Did PoE lack memorable moments?

[Cottonmouth]

I think the D&D setting and theme lends itself to epicness more so than the universe PoE finds itself in. PoE hits a different tone

 

A very memorable moment for me in PoE is talking with Cabiros. Most of the Endless Paths, and especially it's overall theme, is very, very good.

 

 

 

Screw irenicus, sarevok ecc, best moment ever in bg2 is the discussion with the beholder guarding the treasure in the underground. Best moment in a game ever.

 

Hah, I'd forgotten that. Doesn't he return in ToB if you don't kill him?

 

Yes, I thought that was a nice touch too. It's a 'Spectator' beholder and you can arrange with him to duel the Drow Commander in Sendai's enclave with the beholder killing your group or the drow's depending on who wins.

[Parasol_Syndicate]

A few.

 

The Animancy hearings, and riots were a good, memorable scene. 

(clearly inspired by a better one from an earlier game, but meh)
The investigation pace of The Final Act was very nice, providing just enough thead to get you really unsettled. 

 

The frequent pace of combat was a big issue for me. I wish POE utilized empty space more effectively. 

[Rosbjerg]

Hmm having thought on it, I can see that a lot of the memorable moments in BG was in big part because I had never seen anything like it before. The beautifully rendered 2D backgrounds, the exploration in a world that was clearly artificial, but still somehow managed to seem alive.

 

PoE clearly went into it knowing that it couldn't dazzle the player with town criers, scripted scenes and voice acting - but you're right, there were missed opportunities that would have made the game more memorable. The commune with the god would have been great to have seen played out, in fact many of the interactions became memorable more so as a tabletop kinda experience rather than what you would expect from an interactive game.
I think BG managed to bridge that gap a lot better, because they were simply more innovative with their technology, although I would say PoE had the better potential story of the two.

[Rheios]

I think it had a lot of memorable moments. I do agree that they were presented differently, but I actually find I liked that. It fit the world that was full of questions and had alien elements at work in a way that, beyond Irenicus, the BG series didn't have. The threat, even when hidden like in BG I, was always very straightforward. Sarevok wants control, so he's killing Bhallspawn for power and has a bunch of enforcers assaulting merchants and corrupting Iron. In his absence the enforcers make the direct threat. Irenicus wants your soul so he can become a god, you want him dead for any number of reasons, culmination in you thwarting his attempts at Godhood. In his absence the enemies you overcome are just stepping stones to him and Imoen (which actually has the most in common with Pillars. The second half of the game is effectively just bouncing from one problem to another, trying to fix things enough to have permission to go where Thaos is going by brute force or lying tricks). Throne of Bhaal has the remaining Bhaalspawn in massive wars that you get drug into. Nothing is as subtle there - even Melissan is suspicious from the fore.

Meanwhile  you're a lot more anchor-less in Pillars. And you're supposed to be. You don't have knowledgeable friends to direct you in the same way. You got hit with a biawac and survived.  That's already amazing and terrifying to a person. You stumble into this rundown ****hole, which you were told was supposed to be growing and was inviting settlers, and then effectively told the Lord's kid is dead and, unless you want to decorate the most morbid holiday tree in history, you'd best leave. Then a dead dwarf is talking to you. Everything that happens has you questioning your sanity, especially Maerwald. (In fact after him I thought we might actually end up the badguy. Leading a bunch of aimless people towards a bloody future while they trust in our madness. And from Thaos's perspective that's probably what happens) The big chunk of the first third of the game is supposed to make you feel a bit hopeless and aimless in a way that BG only made you feel until you reached your party members at the Friendly Arms inn. After that in BG you have a destination, you're back in control. In Pillars every destination is just dropping vague clues and hinting that you're a ****ing nut.  It felt different. Less Heroic epic and more similar to Planescape:Torment in the sense of feeling lost and worried, to me at least.

And then even once Thaos is your target, unlike very enemy up there, he DOESN'T care about you. And that's brilliant because until the very moment you slay him and have his soul in hand, he shouldn't. He's stepped on who knows how many people, hell how many Watchers, in his time. How many did he even create explicitly for some purpose and then ditch to go mad? And he seems insurmountable in a way Irenicus isn't.  Irenicus can die. Hell its what he'd terrified of, its one of the many human things about Irenicus. Thaos is something else. Thaos on his worst, most murdered day, doesn't think "NO I want to live!!!", usually. He thinks "Gee, this is mildly inconvenient."  Thaos is terrifying, not because he can burn down a castle or pimp slap 12 wizards at once. Thaos is terrifying because he knows an unknowable amount of **** and has his god's direct backing in a way just shy of Waidwen. Even if he's a meh combatant he probably never trained to be. Why would, in most cases, he even need to? He's the chessmaster with unlimited turns. And when he's in trouble Woedica lets him conjure massively powerful defenders to the scene. That's what's memorable about Thaos to me. He's an manifestation of his God's conceit, just as Durance is actually a pretty good crystallization of all of Magran's passion and selfish desire (hell his culminating moment has him deciding, in essence, to become a god in Magran's place. Which seems very Magran like to me).

