Divinity or Eternity?

[Ramireza]

Pillars is great of course, much better then some "classics", so is D:OS.

I have nearly completed Pillars now and its much better then BG1 and its even wiping the ground with BG2 in parts (Story, WRITING, c&c)

Stop comparing actual games with your childhood memories!

EDIT : Who fucked up the font?!

 

[Ninjerk]

D:OS is the better game, no question about it.

 

[Xenich]

Stop comparing actual games with your childhood memories!

You do realize that many play those old games even today. So your attempt to imply they are nostalgic without merit is unfounded.

 

[Aenra]

D:OS' sound track was pretentious, insufferable shit. At least POE's score was generic enough not to actively bother me.

The influx of edgefags on the Codex lately is astounding.

stop being so.. pretentious.. ^^
i mean the music really was like, horrid, amirite?

composers and shit man, what's that, like, the 70s?
violins and shit, the fuck is that anyway.

....

lizardSkynnard, don't shit where you eat mate. Really. What's next? 2d over 3d is pretentious? You are given a thread where you can contribute a valid point towards a discussion devs read. And what do you do? Shitpost

 

[DraQ]

D:OS' sound track was pretentious, insufferable shit.

That's a clear
The only thing it misses is "...unlike Inon Zur/Jeremy Soule" - add that and I would go straight from
to mode.

Compared to Divinity 2 the game has vastly inferior art direction, visuals, atmosphere and storytelling elements, while sharing itemization and level inflation flaws.

Do you think some of that may be due to the perspective? I mean, there is something about being closer in on your character that provides a different element of feel and interaction than an isometric game. I agree Div 2 did pretty well in this area, but I am not sure that the perspective wasn't playing a big part of it here. I felt more "inside" Div 2, while D:OS felt more like I was playing "outside" of it so to speak. Can you understand what I am saying or am I explaining it poorly?

As much as I'm an FPP/close TPP fan I wouldn't say so - one of my most atmospheric cRPG experiences was still PS:T and it falls even flatter in terms of presentation*.

I'd say that it's the fault of, on one hand, going with much more mundane stylistics, ignoring Larian's knack for transforming the over the top epic high** fantasy camp into pure gold.
On the other hand it's going overboard with goofy elements. While embracing goofiness was always massive strength of Larian, it's something that generally works better when it's low key and punctuates rather than underlines the whole experience - paradoxically the latter affects the whole experience in seemingly opposite directions - by removing "peak hilarity" moments it makes it seem more serious, by keeping baseline humor higher (for example through constant use of goofy art assets) it makes it seem goofier. So the end result is much goofier but both less impactful in the serious sense and less actually funny - it's the opposite of what you can observe in Pratchett's Discworld novels that can pursue serious theme and yet keep you roaring with laughter.

Do note that I'm still in Cyseal, so I'm far from my final verdict and it will largely depend on the story thread involving the Homestead that starts rather abruptly in Cyseal.

*

If you excuse the pun.

**

As in "on drugs".

 

[Crooked Bee]

Imho, the first 2-3 areas of D:OS are great, not just Cyseal. After that, I guess it's just more of the same (which I didn't mind personally).

 

[DraQ]

EDIT : Who fucked up the font?!

It reflects the quality of Codexian discussion much better now.

 

[deranged]

I thought these were the gaymer forums

 

[Onholyservicebound]

D:OS is still fun after Cyseal, it's the high point but there wasn't a huge drop off for me, it was more gradual.

I enjoyed the game in varying degrees all the way up to what I believe was called the phantom forest, enemies felt repetitive at that point, ghosts everywhere, HP bloat had now gone full retard where enemies had tens of thousands or more HP, trash encounter after trash encounter, boring, and I'd already fucked around with all different builds at their best with the respec. Have yet to go through that forest, I just lean on the "I'm waiting for the patch" excuse like everyone else.

 

[DraQ]

D:OS is still fun after Cyseal, it's the high point but there wasn't a huge drop off for me, it was more gradual.

I enjoyed the game in varying degrees all the way up to what I believe was called the phantom forest, enemies felt repetitive at that point, ghosts everywhere, HP bloat had now gone full retard where enemies had tens of thousands or more HP, trash encounter after trash encounter, boring, and I'd already fucked around with all different builds at their best with the respec. Have yet to go through that forest, I just lean on the "I'm waiting for the patch" excuse like everyone else.

For me it can only get better from now.

Prior to Homestead the game looked like guys at Larian having a lot of good ideas for individual aspects of the game but lacking overarching plot that would bind the game together in an interesting fashion and build its atmosphere (despite Kirill's efforts and brilliance).
Mechanically the game is, maybe not maxed out, but still very strong, so if the rift story threads goes anywhere interesting and/or atmospheric I'm set, even if some later areas are going to be a letdown in terms of gameplay diversity - I'll already have my impetus and I even enjoyed the fortresses in Div 2 - bad beginnings are much worse in that regard in that you don't have anything to keep you going yet when they occur.

It won't really get worse either, so in the very worst case scenario I'll rate it as a game I wouldn't know how to sell to myself, but that's still incredibly playable thanks to mechanics, with a lot of good ideas and sound design, plus typically brilliant Kirill's soundtrack helping it go down smoothly.

Could have been much worse, really.

