The writing in this game is average

[Angthoron]

?

I thought it was clear why you are chasing him. Your status as a Watcher and half-awakened status are making you see things and will eventually make you go crazy (like whatshisname). They say it many times during the game.

Yes, and you know he has all answers and is related how? How do you even know you're seeing yourself in a previous life the first time, besides the storyteller saying so? You see like a hundred ghosts after that in rapid succession that have nothing to do with you, and that's without backer NPCs.

 

[Malpercio]

I'm not sure about "all answers", but he was the one who triggered your "awakening" (while killing ther othe people there with you), so I'm not sure why the main character shouldn't look for him and the ladden key?

 

[Xeon]

I thought those were similar to visions of the PC's past life or something, you meet Thaos several times and you get to talk to him and it seems like a vision of him talking to your past self I think.

Like in the catacombs, before the office for the spies, and later on your way to Twin Elms.

 

[hiver]

I'm not sure about "all answers", but he was the one who triggered your "awakening" (while killing ther othe people there with you), so I'm not sure why the main character shouldn't look for him and the ladden key?

There are two lines of your interest here.

The first one is that, the obvious one, which isnt really supported by anything except the game telling you so and so.
The second are the flashbacks of "someone" talking to Thaos... which was supposed to get you involved on a more personal level, revealing your personal involvement bit by bit.

Of course they both clash and produce confusion and dissonance. One isnt clear, the other retroactively makes a lot of things worse.

 

[Angthoron]

I'm not sure about "all answers", but he was the one who triggered your "awakening" (while killing ther othe people there with you), so I'm not sure why the main character shouldn't look for him and the ladden key?

There are two lines of your interest here.

The first one is that, the obvious one, which isnt really supported by anything except the game telling you so and so.
The second are the flashbacks of "someone" talking to Thaos... which was supposed to get you involved on a more personal level, revealing your personal involvement bit by bit.

Of course they both clash and produce confusion and dissonance. One isnt clear, the other retroactively makes a lot of things worse.

Yep. I actually decided to not be lazy and replay the beginning just now to see it for myself.

You run away from a Biwac. You're sick. You run through a cave, exit on the other side, find a cult doing culty things. As a person new to this setting, you won't know if this is normal or not. Maybe people do weird rituals next to adra machines all the time. There's no context of normal/abnormal here. This would be a good moment for companions to be like OMG WTF IS THAT WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE I DIDNT INVITE THEM??? interjection, for example, pointing out to the abnormality of the situation. Then the machine is turned on, there's a blue light, and suddenly it seems like Biwac is back. Is it correlation or causation? Again, we don't know. It's fairly vague. We know nothing about biwacs except they appear by plot convenience, maybe it's one of those again. Plus, companions aren't turned to ash pillars, if they would be, I think it'd clue the player in much better.

We also don't know if the vision is real, maybe you're actually going bonkers and the first thing you fixated on was the middle-aged old guy. Maybe it's unrelated. Maybe you're seeing it as a ghost of another person - later on you start feeling the feelings and familiarity of the spirit you're possessing. Again, you don't know.

You don't know anything. At all. And yet, YEP, this is the guy you need. Definitely.

As hiver points out, this stuff clashes and creates an unnecessary confusion and a dissonance.

 

[Darth Roxor]

I was run over by a car once. The last person I noticed before I blacked out was the old turk in a kebab stand on the other side of the street. When I awakened in hospital, I knew that he was the only one who could give me any answers.

 

[Angthoron]

I was run over by a car once. The last person I noticed before I blacked out was the old turk in a kebab stand on the other side of the street. When I awakened in hospital, I knew that he was the only one who could give me any answers.

Did you foil his plans, upstage his goddess, and defeat his meat golems?

 

[RK47]

Find the Leaden Volkswagen

 

[Angthoron]

Find the Leaden Volkswagen

Probably Unleaded, EU is serious about its fuel regulations.

