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 illuknisaa wrote:
When I buy a game I follow these steps:

1. Cause I'm a hetero cis scum, never preorder (don't even get games close to release)

2. Don't trust a single word rps or "pc" gamer says

3. Game costs more than 20€? just lol no.

Seems like typical solid advice. Don't trust game review sites/magazines and such and don't go for pre-order or as i'd like to add early access. A friend mentioned early access is basically paying to beta test a game. In some cases it is beta but in others so many features are missing it's nearly alpha and i'm not paying a ton for a game with half the features missing.

 Sigvatr wrote:
If I wasn't overly manly, I would cry tears. This game, ladies and gentlemen, is the absolute epitome of pc video gaming. It's perfection. It mops the ground with the utter trash Bioware produces nowadays. If you want a modern Bioware game, a real RPG, with depth, complexity, an interessting story, well-written characters and so much love gone into it, then, by all means, play this game. It's perfect.

Ok. Color me impressed to see Sigvatr typing something like this. This has to be the RPG of the decade.

Is this a fair review?
I have zero interest in the verbose dialogue and intricate combat micro management.
I enjoyed baldurs gate et al but does this game do anything different than those originals apart from homage them in a reimagined way?

This was my first KS.

I played it for an hour and the plot really escalates quickly (from the humble start of picking berries for your stomach ache - seriously!) and it's interesting. If I were still in high school this could be one of those games that destroyed my life. But nowadays I just don't have the focus and time to engage in a storyline that will last for dozens of hours of play.

Kinda my fear too, sort of game that could last weeks and simply cant put that much time in anymore

Apparently a playthough will take around 60 hours.

Did anyone here pledge enough for the lore book?

I was thinking of skipping the collector digital edition and go for the dark horse hardback book + steam code just for the game.

Truly excited to get my hands on this. Not sure if I should pull the trigger right now or wait for a sale though. My steam backlog is just redonk right now...

It does look awesome though and BG 2 is probably my all time favorite game.

I always like the idea of games like this way more than I actually wind up enjoying them. Still it looks like a pretty good specimen of its type. I'll probably pick it up when it goes on sale, make a bunch of characters then spend a handful of hours unable to get into world then leave it to languish always thinking "I really should play that again some time".

Maybe I'll play through BG now...

 Chongara wrote:
I always like the idea of games like this way more than I actually wind up enjoying them. Still it looks like a pretty good specimen of its type. I'll probably pick it up when it goes on sale, make a bunch of characters then spend a handful of hours unable to get into world then leave it to languish always thinking "I really should play that again some time".

That's how I was with Dragon Age: Origins.

So far the only issue with the game is the bizarre difficulty spike at the end of Endless Paths.

Well, that and Unconquerable breaking Grieving Mother.

 Silent Puffin? wrote:


Has anyone found wizards to be actually useful?

The key thing with wizards and AoE casters in general is having high intelligence to maximize the area you hit, and good might for the damage. When placing area of effect spells, you will notice two circles. The inner circle will hit enemies and allies. The outer circle will only hit enemies. This makes it easier to land those types of spells on top of your melee characters and tank.

Unfortunately pretty much all of the premade companions are poorly specced and not optimally skilled attribute wise. You can hire and create your own party members from the inn, but then you miss out on the companion's stories. There is also an IE Mod that can be used to change the classes of the companions, or re-pick all their talents and skills (though not their stats at this point), though it will disable achievements if you use the mod.

Nah. The key thing with wizards is getting them to survive the first two rounds of combat. The wizard companion often dies before we even make contact with the enemy, as he gets singled out for ranged attacks and teleports/burrowing. That's without him lifting a finger, and with other ranged party members already cutting loose on the enemy.

Eumerin wrote:
Nah. The key thing with wizards is getting them to survive the first two rounds of combat. The wizard companion often dies before we even make contact with the enemy, as he gets singled out for ranged attacks and teleports/burrowing. That's without him lifting a finger, and with other ranged party members already cutting loose on the enemy.

Yeah, it's like Aloth has a "kill me first" sign taped to his back.

Of course, to be fair, "kill the wizard first" is usually my standard tactic in most situations, too.

One thing that's really "meh" about the game is that custom characters don't have personal stories (duh) while the premade NPC characters with background are terribly built.

I had my first crash coming out of the Temple in the first town (the one with the horrible tree).