Anyway, some of the other big moments to me were:

- When Thaos kills Lady Webb
-The first time I saw the Sky Dragon. Thinking it was actually a pretty cool variation on dragons but was better balanced for initial combat

-Then the Adra Dragon and getting curbstomped in a way no BG dragon ever did. (Seriously the Adra and Alpine dragons decimated me way worse than Firkraag or his ilk)

-The death of your initial comrades from the caravan actually was really memorable to me because I cared about them.

-The first description of you being in the adra and copper filled building after you see the machine (your first flashback) was memorable because it got me hooked on wanting more of your past.

- The way you make your own past's backstory was SUPER memorable to me. I love it even now because its so replayble.

- Grieving Mother, Pallegina, Durance, and Eder's story quests. Actually all the story quests but those ones stood out to me because I did them first

- The riots in the city and the direct way what you said in the lecture hall effects how some people act during the destruction.

- The discussion with the Gods

- Stopping the worshippers of Skaen from releasing that poor woman as a murderer.

- Wael's little surprise visit

- The big reveal about the gods being less than gods as we think of them. That actually really threw me. I was super pumped to be working toward the rebirth of the Hollowborn with Hylea (even though I liked Woedica initially, but thought she was going too far) and then that bomb got dropped and I felt at a loss of how to proceed. Especially because the concept of nothingess after death, even in a way like Pillars, scares me viscerally. 

 

All of that and I didn't even hit White March. Whose most memorable part so far have been the Forge activating, the awakening of another person of your choice (that was a tad chilling), the poor hunter's son, of course the Dragon eating his soul-twin, and now the army marching in. (The Iron Flail actually reminds me of the Iron Throne just by virtue of its name and power grab. (Haven't met them yet though))

[house2fly]

That reminds me, that sequence where you meet the leader of the Iron Flail is a fantastic moment 

You get the normal Watcher flare-out but it's green, and you're seeing your own memories. Suddenly you realise that this guy is reading your soul, and because you're a Watcher you can read him reading your soul.

 

 

I really wish that guy had had a portrait, and more screen time because he was cool.

[jonathan_bau]

Hello,

 

I have just finished the game and I realy realy loved this game.

 

I would say that BGII is more “epic”. I mean, the places you go to in BGII are more epic (Thieves' Guild, the island Prison, the underdark, the drow city…). POE does not make you travel that much. Besides, Defiance bay is smaller than athkatla, there are much more things to do in athkatla. And, there are more group interactions in BGII…

But I really feel the devs did not want POE to be an epic story by doing something less stereotypical. For instance, In POE, you have to make choices that are neither good nor bad. There never is an optimum choice (even at the end of the game) which is really cool.

• I also really liked Durance and his background (best companion ever). I thought something really crazy was going to happen with him…  Too bad that did not happen…
• I really loved speaking to the gods…
• I really loved the end of Aloth who, I presume, is going to be the next villain in POE2!

Sorry for the language, English is not my native language

[Dropman]

What can change the nature of a man?

 

PoE is fine, its on par with BG saga to me. They are both fine, dont get me wrong. But they are both oriented towards combat/party relation fun.I believe WOW moments come from story and atmosphere. The grim atmosphere of dirty Sigil was much more memorable than anything in GB/PoE. Finding ring in my own guts is something hard to forget. Talking to your immortality as well.

 

That being said I dont believe game can be awesome in everything - complexity and replayability kills story and atmosphere. So i'm glad for PoE as it was made. But speaking of memorable moments? No, sory. All in all I'm pretty sure everybody know what game I'm refering to in my first question. Thats what I call memorable moment.

[Baron Pampa]

Even if PoE lacked memorable moments, The White March has plenty of them, at least for me.

[Atreiden]

I was 14 when BG1 was released, so both BG games are very nostalgic to me. That said, even back then, I thought BG1 villain Sarevok was fairly boring, a big dude in a cheesy armor with a "scary" voice while BG 2's Irenicus seemed far more interesting. Sarevok didn't really become interesting until ToB. And while both games have some memorable scenes, for me mainly BG2, I think PoE does a fine job at that too.

