Review RPG Codex Review: Darth Roxor on Disappointment, thy name is Pillars of Eternity

[Angthoron]

What was so bad about the end of Act II? Everyone is referencing it, but I seem to have missed the bad part somehow.

There's a whole thread about it.

 

[Ramireza]

LOL @ "Review"

Just replay your "flawless classics". Until you all die, because you will never like a new game again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC0_7-U_BP4

Some of you are realy like in video from FelipePepe.

"Battlebrothers who know the true definition of an RPG" :D

 

[Kz3r0]

Hopefully Obsidian will deliver a mighty slam dunk rpg once they're free from the tyranny of evil publi-
Oh.

They pushed the envelope when using someone else's money and IP, on their own they managed to make Bioware look as innovators.

 

[RK47]

What was so bad about the end of Act II? Everyone is referencing it, but I seem to have missed the bad part somehow.

I hate the music that plays on the climax.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

What was so bad about the end of Act II? Everyone is referencing it, but I seem to have missed the bad part somehow.

There's a whole thread about it.

Oh, there really is. Thanks.

Not really that informative, people are mostly complaining about game invalidating their decision which is simply untrue because of the ending.

 

[Jaedar]

Zeal is its own excuse.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Good job Roxor. Quite a surprise to see this published before the 'everything is awesome' review.

 

[Trash]

Meh, a 'trying too hard' review by a guy who has been calling the game 'shit' since way before release. Another day at the codex.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

Many items are underwhelming, which is true for pretty much every RPG including BG2, but there are some genuinely unique ones that have bonuses that affect their use in significant ways.

Just checked my save game file to make sure that they aren't in fact craftable but I have two shields that have very useful effects that are so far unique in my playthrough. A shield that has the bash effect (effectively making the shield similar to dual wielded weapon on top of the shield bonus) and a shield that has the retaliation effect (which is some sort of counterattack when hit by a melee attack). I have also encountered rings that give extra spells per rest for caster types; weapons, armor, and trinkets that grant different usable abilities per rest. Those are just the examples I can quickly think of off the top of my head but I have encountered more than just that.

Itemization isn't the best I've ever seen in a game but it has plenty of unique items that are more than just variations of more fire damage or higher accuracy. When I was first playing I didn't pay much attention and thought that pretty much all effects on found magic items were craftable. As a result, I wasn't paying all that much attention and just selling every magic item I wasn't equipping on a character right away but I regretted it once I actually looked at the crafting system and realized many of the effects I was seeing on items I was selling weren't craftable. I sold quite a few magic items that I wish I had held onto because I could have upgraded them to make them better to take advantage the unique effect they had.

Unique in this case doesn't just mean "an effect that you can't apply yourself", that's an overly simple way of looking at it. Unique effects should feel distinct, interesting and powerful while in PoE regarding weapons atleast they feel like effects that are similar in power (or even less than that in many cases) to ones you can apply yourself but were cut out of the crafting system to make them qualify for the most basic definition of unique, it felt artificial.

Take Blade of the Endless paths for example (that you have to go great lengths to get the parts for), it has the utterly boring Marking effect and like 10% increase in attack speed or something, do those effects really feel unique to you just because they satisfy the most strict definition of it (you can't apply them yourself)? I'd rather stick to my rusty sword I (some random adventurer, certainly not a master smith) enchanted to be superb, deal corrosive damage and slays Kith, it's boring and unimaginative as well (hell, I can't even rename the damn thing) but atleast it's more effective, you don't see how this undermines the supposed legendary item and the setting itself?

 

[Zetor]

I agree with a lot of things in this review (boring / formulaic combat being probably PoE's biggest flaw) -- but I still consider it a very good game.

As with many other KS'd RPGs*, I think a lot of people probably had unrealistic / crazy expectations that PoE was realistically never going to meet... I expected an atmospheric IE game with great graphics and good story / dialogue design combined with forgettable combat, and that's what I got in the end.

* see also: anyone expecting SRR to be a nonlinear open-world CRPG with JA2-level combat and a better cyberspace implementation than the originals, or the story/writing of DOS blowing everyone away because Rhianna Pratchett a lot of writing hype during/after the KS, including that one video where a Larian writer was very visibly reading The Elements of Style (lol)

edit: yeahhh, I definitely misremembered the Pratchett thing, whoops

 

[Darth Roxor]

Meh, a 'trying too hard' review by a guy who has been calling the game 'shit' since way before release. Another day at the codex.

