Review RPG Codex Review: Darth Roxor on Disappointment, thy name is Pillars of Eternity

[Volrath]

A game that has IE style combat, was mentioned as having IE style combat, causes 'shock, horror' in supposedly 'learned' Codexian reviewer and various acolytes that it has IE style combat.

Excuse me, but the combat is not IE style. The controls and camera are.

It's IE style because it's shit... you know... like IE

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Oh, really?

Well let's take a closer look then. I didn't want to do it because it might hurt a lot of posters but fine. You made me do this.

Patriarchy of Engines
First, let's take a look at the engine. What do we have? It's the same old XenForo with some addons sprinkled on top. This is 2015 people, what the actual fuck. No in-house engine? I suppose it's alright to have this dated engine powering the debate if the other elements are strong though, so let's see how it fares.
...

Paraphrasing of Endearment
Yeah, you know what? I said this thread was 7/10 and I'd post in it again. I still stand by that statement because y'all are a bunch of lovable hobos. I love hobos so you're all a-okay in my books.

Shit review, didn't even address the quality of meta-posts.

 

[Angthoron]

Somebody should review this thread

Content: TL;DR/10
Quality: 2/10
Writing: 4/10
Butthurt: 11/10
Entertainment: 5/10 initially fun but gets repetitive; new subplots introduce nothing new
Graphics: 0/10 minimal amount of pictures
Replayability: 7/10 would post again

Summary: Another overhyped thread with pathetic production values, zero planning and shitty balancing. Writing is rock-bottom level, characters are cliché, plot follows the best conventions of Shyamalan and CBS series to maximize plot twists and drama.

Despite the painful lack of custom portraits and the terrible C&C or lack thereof, the thread still manages to deliver, somehow. In that respect, it's better than PoE.

Oh, really?

Well let's take a closer look then. I didn't want to do it because it might hurt a lot of posters but fine. You made me do this.

Patriarchy of Engines
First, let's take a look at the engine. What do we have? It's the same old XenForo with some addons sprinkled on top. This is 2015 people, what the actual fuck. No in-house engine? I suppose it's alright to have this dated engine powering the debate if the other elements are strong though, so let's see how it fares.

Piles of Emptiness
The content of most of the posts is ridiculously lacking. It's either "I liked the review" or "Muh feels were hurt, pls call the ambulance for my butt", fucking seriously? This on the self-prided RPG Site of the Year? Yeah no, this won't ride, way things are going I see RPG Watch taking that title next year. Hell, maybe even DAC, if they pay for the server again. Also some shitty jokes. Wow, guys, just wow. This is all we could have in 2015. I've lurked better discussions in 2004. Fuck off.

Pathetic on Everything
Like I said before, the quality of the posts is horrific. Some of them even lack basic capitalization and punctuation; I am not even trying to ask for coherence because I think I'd see better coherence from a congress of apes. Yeah.

Plenty of Enemas
Butthurt is stellar, but only because people can't operate on facts in 2015, apparently. Looks like Demolition Man was a great prediction, everyone's a dripping douche with a bunch of muhfeels. If people were all men with massive schwags, we'd just group up, smack ourselves around for a while and the owner of the largest dong (probably SMA) would walk away the winner. Thanks for pussifying the world, Obama!

Parakeets of Ecstasy
I don't know what that actually means but it's more entertaining than most of this thread. Fuck, this thread makes me miss a nuclear winter and PoE's loading screens in Act 3. Good job. Only so many times a man can find himself giddy with reading WELL I THINK THIS GAME IS GREAT FUCK YOU ROXXOR. Also, the OHO I DIDN'T LIKE THIS GAME HAHAH REVIEW IS SPOT ON posts suck as much.

Pictures of Escapism
Where are the pictures? Okay, some effort with animated gifs on the last page, but a little too late. DQ right there.

Paraphrasing of Endearment
Yeah, you know what? I said this thread was 7/10 and I'd post in it again. I still stand by that statement because y'all are a bunch of lovable hobos. I love hobos so you're all a-okay in my books.

Reviewception.