Gawd damnit! That was a really tough challenge and then I crashed walking out of it

I just competed Ori and the Blind Forest (565 deaths!) and I'm about two hours in to POE, I'm enjoying it but its not absolutely utterly fantastic.

To me, its basically Neverwinter Nights with a much more engaging story and a way better party system.

Its great, but I'm not seeing why it is perfection.

Ill let you know if I change my mind after another ten hours.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:

Eumerin wrote:
Nah. The key thing with wizards is getting them to survive the first two rounds of combat. The wizard companion often dies before we even make contact with the enemy, as he gets singled out for ranged attacks and teleports/burrowing. That's without him lifting a finger, and with other ranged party members already cutting loose on the enemy.

Yeah, it's like Aloth has a "kill me first" sign taped to his back.

Of course, to be fair, "kill the wizard first" is usually my standard tactic in most situations, too.

I swapped him out when I got Grieving Mother.

Grieving Mother <3.

I bought this against my better judgement, but I'm still managing to enjoy it so far despite it hitting a good deal of my pet peeves. One thing that is annoying the hell out of me though is the UI. I get they were going for the old school feel here, but did that need to include the game handling like a bus with flat tires?

 Chongara wrote:
I bought this against my better judgement, but I'm still managing to enjoy it so far despite it hitting a good deal of my pet peeves. One thing that is annoying the hell out of me though is the UI. I get they were going for the old school feel here, but did that need to include the game handling like a bus with flat tires?

What's so bad about the UI? I feel like it's modernized enough.

I forgot how much I enjoy getting the things a person had on them as loot. I hate killing some uber elite guy in plate armor with a greatsword and you get... some money and a random potion.

Although I finally did away with the provided companions and built my own party after a very nearly disastrous fight in the lighthouse in Defiance Bay. I took a hit of about a level on average for logical stat and ability choices.

Now I am running a mountain dwarf main tank, me as chanter off tank, death touched wizard nuker, pale elf rogue dps/ my stealth and mechanics person, meadow folk barbarian dps, and a wood elf priest of Berath. Maybe I'll do a stupid easy playthrough to get all the companion storyline and dialogue stuff. I've also started my hard ironman playthrough. Still not sure if I want to do my path of the damned as Ironman or solo. We'll see.

 Bromsy wrote:

 Chongara wrote:
I bought this against my better judgement, but I'm still managing to enjoy it so far despite it hitting a good deal of my pet peeves. One thing that is annoying the hell out of me though is the UI. I get they were going for the old school feel here, but did that need to include the game handling like a bus with flat tires?

What's so bad about the UI? I feel like it's modernized enough.

When I have my whole party selected, I can't access any of their abilities. I have to click through manually to each one first! It should give me a hot-bar with everyone's abilities.

In combat the default action is a straight move, not an attack-move so a minor misclick makes a melee character run out taking free strikes, or a ranged guy run in. The default behavior should require me to shift or ctrl, for "Dumb" movement (this doesn't even seem configurable)
(party members in general seem to sit around slack-jawed if they're not ordered to attack first, which makes pulling enemy groups back to a prepared position kind of tedious)

Area attacks are a bitch to use. A lot of them seem to be cone-type attacks from the casters face, but when I cast them I can't do any kind of movement. Meaning I need to manually move my mage into position, which makes lining up shots somewhere between finicky and impossible. I'd much rather be able to Shift+Click to select a position for the mage to move to and THEN select the facing of the cone. My mage also has this bouncing flame-ball spell, but the UI only shows you the original trajectory and not the bounces even though all the terrain is static and it doesn't bounce off creatures! Just show me where the damn spell is going to go.

Enemy click-boxes are like really small and there's no "Snap to target" to feature, meaning targeting in melee is a pain. Give me clear hit boxes, snap-to or at least some kind of cycle-targets feature (this seems configuerable for party emembers).

Why can't I access world map travel from friendly/cleared areas without having to run to the edge of the current map?
Why can't I fast-travel between the way points on a cleared/friendly map?
Why is there not "Wait X Hours" feature. When I just want to get on with a construction project I need to either sleep at inn a bunch of times or just travel back/forth for no reason.
Why can't I enabled object highlighting to be on all the time? WHY MUST I HOLD DOWN TAB GAME, WHY MUST I HOLD DOWN TAB!?!?
Why is there no toggle to show the reputation change value of dialogue options, like there are for the skill/attribute prerequisites?

Why can't I queue up targets? Focus fire is important like in any other game where multiple active targets at the same time. Every time I have down someone I have to go wrangle all the party members one by one to get them coordinated again.

