How Good is this Game? Old rpg gamers only!

[RevBlue]

You say you like the old IE games such as BG, IWD and the like, but then you say you DON'T like slow paced games with pausable battles.....but those ARE the old IE games such as BG, IWD and the like..... 0.o

 

To the point. I think its a very fun game that you can sink at least 60 hours into. It has its many flaws but its not broken or bad by any stretch

[Noin]

Solid 7/10. Nowhere near as good as DA:O, though. About on par with their NWN2 work, imo, except that PoE's stats/afflictions are worse than trusty 3.5 rules, and prerendered backgrounds make PoE far more visually appealing.

What?? 

I couldnt even finish DA:O, the tedious battles... Its like playing MMO but single player, simply terrible in my opinion.  NWN2, especially the original campaign Id rate much worse than PoE as well. Even after several expansions and countless patches NWN2 stayed clunky, the UI is terrible, there are no Char pics even...

 

It's way too bugged to be enjoyable, like most Obsidian games. I thought they'd have fixed most bugs by now, but I keep encountering new ones everyday, and big ones, like my inventory disappearing or freezes. I wouldn't buy it if I were you. Maybe in a year when it's cheaper and most of the bugs are fixed (or not).

Apparently I have another game. I played 100 hours and only encountered a couple of bugs so far. VERY stable and very solid on release.

Edited April 25, 2015 by Noin

[Kefky]

 

It's way too bugged to be enjoyable, like most Obsidian games. I thought they'd have fixed most bugs by now, but I keep encountering new ones everyday, and big ones, like my inventory disappearing or freezes. I wouldn't buy it if I were you. Maybe in a year when it's cheaper and most of the bugs are fixed (or not).

Apparently I have another game. I played 100 hours and only encountered a couple of bugs so far. VERY stable and very solid on release.

 

 

Yes, it was really solid on release when double-clicking an item made you permanently lose every passive ability you had.

[Ohioastro]

I'm not having issues either. There are always some people who have problems. Games where bugs are a huge issue have forums a lot angrier than this one.

[Noin]

 

 

It's way too bugged to be enjoyable, like most Obsidian games. I thought they'd have fixed most bugs by now, but I keep encountering new ones everyday, and big ones, like my inventory disappearing or freezes. I wouldn't buy it if I were you. Maybe in a year when it's cheaper and most of the bugs are fixed (or not).

Apparently I have another game. I played 100 hours and only encountered a couple of bugs so far. VERY stable and very solid on release.

 

 

Yes, it was really solid on release when double-clicking an item made you permanently lose every passive ability you had.

 

Didnt know about it until Ive read about it on the forums. If I werent reading them I wouldve never known. So thats not what I call game breaking.

Never a single crash, no fps spikes on a laptop, no problems with effects - textures - animation. 

[Kefky]

Well of course it's not a big deal if you just want to see the story. Just play on Normal mode, letting everyone autoattack to win most battles, not caring if you've lost half your inventory or all of your abilities because you still win. But for people who want a challenge and play on the hardest difficulty, those bugs definitely break the game.

[Nakia]

I do play on normal with Expert mode so can't judge what hard is like but I have never lost my inventory or abilities/talents.  I do use strategy and not depend on auto-attack.  Play styles differ and what is important to one player may be unimportant to another.  For me the story and dialogue and characters are what is important.  Combat is a necessity but not for me to the point that I feel the need to play on hard which is hard.

 

So hard difficulty is buggy?  I assume this has been reported to OE and that they are fixing it.   Is everyone who plays on hard having the same problem?

[Tigranes]

When someone suffers a bug, some of those people mysteriously develop a mystical belief that everyone in the world must also be suffering from that bug. 

 

The 'difficulty gets knocked down' bug is real and some people do experience it, and OE is working on it.

[View619]

When someone suffers a bug, some of those people mysteriously develop a mystical belief that everyone in the world must also be suffering from that bug. 

 

The 'difficulty gets knocked down' bug is real and some people do experience it, and OE is working on it.

 

How does this bug work? Does it show on the difficulty slider or is it behind the scenes?

[Eos]

Interesting choice of examples for 'old RPGs'. My bucket list of old school RPGs: Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2, Fallout, Fallout 2, Planescape Torment.

 

Compared to those? Pretty much up there. Very well crafted world, good writing, good story-telling, intriguing main story, for the most part well crafted side quests, very good dialogues. On top of that a new rule system which is rock solid and spawned a couple of new and interesting classes/mechanics. Well balanced, challenging combat, average crafting system/items.

 

If you enjoyed the Baldur's Gate saga, go for it.

 

And Dungeon Siege isn't an RPG. Please D:

[skaffen]

Hard to compare against real old school games (I started with Bards Tale I on a C64) but if we're talking modern oldish school I'd rank it

 

PST >> BG2 > ToE = PoE > NWN 2 > BG 1

 

at least for 1-2 playthroughs to explore the companions and try out all the classes (plus maybe a solo afterwards). But even during my second time around I find very few new things / surprised in features, quests etc. Simply cannot compare to BG 2 from a replayability aspect.