Engine: Quote clusterfuck
Graphics: Sorta well divided into paragraphs, clearly marked titles in bold.
Content: Lots of words, and different writing styles (CAPS, slang, numbers, punctuation, yay for variety!)
Writing: Tries hard to be snarky, but doesn't really drive the knife in, so to speak. The bold opening claim of triggering people doesn't quite seem to be followed through, either. It's a fairly [benevolent] post.
Quality: It's good, despite the bland content.
Entertainment: Not bad for an indie. At least it keeps filler content to a minimum, and leads the reader on a fairly straightforward path, on to the post's natural conclusion.
Butthurt: None present whatsoever, nor any generated, seemingly.
Re-re-reviewability: Utter. This very review is proof to that.

Overall score: 6.8/mindfuck. Would review again.

In-universe review of rerereview:

I see you're a hater of reviews, so I hope a real rerereview will be published soon by someone competent that will give it the mark it deserves (10/10). What a joke, never gonna read Jools' rerereviews again. Codex has gone down the toilet.

 

[mastroego]

No matter the cop-outs used now by Infinitron, it's 100% beyond the shade of doubt obvious that he's trying to enforce an agenda here (goodwill with the developers)

No hard feelings towards Infinitron, but I don't think anyone was even doubting this at this point.

 

[Jools]

Somebody should review this thread

Content: TL;DR/10
Quality: 2/10
Writing: 4/10
Butthurt: 11/10
Entertainment: 5/10 initially fun but gets repetitive; new subplots introduce nothing new
Graphics: 0/10 minimal amount of pictures
Replayability: 7/10 would post again

Summary: Another overhyped thread with pathetic production values, zero planning and shitty balancing. Writing is rock-bottom level, characters are cliché, plot follows the best conventions of Shyamalan and CBS series to maximize plot twists and drama.

Despite the painful lack of custom portraits and the terrible C&C or lack thereof, the thread still manages to deliver, somehow. In that respect, it's better than PoE.

Oh, really?

Well let's take a closer look then. I didn't want to do it because it might hurt a lot of posters but fine. You made me do this.

Patriarchy of Engines
First, let's take a look at the engine. What do we have? It's the same old XenForo with some addons sprinkled on top. This is 2015 people, what the actual fuck. No in-house engine? I suppose it's alright to have this dated engine powering the debate if the other elements are strong though, so let's see how it fares.

Piles of Emptiness
The content of most of the posts is ridiculously lacking. It's either "I liked the review" or "Muh feels were hurt, pls call the ambulance for my butt", fucking seriously? This on the self-prided RPG Site of the Year? Yeah no, this won't ride, way things are going I see RPG Watch taking that title next year. Hell, maybe even DAC, if they pay for the server again. Also some shitty jokes. Wow, guys, just wow. This is all we could have in 2015. I've lurked better discussions in 2004. Fuck off.

Pathetic on Everything
Like I said before, the quality of the posts is horrific. Some of them even lack basic capitalization and punctuation; I am not even trying to ask for coherence because I think I'd see better coherence from a congress of apes. Yeah.

Plenty of Enemas
Butthurt is stellar, but only because people can't operate on facts in 2015, apparently. Looks like Demolition Man was a great prediction, everyone's a dripping douche with a bunch of muhfeels. If people were all men with massive schwags, we'd just group up, smack ourselves around for a while and the owner of the largest dong (probably SMA) would walk away the winner. Thanks for pussifying the world, Obama!

Parakeets of Ecstasy
I don't know what that actually means but it's more entertaining than most of this thread. Fuck, this thread makes me miss a nuclear winter and PoE's loading screens in Act 3. Good job. Only so many times a man can find himself giddy with reading WELL I THINK THIS GAME IS GREAT FUCK YOU ROXXOR. Also, the OHO I DIDN'T LIKE THIS GAME HAHAH REVIEW IS SPOT ON posts suck as much.

Pictures of Escapism
Where are the pictures? Okay, some effort with animated gifs on the last page, but a little too late. DQ right there.

Paraphrasing of Endearment
Yeah, you know what? I said this thread was 7/10 and I'd post in it again. I still stand by that statement because y'all are a bunch of lovable hobos. I love hobos so you're all a-okay in my books.

Reviewception.

