Deadfire - advice and is it worth it?

[LibertyRansom]

Played PoE 1 unpatched, didn't particularly like it. Later, played PoE 1 all patched up and mostly enjoyed it on path of damned (although the story and lore dumps were pretty bad. Only good part of story was starting that war with that sniveling competing Duke/Count whatever that wanted my land). Need the critical codex consensus on the following:

(1) Will I enjoy deadfire?;

(2) Should I just skip the dialogue or is it better than PoE 1's story?

(3). Any mods or things I should be aware of to avoid terrible experience? Probably will play pretty evil.

(4). Turn based or real-time with pause? (Generally prefer TB but didn't mind the heavily paused PoE 1 combat. I read it wasn't really built for TB so it's balance is off).

Thanks.

 

[Takamori]

1) Depends do you enjoy a pseudo pirates conquistador setting? Then its up your alley

2) The story ain't like a Tim Fuckley comic full of empty words like PoE 1 but in general the story telling the way you convey information is ok, but the narrative of the main quest is a fucking trainwreck. Like what I want to say is you wont get bored to receive the story exposition like the previous game, but the story structure and ending makes it fucking pointless

3)Vanilla should be ok.

4) I liked TB because I enjoy TB in general, but you will see RTWP people getting mad at it because it takes too long for then to finish a combat.

Just an addendum the game mechanics is "fine" like its balanced for reason that we all know lol. Overall this and Outer Worlds just show Obsidian needs to fire or put in a support role whoever done the writting for these games, they need to beef up with some new and old writers.
I really like the people and devs in there (Except the faggot Feargus), but its really noticeable they lost a truckload of talents after New Vegas and PoE 1.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

1) Yes.

2) It's not a better story, but it's delivered better.

3) There's one mod that improves battle log readability. Get it if you care.

4) RtwP all the way. It's been designed for it and it's very well implemented. Avoid TB like the plague.

 

[Tigranes]

If you mostly enjoyed patched-up POE1, then you'll probably mostly enjoy Deadfire.

TB is fine, it's just obviously not something designed ground up. I say play RTWP, and play TB as a second playthrough, or TB if you really know you love TB a lot more.

 

[Prime Junta]

1. If you liked P1 for the gameplay and character building, most likely you will, unless you have some specific hangups like me (everything per-encounter kind of ruined it for me).

2. Yeah skip the dialog.

3. Vanilla is fine.

4. I'd go with RTwP unless you're a gigantic TB fan or have an actual dislike of RTwP.

 

[V_K]

It's a fine hiking sim - maps are pretty and lore is more interesting and less overwritten than PoE1.
If you want a proper seafaring RPG, get Horizon's Gate instead - much better mechanics, much better level and encounter design, minimal dialogs.

 

[jackofshadows]

1. I think so, yes.
2. There's MQ/companions part which is very skippable but you might want to dig a little in faction-related stuff.
3. Should be fine but I'm a wrong person to ask about mods (did a pretty evil playthrough tho).
4. Haven't tried TB mode but go with RTwP since you "didn't mind" even heavily paused path of the damned PoE1. It did feel better in PoE2

 

[Ramnozack]

Played PoE 1 unpatched, didn't particularly like it. Later, played PoE 1 all patched up and mostly enjoyed it on path of damned (although the story and lore dumps were pretty bad. Only good part of story was starting that war with that sniveling competing Duke/Count whatever that wanted my land). Need the critical codex consensus on the following:

(1) Will I enjoy deadfire?;

(2) Should I just skip the dialogue or is it better than PoE 1's story?

(3). Any mods or things I should be aware of to avoid terrible experience? Probably will play pretty evil.

(4). Turn based or real-time with pause? (Generally prefer TB but didn't mind the heavily paused PoE 1 combat. I read it wasn't really built for TB so it's balance is off).

Thanks.

1. I like the setting, or at the very least the idea of it. But in practice, some of it's good, a lot of it just feels like "medieval californians in the carribean".

2. The dialogue is alright, really annoying and cringey at other times, especially anything to do with the gods, who just feel like retarded bickering californians rather than '''gods'''. Some poz here and there, I remember one time a random convo between 2 aumua-whatever guards on some military island. They talk about how one of the guards is in trouble with his girlfriend...because she caught him fucking her brother! And they proceed to have a good chuckle, because that's all normal and good in this time period, right?

3. Mods are pretty meh for the most part, don't really bother with them. There is unity console mod if you want to cheat without disabling achievements in steam as well as in game (you have in game achievements that give you "beraths blessing" points, which you can use to give you boosts and bonuses when starting a new game, like +2 to all attributes for your MC). Other mod I used was reenable retargeting spells for TB mode.

