The writing in this game is average

[Commissar Draco]

I would love game to have option to play as follower of Woedica and all those religious Paladin orders; they chosen all those most dull options so far and Priest is too weak in this game to play him as war priest bringing the heathens the redemption throu application of warhammer and cleansing fire.

 

[Jaedar]

Speaking of the gods. What are their powers... exactly?

They don't seem that impressive in the game or lore.

The gods playing chess with the lives of mortals cliche with little direct influence in the world other than granting some power to their followers and interfering with their souls.

The writing at the spot where you pray to the various gods for assistance is well done. Whoever did that did a good job.

The god favor quests are probably my favorite part of the game, so I won't argue the writing in that part. But their "powerful blessings" come down to like +1 might.

 

[Haba]

Hey, one of them gives +1 lore. And literally tells how teh spirits will help you to... get answers in dialogue. Not a fukkin' god you wanna cross, I tells ya.

 

[LizardWizard]

I'd say it's above average for a videogame, but....let's just say, it's really, REALLY apparent that Grieving Mother and Durance were written by Avellone, as the writing is on another level compared to the majority of the game.

That's true. The sad thing is it was pretty much paint by numbers Avellone.

 

[selkin]

I just started the game but I do agree, the writing is slightly disappointing, annoying at places so far.
But the starting of story is not for my liking either. I would tell the DM to fuck off if he was going to drag through my character like a doll in the first 1 hour of the story.
I didn't like being a son of a god in BG1 either. Don't tell who is my character....

 

[Nihiliste]

The writing is certainly nothing compared to PS:T, KOTOR2, or MOTB. Hopefully inXile will deliver on that front. Can't believe Obsidian let Ziets go. As a storyfag, I'm also still a bit miffed about how Avellone was used to market this game and then was barely involved.

That said, they did a good enough job building the world lore that I'm enjoying the game. Hopefully as they have a chance to work on the sequels/expansions, writing and lore will be improved, now that the heavy lifting of establishing the world and engine is done.

 

[Irenaeus]

I still think the writing is great, tho

 

[Keshik]

Speaking of the gods. What are their powers... exactly?

They don't seem that impressive in the game or lore.

The gods playing chess with the lives of mortals cliche with little direct influence in the world other than granting some power to their followers and interfering with their souls.

The writing at the spot where you pray to the various gods for assistance is well done. Whoever did that did a good job.

The god favor quests are probably my favorite part of the game, so I won't argue the writing in that part. But their "powerful blessings" come down to like +1 might.

That was a shame, was expecting some big boon and perhaps more consideration needed into the god to back you. Quests were fun though. Durance's acting up when you meet Magran and others was good too

 

[dragonul09]

I still think the writing is great, tho

The writing is ''great'' in a way, but it feels like they hired a mediocre student with a liniguistics degree .The game writing feels so disjointed and detached from the player that I barely cared about my main char and most npc.
The writing is good but the delivery is bad and uninteresting.

 

[Irenaeus]

I still think the writing is great, tho

The writing is ''great'' in a way, but it feels like they hired a mediocre student with a liniguistics degree .The game writing feels so disjointed and detached from the player that I barely cared about my main char and most npc.
The writing is good but the delivery is bad and uninteresting.

The linguistic side feels awesome to me, even if I'm no expert linguician, it's leagues above what I see in other games. I'm still in Act 2, but so far I care about everyone. Unfortunately, I spoiled myself about some companions.

Spoiler

I've heard Kana's story (one of the most interesting companions so far) doesn't go anywhere and he's wasted. On the other hand, I've heard that Aloth's story (one of the most boring companions so far) is really interesting. So I guess it evens out and it's still very entertaining.

The delivery so far is uneven, but the good parts far outweight the bad parts. At least for what I was expecting.

 

[Nihiliste]

It feels a bit too much like NWN2 - quest through a generic fantasy world without too much motivation for the main character to push forward, at least so far in the first half. It's significantly better in quality than NWN2 but unfortunately the overall effect is similar. You're right that its miles better than the majority of games, but just not reaching the levels we know Obsidian are capable of.