I have other general user-friendliness nitpicks beyond the UI.

At least at normal difficulty the "Resting" and "Health" mechanics largely feel like a superfluous add-on. Camping supplies are so cheap and the game is so generous with where it lets you camp, it doesn't seem function as much of a restriction at all. I can camp basically between every encounter if I like, it's just the cap on camping supplies is just nuisance factor making me run back to town.

I'll agree with the not being able to fast travel except at the edge of the maps; other than that I don't mind any of the stuff you posted. I actually enjoy having to micromanage all my guys in combat

 Bromsy wrote:

Spoiler:

 Chongara wrote:

 Bromsy wrote:

 Chongara wrote:
I bought this against my better judgement, but I'm still managing to enjoy it so far despite it hitting a good deal of my pet peeves. One thing that is annoying the hell out of me though is the UI. I get they were going for the old school feel here, but did that need to include the game handling like a bus with flat tires?

What's so bad about the UI? I feel like it's modernized enough.

When I have my whole party selected, I can't access any of their abilities. I have to click through manually to each one first! It should give me a hot-bar with everyone's abilities.

In combat the default action is a straight move, not an attack-move so a minor misclick makes a melee character run out taking free strikes, or a ranged guy run in. The default behavior should require me to shift or ctrl, for "Dumb" movement (this doesn't even seem configurable)
(party members in general seem to sit around slack-jawed if they're not ordered to attack first, which makes pulling enemy groups back to a prepared position kind of tedious)

Area attacks are a bitch to use. A lot of them seem to be cone-type attacks from the casters face, but when I cast them I can't do any kind of movement. Meaning I need to manually move my mage into position, which makes lining up shots somewhere between finicky and impossible. I'd much rather be able to Shift+Click to select a position for the mage to move to and THEN select the facing of the cone. My mage also has this bouncing flame-ball spell, but the UI only shows you the original trajectory and not the bounces even though all the terrain is static and it doesn't bounce off creatures! Just show me where the damn spell is going to go.

Enemy click-boxes are like really small and there's no "Snap to target" to feature, meaning targeting in melee is a pain. Give me clear hit boxes, snap-to or at least some kind of cycle-targets feature (this seems configuerable for party emembers).

Why can't I access world map travel from friendly/cleared areas without having to run to the edge of the current map?
Why can't I fast-travel between the way points on a cleared/friendly map?
Why is there not "Wait X Hours" feature. When I just want to get on with a construction project I need to either sleep at inn a bunch of times or just travel back/forth for no reason.
Why can't I enabled object highlighting to be on all the time? WHY MUST I HOLD DOWN TAB GAME, WHY MUST I HOLD DOWN TAB!?!?
Why is there no toggle to show the reputation change value of dialogue options, like there are for the skill/attribute prerequisites?

Why can't I queue up targets? Focus fire is important like in any other game where multiple active targets at the same time. Every time I have down someone I have to go wrangle all the party members one by one to get them coordinated again.

I have other general user-friendliness nitpicks beyond the UI.

At least at normal difficulty the "Resting" and "Health" mechanics largely feel like a superfluous add-on. Camping supplies are so cheap and the game is so generous with where it lets you camp, it doesn't seem function as much of a restriction at all. I can camp basically between every encounter if I like, it's just the cap on camping supplies is just nuisance factor making me run back to town.

I'll agree with the not being able to fast travel except at the edge of the maps; other than that I don't mind any of the stuff you posted. I actually enjoy having to micromanage all my guys in combat

Which is fine. If any/all of that were options, you'd certainly be free to turn them off and play a game that controls like they did 19 years ago.

I couldnt't hold myself any longer and I bought this game.

I can only describe it as "this is so fething good"

The best part about the game is character creation. My wife and I spent 2 or even 3 hours just theoretizing different builds...we have about 10 (!) pages of handwritten paper with our notes. Min-maxing is back, no more Biocrap hand-holding "you're too stupid to skill the character right" bullpoo for console peasants.

Hail the glorious master race!

I caved. Downloading on steam now.

 Soladrin wrote:
I caved. Downloading on steam now.

Great Timing, patch just got released!

Laughed at the patch. +1 damage for unarmed Monks, now that will surely save Unarmed from being super useless

Playing a Paladin, Shield-Bearer, Moon Godlike with 2 dump stats (Might + Dexterity). I cannot even scratch enemies, but boy do I take the damage.