 

[Phage]

Man. Just finished the game and... dafuck. Final act was some Planescape: Atheism dribble that didn't even capture the potentially interesting aspects of either of those things. So underwhelmed on so many levels. It was still more enjoyable than Wasteland 2, and not that bad for $20. All y'all nigs buying this game for $50 or whatever are dinguses.

 

[Zero Credibility]

Fucking hell, I don't ever do this, but I am really tempted to just start killing everyone in Act3.

Spoiler

I'm in this tribal harmony-with-mother-nature-and-totaly-not-a-stone-age-shithole village and a dissatisfied customer (also outsider like me) gives me a quest to get his money back from a merchant. Ok, whatever - I go to the merchant and she says the merchandise is fine, gives me this bug in a cage (probably as an insult?) to give to the customer and to tell him to stop telling people her merchandise is bad and leave. Oh, and also that he is impotent.

So I'm not ready to start killing anyone just yet and go to the customer to tell him what happened. He gets angry and starts yelling. Then, some guard comes off-screen and kills the merchant. For yelling. And says that they don't like outsiders arguing here. While smiling. I can't do anything about this without making the entire place hostile. I return to the merchant and apparently she isn’t really happy with the guy getting killed, but whatever. So this wasn't a blatant assassination in public but really a random psycho guard? And that ends the quest? Who writes this shit?!

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

this is normal hair glanfag behaviour, calm down

 

[MrBuzzKill]

I generally like the writing but

 

[Angthoron]

Fucking hell, I don't ever do this, but I am really tempted to just start killing everyone in Act3.

Spoiler

I'm in this tribal harmony-with-mother-nature-and-totaly-not-a-stone-age-shithole village and a dissatisfied customer (also outsider like me) gives me a quest to get his money back from a merchant. Ok, whatever - I go to the merchant and she says the merchandise is fine, gives me this bug in a cage (probably as an insult?) to give to the customer and to tell him to stop telling people her merchandise is bad and leave. Oh, and also that he is impotent.

So I'm not ready to start killing anyone just yet and go to the customer to tell him what happened. He gets angry and starts yelling. Then, some guard comes off-screen and kills the merchant. For yelling. And says that they don't like outsiders arguing here. While smiling. I can't do anything about this without making the entire place hostile. I return to the merchant and apparently she isn’t really happy with the guy getting killed, but whatever. So this wasn't a blatant assassination in public but really a random psycho guard? And that ends the quest? Who writes this shit?!

You can actually get a different solution depending on your stats. Like get merchant's money back. Or chase him out.

I generally like the writing but

Ah yes, this sentence.

 

[Zero Credibility]

You can actually get a different solution depending on your stats. Like get merchant's money back. Or chase him out.

Yeah, I noticed. I was complaining about the stupidity of this particular path: you get your fed-ex quest, you go see what the other side says, you return to the quest giver with the answer aaaaand he's dead now. Killed in dialogue by some off-screen no-name non-hostile non-entity, for no reason apparently other than to end the quest. Fucking lazy writing.

 

[mastroego]

The title of this thread is amazing

 

[Angthoron]

You can actually get a different solution depending on your stats. Like get merchant's money back. Or chase him out.

Yeah, I noticed. I was complaining about the stupidity of this particular path: you get your fed-ex quest, you go see what the other side says, you return to the quest giver with the answer aaaaand he's dead now. Killed in dialogue by some off-screen no-name non-hostile non-entity, for no reason apparently other than to end the quest. Fucking lazy writing.

Well actually I think it's a pretty clever subversion of the trope of a regular fedex quest where you think it'll go one way but it turns out that it's totally different, kind of like

Spoiler

Just kidding, it's lazy as fuck. Also, hooray fedex quests and loading screens.

 

[Beowulf]

You can actually get a different solution depending on your stats. Like get merchant's money back. Or chase him out.