4. Go RTWP. TB in this game is not implemented well and it isn't balanced at all. Action economy is messed up so casters completely dominate and martial characters are ass. This is because everyone has one action they can perform each round no matter what their dex is, so even a dude with no armor on and a dagger can only attack as fast a dude in full plate and a 2h morningstar. Aside from that, the encounters aren't designed with TB in mind, so you will have numerous fights that are lengthy and easy (TB is easier than RTWP) and you will eventually find it tedious.

 

[Citizen]

Boring slog of a story, lore dumps, boring ship&crew management that adds zero depth to the game but wastes a shitton of your time, RTwP combat is a mess and TB fights are loooooong and janky (it's an afterthought, so the game is balanced around RTwP mechanics, some stuff is ridiculously OP in TB)

The visuals are beautiful and the atmosphere of fantasy Carribbean is great tho

Ps. And my favourite part - "we boarded the EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE giant enemy ship and won, can we get this ship and sell our own shitty one?" - "No, let's loot 3 potato from it and then sink the damn thing"

What is the fucking point of a pirate game where you can't capture ships FFS

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

IT HAS CRITICAL ROLE AS VOICE ACTORS!

THAT ALONE SHOULD MAKE YOU BUY IT!

MATTHEW MERCER! 40 YEAR OLD MAN WITH A 17 YEAR OLD'S HAIRCUT. HE'S SOOOO KEWL.

 

[BarbequeMasta]

Shit story, worse companions and brain dead difficulty wise even on POTD. If you don't mind any of that, you'll enjoy it.
Only play TB if you have a LOT of free time, game was clearly not balanced around it, encounter number/size wise, and so it takes ages to do anything.
Just all around dumpsterfire, if tyranny wasn't a thing, I'd say it's Obsidian worst game I ever played.

 

[luj1]

If you didn't like the original, it's doubtful you will like Deadfire. This is because all the problems are still there. Lore dumps, bad core systems, bland lore, annoying companions. The only thing that's changed is pirate theme + more pretty graphics + more feature bloat. RTwP isn't even the biggest problem here.

 

[Ontopoly]

No big or even decently sized dungeons and no big memorable encounters makes the game a huge no for me. The best part of these games are the "dungeons" and I don't know why they wouldn't make more and why most are just some quick boring 1 or rarely 2 floored bore fest.

 

[Atlet]

The difficulty after some patches is way better.

Multiclasses are cool, lots of new mechanics, but the buffing system is weak (buff str for 7 secs, i.e).

Exploring the islands is very nice, but the ship battles is one of the worst minigames I ever saw in a rpg.

The lore dumps are not as bad as PoE 1.

I liked this game for the combat mechanics and the exploration of the islands. Dont play for the story (its serviceable though, but, as PoE 1, doesnt have a good pacing).

 

[The Avatar]

Deadfire is one of those games where I find myself continually restarting to try to different class combinations. The addition of multiclassing and Baldur's Gate 2 style subclasses means that there are a lot of options to chose from. You should enjoy it if you are the type of person who likes to keep making different builds and restarting instead of actually playing through the game.

 

[Silly Germans]

Overall it is better than the first game. The only thing that can make it worse is the setting, but that is purely a question of taste. I don't think that the writing, story telling approach has changed noticeable in comparison to PoE 1, they are very similar in that regard. Combat, character building and itemization are as a whole better. If you got some enjoyment from the patched version of PoE1, you should be able to enjoy PoE 2 likewise. Just don't expect a large jump in quality.

 

[Prime Junta]

Overall it is better than the first game. The only thing that can make it worse is the setting, but that is purely a question of taste. I don't think that the writing, story telling approach has changed noticeable in comparison to PoE 1, they are very similar in that regard. Combat, character building and itemization are as a whole better. If you got some enjoyment from the patched version of PoE1, you should be able to enjoy PoE 2 likewise. Just don't expect a large jump in quality.

I disagree on most of the specifics although I won't comment on the "overall" other than saying that I get slightly nauseous whenever I fire it up whereas I still get a rush of joy from Pillars 1.

• The setting is solid Josh workmanship on both. Lots of factions duking it out for plausible political reasons. IMO neither one is much better or worse than the other.
• The story in Deadfire is a failure. The faction shenanigans are the interesting part, whereas the story is all about a giant green statue roflstomping everything. They don't gel at all and the game is much worse for it.
• The writing in Deadfire is much better edited, but really dull, typical millennial self-insert bullshit completely disconnected from the setting; throwing in an ekera or gellarde every two or three lines makes it worse. In Pillars 1 the writing had genuine high points which made up for a lot of the rough and/or sub-par stuff. Deadfire's writing is just a uniform flavour-free paste.
• Combat, character building, and itemisation are better – or, shall we say, on par with the White Marches. However, the mechanics have taken one big step back by making everything per-encounter – this in fact pretty much ruined the game for me as it removed any sense of tension or urgency when adventuring.

