Pillars of Eternity II - Released

Hmmm, a funny thing happened: my reaction for the announcement of PoE2 is just a simple "ohh, nice, whatever".

I think I'm a bit fed up with predictable sequels, even if the media says it's a superior game. (D:OS2 comes to mind - played for about half an hour, then got bored for some reason)

I call this the Marvel Movie effect: Avenger movies are coming out regularly, each one is bigger, longer, more spectacular, more expensive, etc than the previous one. I dutifully watch'em (and fill Marvel's purse with money), yet my excitement has been long lost.

On a less somber note: the new Bard's Tale game though. Yeah baby, I'm absolutely psyched to play this one.

Originally Posted by Darkheart
Most importantly: How (fast/tactical) is combat?

They made combat very slow, probably slower than in Tyranny. With the slow mode on, it is extremelly slow.

As to combat content, been watching streamers who were playing on story mode: they were challenged by placing inputs in real time when the sequence required to complete a fight is often under four inputs.
Not easy iin these conditions to developp any quality RTwP combat.

I played for about 2 hours last night. It was ok, but nothing that drove me to want to play for longer - I know it's a sequel, and you can multi-class (I've done that with one new companion so far), but playing my cipher again, all the same powers, feats etc. Given that you start with a clean slate, as usual, some changes would have been nice there. Not to say it's not enjoyable - I enjoyed PoE too - but nothing stands out as "wow". Hopefully once I get to see more of the games that wil change.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
I finished PoE before the expansions were released. Does it make sense to play these expansions now? Or are they meant to be played during PoE's plot?

White March has to be played before finishing POE.

Originally Posted by booboo
I played for about 2 hours last night. It was ok, but nothing that drove me to want to play for longer - I know it's a sequel, and you can multi-class (I've done that with one new companion so far), but playing my cipher again, all the same powers, feats etc. Given that you start with a clean slate, as usual, some changes would have been nice there. Not to say it's not enjoyable - I enjoyed PoE too - but nothing stands out as "wow". Hopefully once I get to see more of the games that wil change.

I played for cca 4 hours. Also picked cypher. Didn't multiclass anyone, stopped when I got the ship partymember type NPC.

Also didn't notice any "wow" moment, in fact I had a few gimme_a_break moments. I can understand you starting from level 0, but Eder?
I'm not saying the whole game is mediocre, it's just the "tutorial island" and story start that sux.

Originally Posted by joxer
I'm not saying the whole game is mediocre, it's just the "tutorial island" and story start that sux.

Outside you, booboo (who I haven't seen enjoy a new game in years) and a 3rd person on another website, who might be either of you as far as I know, everyone else is saying that Deadfire start is way more engaging than POE1 start.

and I personally really liked what I saw in streams (no haven't started it yet, download finished near bed time last night, just had the time to create my world state).

Also, more complains that playing a sequel with the same character end up giving you the same abilities. If someone hates the idea of direct sequels so much, what's the point of buying them?

Playing the same character is not what bugs me. It's having the same companions I didn't care about in previous game.
In other words, there is no Garrus and no Aria. Eternity1 didn't have such types of companions. Even so, it didn't have Milten, Gorn nor Diego.

What's more engaging I don't know. In my case nothing was engaging, in fact I can't wait to get enough of fresh companions that didn't exist in Eternity1 and remove those Eternity1 sidekicks that are now level0 just like main character without explanation.
Sure, the starting island does have a few nice things (for example hidden cave passage, fire trial puzzle, +1 perception cat), but those didn't make me thinking OMG can't wait to continue the game.

Remember, I'm saying the "tutorial" area is meh. I'm not saying the whole game is a disaster.

Additionally, I'm not discussing Eternity2 on other websites. I will troll on Steam, sure, but the only thing I'll discuss elsewhere can be potential bugs.

Also, like PoE 1, I don't expect candid reviews until at least a month has gone by. Buy if you're in the mood for a [probably buggy] infinity engine game. Hold off if you're tired of the genre or Obsidian launch fiascos.

I wouldn't call it buggy already. The only bug I noticed so far is lack of topmost tooltip during character creation (not a biggie as you can read details by selecting something else where an attribute isn't at the top).

