Deeply disappointed with Obsidian

[Thortxu]

Today, finally, after many emails with support and threatens to denounce Obsidian I received my collector's edition (In June!!!).

 

A big pretty ... half empty box ... After opening I asked myself: this is what I paid 140$?

 

I can hardly describe in words my current mood.

 

First was the announcement of the delay of the departure of the game. Then they announced that the soundtrack was not included in physical format. Later they said the game DVD would be send later and apart. And finally i have wait almost two months to receive my collector`s edition.

 

In the meantime i downloaded the game and played it. It was not what i expected. I expected a different story of Baldur`s Gate, Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights but with the best features of that games and logic (and new) improvements that carries 15 years past.

 

In my opinion the plot is much shallower, less dark, poorer in details (characters number and their past/life; stronghold seems a rebuilded dead place; there is hardly any epic weapon whose pieces must be found to rebuild it ...).

 

Two years ago I believed in Obsidian, i trusted in what they said will do and collaborated in Kickstarter. Now i can`t go back and undo what i do. However I will not make that mistake anymore. No more crowdfunding, no more confidence in Obsidian.

 

If you develop another games i`ll wait until people play it and read their comments. In that moment, perhaps, i`ll buy it. And if there is no more games .... well, i can always replay the classics.

 

I know many people is happy with PoE and Obsidian but that is not my experience and i`m not happy with the way Obsidian treated me.

 

I'm not angry. I do not hate the game or Obsidian, just feel sad and disappointed.

 

Goodbye Obsidian, and good luck.

Edited June 1, 2015 by Thortxu

[Gfted1]

I can sort of feel your pain. I so disliked the beta that I never bothered playing the release. On the bright side, iirc, your tier comes with the expansion too. Maybe there will be some improvements you like?

[aluminiumtrioxid]

 

In the meantime i downloaded the game and played it. It was not what i expected. I expected a different story of Baldur`s Gate, Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights but with the best features of that games and logic (and new) improvements that carries 15 years past.

 

In my opinion the plot is much shallower, less dark

 

 

...It's a game where, upon arriving in the first settlement on your journey, you are greeted by a giant tree full of the corpses of those who were hanged for displeasing the local ruler.

 

How is this less dark than anything in the games you mentioned?

[Althernai]

I think Thortxu meant more dark rather than less. I can kind of see where he or she is coming from: there are certain aspects of this Kickstarter which were not handled well and while they didn't matter too much to me, for those who did care about them, this would be highly disappointing. In order of severity:

 

1) The handling of physical goods was awful. I have some degree of understanding for this when it happens in a single-person webcomic Kickstarter (the lone artist is good at drawing and story... not so much at the intricacies of international shipment), but Obsidian is a corporation with 100+ employees and Paradox is even bigger than that. I don't see how they screwed this up so badly. I don't really care about still not having my physical box (more than two months after launch!), but if I did, I'd be pretty mad.

 

2) The tone of the game is completely different from the Baldur's Gate series. Baldur's Gate was dark, but it did not take itself seriously and practically every quest and interaction had a comedic element. PoE takes itself extremely seriously and while there is some humor, it is far more rare.

 

3) The awesomeness of items has been sacrificed on the altar of balance. Baldur's Gate gives you better loot at level 1 than PoE has anywhere in the game. I explicitly went back to play Baldur's Gate to see how much of memory was nostalgia and while there is a fair bit of that, the loot is not comprised in it -- PoE's items are utterly mediocre.

 

The second and third are deliberate design decisions and I guess they weren't very surprising given Obsidian's previous work, but the handling of physical goods is just plain incompetence and I didn't expect that.

[Insolentius]

You think that the plot is shallow and not dark enough? How far are you into the game? Have you experienced the lovely screams of Sanitarium patients, the peculiar interests of Helig the Necromancer, Lumdala's magnificent theater, the benevolent Lord Raedric, Durance and his lovely tale of deicide, the amicable Ethik Nôl druids?

