Sid Meier's Pirates of Eternity impression after 20 hours

[Almaar]

Hi all i just subscribed, first of all i wanna say sorry if my english is not always 100% correct, i'm italian.

 

I'm in my 20s, i grew up loving rpgs and until The Witcher 3 came out Baldur's Gate 2 used to be my favourite game of all time.

 

Pillars of Eternity 1 is not far from this two, i loved it, it was one hell of an experience and i was so hyped and really looking forward for the sequel.

 

So as you may have understood my expectations for Pillars of Eternity 2 were very high aand...unfortunately the beginning of the game (i'm 20 hours in and i've just reached the first major city, hey don't judge me i take my time playing this kind of games  ...it took me 241 hours to finish PoE1) left me a bit worried.

 

 

Let me say that i'm not here to criticize the hard work of other people, this is just my impression after some hours of gameplay.

 

Compared to the first one, PoE2 feels more rushed. From the presentation, to the graphics, the performance, the loading times, the italian traslation and also some design choices/unrefined dialogue/character interactions, it feels not of the same (amazing) quality as the prequel. I'm worried there is a problem of quantity vs quality in this game.

 

Talking about the graphics. My character and the companions looks very good and i was impressed at first, but on the other hand i found some of the locations to be, i don't wanna say bad but...in PoE1 every location looked good and some of them were just epic, it was a pleasure to watch while in this game i was surprised of how uninspired the locations looked. I've yet to find a really stunning well design location.

 

Talking of performance my pc is way over the recommended requirements, i'm playing with max settings at 1920x1080 res and i had a huge fps drop when i reached the first big city, not to mention some absurdly long loading times. I'm not playing on a SSD but i have the game on the same HD where i have installed PoE1 and a lot of other less demanding/old games. Never had a problem.

 

Another thing that i didn't like are the locations where you collect items as the time passes. I was like "yeah i can explore the map and go to this optional location/dungeon and uncover it's secrets, obtain some cool loot, ecc..." But then i only had to keep pressing the "1" key to collect some junk items.

 

I also witnessed some questionable character interactions/dialogue that triggers at the wrong moment and breaks the immersion. Right after i met and recruit Xoti for example, i could ask if she had again those dreams...wait what? What dreams i just met her, at least wait till i got to a inn, or sleep somewhere. Then after a while Eder starts talking to me about her while she is right next to him...? This is just 2 examples but there are way more case like this.

 

The italian traslation i have to say is not that good as it was in the prequel, there are quite some words and typo that needs to be fixed.

 

To end i wanna say that up until this point the plot didn't hooked me like it did in PoE1. I wasn't expecting a game inspired by Sid Meier's Pirates in the first place. Don't get me wrong, a pirate rgp it's always been a dream game to me but maybe not in this universe. Even in Deadfire i was expecting something more in line with the first game, something less open world and more polished for sure. It comes down to the fact that in PoE i don't wanna be a pirate, i wanna know more about the lore, the gods, discover secrets, exploring dungeons, i could not care less about looting ships, collect bounties and keep my crew happy. I'm not sure if this 2 genres fit together very well, sometimes it really feels like i'm playing 2 different games at once.   

 

Probably if i keep playing i will forget about those things, there are also some good things that i noticed and didn't talk about here. So please don't think this is me saying the game is bad because it isn't and i'm only at the beginning. If you agree or disagree feel free to express yourselves, i really wanna know what you think. I assure you i'm not trolling or anything, if i didn't care so much about this franchise i wouldn't have posted this.

 

Have fun in Deadfire!

 

[Jayngo]

You had me until you said the Witcher 3 replaced BG2  .

 

Anyway, as an America, localization is not something that affects me, but I've heard the Italian is bad. From your post above, it seems that your English is very good, so I would assume you are not having too much trouble understanding the dialogue so far.

 

I have not had too many performance problems. On the first day, about 2 hours in, everything in the game started glitching frames, even though my FPS were good. Today, I experienced my first crash. It was leaving a dungeon back to the island world map. Other than that, performance has been fine for me and the graphics look beautiful on my widescreen monitor.

 

I'm understanding more of the world this time, due to playing PoE a few times and the text words you can hover over to read really help. I'm fine with the story and chasing a huge statue across an ocean. Cool stuff. Although.....I did hear Eder say the statue was 70ft. tall. That can't be possible. Wasn't the 15 level dungeon deeper than 70 feet?

[269811510]

I was expecting a BG2 but finally got a fallout2 without low int dialogue...

[Multihog]

 

until The Witcher 3 came out Baldur's Gate 2 used to be my favourite game of all time.

 

 

Ah, TW3, the mindless dotted trail-following simulator. 

[Zagadka]

I think that my main reaction is... why isn't this an 8-bit reboot of FF or Ultima for the wandering screens? ;-)

 

I'm mostly enjoying myself... I feel like the sailing thing gets in the way, making up too large a part of the game, but at least it is different. It doesn't help that there are so many bounties and locations spread around that it is sometimes annoying to get to everything (while dodging pirates).

