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

[Athelas]

I think, keep engaging them with your tanks is still the best strategy though. The worst thing you could do is give up position and cause a chaos where high damage guys get to your squishies.

It's the best strategy no matter what they throw on your tank (he can soldier through it), It's why confusion/charm using enemies stand out so much, they're the only effects that stop him from doing his job.

Don't worry, I've got you covered:

 

[Zero Credibility]

I agree that buffs need some tweaking, but I trust Sawyer to balance it.

Mages need meatshilds to protect them if they want to live. This is the same for players. Also, the game could use more gun wielding enemies.

...

I'm dead serious. I'm only comparing to the last 10 years. And yes, the story is on par with MotB, basically leagues ahead any story in videogames we have been seeing.

Yeah well, his balancing led to this situation in the first place. What's he gonna do, increase the bonus to +5? Like that is going to make one bit of difference. Unless he changes something fundamentally it's just not going to happen. No hard counters hits wizards hard.

Also, even if we limit "anything" to "anything from the last 10 years", it still doesn't cut it. MotB alone blows it out of the water. Nice goal post move though.

 

[Irenaeus]

There's tons of things he can and will do. MotB is around the same level story wise (though much shorter), but with worse combat. PoE is the best cRPG since VtmB. I move my goals however I want. Pray I don't move them any further.

Also, this "review" is the worst thing in Western History since the fall of Constantinopla.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Sure. I have quotes saved on my computer where Josh Sawyer states multiple times that Pillars of Eternity will have reactive tactical combat. My experience is pretty much the exact opposite of that. Combat is not very tactical and not very reactive. The combat in this game is mostly strategical, revolving around encounter strategy and positioning.

No arguing here

...but personally I reload most of the time a character gets KO'd so I am essentially trying to save characters every now and again reactively to a gameplay restriction I set upon myself....

That's the oddest thing you've ever said.

The Infinity Engine games had several things that required you to react, and to be tactical IF you didn't rest spam the shit out of the game so you could always easily beat stuff with your biggest spells. You had to manage your HP which did not automatically heal, so often you weren't at full strength for the majority of encounters in the game. 0 HP = death so you had to react to damage a lot more than you do in PE.

I agree and that was my concern from day 1. I don't have to worry about my companions as long as my tanks are alive. Resting is easy, so it's a non-issue. Keeping your companions alive added an extra challenge (perhaps the most important challenge as the hardest fights in the IE games were the ones were keeping all men alive was the hardest); removing it was a mistake. Then again, would it get 10/10!!! without all these 'mistakes'?

 

[Lhynn]

I dont reload, i just go get something to drink while my guys fight, they have their orders. If someone falls they will rise back up again, so who gives a shit. I forget to stock up on supplies because who gives a crap. game has no consequences, i never regret not doing something, its just a slog.

 

[Irenaeus]

I don't believe you. You are just set out to trash the game.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I dont reload, i just go get something to drink while my guys fight, they have their orders. If someone falls they will rise back up again, so who gives a shit. I forget to stock up on supplies because who gives a crap. game has no consequences, i never regret not doing something, its just a slog.

Edgy.

 

[Athelas]

That must amount to a lot of pee breaks.

 

[Seari]

Irenaeus your trolling was funny, but you shouldn't have brought MotB into this you fucking asshole.

 

[Hatred]

That must amount to a lot of pee breaks.

As long as he isn't 'recycling' its all good right.

 

[Athelas]

I don't know what that means, but it sounds...unclean.

 

[Irenaeus]

Irenaeus your trolling was funny, but you shouldn't have brought MotB into this you fucking asshole.

I didn't bring MotB into this, some moron did.

 

[Lhynn]

I dont reload, i just go get something to drink while my guys fight, they have their orders. If someone falls they will rise back up again, so who gives a shit. I forget to stock up on supplies because who gives a crap. game has no consequences, i never regret not doing something, its just a slog.

Edgy.

Wish i was, thats how my last playtrough came to end really, i got bored.
so i made a party of characters with more active abilities, no one uses firearms, etc. To have something to do, still not sure if i want a cipher, while powerful they are a pain in potd because their skills keep failing at low/mid level, which is kind of frustrating. which makes me wonder who was the asshole that thought that outright increasing stats on enemies is a good way to increase difficulty.

 

[Athelas]

which makes me wonder who was the asshole that thought that outright increasing stats on enemies is a good way to increase difficulty.

You mean every game developer ever? PoE actually changes enemy composition on non-PoTD difficulties, which is more than can be said for most every game ever made.

 

[Lhynn]

If i remember corectly AP just sent more enemies and made minigames harder.

 

[Zero Credibility]

Irenaeus your trolling was funny, but you shouldn't have brought MotB into this you fucking asshole.

I didn't bring MotB into this, some moron did.

Oh, and I thought we were friends.

But you are quite right, I brought it up. You just said PoE had a far better story than anything you've seen in a videogame.

 

[Irenaeus]

Irenaeus your trolling was funny, but you shouldn't have brought MotB into this you fucking asshole.

I didn't bring MotB into this, some moron did.

Oh, and I thought we were friends.

But you are quite right, I brought it up. You just said PoE had a far better story than anything you've seen in a videogame.

