Almost all negative Steam user reviews are due to bugs

[yoyolll]

Obsidian, I love you guys.  I've loved every game you guys put out, even before you formed Obsidian.  And I think that, 12 hours in, Deadfire is on par with Icewind Dale and Fallout 2 for me.  One of my all-time favorite games.

 

But the Steam reviews are sitting at 86%, and almost every single negative review is concerning bugs (mostly bugs with importing a POE1 save).

 

I can't help but feel like Obsidian is greatly underestimating the value of good QA.  Really, there should not be widespread major issues in the first 5 minutes of the game.  This gives people a really bad impression of the product.  Deadfire might have gotten overwhelmingly positive status on Steam if it weren't for those early game bugs.

 

I know they delayed the game for a month, probably for bugfixing, but I guess it still wasn't enough.  And yes, I realize any game of this size and depth is going to have a few severe bugs and probably tons of minor ones.  But the amount and severity of bugs in the very beginning of the game is really hurting people's experience (and the reviews, too).

 

I hope you guys put more emphasis on QA before launch for your future games.  You are, by far, my favorite game developer, but there is a reason people use the term "Bugsidian".

[Fluffle]

Man I've been watching the Steam reviews as well and I agree. I would so love to see Deadfire get the "overwhelmingly positive" label. But for that 90%+ of the reviews must be positive. Currently "only" 86% are.

 

And yes, many negative ones are due to bugs. It's a shame but it's "complaining" on a very high level of course.

Some people might change/update their reviews when the bugs have been addressed. I really hope the game can reach the "overwhelmingly positive" label on Steam as well as I hope that it can keep the outstanding score of 90 on metacritic with 8.5 userscore.

Edited May 10, 2018 by Fluffle

[Jayngo]

I first read this topic to say: "Almost all negative Steam user reviews are due to drugs."

 

I think I stayed up too late playing this game last night. Anyway, most of the reviews I read online mentioned bugs, but that wasn't the main reason they lowered their score in some cases. I didn't agree with most of the reviews I read. So far, I love the game, bugs and all. I totally expected this and while the import save thing is disappointing, I'm moving forward in the game and not worrying about what did or didn't transfer. I know the truth. I know the choices I made. It is what it is at this point.

[Fluffle]

I first read this topic to say: "Almost all negative Steam user reviews are due to drugs."

 

Well this one might be due to drugs, who knows:

 

 

But it's from Metacritic, not from Steam.

[Jayngo]

 

I first read this topic to say: "Almost all negative Steam user reviews are due to drugs."

 

Well this one might be due to drugs, who knows:

 

 

But it's from Metacritic, not from Steam.

 

Lol. What a poor sod.

[gloomseeker]

It's too early to post a review IMHO (unless you hit a game breaking bug that can't be solved by reloading an earlier save). 

 

At this juncture I won't be posting a review before completing the game which will take some time.

 

Rushing to post an early review when you lack any hindsight is not very useful for anyone and it only serves to skew Steam metrics (which are unreliable at best -seriously, have you read what inane ramblings many Steam users come up with? Finding a decent Steam review is like looking for a needle in a haystack, it can be done but it can be time consuming). 

 

As far as QA, I think that there is room for improvement. I've played under ten hours but I've noticed a typo in one of the tooltips. Not game breaking at all but a bit sloppy. Other than that the game has been amazing so far. Fingers crossed so it stays that way. 

 

EDIT: just read Fluffle's post above. Perfect illustration of what we can expect from random Steam users. 

Edited May 10, 2018 by gloomseeker

[morhilane]

 

I first read this topic to say: "Almost all negative Steam user reviews are due to drugs."

 

Well this one might be due to drugs, who knows:

 

 

But it's from Metacritic, not from Steam.

 

I actually know two people who are complaining that the story and characters are boring so far, but both don't seems to care one bit about POE1 characters/stories or even the settings. They are also complaining that the classes and abilities haven't changed (much) from the first game. I'm still wondering why they bothered buying the sequel...

 

They haven't complained much about bugs, but considering they probably didn't use the save import feature...

Edited May 10, 2018 by morhilane

[xzar_monty]

The fact is, the game DOES start really badly. Here's why:

 

1) When you import your save from PoE 1, it doesn't work.

2) When you start a new game to check if #1 was a one-off of some sort, you will have to do the overlong intro again. You can't skip it.

3) No. It wasn't a one-off.

