Almost all negative Steam user reviews are due to bugs

[Karkarov]

So many negative reviews

Making me sad

 

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

Fluffle, there is a reason you should ignore user reviews for all games that aren't indie.

 

As much as I may bash games "journalists" they at least have to maintain some level of writing quality, bias control, and go through some form of editorial process. They at least have some standard they have to meet.  User reviews?  They can write any tripe they want, have to meet no standard, and can be talking out their rears and it is all good.

 

Why is indie an exception?  Simply because most real indie games don't get anything but user reviews, so you have no choice.

[yoyolll]

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

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

I agree with this sentiment, but the sheer amount of bugs I encountered right at the beginning of the game is not justifiable.  Also, I've broken several side quests that take place in Neketaka, the largest city and quest hub.

 

I know a game of this size and complexity is always going to have bugs, no matter how much money you put down for QA.  But, for example, the save import bug that seems to affect everyone who made Eder mayor of Dyrwood, or took the Orlan baby with them, should never have been missed before launch.  These are bugs that are verifiable immediately at the start of the game by a simple conversation or look around the starting area.  It's baffling that something like that was able to slip through the cracks.

 

And you can see that this is reflected strongly in the reviews.  If you filter the Steam reviews by negative and most helpful, you can see how many people are upset by this.  I can't say I blame them, it's a bad way to start off a game.

 

I know Obsidian will fix 95% of these issues.  I just wish that they would break out of this pattern of releasing games with tons of bugs and then fixing them slowly over the next few months.  It's happened with literally every game they've developed (except maybe South Park, only Obsidian game I haven't played yet so I can't comment).

[SonicMage117]

Of course the more trustworthy reviews are negative. They actually care about the game enough to tell Obsidian what's wrong, they're not sugarcoating and fanboying. It's likely that they aren't members from forums like this one so their opinion is going to be less biased and more honest.

 

And no, this is a positive thing as it's good for the game's future in the long run. Let's get all negative reviews at launch and positive reviews on a year or two. Make us backers proud Obsidian!

Edited May 12, 2018 by SonicMage117

[arober]

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

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

 

I'd rather have a game that's actually playable.

[Voss]

Honestly I'm more impressed that the negative reviews are about real issues and bugs and not anything else. Though it's a little embarassing and sad that the game was delayed a month under the auspices of bug-fixing and still came out in this state. What was it like in April? The mind boggles.

 

Negative reviews of 'this isn't working right' are both valid and reasonable. At this point I feel like I've done a warm-up run, and a real play-through of the game will have to wait a month or so, with a class that actually works well with the game mechanics and combat design.

 

And yes, while the voice actors are talented, the constant VO stresses that the writers.... have issues. Very few conservations flow naturally, and several give the impression that the writers are paid by word count, rather than coherence.

 

And quest chains snap and jump often, for all the wrong reasons. Picking up a related object (the other conch shell) shouldn't progress a quest, or make strangers recognize me. Making a big deal about not being introduced to a character seems like a bug when you can find said character yourself.c dispositions and reputations are just weird. I have most of the disposition traits, and several at max, less than halfway through the game, several because I had to pick one I didn't want, despite having three favored dispositions (and getting a reward for turning over an object should never be 'benevolent')

 

[Edited for my own coherence issues.]

Edited May 12, 2018 by Voss

[morhilane]

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.

I know someone who complains all the time about bugs in every game he plays, including doing bugs list and sending them to the developers, and he's actually praising Deadfire because he haven't encountered many bugs so far (20+ hours in). He use a preset legacy. So stop complaining about having to wait months, make your own preset that match your save and enjoy a very stable game.

Edited May 12, 2018 by morhilane

[SonicMage117]

And yes, while the voice actors are talented, the constant VO stresses that the writers.... have issues. Very few conservations flow naturally, and several give to be under the impression that the writers paid by word count, rather than coherence.

The voice acting is only a bit above average quality, it's nothing special. Some people are giving the voice acting too much credit, and it's only because they didn't expect it to be done "good enough" in the first place.

 

Then the narrator, which seems to be a hit or miss with people.

[ericdy]

I have only played the beta a few hours and only started to explore the beginning of the main game. I will wait for the hotfix/patch and start over. However, I have backed the game and waited a long time for it, I can wait a little longer

I am confident that the developers will fix the bugs. Overall, the support and open communication from the developers are great! Thanks obsidian for a great game that will be even better with a few fixes!

