Excuse me for this long post but I will now post my detailed impressions from playing the Beta for about 6 hours. In general I find the Codex extremely entertaining and sometimes informative but compared to most people here I am much less cynical, less sarcastic, more nuanced etc. So please bare with my balanced and nuanced view on PoE.
I will start with the easy part: The graphics and art are absolutely amazing. I have been craving for a gorgeous 2d world to explore for a long time and I’m glad that I can finally do this again. There is lots of detail, great atmosphere and a great feeling of exploration.
The music is great in my opinion, fits the overall atmosphere nicely. Reminds me of both BG2 at times and morrowind which is a very good thing. Sound still has a lot of bugs so hard to judge for now. At least is seems promising.
The tone and quality of the dialogue so far is excellent. Since I like the world of PoE and the story will be very personal (as opposed to an epic you’re the chosen one story) I think this bodes well for the final game. Also nice are the many skills/attribute checks, the reputation/faction system and the scripted interactions.
So far this is pretty boring because I think most people will agree with me so far. So here I would just like to reflect on the art, dialogue, story concept and scripted interactions. It has been far too long since I have played a game with these qualities. There have been a lot of people here acting like PoE has no redeeming qualities at all at this point which is something I strongly disagree with.
Now on to combat. In general while reading the comments I feel that people dont like the combat for one or more of the following reasons:
A) They hate RTWP IE like combat
B) They are misguided/uninformed by the many bugs and missing features in combat
C) They honestly just happen to have a very specific taste that makes them hate some of the deliberate choices made by OE.
D) Some things are just not working out very well at this point
To judge PoE’s combat I will take BG2 combat as the standard of comparison. Let’s assume that this is actual good and enjoyable combat because we need to compare PoE to a fair standard (as opposed to some theoretical perfect game).
I believe PoE still has the potential to (greatly) improve on BG2’s combat. The main improvements in my opinion are:
1. Melee engagement: this forum used to be full of people complaining about the lack of control your fighters had in IE to keep your enemies from reaching your backline. Having a system in place to keep enemies pinned down greatly increases the usefulness of positioning and tactics. One thing this system does need however is good enemy AI and encounter design. You need enemies trying to reach your backline anyway. For example using teleportation or abilities like wild sprint.
2. Per encounter abilities: if it was up to me there would only be per encounter abilities in this game. Per rest abilities generate startegical considerations. Limited per encounter abilities generate tactical considerations. In moment to moment gameplay tactical considerations are much more interesting then strategic ones in an IE like game (I can elaborate on this if anyone is interested).
3. Resting + health + stamina: I like the interplay between resting and health. Basically you cannot rest after each encounter so you need to manage your long term resource: health. In combat encounters you thus need always be on your best because otherwise you will get into trouble later on in the dungeon/area. Also I like that you dont have to load your priest full of healing spells anymore to survive an encounter.
4. Stealth system: is much more clear and useful. Is great and fun to set up ambushes with your rogue and then teleport to safety.
5. No rounds: my rogue can now teleport away instantly without having to wait untill he finishes his previous round. This is better suited for RTWP combat.
Now on to what is getting in the way of enjoyable combat at the moment:
1. No auto-attack (this is a bug, will be fixed)
2. Selection circles overlapping (main reason for clusterfuck, is a bug, will be fixed)
3. No targeting feedback (confirmed that this will be implemented, will greatly improve clarity)
4. Responsiveness (party members dont activate abilities etc, is a bug, will be fixed)
5. No hit animations (will likeley be added later, some blood spatter etc would be nice when hitting the enemy)
6. Bugged sound effects (makes the combat sometimes feel unconnected, is bug so will be fixed)
7. Low quality of animations (is a big potential negative that will probably not be fixed entirely)
8. No melee engagement UI (will be added later)
9. Movement speed too fast in combat (makes positioning feel less important, needs tob e tweaked slightly, unsure if this will happen)
10. Spell effects sometimes obstructing vision (hopefully they will tweak this a bit but not certain)
11. Balance (typical beta issue, OP blunderbusses etc, not worth discussing)
If they can fix all of these 11 points I am confident that PoE’s combat will be on par with that of the IE games. I’m no oracle so no idea if it will actually be better.
So far I havent talked at all about the attributes, feats and character progression. This is because from what I have played in the beta, the end result of character progression in this game is a party composition and abilities/spell composition that is very similar to that of the IE games. In other words it doesnt for me directly affect the fun of combat.
It does however affect ofcourse the fun of character building and progression. There is significant possibilites for improvement but I am pretty certain that it will never be nearly as good as in DnD 3.5 for example. I like NWN’s system the best honestly. Some things I expect:
1. Many more feats will be added which improve customization options
2. Attribute system will be slightly changed to accomodate the huge butthurt
3. Attributes will remain much less relevant then in the IE games which is very unfortunate
Random remarks about no combat XP:
- People saying xp is needed because combat is bad: this is bullshit MMO addict logic. Improve combat or go home.
- By definition incentive/reward for combat will be lower. Trade-off is that other options (stealth, conversation, puzzle etc) are now equally rewarding. This is a matter of preferences, no absolute good or bad.
Conclusion: PoE still promises to be a very good but not perfect crpg. It has great 2d art, music and dialogue so far. Good innovations like the health system, rest system, scripted interactions, faction/reputation system are great additions to the IE formula. I believe combat will be at least on par with the IE games. Major flaw compared to IE games NWN will be character building/progression.
Nothing they can't fix, of course.