 

I don't get the complaints about the setting. It is nice to have a RPG outside of northern Europe, and it is unique. The hint is in the whole role playing thing. It isn't quite my *favorite* setting, but nice to visit somewhere new nonetheless.

 

Also, WTB a bloody imbued spear.

[Wormerine]

 

until The Witcher 3 came out Baldur's Gate 2 used to be my favourite game of all time.

 

Ah, TW3, the mindless dotted trail-following simulator.

Similar to BG2. I agree with OP,Witcher3 is a new BG2: an open game with bunch of well written, engaging linear adventures.

 

Personally, I don’t feel like Deadfire is a pirate game. I spend most of my time in good, old fashioned dungeon adventuring. I am having increasing worries about narrative design (be it story or companions) but I will withhold my judgment until I beat the game.

[Odoakar]

Good post, my sentiments exactly.

 

It just feels as a watered down Pillars experience.

[Matteo89.b]

 

 

Anyway, as an America, localization is not something that affects me, but I've heard the Italian is bad.

 

Yep, native italian here.

Italian is traslated badly.

 

1- Some things are missing, like the description of Perception attribute

 

2- I have lost count of how much times my female main character is considered a male by both people and the narrator.

 

Point 2 especially breaks the immersion, but there is nothing we can do.

[Multihog]

 

 

until The Witcher 3 came out Baldur's Gate 2 used to be my favourite game of all time.

Ah, TW3, the mindless dotted trail-following simulator.

Similar to BG2. I agree with OP,Witcher3 is a new BG2: an open game with bunch of well written, engaging linear adventures.

 

Personally, I don’t feel like Deadfire is a pirate game. I spend most of my time in good, old fashioned dungeon adventuring. I am having increasing worries about narrative design (be it story or companions) but I will withhold my judgment until I beat the game.

 

Saying TW3 is "the new BG2" is a disgrace. TW3 is a mindless game that doesn't challenge the player intellectually whatsoever. You don't even need to listen to any dialogue or read a single line of text to finish the game! It's barely a game. 

 

I actually put this to the test: I finished 3 quests in the game while ONLY looking at the minimap and spamming the action button with the audio muted. Comparing this to BG2, which is an immersive game where the world and dialogue actually have something to do with gameplay, is insulting. In TW3, what you're supposed to do comes from the step-by-step list the game provides you with and the almighty dotted trail instead of the world. It's dumbed down trash. 

 

This is how you don't make a game:

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/91602195869626006/A9BC9E79398AA65CA37DDA7D4F267ED915331631/

 

This is how you make a game:

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/929301838903550287/CDC248076BF6DA27F2DEE84F9F780CCA2C789BDF/

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/885378750237167335/94E764F0FDB7CC93625C69678BA3DABCE6533266/

 

[SonnySahl]

 

 

until The Witcher 3 came out Baldur's Gate 2 used to be my favourite game of all time.

Ah, TW3, the mindless dotted trail-following simulator.

Similar to BG2. I agree with OP,Witcher3 is a new BG2: an open game with bunch of well written, engaging linear adventures.

 

Personally, I don’t feel like Deadfire is a pirate game. I spend most of my time in good, old fashioned dungeon adventuring. I am having increasing worries about narrative design (be it story or companions) but I will withhold my judgment until I beat the game.

 

 

Lol you really wanna compere a isometic D&D style rpg to a Action RPG.. TW is good, but nothing like these games and they will never be.

[angryusaman]

I have found the story to be engaging and well written so far but maybe the Italian translation needs work.  I can't really say since I'm playing the English version.  My only regret is not doing my first playthrough on Veteran and not enabling scaling when I started.  I didn't do this because I found the first game to be nicely challenging and the difficulty to be appropriately described when selecting it.  On my first classic playthrough, everything just dies way too easily.

I also like the sea battles even though I haven't successfully completed one except by boarding the enemy ship.  I'm still on the sloop and just don't have the firepower to compete with most other ships out there in a cannon war.

 

I liked the Witcher 3 on my first time through it but found it really hard to replay because I'm the type that always goes for 100% completion and even in the intro map there are too many question marks on the map denoting a point of interest that I felt like I absolutely had to explore (again) before continuing to the next area.  It's also a pain to start a new collection of Gwent cards and collect every single one of those.  Once you've done it the first time, it just feels like a chore after that.

[MattH]

I think you are confusing "better flow" with "feeling rushed". However Pillars 1 was definitely more rushed in that regard.

In any case, that just seems like a buzzword that one could easily disillusion you about, if one really cared.

[M4xw0lf]

 

 

until The Witcher 3 came out Baldur's Gate 2 used to be my favourite game of all time.

 

 

Ah, TW3, the mindless dotted trail-following simulator. 

 

Easy fix for that: turn off dotted trails.