[Voss]

 

And yes, while the voice actors are talented, the constant VO stresses that the writers.... have issues. Very few conservations flow naturally, and several give to be under the impression that the writers paid by word count, rather than coherence.

The voice acting is only a bit above average quality, it's nothing special. Some people are giving the voice acting too much credit, and it's only because they didn't expect it to be done "good enough" in the first place.

Then the narrator, which seems to be a hit or miss with people.

I didn't say the voice acting was anything special. I said the voice *actors* are talented.

 

The game could be an interesting story about human-relatable issues like trade/exploitation, leadership and (two way) loyalty, and the framework is in place, but instead it just dumps made up (and inconsistent) gibberish about souls into everything. No amount of voice acting talent compensates for that.

[pmchem]

Steam reviews are filtered by time interval so as long as bugs get fixed, reviews will improve over time.  Have faith, it will happen!  This could be GOTY 2018.

[Mikeymoonshine]

 

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.

I know someone who complains all the time about bugs in every game he plays, including doing bugs list and sending them to the developers, and he's actually praising Deadfire because he haven't encountered many bugs so far (20+ hours in). He use a preset legacy. So stop complaining about having to wait months, make your own preset that match your save and enjoy a very stable game.

 

 

I imported my save and at least two major choiced imported wrong, I made my own preset and at least two major choices imported wrong. Eder is flagged wrong no matter what I do.

 

No the game isn't full of bugs and it has been perfectly stable but I am a bit peeved that I am going to have to restart after they finally patch this. 

[Ryz009]

Yeah I'm getting some crazy ctds now. But I expected this. People want to give Bethesda crap but I've always found Obsidian just as bad if not worse with bugs and performance issues.

Edited May 13, 2018 by Ryz009

[Karkarov]

I imported my save and at least two major choiced imported wrong, I made my own preset and at least two major choices imported wrong. Eder is flagged wrong no matter what I do.

 

No the game isn't full of bugs and it has been perfectly stable but I am a bit peeved that I am going to have to restart after they finally patch this.

There is already a beta patch you can opt in on which fixes that.  You will have to start a new game though.

[Odoakar]

My Steam review:

 

The first game is a much better, refined product.

Whole ship based system feels like a gimmick and ship to ship combat is just plain awful. The game has a less interesting story than the first game, and the start fails to grip player to the world and story.

Having most of the characters speak in english italian accent was a wierd decision, as well as inclusion of unknown words into the NPC text. Hovering over them shows their meaning, but it breaks to flow of dialogue.

Narrator is kinda annoying as well as the fact it's only present at some parts of the game. There are many uniteresting text heavy checks, much more than in the first game.

I hope the game gets better as I progress through the story,but so far I'd love it if I could play Pillars 1 with multiclassing and the graphics of the second one.

 

To take a quote out of RPS review:

 

A world where children are being born without souls, scarring generations, while warring factions of a terrifying god attempt to take control: great story, lots of impact. That was PoE1. A world where some giant is stamping somewhere else you can’t see, and there’s a trade war going on that endlessly suggests the complicity of the natives? Yeah, it’s not exactly gripping.

Edited May 13, 2018 by Odoakar

[SonicMage117]

My Steam review:

 

The first game is a much better, refined product.

 

Whole ship based system feels like a gimmick and ship to ship combat is just plain awful. The game has a less interesting story than the first game, and the start fails to grip player to the world and story.

 

Having most of the characters speak in english italian accent was a wierd decision, as well as inclusion of unknown words into the NPC text. Hovering over them shows their meaning, but it breaks to flow of dialogue.

 

Narrator is kinda annoying as well as the fact it's only present at some parts of the game. There are many uniteresting text heavy checks, much more than in the first game.

 

I hope the game gets better as I progress through the story,but so far I'd love it if I could play Pillars 1 with multiclassing and the graphics of the second one.

 

To take a quote out of RPS review:

 

A world where children are being born without souls, scarring generations, while warring factions of a terrifying god attempt to take control: great story, lots of impact. That was PoE1. A world where some giant is stamping somewhere else you can’t see, and there’s a trade war going on that endlessly suggests the complicity of the natives? Yeah, it’s not exactly gripping.

That seems to be the general consensus.

 

There are a few people that think Deadfire is better, most are content that it's a bit below.

[baldurs_gate_2]

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.

I agree. I don't want to walk to eothas all the time when i start a new game. The char creation should start immediatly.

