My collected criticism on Pillars of Eternity (very minor spoilers)

[Athelas]

Yeah, PST is very interesting really, because if you look at various factions you can see similarities with various ancient philosophies. The Godsmen who IIRC seek to achieve perfection with their work reminds me of the Hindu concept of Karma Yoga, which is essentially the same thing, striving for perfection and purification through work and duty, while the Dustmen remind me of Buddhism, trying to find the true death, or terminate the endless cycle of reincarnation. Then there's the Sensates which reminds me of hedonistic Charvaka (materialist) sects. Of course PST also had more basic political factions like the Chaosmen, the Indeps and the Anarchists.

Woah! That's, like, totally deep, man.

Of course, that shit was taken straight from Zeb Cook's Planescape Campagin Setting and not some original effort by the PST writers....

People are generally giving them too much credit. Planescape: Torment owes A LOT of its appeal and greatness to the campaign setting.

TSR didn't create Ravel.

 

[Zeronet]

Rarely on RPGCodex do i completely agree with everything in long posts, but here i do. I noticed everything you said. In fact, the most rewarding thing in Od Nua is all the gems at the lower levels that let you enchant weapons. The unique weapons and armors are mostly disappointing.

Better than Baldurs Gate, but doesn't hit Baldurs Gate 2 levels of awesome. Not enough weird areas, magical loots, dark elves and the stronghold lacks any sort of quest or soul to it. It's just a building you upgrade and hang out in mostly.

 

[J_C]

Reading all this hate and love for PoE clearly shows that this game is the one which breakes the Codex. I've never seen an RPG discussion so heated on both sides.

 

[Vault Dweller]

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Sawyer brought balance to Pillars of Eternity, and in doing so, he brought balance to the Codex.

 

[Bubbles]

PoE isn't remotely balanced though

 

[Lhynn]

You might have missed the part where the game begins with your character traveling to a region he's never been to before, and it being the only place in the world where Hollowborn are born.

That is, you might have missed it if you were completely brain dead.

Maybe, i was still expecting a challenge to my lore, maybe with a high difficulty but still, news travels. a god got blown up and i never even heard of that shit either, the crucible knights, the dozens, the fucking god of gudness, i feel like john snow, i know nothing, despite having enough lore to know p. much everything worth knowing, why even bother making the skill if you dont plan to milk it?
Wasted opportunity after wasted opportunity only makes me want tell this game to fuck off. But i will pick it up, i will finish this shit and i will move on, because its not a bad game, its a good game that has the most grating design choices i have ever seen, great ideas and flopped execution of eternity it should be called.

 

[Kz3r0]

Reading all this hate and love for PoE clearly shows that this game is the one which breakes the Codex. I've never seen an RPG discussion so heated on both sides.

LOL, no.
Look a the poll, all the nreleased kickstarted games enjoied a lot of praise before being declared Banal, Shit, Boring, Dead State is the only exception.
Pillows of Dullsville instead is already racking in a lot of disappointment, will soon be forgotten for better games.

 

[J_C]

Reading all this hate and love for PoE clearly shows that this game is the one which breakes the Codex. I've never seen an RPG discussion so heated on both sides.

LOL, no.
Look a the poll, all the nreleased kickstarted games enjoied a lot of praise before being declared Banal, Shit, Boring, Dead State is the only exception.
Pillows of Dullsville instead is already racking in a lot of disappointment, will soon be forgotten for better games.

What are you talking about? Newly released kickstarter games were not declared banal shit boring after getting a lot of praise. DOS, Shadowrun: DF, Wasteland are still regarded as good games overall. Sure, there are criticism, but are not declared banal shit boring. PoE is getting a lot of heat from one side, and a lot of heat from the other side.

 

[Infinitron]

Wasteland 2 definitely didn't get as much praise. Look at all those 8/10s and 9/10s!