Engine: Quote clusterfuck
Graphics: Sorta well divided into paragraphs, clearly marked titles in bold.
Content: Lots of words, and different writing styles (CAPS, slang, numbers, punctuation, yay for variety!)
Writing: Tries hard to be snarky, but doesn't really drive the knife in, so to speak. The bold opening claim of triggering people doesn't quite seem to be followed through, either. It's a fairly [benevolent] post.
Quality: It's good, despite the bland content.
Entertainment: Not bad for an indie. At least it keeps filler content to a minimum, and leads the reader on a fairly straightforward path, on to the post's natural conclusion.
Butthurt: None present whatsoever, nor any generated, seemingly.
Re-re-reviewability: Utter. This very review is proof to that.

Overall score: 6.8/mindfuck. Would review again.

In-universe review of rerereview:

I see you're a hater of reviews, so I hope a real rerereview will be published soon by someone competent that will give it the mark it deserves (10/10). What a joke, never gonna read Jools' rerereviews again. Codex has gone down the toilet.

Doesn't matter. It's still gonna be doritos/10 ROTY.

 

[InspectorRumpole]

Content: TL;DR/10
Quality: 2/10
Writing: 4/10
Butthurt: 11/10
Entertainment: 5/10 initially fun but gets repetitive; new subplots introduce nothing new
Graphics: 0/10 minimal amount of pictures
Replayability: 7/10 would post again

Summary: Another overhyped thread with pathetic production values, zero planning and shitty balancing. Writing is rock-bottom level, characters are cliché, plot follows the best conventions of Shyamalan and CBS series to maximize plot twists and drama.

Your review is way too negative, and is exaggerating the bad parts. It's clear that you hated this thread before it got published. Typical codex edge-lord.

 

[Angthoron]

Oh, really?

Well let's take a closer look then. I didn't want to do it because it might hurt a lot of posters but fine. You made me do this.

Patriarchy of Engines
First, let's take a look at the engine. What do we have? It's the same old XenForo with some addons sprinkled on top. This is 2015 people, what the actual fuck. No in-house engine? I suppose it's alright to have this dated engine powering the debate if the other elements are strong though, so let's see how it fares.
...

Paraphrasing of Endearment
Yeah, you know what? I said this thread was 7/10 and I'd post in it again. I still stand by that statement because y'all are a bunch of lovable hobos. I love hobos so you're all a-okay in my books.

Shit review, didn't even address the quality of meta-posts.

I'll address the more interesting aspects in an add-on, maybe a sequel.

 

[karnak]

I still remember fondly the day when a friend of mine barged into my house with 4 floppy disks, in that distant year of 1992. He said: "Hey! I've got this cool game here. It's called Ultima Underworld! You should try it. I think you'll like it!"

4 fuckin' floppy disks!! For a game that I had never heard of in my life before.

Nowadays some guys get a buget of 3.000.000$ to make a game that only fits in 2 DVDs. Said game is released after an over-hype of several years. The game is mediocre.
Not good. Not bad. Just mediocre.

Then some young people spend days and days and days fighting wether this game is the most or least mediocre game in these last couple years.
Yeah, instead of playing the mediocre game or playing better games they spend hours of their precious life insulting each other, while the devs are spending their money on wine and whores.

These are strange times, indeed. When gamers spend more time commenting about games rather than play the games.

As for me... I'm just sitting here. Waiting for Witcher 3 to come out.
The game will probably be mediocre as well. But at least I hope to be able to see some good RPG tits before I die.

 

[FeelTheRads]

because I obviously "don't get" the game

It's always nice when people who don't actually like RPGs like Infinitron and Roguey tell you what an RPG should be and how all other RPGs were shit.

Roguey's reviews were never posted as anything more than butthurt-inducing jokes. There was no notion that they were to be taken seriously in any capacity.

But this was and and everybody complaining about it is actually right and not "baited" or "butthurt", right?

 

[Jools]

Then some young people spend days and days and days fighting wether this game is the most or least mediocre game in these last couple years.
Yeah, instead of playing the mediocre game or playing better games they spend hours of their precious life insulting each other, while the devs are spending their money on wine and whores.