[abaris]

You think that the plot is shallow and not dark enough? How far are you into the game? Have you experienced the lovely screams of Sanitarium patients, the peculiar interests of Helig the Necromancer, Lumdala's magnificent theater, the benevolent Lord Raedric, Durance and his lovely tale of deicide, the amicable Ethik Nôl druids?

 

No spoilers, so I can only say that Durance's tale gets even darker than that when moving on with his story. And I would say, POE has the right amount of humor. It's mostly in the banter and in my opinion it should stay there, given the overall story.

Edited June 1, 2015 by abaris

[zombo]

Today, finally, after many emails with support and threatens to denounce Obsidian I received my collector's edition (In June!!!).

 

A big pretty ... half empty box ... After opening I asked myself: this is what I paid 140$?

 

I can hardly describe in words my current mood.

 

First was the announcement of the delay of the departure of the game. Then they announced that the soundtrack was not included in physical format. Later they said the game DVD would be send later and apart. And finally i have wait almost two months to receive my collector`s edition.

 

In the meantime i downloaded the game and played it. It was not what i expected. I expected a different story of Baldur`s Gate, Icewind Dale and Neverwinter Nights but with the best features of that games and logic (and new) improvements that carries 15 years past.

 

In my opinion the plot is much shallower, less dark, poorer in details (characters number and their past/life; stronghold seems a rebuilded dead place; there is hardly any epic weapon whose pieces must be found to rebuild it ...).

 

Two years ago I believed in Obsidian, i trusted in what they said will do and collaborated in Kickstarter. Now i can`t go back and undo what i do. However I will not make that mistake anymore. No more crowdfunding, no more confidence in Obsidian.

 

If you develop another games i`ll wait until people play it and read their comments. In that moment, perhaps, i`ll buy it. And if there is no more games .... well, i can always replay the classics.

 

I know many people is happy with PoE and Obsidian but that is not my experience and i`m not happy with the way Obsidian treated me.

 

I'm not angry. I do not hate the game or Obsidian, just feel sad and disappointed.

 

Goodbye Obsidian, and good luck.

[Bryy]

So, you paid $140 but then you bought it again? 

 

I feel like this, above all you posted, is your main issue.

[Ink Blot]

So, you paid $140 but then you bought it again? 

 

I feel like this, above all you posted, is your main issue.

Where did you get that impression? Unless I missed something completely in the OP's post, I don't see where he mentioned he bought it again.

 

Thortxu: I agree that the handling of the physical goods could have been better, but Obs did give everyone a digital copy so they wouldn't have to wait to play the game. And while I was disappointed in the game itself, I'll still back their projects because the quality is there as well as the 'Obsidianness'. I just didn't like some of the design decisions. So it's unlikely I'd back as high a level as I did for this one, but I'll still toss 'em some money on any upcoming kickstarters.

[Bryy]

Yeah, that was me reading it wrong.

[ruzen]

Gee! Obsidian Forums becomes depressing every week 

[MunoValente]

One thing about the darkness in this game, is a lot of it is more related spirituality, family, parenting, the nature of existence and a lot less to degrading sexuality, torture and gore, which is often the focus of a lot of dark games or stories; so it's a dark game, but in a different way what some people might expect.

[Evange]

Well you can't please everyone!

Edited June 2, 2015 by Evange

[Sensuki]

Anyone want to buy my Signed Collector's Edition? Still sealed, new in box!

[Amentep]

I've always viewed my pledges to kickstarter as me supporting things to exist that might not otherwise do so. To that end whether I liked PoE was irrelevant; I thought it should exist, I like Obsidian as a company and I wanted to see the game made.

 

I sure haven't always backed a winner on kickstarter. But I don't regret pledging to see it made, either.

 

To that end, I don't see the rewards like I'm purchasing a product. They're rewards. Sure I was disappointing the game disc wasn't in it. I'm still slightly disappointed the documentary went from a physical reward to an electronic one. And the map was ultimately fuzzy. But - and here I guess is the difference between how I approach kickstarter projects and others - the rewards weren't why I pledged. I pledged so the game would exist, and I'm satisfied in doing so.

