposed to be? Wasn't just one mega city promised? (Def. bay)

Edited April 16, 2015 by Luj1

[Blovski]

 

What is a huge city? The selling point was this -> Quote Joshua Sawyer from PE Update #20, about the second big city stretch goal:" Multiple exterior maps, bunch of interior maps, bunch of characters, bunch of quests". I say Twin Elms got that. It's not as formidable as Defiance Bay in scale, but it's a big city in IE perspective.

 

Selective quoting there. The entire quote is:

 

 

Baldur's Gate and Athkatla are big cities. Spanning multiple large maps with a ton of interiors, characters and quests, big cities are a lot of fun. Like strongholds, they also take a lot of work to do well. We're going to have one big city in Project Eternity. Would you like two? If you take us on an exciting adventure to $3.5 Million, we will take you on an exciting adventure to another big city

They name dropped Baldur's Gate and Athkatla. If you're going to use those cities as the benchmark as big cities then I expect something similar in size.

 

Well, the whole game obviously doesn't live up to the colossal size of the Baldur's Gate games (Baldur's Gate 1 having much less polish and nuance in a lot of it, Baldur's Gate 2 being much stronger). I didn't feel ripped off by them, though. I suspect BG 2 had a big advantage in the pipeline and engine being worked out already.