[mazeltov]

Interesting choice of examples for 'old RPGs'.

 

I thought he meant old gamers, i.e. ones with a lot of experience playing vidya RPGs.

[wanderon]

At 66 I'm probably the oldest gamer in the thread  -

 

I love it so far and think it stands up well to the old IE games as well as NWN 1 & 2. 

[Namutree]

When you say old rpg gamers only do mean that I have to be old, or the rpg's I like have to be old.

 

Cuz I'm not old. I'm 24.

 

I like old school rpgs though.

 

Can I contribute?

[Nakia]

I assumed he meant gamers who had played old games but I fit either way.

[petrivanzyl]

Simply cannot compare to BG 2 from a replayability aspect.

This ^^^

[b0rsuk]

It not without flaws, but overall very good. I enjoy it more than Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. Story/setting isn't as good as Planescape: Torment, and quests/reactivity as Wasteland 2, but those set bars very high.

 

  RPGCesspit felt it needed 10451 word review to trash it. They only get so worked up about games they can't stand other people enjoy.

[gunman78]

It's a good game with great old-school looks but not great as a whole. The experience varied from awesome at the beginning to boring at the end. I can't see myself replaying it again very soon.

 

Compared to the old IE games my ranking is:

 

BG2 > BG1 > IWD1 > PoE = IWD2

Edited April 25, 2015 by gunman78

[Namutree]

 

Simply cannot compare to BG 2 from a replayability aspect.

This ^^^

 

Eh. I couldn't replay BG2 until about three months after I beat the first time. Time will tell how PoE compares to the replay value of BG2 to me in about two months.

 

Though it's not really a fair contest as PoE's expansion hasn't come out yet. We don't know how much better the expansion will make PoE.

Edited April 25, 2015 by Namutree

[rheingold]

DAO>Maskofthebetrayerr>POE>WITCHER2>BG2>IWD2>NWN2>ID>TORMENT>WARCRAFT 3. But they all really good.

Edited April 25, 2015 by rheingold

[Sedrefilos]

The game is great. I expected it do more in terms of roleplay but it didn't use all its capabilities in that part. It showed what it CAN do, but didn't use it to the max. Way better than the most games, of course. Next time I hope.

Roleplaywise, I'd say New Vegas > Fallout 2 > PoE > everything else.

 

In other terms, I cannot compare games published from 2006 and on with older ones. You might have some older games that were great at their time, but they lack in the technical and gameplay parts, making them difficult to enjoy anymore.

Edited April 25, 2015 by Sedrefilos

[Namutree]

DAO>Maskofthebetrayerr>POE>WITCHER2>BG2>

I don't know you, but if I did you'd be dead to me.

 

You should be ashamed.

Edited April 25, 2015 by Namutree

[lazyman]

Potentially not bad game, but flawed from the beginning (and ultimately doomed to fail) by Obsidian's decision to use their own RPG system instead of some tried and tested ones. Add to that mediocre execution, terrible dialogs, uninspired quests, static world, no consequences for your actions, weak itemization, terrible combat and well, you are better replaying some old masterpiece like BG2 or P:T instead of wasting time on Pillars. 

[View619]

At 66 I'm probably the oldest gamer in the thread  -

 

I love it so far and think it stands up well to the old IE games as well as NWN 1 & 2. 

 

 

I am impressed, sir. Glad you're still enjoying pc gaming! 

[anameforobsidian]

As someone who's first game ever was Fallout (and then Thief), I really like this game.  It references the classics without being enslaved to them.  It introduced new class mechanics that are actually pretty interesting, and stopped the whole wizards fight while the kids play outside nonsense.

 

The best parts of it for me are:

Party design.  The game is immensely freeing when it comes to party design.  You can do some very fun parties, and that's where the real replayability of the game lies.

World design.  The world is one of the most consistent worlds I have ever played in.  The gods really are mysterious ****.  Society really is moving forward from the past in an early modern sense.  All the areas make sense in context to each other.

 

The worst part of the game for me is simple:

Not enough content.  

 

I never really got the feeling of setting off into the unknown and maps feel a bit isolated.  One of the best things from BG is that the maps corresponded to regions.  There were deserts out to the south and southeast, coastlines to the west and large forests in the North.  PE could definitely use more npcs, and places to go divided into regions.  Right now it's beautiful, but lacks the feeling of a complete world that BG had.

 

The stronghold is similarly bereft of content.  Yes, you're rebuilding a fortress, but it should have some real characters in it and feel a bit like a living village.  A few quests from stronghold npcs, and some random personality would make a world of difference.

 

Defiance Bay could also use some more quests in areas outside of Ondra's Gift.

Edited April 25, 2015 by anameforobsidian