[kozzy]

I can sort of feel your pain. I so disliked the beta that I never bothered playing the release.

oh boy here we go.... Not even trying the full game because of a beta? 

 

Hate to be rude but this is pretty ignorant imo. I can't remember how many times over the years I have tried a beta or alpha and it was average, only to try the full version and its fantastic.

Edited June 2, 2015 by kozzy

[Gfted1]

 I couldn't get over the suck combat.

[Ink Blot]

 I couldn't get over the suck combat.

Which isn't much different in the full release, so you probably chose wisely.

[Tsuga C]

 

 I couldn't get over the suck combat.

Which isn't much different in the full release, so you probably chose wisely.

 

Tends to happen when certain individuals get a weed up their rump and feel the need to reinvent the wheel.

[Lady Evenstar]

Well you can't please everyone!

No, but they could have the delivered the kind of game the IE games were. I didn't care about them changing details, but the wholesale injection of righteous gaming at the expense of fun constituted a bait and switch in my opinion. It didn't surprise me (indeed, suspecting they would was the reason I lowered my pledge during the Kickstarter),  but I would certainly not support another Obsidian game in advance of release.

[Ohioastro]

I'm very glad that they made the game they did, which I enjoyed. The malcontents don't seem to be visualizing a game that is either possible or remotely appealing to me.

 

Opinions, aren't they grand?

[ManifestedISO]

Well I'm deeply disappointed my grocery store ran out of spicy sprouts. I'm also deeply disappointed someone finally used a Dragonlance avatar and confused deep disappointment with superficial distaste. 

[Tuckey]

Pillars is a promising game (more so when sequels are considered) and things can be built on. By itself not a great game but good for what it is. The thing is the Baldurs Gates and the like were the height of that style of rpg; it takes time to get back to that level again. Design lessons of the past had been forgotten and had to be learned again etc

 

When Obsidian do an internal review and work out what worked and what didn't (hopefully they are capable of being honest with themselves) then we will see a more fully fleshed out product from them.

[Gromnir]

am not gonna touch the observation regarding the shallowness o' poe PLOT v. original ie game plot, in part 'cause we thinks people is using the wrong word when they says "plot" and it would be unfair to brutalize folks over their mistake.  

 

in any event, we paid $19.

 

neener-neener.

 

dunno, did the genesis poster expect $140 worth of goods for $140 pledge?  that seems silly.  the rewards, beyond the initial game, were s'posed to be tokens o' appreciation for investment beyond the initial game purchase, yes?  you were not paying $140 for a game.  you pledged $140 so that obsidian could make the game described in the kickstarter offering, yes?

 

 

" I didn't care about them changing details, but the wholesale injection of righteous gaming at the expense of fun constituted a bait and switch in my opinion. "

 

is this kinda stuff that must drive the developers nuts.  we hear the indignation, but the complaint is just so... empty.  there were no injection o' anything.  poe were built from scratch.  is not as if the developers started with the infinity engine and then added evils.  and what were the great unnamed evil?  balance?  

 

*chuckle*

 

from the start, obsidian's greatest obstacle were expectations.  too many backers had rosey-hued recollections o' the ie games.  obsidian, right or wrong, fed these expectations.  obsidian's whole kickstarter pitch were meant to capitalize on ie game nostalgia (as 'posed to reality)  so, we should not pity them for needing fight unreasonable expectations.  that being said, our biggest gripe with obsidian were that the developers were far too willing to appease the fans during the development. 

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/71242-interview-with-josh-sawyer-tomorrow-thursday-the-19th-at-8-pm-est-on-my-twitch-channel/?p=1589870

 

no sense repeating self.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

ps we did pay extra beyond $19 to beta test.  

Edited June 3, 2015 by Gromnir

[Flow]

 

Well you can't please everyone!

but the wholesale injection of righteous gaming at the expense of fun

 

???