[Dongom]

Well the game has a steller metacritic user and critic scores....

 

However I will note the difficulty bugs are kinda bad. Scaling doesn't seem to work on an already too easy POTD.

[SonicMage117]

It's kinda like Skyrim in that way, it does what intended but with many bugs in the way lmao Squash them bugs with an Obsidian hammer!!!

[Horrorscope]

Hate to do it but it's Obsidian, Obsidianing. Buggy and unbalanced = once again a rush job. They just struggle planning that final mile.

[Thefubsss]

I gave it a negative Steam review due to bugs.

 

I will update that review when the game is fixed. 

 

Pretty simple really. 

 

As someone said in another thread, it feels right now like a $50 beta test with all this bugs they launched with (after a month delay don't forget.)

[Armanz]

I'm reading so many reviews saying how bugridden it is, meanwhile I'm at 45h gameplay and have yet to encounter a bug that I would notice. Maybe I'm blind and there's a ton of AI bugs and damage and weapon specifics but meh I couldn't care less. No major bugs is good enough for me for the release.

[yoyolll]

I'm reading so many reviews saying how bugridden it is, meanwhile I'm at 45h gameplay and have yet to encounter a bug that I would notice. Maybe I'm blind and there's a ton of AI bugs and damage and weapon specifics but meh I couldn't care less. No major bugs is good enough for me for the release.

I'm sorry, but if you haven't seen any bugs in 45 hours then you just haven't noticed. The import/history bugs are 100% reproducible and affect everyone, whether or not you had a Pillars 1 save. Not to mention the giant and growing list on the technical support forum as well as the subreddit.

 

I'm at 25 hours and I've had countless bugs. Although the vast majority have been minor, there have been more than a few broken quests and main features not working (companion relationships, retraining, etc.).

[TheisEjsing]

"So many negative reviews". I don't know where you guys are watching. Personally I stay away from the cesspool that is steam, but the metascore is 90%. This game has far fewer negative reviews with any substance on metacritic than most of it's peers. So be real for once in your life. I have had few bugs, and they're all on the list for tomorrows patch. 

Edited May 18, 2018 by Amentep
tone

[Armanz]

 

I'm reading so many reviews saying how bugridden it is, meanwhile I'm at 45h gameplay and have yet to encounter a bug that I would notice. Maybe I'm blind and there's a ton of AI bugs and damage and weapon specifics but meh I couldn't care less. No major bugs is good enough for me for the release.

I'm sorry, but if you haven't seen any bugs in 45 hours then you just haven't noticed. The import/history bugs are 100% reproducible and affect everyone, whether or not you had a Pillars 1 save. Not to mention the giant and growing list on the technical support forum as well as the subreddit.

 

I'm at 25 hours and I've had countless bugs. Although the vast majority have been minor, there have been more than a few broken quests and main features not working (companion relationships, retraining, etc.).

 

I didn't mean 'so many negative reviews' as in there being an overwhelming amount in general but as in most of the negative reviews are mainly or even solely focused on bugs.

 

 

 

I'm reading so many reviews saying how bugridden it is, meanwhile I'm at 45h gameplay and have yet to encounter a bug that I would notice. Maybe I'm blind and there's a ton of AI bugs and damage and weapon specifics but meh I couldn't care less. No major bugs is good enough for me for the release.

I'm sorry, but if you haven't seen any bugs in 45 hours then you just haven't noticed. The import/history bugs are 100% reproducible and affect everyone, whether or not you had a Pillars 1 save. Not to mention the giant and growing list on the technical support forum as well as the subreddit.

 

I'm at 25 hours and I've had countless bugs. Although the vast majority have been minor, there have been more than a few broken quests and main features not working (companion relationships, retraining, etc.).

 

 

 

Well I imported my poe1 save and didn't notice any flaws so far. Mayhaps I overlooked some parts of it are missing, again I'm not saying the game is bugfree in general. Just that I haven't noticed anything major. Combat seems to be fine, no crashes, no unsolvable/buggy quests, retraining working fine for me.

[cycloverid]

While I have encountered several bugs in PoE2, there are far fewer than when PoE1 was first released - few enough that it doesn't put a horrible taste in my mouth like it did for the first. PoE2 also has vastly upgraded systems that make the game more enjoyable; like no more one bonus limit on equipped items! For these reasons and more I hope that it does better in sales and reviews.