PoE will endure in the Codex's mind because it's going to get at least two expansion packs (or expansion pack parts), the first of them not too long from now.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Wasteland 2 definitely didn't get as much praise. Look at all those 8/10s and 9/10s!

But Hiver hated it, so it's shit.

 

[Lady_Error]

Well the first town of POE really sucked, there were 3 or so quests, generally of the fedex variety, that had some fake CNC and by fake, I mean you can choose how to complete the quest but the result is almost the same and you WIN!!! either way, with no impact on any other questline. On top of that there was no one else you could talk to, no hidden enemies you could discover, you couldn't enter most of the buildings, no nice items to find, only one shop....

Come on, no hidden areas? What about the save girl quest? First you go off looking for the Ogre and then you find your hidden area. Plus, there is a pretty good beginner's dungeon right in the first town.

 

[hiver]

No, thats how your logic works.

also, you posted that sawyer pic already. didnt work the first time either, now of course even less.

 

[mastroego]

Pillows of Dullsville

My, dullness is the greatest crime you can commit in the entertainment biz.
So much to do in life, games, books, travels, cinema, art, science, wonders, friends, FORUMS
And thousands upon thousands of things to choose from!
Why would anyone want to waste his precious time on something dull.

Sawyer really is the cluelessest game designer ever.

 

[Bubbles]

Pillows of Dullsville

PilloE, man. PilloE.

 

[Infinitron]

My, dullness is the greatest crime you can commit in the entertainment biz.
So much to do in life, games, books, travels, cinema, art, science, wonders, friends, FORUMS
And thousands upon thousands of things to choose from!
Why would anyone want to waste his precious time on something dull.

Sawyer really is the cluelessest game designer ever.

Unfortunately your opinions are far less impressive after seeing your posts in the World of Magic thread

 

[mastroego]

My, dullness is the greatest crime you can commit in the entertainment biz.
So much to do in life, games, books, travels, cinema, art, science, wonders, friends, FORUMS
And thousands upon thousands of things to choose from!
Why would anyone want to waste his precious time on something dull.

Sawyer really is the cluelessest game designer ever.

Unfortunately your opinions are far less impressive after seeing your posts in the World of Magic thread

Why?
Worlds of Magic problems lie in the execution.
Sawyer's games' problems lie in his philosophy.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

What's with the butthurt about PoE's concept of souls? Especially since this is about the BG comparision. Baldur is a generic teenage masturbatory power fantasy, and that's alll it ever was.

PoE at least tries to go beyond cliche settings, although it doesn't go far enough, but ultimately the thing that made this project possible was always going to be its biggest problem. Its far too tied up into 'spiritual successor' shit to really go balls deep with new lore and the setting.

That's the problem shared by all Kickstarter RPGs though. Wasteland was fucked over badly by everybody trying to turn it into Van Buren and SRR was just all over the place.

 

[roshan]

What's wrong with an understated, down-to-earth opening to your story?

Are you really that stupid? The story immediately makes it clear there are other Watchers, in fact your first task is to go meet one.

What do you have against diversity?

For one thing, POE has no consistency of tone and scale. The first map starts off with diarrhea and ends in soulnado. The first town starts of grimdark with bodies being hung in the central tree, then you have a quest involving drunks harassing the miller for grain... It's really disconnected, moreso because of the lack of content, the town doesn't have a clear and consistent theme or feel, it's a collection of 5 random quests that could have come from 5 different settings. I mean the first town has religious strife, an oppressive ruler, an evil curse, and of course the obligatory environment/food supply issues, sociopolitical stuff including the settlers thing, and then a bunch of mundane stuff like caravans being looted, it's like a laundry list of all possible evils with each one of them having a quest, but most of this feels disconnected, there's no effort put into for example having non-quest NPCs like Dhaal or Eivene that are there for interaction and worldbuilding. It's really weak in concept, execution and creativity.

