| VersusEvil said: After playing 22hrs of Pillars of Eternity 2 I can safely say that this is the most stable playable version of the game I've tried but... It's inferior to Pillars of Eternity 1 and isn't even in the same league as Divinity Original Sin 2. I'll Try to break this down abit; + Writing: It's absolutely fantastic and goes well beyond the Obsidian standard we've come to expect, from the narration that I adore to the depth of the lore and how the disposition system allows you to approach conversions in any playstyle that you wish and how that has a knock on effect towards your companions and how their interactions within conversation have an effect on their relationship with other companions. This is where the game excels, it's the games strongest aspect but also it's Achilles heel because it highlights just how far behind the rest of the game is. - The World: I was never a fan of the introduction of the archipelago, the ammount of content is pretty limited and filling 70% of the map with water is a really poor bandaid to hide this. Most of the islands are very limited, here's a 2 minute fight or here's some water/fruit you can gather or a cave you can enter. There's just not enough to do outside of the main cities which in fairness are great and that's where the bulk of the content is. Having the archipelago was so unnecessary it took so much away from the game. - Resource Management: you simply don't make enough money in this game naturally to support your ship and crew, without being a pirate and attacking pretty much every ship you come across you theres just no way to be able to get the water and food options you'll need for a crew who isn't going to mutiny against you. The first game allowed you to basically be a pacifist (heck there's even an achievement for doing so) this tho due to having to manage your ship resources doesn't. There's also the problem of just how one dimensional it is, raid a ship > sell the stuff you get > buy food/water > rince and repeat. Now ofc you can not bother with the ship stuff, get a mutiny against you, be a terrible Captain but that so much of the game you'd be avoiding. - - Class Building: this is one that pains me to even write but I hate the class builder in this game. In DoS2 every skill you acquired had weight, it influenced your playstyle in some way. I'll give you an example of my last playthrough, built a character around traversal, had an ability to let me get 1 free movement and 2 skills that allowed to me close the distance in an instance. When I was near an enemy I would break their physical defence and turn them into a chicken (the chicken runs away and my perk of opportunity would get a free hit usually killing them) I would them throw chloroform at another putting them to sleep Or use a skill that makes them take damage on movement and then terrify them so they'd run away, I'd then go invisible so I couldn't get hit. In PoE2 the class builder is so convoluted it's so much stuff that nothing has any weight, there's just to many spells or skills that's it's diluted itself. - - - Bugs: oh boy here we go again with another shit show of an Obsidian game. So currently my favourite recurring bug is the SFX bug where I can here the sound of crashing waves ... Everywhere, every single area. The load times being 10-12s are great ... Play for abit and they become 28-35s. I've had the world map crash and not able to close multiple times. NPCs standing right next to fucking area leave markers, being stuck in a city not able to select your ship without a restart. Seriously, Obsidian need to wake the fuck up and get their act together, stop releasing buggy games. Final thoughts: theres just something inherently not fun about PoE2, I loved the first game alot but this is just a poor man's sequel, almost uneeded. Maybe I've been spoiled by DoS2 peeling back the layers and mechanics and giving such a rewarding and fun game that I simple can't find games like PoE2 ... Appealing anymore. PoE2 has mechanics and layers falling over themselves like dumb circus elephants. If the writing wasn't as good as it is then I would have maybe stopped by now. |
After playing my 3rd playthrough. I agree 100% with the Writing, the World, and Bugs parts so won't comment :)
I'm playing at the highest difficulty and never use the blue thing (blessing or something).
Difficulty: The game becomes really too easy at some point but it is always the case for games like that, including DOS2). So I'm not really complaining.
Resource Management: This is the one I disagree with you about. Not sure what difficulty you are playing but only with the loot from the fights, I have plenty of money. My water/food is already full (like almost all square with at least 200+ each).
Class Building: I really enjoy the classes and the multi-class system is really good in this game. While I can understand what you mean with all those skills and the fact that at the end they may look kinda the same. Playing at the highest difficulty helps a lot with that as some stuff becomes really important (recovery/initiative (turn-based), penetration, etc...). Summons are also a big deal later in-game. I agree that the tree is probably way too big (and esp. when you have 2 of them per characters) but I do not see this as a bad thing, more options is good :)
UI: You did not talk about that but I have issues with the UI in general. The main problem is that other than having this tooltip on top/left of the screen for a mob you hover on... You cannot really have any information about the buffs/debuffs/spells, just the name and sometimes the icon only... I think the game has a lot of great idea and systems for min/maxer, but not being able to see the data is kinda of meh...
Bugs: I have no problem with loading time (playing on SSD) and it loads really fast for me, so not my issue. The main issue is how SLOW the combat becomes at some point and being stuck in a fight without any way to end it. This is a game-breaker :( I had to reload so many times to start a fight again until it finally goes through it... AI is dumb as F. too :)
If you are interested in my current playthrough classes:
- Fighter/Barbarian (2h)
- Ranger/Priest
- Paladin/Chanter (1h/shield)
- Monk/Rogue (dual w)
- Sorcerer/Druid
I should have gone Ranger/Chanter and Paladin/Priest but was too late.. Next one :)
Last edited by Imaginedvl - on 08 April 2021
