Why is this game so hard?

[luzarius]

So I have been playing on medium because I used to play the old isometric RPGs (Baldur's Gate I & II, Icewind Dale II, Fallout I & II, NWN I & II), and I'm blown away at how hard some of the fights are. I'm currently doing the Bronze Beneath the Lake quest, and all of the fights that I have with Shadows are difficult if not impossible. The fights take ages but despite casting every buff and direct damage spell that I have available, the Shadows simply tank it all and kill all my party. 

 

Struggling to see where I'm going wrong, my party consists of the PC (a mage), the mage NPC, the priest NPC, the warrier NPC, the bard NPC and a custom created warrior NPC. I have decent equipment on everybody and I frequently pause the game to issue commands, but it still seems like all of combat is a terribly complicated and unexplained mess (there doesn't seem to be a way of seeing the to-hit rolls?). The buffs that I have available to me don't see to be very effective either, in fact most of the priest's spells seem pretty pointless, as does the bard. But every single spell and effect seems to be unique so it's not like the buffs in old IE games where you'd know that a spell would buff say strength (and therefore to-hit rolls and damage done) for a decent amount of time.

 

Does it get any easier or am I doing something wrong? I'm honestly thinking of bailing on it because the combat system seems way more hardcore than I'm used to.

 

It starts out that way.  It's actually a good thing that you're struggling, overcoming the difficulty is what makes the game fun, all the experimentation you're going to want to do will pay off, enjoy the ride.

[Luckmann]

PoE is a deep game based on a "complex" set of rules. If you wish to succeed you will become well aware of how these rules work and how to use them to your advantage. It takes time and patience to do this, but it is certainly worth and in a way makes the game that much more fun and enjoyable.

 

....what?

 

[nipsen]

It's easier to understand if you just accept that people around here (who unfortunately Obsidian actually listens to and attempted to adjust to) will say things that are only consistent with how the game should appear in a sales-pitch, rather than with.. you know.. reality, logic.. any sort of consistent measurement, or even inconsistent measurements with some relation to each other from time to time, even on a very subjective level.

 

So you see, it actually makes sense when the same person will hate Sawyer for not making a simpler game, of the kind they assume everyone wants to play (other than Call of Duty). Or a game that is identical to the glorious infinity engine games, that all were clearly without fault. And which we can all see, now that PoE has been forced to look, feel and play exactly like BG2.... or not.

 

While simultaneously also insisting that the game is stupendously complex, so that "true fans" still want to play the game.

 

So the game was extremely simplified to the point where it's an elaborate coin-toss simulator, where you can choose the colour and kind of coin. Most of the meaningful mechanics are not part of the game in any way from the player's perspective. But it's apparently still built on complex rules that defy human understanding, which therefore still makes the game wonderfully complex, even though you can't actually see the complex rules in practice.

 

Alternatively, the game is too difficult and complex, while also being too simple. It all makes perfect sense, see.

 

...Seriously, though - isn't it really a bit unsettling when random people, clearly without actually trying to, are thinking in the same logic an advertisement for a product is made with? When pulling an actual opinion out of people that they thought up for themselves is like --- pulling lightly on someone's ear, and then suddenly sitting there with the ear in your hand all of a sudden?

 

I mean, do people like that function in everyday life, at all? Do they suffer philsophical epiphanies after having a burger served at McDonalds, and the burger is different from on the billboard, that sort of thing? "Oh, so that's how everything works! And now my life's mission is to convince myself and everyone else that the burger is metaphysically identical to the picture, so that the sales-pitch and expectations are the same! This is the path to Nirvana, and mental balance and calm - I can see it now!".