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I want so badly to enjoy this game, it looks beautiful, plays amazingly, and worst: all my friends can't stop gushing over how it's "The most perfect RPG ever". so I bought it recently on steam, and fired it up. Have ZERO idea what I am doing I tried to make a "Paladin" architype. Melee, healing, heavy armor. No clue what any of the abilities or specific bonuses mean. started playing the game, loaded the tutorial, was killed in 2 minutes by a mage in a jail cell. Retried as a Sorcerer thinking they must be really strong. Made it 4 minutes and was killed by a lobster monster. Made it to dry land after reading some guides, and was killed again by another land lobster.

Is this game intentionally trying to be Dark souls, or do I just suck? I feel like it's not me because the "greatest RPG of all time" can't be marketed to just professionals only, and most of my friends suck worse than I do at videogames. What am I missing, when does it get actually fun, and if there a simpler way to play the game? Dying to every enemy I see isn't fun, it's doom eternal's last level in Isometric view.

It's just you



That said there's a period of all games where you die lots or lose lots and that's normally near the start. It's when you're still getting to grasps with the interface, the layout, the mechanics and all that. If you've a lot of RPG computer game experience I'd expect you to pick up this game fairly fast because its built on pretty standard concepts.

However if you're rusty or you don't really play those games that often or you tend to play more action rpg games than dnd style, then you might be finding there's a learning curve.



I'd say use one of their pre-generated characters first until you get a better handle on the skill and ability trees. Then play through the game and try to avoid using guides as much as you can


One tip with this game and some others is that you want to learn to save often and often in a pair - so you save one then save the other file then save the first. This way you've a back-up save that isn't too far behind, but behind enough to get you away from trouble


Another aspect with this game and some other RPGs is that there's no set "level" areas as such. So sometimes what you might need to do is a little bit of quest 1 then a little bit of quest 2 then a little bit of quest 3 - level up, buy some gear and return to a little bit of quest 1 etc... This isn't cheating, its simply working with the game and the fact that there's no linear pathway. So you need to a bit of adventuring around to find the best quests early on and to work your way through etc...


Eventually you'll get the hang of what to watch for in battle; how to spy ahead and make sure that there aren't dangers beyond your ability etc.... And also to load up a save and try a different approach.


The game has a degree of challenge to it; not quite as bad as dark souls, but its not a cake walk either.

So I have to admit, I was 14 when I beat Baldurs gate 1, and I was barely 24 when I beat Dragon's age 1, man that took FOREVER. I haven't played any games like this since then, unless you count the Diablo Series, which I don't

The interface is not intuitive however, I will argue that point. It's not like, If you do this, you can expect this to happen. I had no idea when you hit a barrel of oil it would explode. I thought it would just make a oil slick. Then the lobsters, I never expected a battle with a level 1 lobster to take 1-2 minutes. One or two whacks with the shiv and it needs to go down. Nothing in this game makes me feel like a baddass monster slayer, even when some of the characters are basically gods...

I'm a big cRPG fan, but I hate the D:OS games. The writing is awful, and the mechanics are pretty blah (the elemental interactions just aren't that interesting or deep), and the UI is offensively clunky.

The big thing with 2 is you really want to avoid combat as much as possible in the beginning, and get as much XP from non-combat interactions and quests as possible. You need this to get the right stat and skill ups so you can layer up defenses to survive the actual fights (and do damage, but default offense is better than default defense- you need the layer of magic armor to block status effects). Better (or in the beginning, any) gear helps a lot as well.

The 'challenge' of the game is basically building the characters the 'right' way so you can steamroll fights, and not overspreading your skill points- you need depth more than a bunch of low level skills.

Voss wrote:
I'm a big cRPG fan, but I hate the D:OS games. The writing is awful, and the mechanics are pretty blah (the elemental interactions just aren't that interesting or deep), and the UI is offensively clunky.