[Slotharingia]

Overall, I'm really enjoying the game, but ofc some things annoy me. I'm a bit overwhelmed by the boat fighting thing. My boat still sucks and I've got to round 40+ trying to escape before finally surrendering and reloading.  xD I also find the purely scripted interactions a bit odd, and I'm deeply disappointed by Aloth having turned into a boring old fart. Luckily there's fishboy and the hairy blue pirate to make it less distressing. Having said that, I also really like that the game is different from the first one and I loved spending 3-4 days in the main city just walking around talking to people and doing the odd quest. 

[Multihog]

 

 

 

until The Witcher 3 came out Baldur's Gate 2 used to be my favourite game of all time.

 

 

Ah, TW3, the mindless dotted trail-following simulator. 

 

Easy fix for that: turn off dotted trails.

 

You forgot the little detail that the game is unplayable without that; it's built around that trail. Even the devs stated that it's not playable without it. 

[Matteo89.b]

Mah. I feel overall disappointed by this sequel.

But what's done is done. Surely it is by no way worth the money i spent as a baker, and i won't do the same mistake twice.

[M4xw0lf]

 

 

 

 

until The Witcher 3 came out Baldur's Gate 2 used to be my favourite game of all time.

 

 

Ah, TW3, the mindless dotted trail-following simulator. 

 

Easy fix for that: turn off dotted trails.

 

You forgot the little detail that the game is unplayable without that; it's built around that trail. Even the devs stated that it's not playable without it. 

 

You are talking about the dotted trail on the minimap, right?

[Multihog]

 

 

 

 

 

until The Witcher 3 came out Baldur's Gate 2 used to be my favourite game of all time.

 

 

Ah, TW3, the mindless dotted trail-following simulator. 

 

Easy fix for that: turn off dotted trails.

 

You forgot the little detail that the game is unplayable without that; it's built around that trail. Even the devs stated that it's not playable without it. 

 

You are talking about the dotted trail on the minimap, right?

 

Yes, but it's not limited to that. The problem also manifests as step-by-step instructions when it comes to quests, every quest involving holding R2 and activating glowing objects. It's just overall brainless gameplay. 

 

Better than I could explain it:

https://img.fireden.net/v/image/1486/42/1486422191070.png

 

TW3 is everything wrong with modern RPGs.

[M4xw0lf]

 

 

 

 

 

 

until The Witcher 3 came out Baldur's Gate 2 used to be my favourite game of all time.

 

 

Ah, TW3, the mindless dotted trail-following simulator. 

 

Easy fix for that: turn off dotted trails.

 

You forgot the little detail that the game is unplayable without that; it's built around that trail. Even the devs stated that it's not playable without it. 

 

You are talking about the dotted trail on the minimap, right?

 

Yes, but it's not limited to that. The problem also manifests as step-by-step instructions when it comes to quests, every quest involving holding R2 and activating glowing objects. It's just overall brainless gameplay. 

 

Better than I could explain it:

https://img.fireden.net/v/image/1486/42/1486422191070.png

 

TW3 is everything wrong with modern RPGs.

 

Ah, I see, you're one of those guys.

[Multihog]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

until The Witcher 3 came out Baldur's Gate 2 used to be my favourite game of all time.

 

 

Ah, TW3, the mindless dotted trail-following simulator. 

 

Easy fix for that: turn off dotted trails.

 

You forgot the little detail that the game is unplayable without that; it's built around that trail. Even the devs stated that it's not playable without it. 

 

You are talking about the dotted trail on the minimap, right?

 

Yes, but it's not limited to that. The problem also manifests as step-by-step instructions when it comes to quests, every quest involving holding R2 and activating glowing objects. It's just overall brainless gameplay. 

 

Better than I could explain it:

https://img.fireden.net/v/image/1486/42/1486422191070.png

 

TW3 is everything wrong with modern RPGs.

 

Ah, I see, you're one of those guys.

 

Yes. For good reason.

[arober]

Yes. For good reason.

 

 

Wouldn't it be easier to just not bother yourself with the things you hate?

 

I like a detailed description of what I have to do in a game. I don't have the time to waste looking for things/characters. I want to get into the story without all the nonsense around it. It's not 1998 anymore.

[Odoakar]

Jesus christ, that Gothic vs TW3 comparison is probably the dumbest thing I've seen in past few years.

 

My head hurts now.

 

TW3 has some of the most engaging and memorable quests. Starting from Bloody baron to the whole HoS expansion which was probably the best written cRPG content in at least 10 years.

[morhilane]

TW3 has some of the most engaging and memorable quests. Starting from Bloody baron to the whole HoS expansion which was probably the best written cRPG content in at least 10 years.

Something being well written and presented doesn't automatically make it good role-playing content. Tell me, what are the role-playing options in the Bloody Baron quest chain? Or in Heart of Stone?

[Epimetreus]

Didn’t realize this was the “Impressions of The Witcher 3” thread. I must have stumbled into the wrong area of the forum...

[Jayngo]

Didn’t realize this was the “Impressions of The Witcher 3” thread. I must have stumbled into the wrong area of the forum...

Right? I was thinking it was a Sid Meier's Pirates thread!