I'm a storyfag. Or more like lorefag really. If a game gives me a world that's coherent, believable,
My beliefs were shaken by the silly naming of the world's supernatural. The ripping off of names from European folklore and the jumbling of vowels (meaning the use of the "funny" accented version of the commonly used ones) really killed the world's believability to me, instead making it phony and tedious.
How is PoE's world "lived-in"? The game severely lacks population and "social" flavour. There are little to no "random conversations" to be had, and there doesn't seem to be much going on. What little actually
is going on, appears isolated and just a "prop". I'm thinking, for one, everything in Twin Elm. There is really not much sense of "community" or "township" in that settlement, whereas one would expect the same.
We have nations fighting wars for reasons which make sense, with power relations changing, alliances shifting, fortunes reversing, and reversing again. We have technological, scientific, and social progress.
And none of it really matters, not even in the shameful powerpoint excuse for an ending sequence.
In fact we have a range of cultures that's far broader and more interesting than anything I remember seeing in any cRPG,
Again, I don't share this feeling. The "copypaste" feeling is too strong (see my point above, about naming), the lore is merely dumped onto the player (and even gets trite soon), and I don't perceive this great, broad variety of cultures you speak about. Haters gonna hate, but even vanilla WoW did the cultures thing better.
drawing from a much broader range of historical cultures than just about any other game I've played.
So, they're good at ripping off?
Eora exists for its own reasons, not just as a sandbox for you to play in.
I agree on this, PoE is definitively NOT a sandbox, not to any fathomable extent. In fact, it's little more than a 2-lane motorway with little, bland traffic (the NPCs) and big billboards passing by (the "lore" dumps).
The writing and story were really good as well.
S.WAT?
We had a compelling, memorable, [antagonist]
Maybe if you're 12 and Uncle Tom's the only thing you've ever read?
Thought you said you're a storyfag. When did we begin giving a shit about voice acting? It's all mediocre unless it's a R* title, anyway.
equally compelling allies like Lady Webb, and a general flow that kept a lot of freedom without losing momentum.
Dunno, rally. I had to force myself to play the game in the middle of act 2. There's this point where I really couldn't care less about any of it. And I know others share the same feeling. And, what freedom are you talking about, exactly? The freedom to complete insignificant (from a game world's point of view) secondary quests in any order?
the main story had some problems with character motivation and acknowledgment of character choices or background (what if I thought being a Watcher was the coolest thing evar?)
and the companion writing was somewhat uneven,
I thought you just said the writing and story were "really good". How does "really good" cope with a un-motivating and un-compelling main character?
The companions had distinct and interesting personalities,
I wonder what kind of people you know IRL, to find PoE's companions interesting...
Actually, you know what? This is where I actually can't even do this anymore. You love the game, however unfathomable your reasons, and not even your own contradictions can change your mind: you're being gravely and unreasonably blind to the blatant. Irenaues at least was open about this, and never tried to provide any argument more complex than "best gaaym evah" for his "PoE is jewritos/10 GOTY 2nd coming of IE era" stance.