It's very weird to point out some of the silly NPC stuff from BG2, when the core of POE is just so retarded. You have soulnados, soul transplants, soul depreciation, soul amputations, soul rocks, glittering souls, SPESHUL souls... It's like someone at Obsidian asked his mentally handicapped 12 year old to come up with a list of 35 soul related ideas and then crammed it all into the game.

 

[Ignatius Reilly]

Great game. Better than Kensai Mage 2.

Thanks, Josh!

 

[Seaking4]

What's wrong with an understated, down-to-earth opening to your story?

Are you really that stupid? The story immediately makes it clear there are other Watchers, in fact your first task is to go meet one.

What do you have against diversity?

For one thing, POE has no consistency of tone and scale. The first map starts off with diarrhea and ends in soulnado. The first town starts of grimdark with bodies being hung in the central tree, then you have a quest involving drunks harassing the miller for grain... It's really disconnected, moreso because of the lack of content, the town doesn't have a clear and consistent theme or feel, it's a collection of 5 random quests that could have come from 5 different settings. I mean the first town has religious strife, an oppressive ruler, an evil curse, and of course the obligatory environment/food supply issues, sociopolitical stuff including the settlers thing, and then a bunch of mundane stuff like caravans being looted, it's like a laundry list of all possible evils with each one of them having a quest, but most of this feels disconnected, there's no effort put into for example having non-quest NPCs like Dhaal or Eivene that are there for interaction and worldbuilding. It's really weak in concept, execution and creativity.

It's very weird to point out some of the silly NPC stuff from BG2, when the core of POE is just so retarded. You have soulnados, soul transplants, soul depreciation, soul amputations, soul rocks, glittering souls, SPESHUL souls... It's like someone at Obsidian asked his mentally handicapped 12 year old to come up with a list of 35 soul related ideas and then crammed it all into the game.

The oppressive ruler, religious strife, evil curse, the "sociopolitical stuff", and I'm relatively certain even the food supply issues are all related to the hollowborn/Waidwen's Legacy though. So yes there is a consistent theme. They might feel disconnected in scale but that's complaint that you can throw at every RPG ever made.

 

[Old Hans]

ugh yea I nearly shit my pants when the blacksmith mentioned he was expecting the overdue wagon shipment

 

[Ninjerk]

What's wrong with an understated, down-to-earth opening to your story?

Are you really that stupid? The story immediately makes it clear there are other Watchers, in fact your first task is to go meet one.

What do you have against diversity?

For one thing, POE has no consistency of tone and scale. The first map starts off with diarrhea and ends in soulnado. The first town starts of grimdark with bodies being hung in the central tree, then you have a quest involving drunks harassing the miller for grain... It's really disconnected, moreso because of the lack of content, the town doesn't have a clear and consistent theme or feel, it's a collection of 5 random quests that could have come from 5 different settings. I mean the first town has religious strife, an oppressive ruler, an evil curse, and of course the obligatory environment/food supply issues, sociopolitical stuff including the settlers thing, and then a bunch of mundane stuff like caravans being looted, it's like a laundry list of all possible evils with each one of them having a quest, but most of this feels disconnected, there's no effort put into for example having non-quest NPCs like Dhaal or Eivene that are there for interaction and worldbuilding. It's really weak in concept, execution and creativity.

It's very weird to point out some of the silly NPC stuff from BG2, when the core of POE is just so retarded. You have soulnados, soul transplants, soul depreciation, soul amputations, soul rocks, glittering souls, SPESHUL souls... It's like someone at Obsidian asked his mentally handicapped 12 year old to come up with a list of 35 soul related ideas and then crammed it all into the game.

It's called plot-device-wind.

 

[Lhynn]

This game could learn a thing or two about tone from the secret world.

 

[hiver]

No, Roshan is right, Gilded vale is very disappointing in terms of quests alone (run get me a potion) and in terms of those quests being connected to the overall plot and themes. The only thing that saves it is Raedric Hold in that general area.