You do realize here on the Codex, many of us actually find it way more entertaining and stimulating to rant and insult each other about mediocre games (or trannies, or politics, or the KGB, or niggers), than to play said mediocre games themselves?

 

[karnak]

You do realize here on the Codex, many of us actually find it way more entertaining and stimulating to rant and insult each other about mediocre games (or trannies, or politics, or the KGB, or niggers), than to play said mediocre games themselves?

Ohhh, this youth... (sigh)

 

[Sensuki]

Well it's a little too dark, the minimap that is.

I think they fixed that in latest patch.

Now you can't see your light radius/FOV in the area map lol. GG.

 

[Bubbles]

Here's SA's reaction:

Well, Codex put up a review. It's from one of the old-timers there, so it's pretty harsh. Still, lots of good criticism. I do agree that I still don't know why you can't cast most buffs pre-fight. Most buffs are neither long enough or strong enough to warrant spending too much time on casting them all before I enter a fight. So why can't I just lay down a Blessing or Eldritch Aim? It seems like the developers sort of looped around and, in the name of fighting grognards or whatever, became the same sort of pedantic people they were trying not to be.

---

The review is way too harsh - obsidian's worst game, really? - but makes mostly good points if you skip the hyperbole. There's another codex review coming soon by a pair of guys who're really enjoying the game so I'll be interesting to compare.

---

Shit like that is why RPG Codex is a joke to practically everyone who doesn't post on RPG Codex.

---
"It's a terribly written and, worse, incredibly long review"

RPGCodex.txt

---

Nah, it's not really a properly representative Codex experience without so much as a single mention of the perils of miscegnation or how uppity women are ruining video games.

---

I'm glad PoE is a game RPG Codex neckbeards aren't happy with, tbh.

---

I don't see how anyone who's not a whiny super grognard could agree with 90% of that review. It's also contradictory in several places.

"I (very) subjectively don't like the design decisions" isn't really a basis for a critical review.

---

I also don't think he really understands the game very well. Some of his criticisms of specific classes are only true if you insist on building them like their dnd counterparts despite mechanics that encourage you not to. Like, he complains that priests are squishy, when they can be decent off tanks if you take advantage of buffs, put them in heavy armor and give them a weapon that matches their deity.

---

The best contradiction is that he complains about Druids being too good, and then later says something about "wanting to just play Icewind Dale again instead".

Druids were just as crazy good in that game as in this one. Like, they even had basically the exact same spells.

---

I like the bit in the Rpgcodex review where they discuss the philosophical question you get asked at the end of the game as if it was an A>B question that has already been answered like "why do things fall to the ground"

---

I can't begin to read that RPG Codex review because jesus christ [words, words, words] but so far every single negative review I've read has wanted this game to be something it isn't. Usually that means complaining about how it isn't a AAA title with full voice acting ; sometimes it means complaining that this is the first game in a series and doesn't have the bells and whistles and high polish and complexity you only get in sequels because the dev team doesn't have to spend all that time building the engine; sometimes it means they're upset that the game has modern features like graphic displays of spell radius or some other set of features that aren't exact clones of the 2nd Edition AD&D ruleset.

The game certainly has flaws but it's the best thing in this genre in over a decade and if you want more games in this genre you'll buy it and you'll like it, full stop.

----

The RPGCodex review was terrible and you should feel terrible if you're trying to glean anything from it but pity or humor.

---

I opened up that rpg codex review, scrolled down to a random point, read this:

"The #1 example of everything that is wrong with this game’s dungeons is probably the Endless Paths of Od Nua, aka the Kickstarter “megadungeon”, complete with 15 floors of content. This entire dungeon could be completely scrapped or repurposed and the game would only be better for it. Simply put, it is very obvious that its designers have never played any Ultima Underworld game or Arx Fatalis. "

And then laughed and closed the window. Must be a sad life being a videogame hipster.

---

Ultima Underworld is some overrated shit. Give me Od Nua anyday over that boring slog.

---

I really don't give a shit what some RPGCodex nerd thinks, or what the Obsidian forums think. I liked the game.

---

I think there is a large group over at RPGCodex that wanted a direct copy of Baldur's Gate 2, but with turn based combat.