I did put a lot of hours into it and did complete it, and I occasionally start it up again to see if I could bring myself to do another run for the DLCs that I've missed (I only did one of them), but I just... can't. At least not so far. Maybe if I just told all the companions to get fucked and made an adventurer party instead, or just ran with the sidekicks; I just can't take the woke millennial horniness with them. They even ruined Edér, the bro of bros.

 

[DalekFlay]

Kind of mystified that out of everything in PoE1 that basic battle with the Duke or whatever was your story highlight.

 

[Butter]

Kind of mystified that out of everything in PoE1 that basic battle with the Duke or whatever was your story highlight.

That was the best constructed part of the first game before WM. You walk into town and see the tree full of corpses. You hear the bells and learn that the count is killing people who promised a solution to the hollowborn problem, then you have to work your way through his castle to get to him. It felt like a properly paced RPG.

 

[DalekFlay]

That was the best constructed part of the first game before WM. You walk into town and see the tree full of corpses. You hear the bells and learn that the count is killing people who promised a solution to the hollowborn problem, then you have to work your way through his castle to get to him. It felt like a properly paced RPG.

I read it as the guy trying to take your stronghold, which was a big wet fart for me. "Trying to take my land" is what he wrote.

 

[Butter]

That was the best constructed part of the first game before WM. You walk into town and see the tree full of corpses. You hear the bells and learn that the count is killing people who promised a solution to the hollowborn problem, then you have to work your way through his castle to get to him. It felt like a properly paced RPG.

I read it as the guy trying to take your stronghold, which was a big wet fart for me. "Trying to take my land" is what he wrote.

Oh. I just reread the OP and you're right. Still the Act 1 thing was good.

 

[LibertyRansom]

Kind of mystified that out of everything in PoE1 that basic battle with the Duke or whatever was your story highlight.

I guess your mileage may vary. I liked the simplicity of a competing noble laying claim to your land. It wasn't overly verbose with the silly "magical all the souls speak to me epic" and fall of the gods etc. like the rest of the game.

You had to ally with two of three houses that show up in battle and had some other choices that ultimately effect the battle.

I played on path of the damned with four PCs so the battle was tactically difficult and required a couple reloads. Wasn't simple in my case.

(Also, the Act 1 count's castle infiltration was decent too).

 

[Cat Dude]

If you are more into shallow rtwp combat then yes you will enjoy it.

 

[DalekFlay]

I guess your mileage may vary. I liked the simplicity of a competing noble laying claim to your land. It wasn't overly verbose with the silly "magical all the souls speak to me epic" and fall of the gods etc. like the rest of the game.

It's funny because one of my issues with the game is it keeps itself relatively standard low fantasy and medieval, rather than getting crazy with its kind of cool premise. Then someone comes along who complaints it got "silly" with its magical soul stuff. Guess you can't please everyone all the time and all that jazz.

 

[Silly Germans]

Overall it is better than the first game. The only thing that can make it worse is the setting, but that is purely a question of taste. I don't think that the writing, story telling approach has changed noticeable in comparison to PoE 1, they are very similar in that regard. Combat, character building and itemization are as a whole better. If you got some enjoyment from the patched version of PoE1, you should be able to enjoy PoE 2 likewise. Just don't expect a large jump in quality.

I disagree on most of the specifics although I won't comment on the "overall" other than saying that I get slightly nauseous whenever I fire it up whereas I still get a rush of joy from Pillars 1.

• The setting is solid Josh workmanship on both. Lots of factions duking it out for plausible political reasons. IMO neither one is much better or worse than the other.
• The story in Deadfire is a failure. The faction shenanigans are the interesting part, whereas the story is all about a giant green statue roflstomping everything. They don't gel at all and the game is much worse for it.
• The writing in Deadfire is much better edited, but really dull, typical millennial self-insert bullshit completely disconnected from the setting; throwing in an ekera or gellarde every two or three lines makes it worse. In Pillars 1 the writing had genuine high points which made up for a lot of the rough and/or sub-par stuff. Deadfire's writing is just a uniform flavour-free paste.
• Combat, character building, and itemisation are better – or, shall we say, on par with the White Marches. However, the mechanics have taken one big step back by making everything per-encounter – this in fact pretty much ruined the game for me as it removed any sense of tension or urgency when adventuring.

I did put a lot of hours into it and did complete it, and I occasionally start it up again to see if I could bring myself to do another run for the DLCs that I've missed (I only did one of them), but I just... can't. At least not so far. Maybe if I just told all the companions to get fucked and made an adventurer party instead, or just ran with the sidekicks; I just can't take the woke millennial horniness with them. They even ruined Edér, the bro of bros.

You make it sound as if PoE 1 didn't have per encounter spells. But after lvl 9? they were unlocked. You also had Ciphers and Chanters with per encounter abilities. I didn't feel that the per rest system that transitioned into per encounter was any better than the system from PoE 2. Neither game had any sense of tension due to resource management in my opinion.