I've never liked Larion games, they always felt clunky with poor writing and generally like they have a really good idea, but just not the budget/skills to pull it off. They've been in the shadow of greater RPGs for years. Original Sin 2 though, I'd argue, is a huge revolution for them. It's far more polished, exciting and interesting. Still a few clunks with the writing, but its a LOT smoother and better put together than their earlier games. Overall its the first game they've made that I've actually enjoyed* and it made me excited that they got the Baldurs Gate 3 to work on (more so than Bioware who I feel have been on a slippery slope down hill since they peaked with Baldurs Gate 2)


* I picked most up cheap in bundles and such so I wound up owning most of them without really intending too.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
So I have to admit, I was 14 when I beat Baldurs gate 1, and I was barely 24 when I beat Dragon's age 1, man that took FOREVER. I haven't played any games like this since then, unless you count the Diablo Series, which I don't

The interface is not intuitive however, I will argue that point. It's not like, If you do this, you can expect this to happen. I had no idea when you hit a barrel of oil it would explode. I thought it would just make a oil slick.

This reminds me of my first try of Baldurs Gate 2 (my first proper RPG game) and casting fireball in close range. Everyone died. I decided it was a useless spell. It was a while before I realised that it was a super powerful spell, I just needed to learn to fire it at a distance; which meant learning how to pause to issue orders and how to scout ahead and such. Basically it was part of the games learning curve.

In the end you either learn a game or cave to it; if you cave you'll hate the game and find it an arduous challenge; if you rise to learn then you'll likely find it far more fun. A huge part is the attitude and way you approach a game. It's also good to pla ybefore reading too many guides. Otherwise you're still battling learning where things are whilst trying to learn how best to use them

Still a few clunks with the writing,

Second person passive voice to describe your characters actions (and dialogue!!!) as you do them is basically a war crime against linguistics.

It's funny, because I generally hate the stories of most AAA RPGs. The OS games, the DA games, the Kingdoms of Alamur, Pillars of Eternity, all had garbage plots. Even the NW series is trash. The point was, you were never supposed to treat them as stand alone SP RPGs, they were templates for you to make your own adventures and play with friends. If they released world building software for DA 1 or 2, I'd be there in a heartbeat. It was the perfect template for creating worlds. It's a criminal Shame that EA refused to re-open DA as a modded community game....

FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
I want so badly to enjoy this game, it looks beautiful, plays amazingly, and worst: all my friends can't stop gushing over how it's "The most perfect RPG ever". so I bought it recently on steam, and fired it up. Have ZERO idea what I am doing I tried to make a "Paladin" architype. Melee, healing, heavy armor. No clue what any of the abilities or specific bonuses mean. started playing the game, loaded the tutorial, was killed in 2 minutes by a mage in a jail cell. Retried as a Sorcerer thinking they must be really strong. Made it 4 minutes and was killed by a lobster monster. Made it to dry land after reading some guides, and was killed again by another land lobster.

Is this game intentionally trying to be Dark souls, or do I just suck? I feel like it's not me because the "greatest RPG of all time" can't be marketed to just professionals only, and most of my friends suck worse than I do at videogames. What am I missing, when does it get actually fun, and if there a simpler way to play the game? Dying to every enemy I see isn't fun, it's doom eternal's last level in Isometric view.

The game can be rather punishing, especially early on when you have no gear. It takes a lot from TTRPGs as Larian wants to try and create that kind of experience, but in a video game. To be fair, the game is a lot like a TTRPG. Most quests have multiple solutions (including non-combat options) and those solutions have more than one path to them. Often times putting things together is very on you so pay attention in convos and check your journal.

I think the thing to understand to really make the game click is where to specialize and where to generalize, and learning that it's okay to run from/avoid fights you can't win.

For the first point; a lot of killing enemies is chewing through physical/magical armor. Most enemies have more of one than the other but you'll want to specialize your character's damage towards one or the other. Mixing doesn't work outside of very specific builds. Summoning can be very flexible because it can let you do whatever damage type fits your situation based on what you summon your summon in (pop him on fire and he's a fire incarnate/totem). In terms of generalization, there's no reason for every character not to have 1-2 points in geomancy, aerothurge, and hydrophist. Skills like teleport, nether swap, mend, and regeneration (etc) and never useless and it's better to have more healing/mobility than less.

That'll help a lot in combat. From there it's really about learning that not all situations have to end in combat. You can talk your way out of a lot of them.

Another one is not to let the main story run away with you. You need to do side quests. Heck on the first island you have to enter the main enemy building, however there are several ways in. If you breach it once and do what you need to do that is great; or you can breach it several ways and gain more experience.