---

The review's intro (and multiple times throughout) lambasts PoE for not being enough like the IE games then the conclusion says it is too much like BG1, is derivative and doesn't take any risks. The game is bad to him no matter what.

---

Reading the comments on the RPGCodex review is worse than the review itself. Holy shit.

---

The thread on the Obsidian forums is full of people who agree with this review -- and most of them (not all, admittedly, but the significant majority) have like 2000+ posts on the official Obsidian forums.

These are guys who spent huge swathes of time over the past two years hyping themselves about this game and the idea of this game that they had in their heads. They were burned out on the game long before it even got released.

These reactions do seem to vindicate Infinitron's concerns.

 

[Black_Willow]

I remember how butthurt Roxor was in the comments for Roguey's 'editorial'. I'm glad that he's recovered and is all smug now.

 

[Angthoron]

But what does the IGN forum think about Codex's review? Is NeoGAF upset?

 

[Decado]

I liked the game a lot. I want to write a review.

 

[Jools]

I liked the game a lot. I want to write a review.

Don't let us hold you back. Go on. Express yourself.

obligatory

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

Shit like that is why RPG Codex is a joke to practically everyone who doesn't post on RPG Codex.

It would be funnier if SA wasn't a joke to practically everyone who doesn't post on SA.

EDIT:
Oh my God, they think that Ultima Underworld is a hipster game. What a bunch of utter retards. It's not like it's one of the most popular entries in one of the most important RPG franchises in history.

 

[Infinitron]

I liked the game a lot. I want to write a review.

Sure, go ahead, if you don't mind being the third (though you might end up finishing it before VD, heh).

That said, if you're interesting in maximizing your utility to the Codex(tm), you might want to check if there's not some other soon-to-be-released RPG you would want to review instead: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/the-list-of-incline-2015-edition.91705/

 

[Hatred]

Bubbles Thanks for posting that. I always suspected I wouldn't like the SA forums. Now I know. So thanks.

 

[Morkar Left]

Oh, really?

Well let's take a closer look then. I didn't want to do it because it might hurt a lot of posters but fine. You made me do this.

Patriarchy of Engines
First, let's take a look at the engine. What do we have? It's the same old XenForo with some addons sprinkled on top. This is 2015 people, what the actual fuck. No in-house engine? I suppose it's alright to have this dated engine powering the debate if the other elements are strong though, so let's see how it fares.

Piles of Emptiness
The content of most of the posts is ridiculously lacking. It's either "I liked the review" or "Muh feels were hurt, pls call the ambulance for my butt", fucking seriously? This on the self-prided RPG Site of the Year? Yeah no, this won't ride, way things are going I see RPG Watch taking that title next year. Hell, maybe even DAC, if they pay for the server again. Also some shitty jokes. Wow, guys, just wow. This is all we could have in 2015. I've lurked better discussions in 2004. Fuck off.

Pathetic on Everything
Like I said before, the quality of the posts is horrific. Some of them even lack basic capitalization and punctuation; I am not even trying to ask for coherence because I think I'd see better coherence from a congress of apes. Yeah.

Plenty of Enemas
Butthurt is stellar, but only because people can't operate on facts in 2015, apparently. Looks like Demolition Man was a great prediction, everyone's a dripping douche with a bunch of muhfeels. If people were all men with massive schwags, we'd just group up, smack ourselves around for a while and the owner of the largest dong (probably SMA) would walk away the winner. Thanks for pussifying the world, Obama!

Parakeets of Ecstasy
I don't know what that actually means but it's more entertaining than most of this thread. Fuck, this thread makes me miss a nuclear winter and PoE's loading screens in Act 3. Good job. Only so many times a man can find himself giddy with reading WELL I THINK THIS GAME IS GREAT FUCK YOU ROXXOR. Also, the OHO I DIDN'T LIKE THIS GAME HAHAH REVIEW IS SPOT ON posts suck as much.

Pictures of Escapism
Where are the pictures? Okay, some effort with animated gifs on the last page, but a little too late. DQ right there.

Paraphrasing of Endearment
Yeah, you know what? I said this thread was 7/10 and I'd post in it again. I still stand by that statement because y'all are a bunch of lovable hobos. I love hobos so you're all a-okay in my books.

