Codex Review RPG Codex Retrospective Review: Pillars of Eternity Revisited

[Bumvelcrow]

I'm about a third of the way through and it's a great read so far. Wonderful to have somebody articulate the love I have for Icewind Dale and 3.5ed. Grunker is going to get many brofists when he shows up.

But:

Often, your character did not grow into new possibilities, unlocking doors that were formerly closed to her

Doxxed, Jimmy!

Edit: I did notice the changes in gameplay from D1P to a year and a half later when I finally played it again. Initially I found combat an absolute tiresome slog. It was much improved second time around and the only thing stopping me playing through was my computer died. At some point I'll start again, presumably 600 hours after Grimoire is released.

 

[Zanzoken]

Where is the tl;dr button when I need it?

Here is the only button you need

Spoiler

It's shit

 

[huskarls]

I'm not reading this dribble, every fan boy and his mother always wants to spin the narrative "now that the dust has settled." About as big as a circle jerk as asking if bush/obama was really all that bad

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Edgetards who don't understand what retrospective means itt.

 

[fobia]

Well, I read it.

And I agree with most points.
Having played the base game and the expansions, I cannot see why people still cite Roxor's review, claiming it exhausted all points and remained valid throughout all the changes that came with addons and patches.
That said, a lot what Darth Roxor said about the base game is still valid, and therefore (at least in parts) repeated here.

I know it's cool to hate, but give credit where credit is due.

 

[Fairfax]

This review makes Roguey look like a Sawyer detractor.

 

[Quantomas]

Reinforces my reservations to play Deadfire on release. Better wait two years.

 

[Konjad]

yeah, like i'm gonna read another poe review...

 

[Lurker King]

This review is a testimony to what agendas and fanboysm for a game can do to RPGCodex.

 

[pippin]

TL DR

Does it mention when Paradox fucked up the price of the game?

 

[Zanzoken]

So did the later patches & expansion really fix the trash mobs and shitty encounter design? I find this hard to believe but if it really is true then I will give PoE one last go.

 

[Volrath]

The game is as shit now as it was on release. Don't.believe.@Grunker's.lies.

It truly is one of the most boring and pointless games ever made. So.fucking.bad.

Obsidiantards have been living in an echo chamber these past two years though, so they have no idea that the Codex consensus on this piece of shit remains unchanged.

 

[Black]

If PoE gets its retrospective on Codex after 2 years then it's no wonder skyrim can win the test of time award.

 

[Zero Credibility]

Oh ffs, how many reviews of this game are we going to get? Does this attempt at cashing in on ie nostalgia really deserve all this attention? A retrospective, really? We got so many versions of reviews now it's getting worse than blade runner. And only one review is actually worth reading.

 

[Black]

how many reviews of this game are we going to get?

Codex is like EU, dish out as many reviews/votes until the (((right))) outcome appears.

 

[Janise]

gon fights that feature attacks patterns so diverse you will struggle between learning them and focusing on your own actions during combat. There are avalanches of dwarven tank fighters that whittle down your party's health and ability uses. You will face high level kobold (sorry, 'Xaurip') ambushes that engage you on three levels of the same area while you struggle to control the important enemies. One encounter features a massive, 20+ enemy skirmish with human mercenaries being mind-controlled by the Mind Flayer-like Vithracks. This encounter in particular will test your crowd-control capabilities and understanding of the Engangement system as enemy berserkers launch into the air and drop on your casters.

ahahah whAAAt?!
No. I will step back to the next choke point and aoe hell them to hell. And that while gimping myself like hell, since you overlevel faster than you can say 'balanced'

 

[Jason Liang]

This fifth review finally convinced me to install and play Pillars of Eternity!

My character is a female human meadowfolk drifter min-maxed (Might, Dex and Resolve maxed, Int dumped) melee ranger named Qinalo with a wolf companion named Orchata. In her party are Eber, a fighter, Sajani, an Eskimo ranger from India, Durance, a fire priest, Grieving Mother, a cipher written by Chris Avellone, and Hiravias, a druid that seems quite useless in combat so I guess he's the one I will sacrifice. We have just cleared Cae Nua- the previous owner, Maerwald, who is a Watcher like me, went crazy so we killed him and now it is my stronghold.

So far, I've noticed an interesting but odd dynamic in this game. Although this game is centered around combat and the characters are optimized for combat, there's no reward for fighting since you don't get xp for killing things. So unlike a typical rpg, in Pillars you progress by solving quests which give you experience which make you better at combat which you are better off avoiding since so far there is no reward for fighting. So actually this game reminds me a lot of Arcanum so far, since it has the same "I know they've broken something fundamental here but I can't quite figure out what it is" feeling. On a positive note, this dynamic probably makes Pillars a good rpg to speedrun.

Anyway, I'm not sure how long this will hold my attention, hope this game gets good soon. This game seems like it will take hundreds of hours to finish but I'm sick of most of my companions already. I wish that butch fighter girl in the intro hadn't died.

Also, why did they nerf Druids so much compared to Neverwinter Nights?

 

[Janise]

Itemization is another area of the game that has moved from simple sufficiency to elegant beauty.

korean mmo grind to unlock items is elegant beaty!
holy fuck the autism

 

[Mackerel]

Quality game. Quality screenshots.

Spoiler

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Haven't read it yet, but seeing the headline brought back memories of Roguey's retrospectives, like the one on Sawyer's 'rape fixation'. Guess I'm safe in assuming another PoE review can only be a similar sort of troll.

Dat editorial

 

[BilboBaggins]

I wish that butch fighter girl in the intro hadn't died.

 

[Jason Liang]

Did Gunker play White March on PotD solo, with a custom 6 party, or with the horrible pre-made companions?

 

[luj1]

PoE "retrospective"? Wow this is some next level mental masturbation

 

[luj1]

the fierce critics of 2015 no longer so sure of themselves.

It's hard to argue with success, after all.

Josh Sawyer looks like one of the more competent people in the room.

Shillfinitron getting desperate

 

[Iznaliu]

PoE "retrospective"? Wow this is some next level mental masturbation

I was wondering when you would show up.