What did get on my nerves was game starting in borderless window and not fullscreen. 4x not being part of high settings is also somewhat annoying, but understandable - Obsidian was making consoledesigns games previously so it's kind of a good thing they didn't put silly stuff like 30 FPS as default.

Originally Posted by wolfing
This is a game I'll definitely wait a bit to play. With so many classes/subclasses/multiclass combinations I bet there will be a bunch of balance adjustments in the near future.

Yes, Sawyer is all about "balance". What utter crap.

I wish you could move around/get rid of some of the ability-toolbars…played for like 4 hours or so last night, monk. Much the same as first game, but there's more graphical detail and you can zoom in further, both of which are nice improvements.

Originally Posted by azarhal
Outside you, booboo (who I haven't seen enjoy a new game in years) and a 3rd person on another website, who might be either of you as far as I know, everyone else is saying that Deadfire start is way more engaging than POE1 start.

and I personally really liked what I saw in streams (no haven't started it yet, download finished near bed time last night, just had the time to create my world state).

Also, more complains that playing a sequel with the same character end up giving you the same abilities. If someone hates the idea of direct sequels so much, what's the point of buying them?

I didn't say I didn't like it, I just said there was nothing "wow" about it. Maybe it will improve - I hope so. Also, I can criticize something and still enjoy it. I have criticized practically every game I have played, but I have also said on numerous occasions that I enjoyed them. There are many games I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole, this is not one of them.

There sure are a lot of negative nancys here that focus on the bad rather than the good.

Originally Posted by ChienAboyeur
They made combat very slow, probably slower than in Tyranny. With the slow mode on, it is extremelly slow.

Yeah, catering to the lowest common denominator is rarely a good thing. How was combat in PoE too fast? It felt pretty much the same as Baldur's Gate. Ah well.

The game is looking really nice so far though. The addition of dynamic shadows adds a lot to the environment, and the voice acting bark strings by the locals is a nice touch. It's looking very decent even before the first patch release.

I have heard the game is absolutely huge, from other reviews I saw. And regarding complaints about the slow start - I did watch a youtube review where the reviewer said the game's start is "meh".

He said the first ten hours or so wasn't very interesting, and that the story didn't engage him, but then said the game got much better when he started doing side quests. He goes on to give the game a lot of praise, especially the combat, which he says is outstanding, and very deep, tactical and enjoyable.

So I think its possible for those who are saying the start sucks, the game may get much better the further you get into it.

The youtube review I was talking about -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXFWK1bWWM4

Originally Posted by rjshae
Yeah, catering to the lowest common denominator is rarely a good thing. How was combat in PoE too fast? It felt pretty much the same as Baldur's Gate. Ah well.

It's adjustable though, right?

Originally Posted by booboo
I didn't say I didn't like it, I just said there was nothing "wow" about it. Maybe it will improve - I hope so. Also, I can criticize something and still enjoy it. I have criticized practically every game I have played, but I have also said on numerous occasions that I enjoyed them. There are many games I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole, this is not one of them.

It's the way you write your posts, you make it sound like everything you play is super boring and uninteresting to you and I fail to see how someone would enjoy something they find super boring. Sorry if I was mistaken.

Originally Posted by JDR13
It's adjustable though, right?

There is a dynamic slider usable in and out of combat.

Originally Posted by Arkadia7
I have heard the game is absolutely huge, from other reviews I saw. And regarding complaints about the slow start - I did watch a youtube review where the reviewer said the game's start is "meh".

He said the first ten hours or so wasn't very interesting, and that the story didn't engage him, but then said the game got much better when he started doing side quests. He goes on to give the game a lot of praise, especially the combat, which he says is outstanding, and very deep, tactical and enjoyable.

So I think its possible for those who are saying the start sucks, the game may get much better the further you get into it.

The youtube review I was talking about -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXFWK1bWWM4

It's also possible that different people value different things. Someone who's most interested about the mechanics probably has different expectations than someone who's most interested about the story.

Originally Posted by JDR13
It's adjustable though, right?

Yeah, probably. Stuff has changed around so I'm still adjusting.

It is adjustable, and I have only made it to the first town but still very much enjoying the novelty of the bright new shiny. It's inventory system is 1000% better than the tedious clusterfuck of DD:OS2, so that makes me happy.