Funnily enough this is actually how Darth Roxor reviews.

It's funny for one or two reviews but gets old pretty fast.

The problem I have with Roxors style is that he seems to have some kind of three strikes and out system in place for judging if a game is good or not. Three (amount can vary slightly) flaws, no matter how big or small they are, and the game is judged as shit.

No chance of mentioning anything positive or putting the flaws in relation to the rest of the game or - god forbid - other games (besides some imaginary dream-rpg that will never see the light of day). Just ranting and ranting. No remorse, no redemption, every fiber of the game is unredeemably shit.

This makes the review pretty much useless as a real recommendation, even if the flaws mentioned are often acurate. This gets pretty obvious when you compare some of the polls here on the forum about the quality of the game. The majority of codex members who played the game seem to like it. Personally I think the game is worth playing BUT I see some much needed improvement of the difficulty by patches as well.

 

[Bubbles]

But what does the IGN forum think about Codex's review? Is NeoGAF upset?

We already discussed NeoGAF's reactions earlier, keep up. Besides, the SA thread is read by Sawyer, so what they're posting will effectively become Obsidian's opinion of us.

That said, if you're interesting in maximizing your utility to the Codex(tm), you might want to check if there's not some other soon-to-be-released RPG you would want to review instead: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/the-list-of-incline-2015-edition.91705/

Keep in mind that Adventure Y is not on the list yet. It's probably the closest we're going to get to a good version of PoE.

 

[tuluse]

Can we split the codex staff conspiracy shit to another thread? Since the review did get posted anyways it's p immaterial.

 

[Angthoron]

Funnily enough this is actually how Darth Roxor reviews.

:thatsthejoke:

The majority of codex members who played the game seem to like it.

I don't see which side's the majority, and what does that matter? It's the eternal "Well majority liked Oblivion, fuck majority" or "Majority didn't like Alpha Protocol, fuck majority". Do people have their own opinions? If they do, a good time to use them is fucking always. If not, well, sticking to "majority" is a safe bet.

And yeah - if you find that you don't usually agree with the reviewer, simply don't follow their recommendation. The point is more along the lines of finding someone who has a similar taste to yours and going with that. Or buying in and forming your own opinion. Which you obviously did, so - good on you. I do agree about Roxor's style doing more harm than good to the legitimacy of his own reviews though. Hedging, juxtaposing with positive aspects and things of that nature won't necessarily detract from the impact of the review. Of course, it's his review, so he's free to pick his style.

Personally I think the game is worth playing BUT I see some much needed improvement of the difficulty by patches as well.

Sure. It's worth playing, and no, it's not really horrible. It's disappointing as a "Independent game funded with a pretty good KS, by Obsidian, based on IE games" kinda game, because a lot of people expected a pretty round spherical cow in vaccuum and got, well, I guess a more or less usual Obsidian game, but without the depth of a usual Obsidian game.

 

[Ulrox]

These reactions do seem to vindicate Infinitron's concerns.

I'm not sure I would use the word vindicate here. That people cannot handle a negative review shouldn't be the reason you keep from posting it. That is dishonest and something politicians would do to 'control the message'. I am very happy that the review was posted, particularly now instead of together with VD's review - and this from the perspective of someone who likes PoE. I thought the review was good and contained much good food for thought for Obsidian. Mostly disagree with the combat design and encounter design of PoE and since it is :"Obsidian" we're talking about here, many people feel that they could have done much better. I hope Obsidian reads the review and reconsiders their approach to certain things to make PoE even better than it already is. I honestly doubt Obsidian are butthurt over a review such as this, they more so than any others must realise that there are things about PoE that are weak and could be much better, and that a site of rpg grognards would disagree with a lot of their design decisions shouldn't really come as a big surprise.

I completely agree with the strange ventilator's actions here.

We already discussed NeoGAF's reactions earlier, keep up. Besides, the SA thread is read by Sawyer, so what they're posting will effectively become Obsidian's opinion of us.

If Sawyer only has an opinion from other people of the codex instead of forming them himself then I have a very low opinion of him as a person.