Personally I enjoy every scene with Thaos, the first time seeing him activating an ancient machine, with no idea of what was actually going on other than some form of human sacrifice and then stumbling into a town where you are greeted by a tree full of hanged people. That really set a grim tone for the game, which I really enjoy. The slow unwrapping of Thaos plot is also handled well, rather than holding grand speeches to you, Thaos barely register your existence and you are somewhat left to piece the story together yourself in the first two acts. 

 

While it's hard to say how much will hold out as memorable moments down the years, I have at least been impressed with the consistent good writing of both main and side-quests which I think is this game's true strength.

[DreamWayfarer]

l

[*]I also really liked Durance and his background (best companion ever). I thought something really crazy was going to happen with him… Too bad that did not happen…

 

[*]I really loved the end of Aloth who, I presume, is going to be the next villain in POE2!

 

Actually, the companion endings depend on how you deal with their quests. Play again and see what changes!

[Elric Galad]

What I found really memorable in PoE :

- The Tree with Hanged corpses

- The encounters with Lurker, Pwgra and Wild druids in Engwithan ruins. When nature feels actually dangerous.

- Stalwart, the remote settlement and its lovely music (including bard at the tavern).

- The whole Abbey of the Fallen moon with amnesic monk, Maneha subquest, conversation with Ondra. Probably the best part (and hardest...).

- The moment Sagani told me she has been the mother of five.

- Durance scream when he realized Magran has betrayed him.

 

As a whole, it was a bit inferior to all old IE games when it comes to memorable scene, except IWD1.

 

Music is very good, but only Stalwart tune was memorable for me.

Edited June 16, 2016 by Elric Galad

[ManifestedISO]

Playing the Blood Legacy quest in Dyrford Village with at least one rank in Cruel is pretty frightening, memorable, horrific, murderous, and creepy. My normally lawful good keyboard might have cracked.

 

Sorry Kana, but it was either you or Sagani and she has a fox.  

[gunman78]

Compared to BG1/2, PoE seems more bland.

 

In PoE the combat encounters seem all the same, quite repetitive even with boss fights, while BG had much more unique encounters and you can handle them in more varied ways.

 

In BG you have invisibility, charm (where you can talk with charmed characters and control their equipped weapon slots), summon cool demons, aoe nukes (wands, arrows) that help you quickly eliminate the trash mobs without getting bored etc.

[Yonjuro]

So not a trash the game thread, as I loved it, however I've been playing through the BG series for the first time since PoE as a result of the SoD release and made the inevitable comparison. Plenty of good points for each game (have to add PoE needs an SCS mod or a far harder baseline PoTD mode) but one thing stood out a little more than most.

....

 

That's a list of the moments that will stick with me the most from the two games. Clearly there aren't any on PoE and I'm wondering if that's a slight failing and if others feel the same?

....

 

 

 I agree. I backed PoE and enjoyed playing it. I completed it once. BG 1 and 2 I have spent more time playing than I would care to admit and I do feel that the whole BG package works better than PoE (so far).

 

 The thing is, if you were to ask me what to fix, I couldn't tell you. I think PoE has a better story in a lot of ways - it is certainly more nuanced and deals with complex issues in an interesting way. PoE is also visually beautiful. 

 

 Do my good feeling for BG come from nostalgia for my childhood - nope, I don't think so. I was about 45 when I played BG for the first time and 50 when PoE was released. An old geezer like myself should like the complexity for the PoE story a lot more, but again, it didn't work as well for me. I'm not sure why, but here a few thoughts about why I liked BG - (spoliers for BG from this point forward):

 

 I think I cared more about the party NPCs in BG (especially BG2 but also BG1). Maybe perma death is a good thing in these games.

 

 I liked the free form adventuring aspect of BG1.  I remember completing the final battle in my first play through and feeling a little bad that I had gotten two of my party members killed (it was Khalid and Dynaheir, so, in hindsight, I guess that wasn't a huge problem, but I digress). Several encounters in BG1 are with groups of assassins hired to kill your character. I guess I took that personally. It makes it more memorable than killing yet another group of whatever kind of monster.

 

 In BG2, memorable moments included, Mazzy eulogizing her former companions after killing the shadow lord. Reuniting with Imoen in spellhold (if you liked Imoen as a character and completed BG1 with her in your party, that was a well done scene - it would have been better if the story adapted to how you actually played, otherwise that scene could have been a complete non-sequitur).  The conversations with each party member before facing Irenicus on the tree of life - each character reaffirms that they will  finish this with you for reasons that make sense for each of them. There are a lot more, but this was just three random examples that came to mind.