Yeah, I noticed. I was complaining about the stupidity of this particular path: you get your fed-ex quest, you go see what the other side says, you return to the quest giver with the answer aaaaand he's dead now. Killed in dialogue by some off-screen no-name non-hostile non-entity, for no reason apparently other than to end the quest. Fucking lazy writing.

I think I met even worse offender yesterday.

So, you go to Valian Emabassy
Charname: - Yo, ambassador, this feathered chick said you wanted muh help.
Ambassador: - Our filthy rich citizens are smuggling forbidden artifacts, and if murdered Duc (I did this quest as I was clearing all areas before jumping through the ass-hole of the world) knew about it, it would be bad for Ze Republics. So I had him thrown to jail, so you can pose as him and meet his contacts and uncover the smugglers net.

You would think that it would be some kind of a detective worth task, amiright? Nope.

So you go the the meeting (I tried looking around Crucible Keep, where this bloke was supposed to be held and interrogate him for the detailes (I made good buttsex with Ze Knights, so they like me)) - guess what, he is nowhere to be found):
Smuggler: - Stahp, who are you?
Ch: - I'm from this guy.
S: - Ahh, I see, ask away in that case.
Ch - Asks every question about smuggling ring, and they answer giving full details, no consequences for being nosy.
Not only that, they explain everything to a fellow who supposedly should know what's the deal.

But what's this - you, young intern writing this, wrap this up. Mkay boss, whatever, I'm paid by hour, not by word.

Dildo Baggins clone appears from thin air and explains that we are lying. In subsequent "dialogue" we have two options that result in fighting directly after saying them, no other outcome is possible.

Ok, so we kill them, now what? Let's get back to the ambassador.
Here again we have two options to say that we killed them and want payment, worded slightly different.
A: - Ok, I will take it from this point, thanks Charname.

The party have gained reputation in Defiance Bay (Major).

Edit: This quest's name is "The Forgiven" or "The Forgotten". But it's best to be forgotten methinks.

Tl;dr - A quest with one outcome. Unless you count dying as an option.

 

[Angthoron]

There's also a great wrap-up for that child killer quest.

Thug: I'm a thug. I have a wounded leg. My name starts with a T. Like on that dagger. Also I'm a dick. Hi.
You 1: You fuck! I kill you!
You 2: You fuck! Give me money and I forget that you're a fuck. Here's your dagger.
You 3: Here's your dagger, nvm.

Not even a mention of childkilling, I think. What.

 

[Haba]

That kid had it coming. No seriously, he's so brave!

 

[MrBuzzKill]

Is anybody else irritated at the ABUNDANCE of voice acting in this? Had to turn down the voice volume to zero just so I'll be spared the shitty NPCs babbling. It's like, shut the fuck up, I'm trying to read
I mean if the voice acting was superb or even above average, I'd probably listen to some of it, but as it happens it's mediocre and tedious to listen to

 

[Kirkpatrick]

Voice acting + descriptive text + spoken text is not a good combination.

 

[Ninjerk]

Yeah it was tough to take in the descriptive text and follow the VA, as well, but that's as much a non-issue for me as infinite ammo.

 

[Darth Roxor]

The title of this thread is amazing

yeah someone misspelt garbage

 

[Commissar Draco]

so i started a 2nd playthrough to get it through act 1 to confirm some things before i write a wall of rants, and i finally found the answer as to why your character is actually on the wild goose chase throughout the game

its because in that initial biawac-inspired vision, it's said that your past self stands before Thaos and you have a question that needs answering

No my char is on his way cause the land grant was annulled and she heard there is fortress with watcher east after she finished all quests in this arena... was kindly told to fuck out of the Gilded Vale. Didn't knew Thaos was Chief baddy here till well into 2ND Chapter and meeting Webb Lady... and this is not chief motivation; she needs the jewgold to rebuild her family keep and to upgrade her gear... btw Do You know where you can buy those flowers used to craft?