 

[Lios]

Just started POE
I just arrived at the town with the tree the fruits of which cannot be eaten
helped that gay guy kill some drunkards and then he's my companion
really liked the soul drama, though those gold labeled idiots I didn't even read after
the first 3 paragraphs saying vague shit like "oh she doesn't wan't her baby killed"
or "oh he grew up as a slave"

ok some you win some you lose,
you get money from guys wantin to tell a story no matter how shitty it is,
you get golden npcs and you search their souls and discover they are trully imbeciles
seems fair to me.

now i'm a sucker for bg2 nostalgia
and this is what POE caters for
so I liked very (very very) much what I saw so far
so far so good
but what I can say for certain is this (thus far):

I prefer D:OS stupid as shit and then you die humor
and more tragic than that airplane flight in the Alpes scenario
cause I can cum turn based in the grass,
the same grass I before got full of oil
then threw some barrels in it, then a fireball,
then BAM, Swen came laughing and I had to give.

 

[TheGreatOne]

• Divinity: Original Sin - you want to play this game why exactly? And didn't quit before the blahblah sourcery stopped scrolling? Astounding. You're even still interested in seemingly rather mundane murder plot that's the main questhook? Now, go wander a beach, fight some shit, fight some more shit in the tutorial dungeons, do a bunch of mini-sidequests, participate in (actually fun, for a change) beach battle and then (if you don't get sidetracked) proceed with the actual investigation, which seems nicely done in terms of overall design, but still not very exciting. The ball only starts really rolling once you encounter your first starstone, because that's the first event that throws player off.

I'm currently playing DOS (haven't got PE yet) and I'm enjoying it considerably (mostly for elemental mechanics), but if I wasn't already familiar with Divinity 2, my first and only playthrough of DOS would have ended before the second part of intro.

I agree with your point about games needing to have an immediate hook in the beginning, but it's kind of a moot point in this conversation as Pillars of Eternity starts with your character having a tummy ache and gets sent on a fetch quest to find some berries
Fair enough you do get ambushed after that and some weird shit happens, but after that you're back to doing fetch quests for people.

 

[Ladonna]

Damn, I get sick of waiting for decent games.

Here I am, still sitting on the fence regarding all of the latest releases. I have bought, to date, Blackguards 1 (on sale) and enjoyed it quite a bit (for what it is. A combat fag game with constrictive battle areas and some fluff story added). And thats it RPG wise.

Why? Because for every release now (especially the big three I have been looking at, Wasteland 2, Divinity and PoE) I keep hearing about how the game is still not finished/mediocre. And since I have long ago given up spending full price money on games I know I won't get into, I wait, which I am currently doing; all of those games have been relegated to the 'sale' column. Is it me? Have I become too jaded? I don't know. All I know is that I just don't feel like I have read enough good things to consider spending $50+ on a new game with flaws that shouldn't be there, especially from developers that are very, very experienced in this kind of game. Even in this thread it seems people keep throwing crap on both of these titles... Oh well, I am sure Divinity or Wastland 2 will be along shortly with a nice 50% plus off sale on gog soon.

Until then, I will continue with my Buck Rogers playthrough.

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Damn, I get sick of waiting for decent games.

Latest Shadowrun game is good. D:OS isn't great but worth at least trying out (first half of it is most def. quite good). I enjoyed both more than Blackguards.

I agree with your main point, though. The kickstarter thing has been underwhelming, so far.

 

[Volrath]

Damn, I get sick of waiting for decent games.

Latest Shadowrun game is good. D:OS isn't great but worth at least trying out (first half of it is most def. quite good). I enjoyed both more than Blackguards.

I agree with your main point, though. The kickstarter thing has been underwhelming, so far.

 

[RK47]

This is the most memorable theme in POE for me



Cause I hear it all the time.

 

[Rake]

Damn, I get sick of waiting for decent games.

Latest Shadowrun game is good. D:OS isn't great but worth at least trying out (first half of it is most def. quite good). I enjoyed both more than Blackguards.

I agree with your main point, though. The kickstarter thing has been underwhelming, so far.

But it isn't

Spoiler

Honestly, i wouldn't call any of the Kickstarted games "great" so far. They are all in the range from average to good, depending on personal preferences. But great? No. As far as the Age af Incline goes, so far it was disappointing. Maybe PoE will change my mind, but i'm not holding my breath about it judging from what i read in the Codex

 

[Daedalos]

I found the music in Pillars to be top quality. Much better than D:OS

 

[Mieron]

I liked both, but Pillars is my favorite. Rolling up new parties is always a treat, and even though the initial areas of the game will soon bore me from overplaying them, I love the combat in general and exploration in particular.

 

[GloomFrost]

Eternity hands down. Close the thread.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Eternity hands down. Close the thread.

Lolno.

 

[abnaxus]

I found the music in Pillars to be top quality. Much better than D:OS

 

[Xenich]

Honestly, i wouldn't call any of the Kickstarted games "great" so far. They are all in the range from average to good, depending on personal preferences. But great? No. As far as the Age af Incline goes, so far it was disappointing. Maybe PoE will change my mind, but i'm not holding my breath about it judging from what i read in the Codex

I think that the only thing that the KS did was to bring back cRPGs. It didn't do much more than that. I think it will take a couple of iterations to hit that truly great product. In my opinion, mostly based on Svens attitude and desire to catch that great white whale, I think it will be Larian that first hits that mark.

 

[Crooked Bee]

^ Personally I don't think it's true. I think D:OS does much more than "bring back CRPGs"; emergent gameplay is much more than a buzzword. But I hate repeating myself (too often), so whatever.

Or rather, it did "bring CRPGs back" in the sense that it proved that CRPGs are something more than just a thing of the past or a repetition thereof.

PoE is pretty nice too, though it is a bit too conservative for me to consider it a new classic; it does do a few interesting new things, too, however, like the Chanter or Cipher classes, and is just pretty fun overall.

 

[Naraya]

Is it only me that finds PoE's music incredibly boring and generic, especially when compared to masterpieces like Guid Wars and TES series OST? Granted, I am rabid a fan of Jeremy Soule...