Codex Larian Hate Poll: Has your opinion about Larian Studios changed?

[1451]

I like Divine and Beyond Divinity. The graphics suck but they are soulful games. After this the decline begins. An oblivion clone and some game for scaly lovers.
And finally the abomination that is original sin. Soulless hipster garbage.
They went the turn based route not because they liked it (if they did they would start like this) but because it was the cool thing to do at the time.
A nice game developer that was all about fun who transformed into an early access releasing megacorp.
I understand that profits are important but I am wondering if this will help them in the long run.

 

[Yosharian]

dos1 was gud, what followed it was bad, i don't see why i would "hate" larian for it, ergo poll is tarded so i voted appropriately

If you dislike DOS2 I absolutely cannot fathom why you would like DOS1 in any way. DOS1 had such retarded writing.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Tim the Bore]

I'm gonna be extremely creative by saying that I enjoyed Larian up until D: OS 1, but dislike them after that. Combat system was the only really good thing in the first game (and Pokrovsky's music) and after they changed that, there wasn't anything worth my time. Also, I don't know which writer is so obsessed with biting, licking and covering PC with saliva without consent, but seriously dude, you need help.

 

[Darth Canoli]

There's no right poll answer for me but the last one is close enough.

Divine divinity was brilliant, not a masterpiece but they were close.
I liked the sequels too but i played them all a long time ago, thinking about launching Divine Divinity again next winter.

First, i liked DOS very much but unfortunately, all the decline makes it not so much enjoyable when you replay it and i never completed it either, the second part just bored me to death.
Their traps system on top of their weather and burning effects are too much.
EE makes it even worse, the one responsible should be tarred and feathered.

It's a shame, in my eyes, they almost made a bridge between the dumb masses and the RP gamers, they were so close to make it happen.
Unfortunately, their itemization (level 1, 2, 3, ... items shitty level 5 artifacts), cooldowns and the overuse of the environmental effects ruined it along with having done a sloppy work with the second part of DOS.

DOS 2 armor system made it way more painful, i didn't mind the story characters but they kept their decline mechanism described earlier when they didn't have to.

I don't hate Larian, maybe they will do a great job with BG3, didn't watch much about it either so here's to hoping they discarded their environmental effects, went to a psy to get rid of their traps fantasies and brutally murdered the items designers from DOS 1/2.

 

[1451]

Their design suffers from over systematization. This is used in mmos to maximize playing time but in a single player game it's inexcusable.
How complicated can the act of stabbing a monster be. Even a farmhand can be trained to do it.
And yet in the game every fight feels like you are solving equations.
If this was fun I would be paying to study maths, not play videogames.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

behead those who insult sven

 

[Varnaan]

I have read critics upon critics of OS2 saying it is worse than OS but I really don't get it,besides the armor systems.
Art style is better and more defined, writing is far better, the story in itself is superior, the level and encounter design is better and the party mechanics are much improved.
I guess I am retorted.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I have read critics upon critics of OS2 saying it is worse than OS but I really don't get it,besides the armor systems.
Art style is better and more defined, writing is far better, the story in itself is superior, the level and encounter design is better and the party mechanics are much improved.
I guess I am retorted.

you're not hipster enough to understand codex tastes

 

[Yosharian]

I have read critics upon critics of OS2 saying it is worse than OS but I really don't get it,besides the armor systems.
Art style is better and more defined, writing is far better, the story in itself is superior, the level and encounter design is better and the party mechanics are much improved.
I guess I am retorted.

You can mod out the armour system now, too

 

[Murk]

Liked divdiv, liked OS 1 and 2, I imagine I'll like BG3.

If they made literally same game they are now but just called it anything other than Baldur's Gate, they'd get 50% less flak.

 

[Varnaan]

Liked divdiv, liked OS 1 and 2, I imagine I'll like BG3.

If they made literally same game they are now but just called it anything other than Baldur's Gate, they'd get 50% less flak.

They probably wanted to make a D&D game but the Jew on the Coast told them it's Baldur's Gate or nothing.
At least it's not Beamdog making it.

 

[Murk]

Liked divdiv, liked OS 1 and 2, I imagine I'll like BG3.

If they made literally same game they are now but just called it anything other than Baldur's Gate, they'd get 50% less flak.

They probably wanted to make a D&D game but the Jew on the Coast told them it's Baldur's Gate or nothing.
At least it's not Beamdog making it.

I'm certain of the same thing, that WotC set the contract terms since they want to push the 'Baldur's Gate' name as they have in their table-top and comic books and whatever else. I don't really care, to be honest, since it's obvious that this game isn't going to be like BG 1/2, and I'm fine with that.

For those who (inexplicably to me) crave RTwP over Turn Based, well, Owlcat is already working on a sequel to Kingmaker and they seem dedicated to keeping it to as close to IE as they can. As far as I'm concerned the future has both games in it, and I'll take that over more Mass Effect or Dragon Age.

 

[SniperHF]

Plucky cash poor studio with a dream uses creativity and ingenuity to make unique/interesting things and gets less interesting as it grows getting more "safe", chasing other audiences. A tale old as time, nbd. Games are still above average.