We are friends. And you were right, I had forgotten about MotB. Still, my point is that the narrative is p. good for generic teenage fantasy fiction.

 

[Ulrox]

This game has the best story of any game ever made before or since!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4YhK2Msk-8

 

[Anac'raxus]

To those of you who like PoE I was wondering:

1) Do you regard Dragon Age: Origins as a classic old school cRPG with fun and challenging and strategic/tactical (take your pick) combat?
2) Do you enjoy MMORPGs?
3) Did you play and/or enjoy Ultima Underworld 1 at the time it was released?
4) What were your favorite computer games from the 1980s that you played and enjoyed at that time?

1) No. It's not as terrible as some Codexers would make it out to be, though, perhaps even better than the first Baldur's Gate (WHICH IS NOT FUCKING OLD SCHOOL EITHER WITH ITS BASTARDIZED RTWP SYSTEM)
2) No? I haven't even tried one yet, though.
3) No
4) Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, M1 Tank Platoon, F19 Stealth Fighter, Pirates! (You really should let me list some early '90s games, too. 1996 was the real end of the old school/start of the decline (Diablo + 3d accelerator add-in cards).)

 

[Irenaeus]

This game has the best story of any game ever made before or since!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4YhK2Msk-8

Is it better than the Space Bar?

Rated M for manure

 

[Bubbles]

Looks like a cheap Feeble Files ripoff.

 

[l3loodAngel]

To those of you who like PoE I was wondering:

1) Do you regard Dragon Age: Origins as a classic old school cRPG with fun and challenging and strategic/tactical (take your pick) combat?
2) Do you enjoy MMORPGs?
3) Did you play and/or enjoy Ultima Underworld 1 at the time it was released?
4) What were your favorite computer games from the 1980s that you played and enjoyed at that time?

I can't help wondering if those of you who enjoy PoE combat tend to be a bit younger than old zombified geezers like me who started playing computer games in the (late) 1970s. It was so much easier for me to get enjoyment from computer games in general when I was a teen or tween. Now that I have a significant amount of gray hair it takes a lot to hold my interest. So psuedo-MMOGs like Dragon Age or PoE just cannot hold my interest very long. I'm guessing that if I could age regress myself to about the age of 10 -12 when I was actually enjoying games like Archon, Castle Wolfenstein, Crush Crumble and Chomp, Choplifter, and an occasional playthrough of Akalabeth or Adventure that I would be able to get more satisfaction out of games like PoE or DA:O. In fact they would probably have been my favorite games back then. They would have seemed utterly amazing I think compared to what was around at the time.

1. No!
2. No!
3. No. I was like 6 back then.
4. Look 3.

I do find POE combat somewhat enjoyable even as it has plenty of problems that I mentioned previously. However, I found AOD combat much more enjoyable and fun, even though many people have bitched over its difficulty.

 

[Ulrox]

To those of you who like PoE I was wondering:

1) Do you regard Dragon Age: Origins as a classic old school cRPG with fun and challenging and strategic/tactical (take your pick) combat?
2) Do you enjoy MMORPGs?
3) Did you play and/or enjoy Ultima Underworld 1 at the time it was released?
4) What were your favorite computer games from the 1980s that you played and enjoyed at that time?

1: Far from it. Dragon age origins was blashphemy to me who replay an IE game atleast twice a year, back then probably replayed them more than that. Dragon age was advertised as a successor to infinity engine greatness but ended up being much worse than that.
2: Some, but mostly for the adventurous (hiking simulator) and pvp aspects of them. I played WoW for years because there was nothing else to play. Played Guild wars 2 for quite a while too.
3: Nope, and I haven't played it now either.
4: The list is too big to include here, but looking at lemon amiga's top 100 isn't far from the truth. I'm from 1987 but we had an amiga and for years I would play those games. I have a huge hardon for old games for this reason. http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/votes_list.php

 

[ArchAngel]

For those that didn't know, when you move your recovery is slowed by 50%

It's not stated anywhere in the game, but we found it in the game code.

If you previously just used a ranged attack it's slowed further again.

ALL Movement is punished during combat, whether by recovery slow or disengagement attack.

You should probably mention that recovery time used to be completely halted during movement in the earliest beta iterations.

Little did we know that even the mere ability to move around freely in a video game was something not to be taken for granted.

Moving freely in combat is like free mods. The Big Man cannot wait for a chance to take it away from us.

 

[Anac'raxus]

For those that didn't know, when you move your recovery is slowed by 50%

It's not stated anywhere in the game, but we found it in the game code.

If you previously just used a ranged attack it's slowed further again.

ALL Movement is punished during combat, whether by recovery slow or disengagement attack.

You should probably mention that recovery time used to be completely halted during movement in the earliest beta iterations.

Little did we know that even the mere ability to move around freely in a video game was something not to be taken for granted.

Moving freely in combat is like free mods. The Big Man cannot wait for a chance to take it away from us.

Having so much freedom of movement you can dodge spells and boss attacks just by clicking is popamole arcade game shit.

P.S. even the grazes on the crowd control spells break engagement long enough to re-position if you aren't already in a clusterfuck...