Sid Meier's Pirates of Eternity impression after 20 hours

[Kykuy]

 

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?

 

Well, in the former you have a choice between saving a daughter of man who can help you in your quest at the cost of strengthening an evil spirit(and sacrificing several children in the process), or you may save the children. If you chose second, the man would later suicide. In the latter you decide the fate of a man who cheated death by bargaining with what is essentially a demon. You may get a choice of rewards from the demon for letting him die(all are unique and quite useful), or combat the demon. But it's not the choices themselves that really matter, it's the audience and the immersion.

 

Funny thing is, that, while Witcher series are not RPGs strictly speaking, their writing aspect easily rivals and potentially even topples that of BG(2) and similar old-school RPGs. I would even say it is as deep as Planescape:Torment in some places(like Hearts of Stone), thought not as a whole. 

 

But we digress. POE2 indeed feels a bit rushed, especially when you look at such aspects as sea combat(i understand it's not the main focus of the game, but it's quite shallow. sea encounters are okay, curiously enough), optimization, general clankiness of game mechanics(in term of difficulty), and Ydwin. Especially Ydwin 

[illathid]

 

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.

 

 

Everyday we stray further from the light of Eothas. 

 

As for the rest of the criticism, I think Deadfire looks much better than PoE and it runs better on my machine as well. I think the plot is good to, if anything the problem is that there are too many interesting hooks for quests. Which is one of those good problems for games to have. 

Edited May 14, 2018 by illathid

[algroth]

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

Well, that's a totally impartial and not half-informing comparison if I've ever seen one. Let's not touch on the several Witcher 3 quests that actually do have several outcomes and means of resolution (see Uldaryk's quest or the Towerful of Malice for a couple more examples) or the fact that the "good example" sounds like just about the dullest and most perfunctory fetch 'quest' you can think of.

[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.

 

Well, that's a totally impartial and not half-informing comparison if I've ever seen one. Let's not touch on the several Witcher 3 quests that actually do have several outcomes and means of resolution (see Uldaryk's quest or the Towerful of Malice for a couple more examples) or the fact that the "good example" sounds like just about the dullest and most perfunctory fetch 'quest' you can think of.

 

None of that actually matters because it still boils down to following mindless step-by-step lists. From a gameplay perspective it's the same thing every_single_time. It plays more like a racing game with a few dialogue options thrown in.

 

You know how games nowadays like to do the (optional) thing in the quest log?  Yeah, that basically reduces this "open endedness" in quests to choosing an option from a drop-down menu. It completely robs any kind of sense of real involvement or accomplishment from the player when all you do is choose from a bunch of (optional) in the quest log and then follow the trail. All of that should be unmarked, hidden from the player so that it's up to them figure out the additional paths they can take.

 

But like I said, the game is designed for the lowest common denominator, so every quest is just doing what the game tells you instead of ever figuring out a solution yourself and perhaps *gasp* feeling like you're actually playing a game where you did something yourself instead of just following a carrot on a stick. 

 

So the bottom line is that it wouldn't make a difference what quest from TW3 you'd put in that comparison picture because it would be no different: walk to objective that's given to you on a silver platter due to mindless trail-following, hold R2 and activate some objects and listen to Geralt's comments, kill monster maybe. NEVER figure anything out with your brain. As a result, the only real difference between quests is the story content and what stuff you fight. There's no navigation and/or utilizing the information you got from the world in completing the task because all the information comes from the HUD in the form of step-by-step lists and dotted trails. 0 world, 0 real gameplay, and 0 immersion. 

Edited May 14, 2018 by Multihog

[artyom]

i dont have a dedicated graphics card so I run everything on lowest. POE lagged a bit more than Deadfire and its graphics were worse for me. So performance wise I think Deadfire beats POE by far. I did not even expect my computer would even handle Deadfire... but it actually runs very smoothly

[Almaar]

Well, i didn't expect all this replies. Thank you everyone! 

 

I read all your posts and i'm happy to see that other people feel the same way as me and i also understood other points of view. After 20 hours i tought i had an idea of how the game was but now i have to correct myself. This post is like an update after i kept playing.

 

Before i said the graphics overhaul and the design of some locations (compared with PoE1) didn't impressed me, maybe i was a bit harsh on the design part, however my other problem persists and is probably due to the bad textures resolution. I wonder if i am the only one who found himself constantly trying to zoom out further and further, i really wish i could also to be able to see more of the map.

 

Done with the graphics, in the last few days i've found out there are some bugged relationships and this for sure is one the reasons why i had so many odd conversations so far in the game. But what really is breaking my immersion it's the random dialogue between the characters that seems to trigger without a logic or specific event (see the Eder/Xoti example) and the npcs greetings. How do everyone know who i am? And everywhere i go? It seems like i have a sign on my forehead or something. 

 

Of course the dreadful italian translation doesn't help and i'm probably going to switch to full english. 

The thing is i can forgive some typos, but here most often than not they've done a literal translation which means that some way of saying, as well as the meaning and emphasis of what the characters is trying to say are completely ruined.

 

When i compared this game to Pirates i made a hyperbole, still i don't like the ship management part of the game. In PoE1 i didn't care too much about Caed Nua but i was able to improve it to the maximum easily, here i feel that improving the ship costs too much and i rather spend my money on something else. I really hope it isn't too pivotal to progress in the game as i feel there is already enough micromanagement to do in this game. 

 

Combat and class system. 

Honestly, thus far I think the combat is worse than PoE1. First of all I choose to play on hard difficulty but the game is too easy, i've yet to experience a really high stakes, difficult fight. I don't think level scaling will work since i'm destroyng high level enemies quite easily, maybe i'm going to switch to PoTD but in any case, i think there are some balance issues. I felt op right from the start.

 

Let me say that I like the power sources for each class, as well as the noise and sneak system. The party ai is better and the multiclass option, even though i don't reccomend it, it's another potentially nice addition. 

On the other hand i didn't understand some changes, like the party limit of 5 characters instead of 6 and the changes made to the abilities, now you can spam the same ability a lot more. This two things plus the power level mechanic made the combat so easy for me.

 

It was so cool when, for example in a dungeon like the Old Paths, you had to manage your abilities, stamina, injuries, ecc...to keep and don't waste your camp supplies. I know a lot of people don't but i miss that stuff. Oh and i almost forgot, I think the weapon proficiency changes and bonuses are redundant and could make characters op. My fighter Eder is nearly invulnerable with the shield proficiency and skills like rapid recovery, vigorous defense, defender, ecc... 

 

It's also way too easy to make money, just go to a dungeon, kill everything, take all the items, armor, weapons you can find and sell them to the first merchant you encounter.

 

To end, i'm enjoying the history and lore of Deadfire, as well as all the factions in the game. But sadly while i'm enjoying it i have the same feeling i had at the beginning. It feels rushed, less polished and it didn't need to be open world in my opinion, i miss the aesthetically beautiful and detailed regions of the first one.  

 

Tell me what you think.