I definitely don't think Larian has the capability to make something that feels anything like D&D though.

 

[Gromlintroid]

I liked D:OS and D:OS 2, so I dunno.

Only played a little of Divne Divinity

 

[vmar]

I liked ego draconis and dos1, but hated dos2. I don't hate larian, just don't have a lot of faith in them anymore. I have zero expectations for bg3 so I'm just kinda waiting for codex impressions once the ea is released.

 

[Thonius]

Played only Beyond Divinity(did not like it) before D:OS always thought they make shitty knock offs. Gave them benefit of the doubt and with D:OS. Waste of time and money. Never progressed pass first city.
Gave another chance with D:OS2, oh boy same shit. Although I made it further, when I become bored.
While I don't like their graphical design with BG3 and New Exciting Social Features they cram into SP game, I'll give them benefit of the doubt YET AGAIN. But probably pirate first this time.
So long story short, I always thought they make mediocre products at best, I don't hate them because that's really strong word for something so dull... do you hate rice crackers? Nuh. They just eh....

 

[rusty_shackleford]

It's not about hate or love or like or dislike.

Jesus. Are you a fan girl or something.

It is about quality. I want a product and I expect it to be good.

Larian clearly can deliver on certain things: innovative magical mechanics and environmental interactions. That is *great*. The problem is the writing is just *terrible*. It is so bad, that because I tend to read everything it leaves a bitter taste. Also, the AI is atrocious and makes the gameplay pointless. I would advise them to fire whoever is writing the game and designing the AI.

buy a book

 

[luj1]

I only liked LED Wars. It was quirky and had nice music.

 

[Riddler]

Liked DD and thought DOS could possibly lead to interesting things but it did not.

I don't hate Larian, their current products just don't appeal to me and I'm very sceptical about BG3.

 

[luj1]

The history of Larian can be summed up with an old saying: when the cat's away the mice will play. Back in the day they made third-rate games and the only reason they are getting attention now is because of weak competition.

 

[DalekFlay]

I played Divine Divinity way back in the day and disliked it. I played Divinity Dragon Whatever and disliked it. I read about how Original Sin was amazing and I finally played it and... I liked the gameplay okay, but it was pretty generic and boring story-wise which made it hard for me to enjoy. So... I voted never liked Larian.

Supposedly they hired a bunch of better writers and shit for BG3 though, so I have some mild hope it'll be a decent story with the same okay D:OS gameplay. I'm ten times more a Fallout and Arcanum guy than a Baldur's Gate guy though, so if it's just D:OS 3 then I'll be fine writing it off with ambivalence.

 

[CappenVarra]

belginas are horrible creatures, i avoid them whenever i can

fortunately they do 3 things well, so you can 1) feed them fine chocolates, 2) serve them a final abbey dubbel, and then 3) shoot them with FNs

 

[Dillrodimus Prime]

I was kind of stoked to sit down and play D:OS1, because between the overwhelmingly positive reviews and the attempt at going for an old-school CRPG vibe it seemed like the game should be right up my alley.

It.... was not. I gave it a good 3 attempts or so before I realized I found almost everything about the design philosophy abhorrent. I'm sure most of this has been discussed before so I'll try and keep it to the point, but a few things I just could not get over were:

Difficulty levels: As far as I could tell, normal diff was trivially easy and hard diff required in depth knowledge of progression , mechanic/barrel cheese and/or minmaxing strategies.
Itemization/inventory management: Unlike most games where I am stoked to level up, in this game I fucking dreaded it because it just meant another 20 minutes of shitting around with the inventory and replacing items that were amazing last level but useless now
Level gating: Game gives illusion of open world, but good luck beating anything more than 1 level above you. In effect it's just a hard level gate like MMO zones.
Awful, amateurish writing (you really have to be bad at this for it to stand out as remarkably bad in today's gaming climate)

I felt like I was wrestling with the developers every step of the way, I was constantly dumbfounded as to how the fuck so many outright asinine design decisions made it into the final product. I was content to simply ignore them until I realized they acquired the rights to call their next abortion a Baldur's Gate game.

To be honest one of the reasons I joined this site was because it seemed to be one of the few places on the internet not 100% consumed by rabid Larian fanboyism and I needed somewhere to vent.

Thanks guys, I feel better now.

 

[Darth Canoli]

I have read critics upon critics of OS2 saying it is worse than OS but I really don't get it,besides the armor systems.
Art style is better and more defined, writing is far better, the story in itself is superior, the level and encounter design is better and the party mechanics are much improved.
I guess I am retorted.

The engine is way more power hungry.
Encounter designed efforts are ruined by the armor system anyway, nice try.
Party mechanism improved ? I barely noticed.

Artstyle, i couldn't care less, did they come back to good 2D artstyle ? No, so it's irrelevant.
Did they change/improve their itemization system ? No
The environmental effects ? No
Their trap bullshittery and moving barrels around with telekinesis ? No

You must be retorted indeed...