 

I mean, seriously. These are very, very serious issues.

[Clerith]

As far as QA, I think that there is room for improvement. I've played under ten hours but I've noticed a typo in one of the tooltips. Not game breaking at all but a bit sloppy. Other than that the game has been amazing so far. Fingers crossed so it stays that way. 

 

The first game had a number of typos, in tooltips and even in dialogue even months after release. And there were tons of bugs that persisted for a loong time. But most of the stuff should be ironed out over the next few months.

[Whitewolfsp]

The import bug really leave a really bad impression , when you start the game and run into 2 legacy bugs in the first 5 minutes , well ....

[Wormerine]

I won’t lie, save import have issues is a bad idea opening card, especially, that Eders background or missing Vela are one of the first things you will notice. About 3 or 4 hours in and these are the only problems I have run into so far. All things considered Eder having a wrong one line and wrong item isn’t a meaningful problem for me (if I had Vella I would be more upset) but it’s a bad first impression. 10 minutes into the game, I was alt-tabbing and reporting a major bug.

 

Giving a warning review on steam feels like a fair move. At the same time I kinda accepted at this point that a major, big release will come with its share of problems. Rule of thumb - don’t play game at launch if you want the best experience. Good think that Obs is at work fixing the issues. Hopefully the hot fix will arrive sooner than later.

[Isometric Chicken]

It's too early to post a review IMHO (unless you hit a game breaking bug that can't be solved by reloading an earlier save). 

 

Personally, I think it's too early, even if you run into bugs like this. The reason is that there will always be bugs in games like this, and some more severe than others. But if you look at the feedback and notice very few (if any) complain about these game breaking bugs, they will probably not be much of an issue with a new player. I would still mention it in a review, but it's not something I would focus on. However, if there are a lot of people complaining about a game breaking bug, it's worth mentioning in the review - but it's also very likely Obsidian is aware of the bug, and are working hard to solve it. So in this case, I would wait until at least the first patch before posting the review. That way, the bug could have already been solved.

 

Though speaking of reviews, I obviously don't read every single one I find on Steam. When I'm interested in a game, I first check the overal review (in this case, it's Very Positive) to see how most people find the game. If it looks promising, I can later dig into the various reviews and see what people are focusing on. Boring characters, boring story, boring this, boring that? Maybe for some, but not for all of us. Boring companions? I use a custom party anyway. Simple combat? Nah, it's near identical to any other game in the genre, including Torment: Tides of Numenera, which didn't even have all that much combat in it. Bad graphics? A quick screenshot will tell me otherwise. Point is, a game breaking bug can be very frustrating and annoying if you find one, but it might not be a big deal for 99% of the players, and it could be fixed in the next patch anyway. )

[Yenkaz]

Thing is, this is "only" flags not being imported correctly and they form the major complaint (from Windows users, I feel you mac users and hope you get it fixed ASAP) dominating the negative reviews.

 

Very few in the support forums seem to freak out about a modifier that might not work 100% as intended that'll likely require more effort to fix (I'm not a programmer, but if a non spawning character can be fixed with a single command line, I don't think it'll require so much to fix?)

[Bluedemonfox]

Most bugs seem related to import save. I kinda wish they implemented it differently and made it so you can choose in more detail what you did in the last game kinda like how Dragon Age inquisition did it without having to play a whole new playthrough.

[yoyolll]

I'm about 20 hours in now.  I can say, for my game at least, I've been consistently encountering bugs throughout that whole time.  Most can be fixed by a simple reload, but some have caused quest problems that I couldn't get around.  Judging by these forums and the subreddit, it seems I'm not alone.

 

Off the top of my head, I managed to break Harsh Medicine, Food for Thought, and the feuding families quest in Queen's Berth.  I also didn't realize until much later that both Eder and Pellagina did not receive the correct endings from my save game transfer, or that there were supposed to be punishments/boons from the gods (I pledged to all of them and went with Skaen cause I'm a jerk).  And I found out you were supposed to have Whispers of Yenwood and the reforged sword from Caed Nua if you did those quests.  Didn't have either in the captain's room.

 

I'm thinking of stopping my playthrough and restarting in a month or two after most of the bugs get ironed out.  I love the game, but it's difficult to keep going like this.  I feel like I'm not getting the experience that the developers, designers, and writers intended.

[Fluffle]

Some more Steam reviews...