 

[Lhynn]

The writing is ''great'' in a way, but it feels like they hired a mediocre student with a liniguistics degree .The game writing feels so disjointed and detached from the player that I barely cared about my main char and most npc.
The writing is good but the delivery is bad and uninteresting.

The writing is good but the writing is shit? the fuck?
the writing is bad, it has some decent ideas that would be worth exploring, but especially for an rpg, its just not good.

 

[nikolokolus]

I still think the writing is great, tho

The writing is ''great'' in a way, but it feels like they hired a mediocre student with a liniguistics degree .The game writing feels so disjointed and detached from the player that I barely cared about my main char and most npc.
The writing is good but the delivery is bad and uninteresting.

The quality of writing is only about the delivery.

 

[Jasede]

Now that is highly debatable.

You can rate the form without saying anything about the content. It's very possible to express tired, boring ideas in a fluent, concise and yet evocative manner just how it's very possible to express fresh, genuinely intriguing ideas with lacking craftsmanship.

A popular example is H. P. Lovecraft, who is often considered a mediocre or below average writer who, however, told very intriguing stories, poorly. Lately that claim has come under a lot of flak though because now more people are taking the view that he wrote in his lumbering, gothic style on purpose.

 

[Haba]

Speaking of the gods. What are their powers... exactly?

They don't seem that impressive in the game or lore.

They have very impressive ending slides if you piss them off.

 

[Darth Roxor]

... (endgame spoilarz)

Spoiler

So the writers of this game think this is supposed to be some very deep philosophical dilemma or what? A question that was answered 400 years ago by Motherfucker Descartes, AND YET HIS ANSWER IS NOT EVEN PRESENT IN THE CHOICES TO PICK?

ARE YOU SHITTING ME

also gotta love sudden endgame info dump to begin with

 

[Jasede]

It's hard not to sound like a fanboy but it's kind of silly to critique the writing in an RPG when your accompanying screenshot offers a staggering seven different responses, all unique. What games still do that?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Seven different half-arsed responses to a question that was answered in the 17th century is an example of good writing?

Where is my cogito ergo sum, FFS

 

[Haba]

It's hanging from a tree branch in Gilded Vale, that's where.

 

[Kel]

It's hard not to sound like a fanboy but it's kind of silly to critique the writing in an RPG when your accompanying screenshot offers a staggering seven different responses, all unique. What games still do that?

sure.... unique... all answered by the same response from her...

 

[Jasede]

Well, to be fair, I am not that far yet. I would have really hoped, even assumed, they would have had custom replies.

But then, it's just reusing that old PS:T set piece... again.

 

[Kiste]

Seven different half-arsed responses to a question that was answered in the 17th century is an example of good writing?

Where is my cogito ergo sum, FFS

Yes, fuck them for not offering Heidegger levels of insight in their dwarf and elf game.

 

[Darth Roxor]

no, heidegger was 300 years after descartes

 

[ZagorTeNej]

After finishing the game (and doing a big chunk of side content) I disagree with the OP, average (or even below average) writing for Obsidian standards still beats the pants out of everything else on the game market. I started to dig the lore more and more as I played the game and found the setting overall to be well thought out and realized with it's rich history and various cultures (instead of "let's throw in all the cool shit we can think of and hope it works" settings common for the genre). I also think OE delivered on the mature/dark writing font, a crazed despot desperate to prolong his family line, anti-establishment cult that wants to punish a rich lord for his incestious ways, tribe that conduct sacrifices, animancers that perform experiments on asylum patients, whole Hollowborn thing and how it came to pass etc. it really added to the setting and atmosphere of the game for me personally.

I enjoyed most of companions stuff (though I didn't try them all yet), Durance and Grieving mother stand out obviously but I really liked Eder and Kana as well. The only one that really didn't click with me and I found him somewhat boring/underwhelming was Aloth.

 

[Prime Junta]

PS:T > MotB > P:E > IWD2 > BG2 > IWD > BG

(writing)

the ones left off the list not worth mentioning