Thoughts so far of POEII

I just started exploring Neketaka, WOW it is hugh.

Had my first ship battle on the way over to Neketaka, interesting.

Whoever invented NPCs inaccessible because of time cycles in quest based RPGs needs to be banned from game industry.

You haven't played so hush.

Originally Posted by joxer
Whoever invented NPCs inaccessible because of time cycles in quest based RPGs needs to be banned from game industry.

Haven't I already answered on that? Hmmm. Maybe it got deleted.

Whatever. After 22 hours and utter annoyance with day cycles (modders please fix it!), a few more impressions:

Great
- voiceovers are top notch
- general quest design with puzzles and choices how to solve each
- quest rewards feel worth doing them
- sorting quests in journal based on location, journal entries instead of handholding
- UI
- factions reputation system
- Deadfire stories and substories nicely presented
- sidekicks who join AFTER you do their "personal" quests and don't bugger you again
- equipment variety (except weapons!)

Lousy
- pre-Deadfire stories impact Deadfire stories
- companions reputation system and their personal quest triggers plus progression depending on if they're in the active party
- inventory
- exploration "rewards"
- too many pets with almost the same buffs
- it won't be possible to level all of soulbound equipment by the game finale
- equipment enchanting rubbish
- ship ress (repair/heal) capped
- not enough of different weapons variety, too many exceptional onehanded swords make you want to put sword proficiency on everyone

That's from top of my head. There is more of it ofc, but…

FYI: you answered it but there is a time discontinuity taking place…

BTW why is it lousy that what you did the first game impacts the second game?

What's lousy is it's execution - it's meaningless, huge and abyssmal filler. There are no worldchanging critical consequences like chaos level in dishonored or killed off companion not present in sequels depending on your choice like in mass effect trilogy.
Not only that, whatever level Eder, Pellegrina and others who appear again in Eternity2 are brought back to level1 just because. Replay Eternity1 for as many times you want, they'll still be demoted to level 1 in the sequel.

Name me one Eternity2 player who does care what happened in previous game while playing Eternity2. If you find such one, ask them to look in the mirror - is Eternity2 a game of it's own with just a few remarks on prequel or just an expansion made as a standalone title because companions needed to reset their level and there's an additional feature: shipfights?

Keeping it spoiler-free, hows the story holding up?

Originally Posted by joxer
There are no worldchanging critical consequences like chaos level in dishonored or killed off companion not present in sequels depending on your choice like in mass effect trilogy.

I can't talk about the world changing stuff yet, because I haven't got to deal with what I did at the end of POE1 (aka breaking all the vows made to the gods). But Edér, Aloth and Pallegina can all be killed in POE1 and they will not appear in POE2 if that is the case (they won't show up if you didn't recruit them either). Pallegina recruiting is different based on her 2 endings as well.

You can have a 5 years old (adopted) orlan kid which was a possible outcome of a side quest in POE1 hanging around and interacting with your ship crew, well Eld Engrim at least.

There is a White March companion, the Devil of Caroc, that if killed in POE1 will end up

Originally Posted by azarhal
Edér, Aloth… can all be killed in POE1 and they will not appear in POE2

Good luck playing the first island that in such case obviously is designed as expansion where you have almost full party (or as moneysink for noname adventurers).
Who is around you when you wake up on the ship? Noone?

But anyway. What I'm saying there was no moment in Eternity1 where one companion must die. There is no Ashley or Kaidan choice.

Originally Posted by joxer
Good luck playing the first island that in such case obviously is designed as expansion where you have almost full party (or as moneysink for noname adventurers).
Who is around you when you wake up on the ship? Noone?

But anyway. What I'm saying there was no moment in Eternity1 where one companion must die. There is no Ashley or Kaidan choice.

Only the Steward is there. Also, on normal, tutorial island is probably doable with a duo if you take precautions and know your class.

Ashley vs Kaidan, lol. They literally replaced each others in the following games, to the point of sharing lines, it makes not difference who is alive plot-wise. While in Deadfire, nobody replaced the dead companions.

I got a bit farther in the game and pissing of the gods at the end of POE1…they didn't like that one bit and they like reminding you of it and how much they can crush you whenever they want.

Still I plain hate what they did and that's it.

Loving this game so far, easily my GOTY at this point.

Not mine, sorry. KCD is IMO way better.

Another thing I wasn't sure if true, but now I am.
Trashmobs on the map don't respawn just like in the first game. Which is great but isn't new.
Ships on the sea also don't respawn! Once plundered or sunk, they're gone for good. Yea, that no_faction merchant ship you nailed a few times is not a ship respawned, but those were a few ships with equal name/stats.

Me likey.

So what was the patch I got on Steam this AM? No patch notes anywhere… Really? I presume this is not the beta patch btw, as I'm not signed up for the betas.

There is no patch today, it's planned for tomorrow (tentatively).

Maybe you got an update to the digital extra?

Ah, maybe, though I haven't inputted any additional codes. I already got the the backer stuff upon release. Who knows?

People saying the game is too easy must be min/maxing the hell out of it or facing off against stuff lower level then them and they do not realize it.

The un-geared trash is easy, but I got two party wipe on normal so far against two different encounters that are technically at my level (if we consider the enemies are at the same level as my characters), but have much better gear than I do.

Or that's the level scaling up ward in action (which apparently doesn't work properly, lol).

The combat does seem a bit easier than POE1 but that might also be because your party does what they are commanded to do.

The AI helps, but I had encounters where I had to turn it off (I didn't create my own behavior) because they were wasting their spells/abilities. For example, my Chanter tend to use an offensive invocation right at the start, but out of range of enemies.

I wasn't minmaxing anything and most of the game on normal does feel easy.
I was able to nail even encounters with three skulls that are supposed to wipe you out - it wasn't my intention to win them but I just had to try and… Won. Then I tried some more, won again. But I had to carefully micromanage the party in those encounters.

Can't complain much, random trashmobs are supposed to be trash and encounters for sweating over do exist (those that outlevel you). The actual problem is bosses not different from random trashmob groups. No challenge.

Seems to me that the problem is lack of priestlike trashmobs on the enemy side. Not even once I saw enemies reviving during the encounter. Meanwhile Xoti in my party does the trick whenever I need it.

Ah well… Never cared much about difficulty in games that are not the same for everyone but have nightmare modes and similar who's is bigger idiocies.


Chanter was nice to have in previous game, but in Eternity2 feels kinda obsolete - everyone can summon anything, everyone can buff/debuff/heal. Maybe useful only if you'll equip "cursed" equipment that is lowering your health over time or drops stats, but with so many "noncursed" equipment available, I don't see why would anyone take chanter in Eternity2.

Default AI in my case (normal difficulty) works great except in cases where I was trying trashmobs that outlevel me and are marked with 2-3 skulls. In those encounters I had to micromanage things myself - default AI will never summon anything, will never drink any pots nor use drugs or something.


Anyway, another thought. Once you level up enough to start exploring anything and everything inside or outside of questlines you'll notice puzzles puzzles everywhere.
Yes, please!