 

[Vyrulisse]

I've learned not to really trust Steam reviews or user Metacritic stuff. A lot of it is fanboys for one side or another fighting a war that makes no sense and using reviews to do it with.

 

The only reviews I actually consider are those from people with considerable play time in the game.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Vyrulisse

[artyom]

the one definitely good thing about POE2 is graphics and how the game runs. I have an All-In-One computer where my graphics card is crappy and permanent (Nvidia 520 or something), yet the game runs much more smoother than POE or divinity 2, and the graphics are amazing even on lowest settings

[yoyolll]

Some more Steam reviews...

 

 

After those first two, negative reviews sorted by most helpful:

 

https://imgur.com/MDATogK

 

https://imgur.com/EPwUuh2

 

https://imgur.com/ANGVk1d

 

https://imgur.com/AO5f4JC

 

Almost every one is about bugs/crashes.

 

And after what I said in my last post, I'm starting to agree with them.  Between that post and this post, I managed to break Dereo's first quest.  And now I'm pretty sure Aloth's, Xoti's, and Eder's reputation points have all stopped responding.  Serafen and Tekehu are working.  Not sure about Pellagina.

Edited May 11, 2018 by yoyolll

[Fluffle]

So many negative reviews

Making me sad

I hope the reviewers will at least consider updating their reviews when Obsidian has fixed the bugs...

[Selky]

I'm happy to see all these negative reviews, having to wait months for an Obsidian game to be "fixed" after launch is getting really tiring. I certainly won't make the mistake of pledging or preordering from them again.

[Fluffle]

One more negative review, this time from Metacritic again.

The spoiler reveals if a certain companion is romanceable or not. Click at your own risk!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could post this in the romance threads in the spoiler section, however, I've had a very unpleasant time there. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if some people from that thread agree with that review above.

The review rates the whole game with that score based on that one fact...

 

Also, I'm not trying to make romance the topic of this thread. If you would like to discuss romance options in the game, please go here and join this thread. Good luck...

Edited May 11, 2018 by Fluffle

[Maf]

OEI doesn't have an unlimited budget and QA isn't cheap.

I'd rather have diamonds in the rough than shiny garbage.

 

Mac users definitely have a legitimate complaint though.

Eder having an incorrect background is one thing, not being to play at all is another.

 

It's a bumpy launch but looking back, POE was really actually done when all DLC was out anyway.

Anyone remember the POE bug where your stats got bugged if you double clicked items instead of drag/dropping them?

I don't have the patience to wait for patches and DLC though and, so far, this is everything I've wanted and more

 

Playing POE2 makes POE feel like BG did when I started BG2 at the time.

[Big-Ben]

Steam reviews? Why on Earth would you take them seriously? People give positive or negative reviews for petty things and even when the person did like the game the review is quite often, ostensibly,  a ****post.

 

It's one thing to have a legitimate problems with a game but Steam just doesn't leave much room for anything other than GOOD or BAD. I very much understand the intent but it's just not a reliable system because of this.

Edited May 11, 2018 by Big-Ben

[Yosharian]

Obsidian, I love you guys.  I've loved every game you guys put out, even before you formed Obsidian.  And I think that, 12 hours in, Deadfire is on par with Icewind Dale and Fallout 2 for me.  One of my all-time favorite games.

 

But the Steam reviews are sitting at 86%, and almost every single negative review is concerning bugs (mostly bugs with importing a POE1 save).

 

I can't help but feel like Obsidian is greatly underestimating the value of good QA.  Really, there should not be widespread major issues in the first 5 minutes of the game.  This gives people a really bad impression of the product.  Deadfire might have gotten overwhelmingly positive status on Steam if it weren't for those early game bugs.

 

I know they delayed the game for a month, probably for bugfixing, but I guess it still wasn't enough.  And yes, I realize any game of this size and depth is going to have a few severe bugs and probably tons of minor ones.  But the amount and severity of bugs in the very beginning of the game is really hurting people's experience (and the reviews, too).

 

I hope you guys put more emphasis on QA before launch for your future games.  You are, by far, my favorite game developer, but there is a reason people use the term "Bugsidian".

 

Yes.  Completely agreed.  I thought Obsi was past this, but yet again it's another buggy launch.  I'm almost finished with my POE1 playthrough and I'm really not interested in starting Deadfire properly until at least the first patch.

 

It's sad because Obsi are a great developer in my opinion but they keep messing up.