I hold these mad truths to be self-evident and I will be judged by God and history.

Like I said in the intro, I was still expecting an ok game from PoE, despite my very thinly-veiled pre-release trolling. I even already had a 'I'm sorry Sawyer, all is forgiven' thread in mind when I was launching the game, but, alas, it never came to be. This is how it was, and I give zero fucks if anyone believes it or not.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

I'm pleased that the Codex is willing to jeopardize its relationship with Obsidian by posting an honest review of bad game. Well done, Darth Roxor.

Will have to give conspiracy theories a rest for a bit though, which is annoying.

 

[Zed]

Bland items is a valid criticism IMO. I never once got particularly excited over any item.

 

[Athelas]

Let’s get one thing straight. When Obsidian were touting how this was their “ultimate” game, over which they’d finally have “full creative jurisdiction” that wouldn’t be “blocked by publishers”, I had many things in mind. I had a vision of another Mask of the Betrayer

What a weird statement. PoE was pitched as a BG successor, which is a fair bit less creative setting/story-wise than other Obsidian games. Obsidian didn't base their Kickstarter campaign on those 'evil publishers' (you must be confusing them with another notable Kickstarter RPG developer). Let's stick to criticizing stuff that makes sense.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

True, I found myself bored reading item stats and didn't bother to read the flawor text. Shit like that never happened to me in the IE games.

 

[Angthoron]

Rhianna Pratchett

?

Rhianna Pratchett hasn't worked with Larian since Beyond Divinity. D: OS writing issues have nothing to do with her.

 

[Trash]

This is how it was, and I give zero fucks if anyone believes it or not.

Yeah, it's become pretty obvious that this isn't about the game but more about you showing how true hardcore codexian you are in comparison to the decline all around you. Which is , I guess, quite codexian in its own way.

I am terribly sorry for writing an article that might intrude upon your ideas of making this site the 2nd rock-paper-shotgun, and that, in fact, posting this review on the main page may stop the flow of doritos that you so desperately crave. All them tweets with thumbs up from Obsidian, all gone. All them upcoming exclusive interviews and retrospectives, all gone. The rpgcodex official stream of PoE 2 (or expansions), first in the interwebs!!! all gone.

Really, aren't you taking this review (and yourself) a little too seriously now?

 

[Darth Roxor]

im sorry for hurting your feelers

 

[eremita]

So MotB and SoZ are still the best Obsidian's CRPGs? Not surprised, they're hard to beat...

 

[Zetor]

Rhianna Pratchett

?

Rhianna Pratchett hasn't worked with Larian since Beyond Divinity. D: OS writing issues have nothing to do with her.

Well, shows how much I know... I seem to remember some hyping of how DOS writing is going to be awesome during / after the kickstarter, though.

 

[garren]

I sometimes disagree with Roxor's overly harsh views on many RPG's, but fuck man, this time I can't really disagree. The review hits home on many of the same issues I felt while playing.

Maybe I was too hyped, but the game really feels mediocre.

 

[MicoSelva]

Darth Roxor should be banned from writing reviews until his psyche recovers from Blackguards 2 trauma, because right now he is like one of the characters from Night Watch novels by Sergei Lukyanienko - only seeing the darkness, and blind to all the light.

Still, it was a good read. I agree with most points. Thanks, Roxor.

Although the review should probably have screenshots from vanilla game, not one with modded portraits.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

It should be done with the original companions too. It's not fair to just skip that much of content, especially content so important to many potential buyers. Not to mention the best writing pieces in the game are dialogues with Eder and Durance.

EDIT:
Wait, I fucked up, these are the original companions. I've misread the review. I though that Roxxor replaced the companions with hall of adventurers characters, instead he just changed their stats.

 

[Darth Roxor]

It should be done with the original companions too. It's not fair to just skip that much of content, especially content so important to many potential buyers. Not to mention the best writing pieces in the game are dialogues with Eder and Durance.

My first playthrough was with companions only. Eder, Durance, Pallegina, Kana and Classic Aloth.

I just switched their portraits to BATTLE BROTHERS.

 

[Quatlo]

I agree with the review mostly, the game bored me to death.
I'm at the beggining of 3rd act and cant be arsed to kill another pack of bears to get to the noble savage city because its all the fucking same.
I guess thats the use for the stealth skill, to skip that fucking boring combat, because now this game is Napoleonic Wars Simulator for me, shoot everything with rifles and have a guy on drums to dictate the reload tempo.