Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

[Disgustipated]

I'm actually loving this game more than poe1. At least the beginning part. Unfortunately I worked overtime yesterday and didn't have more time to play. Didn't want to quit last night. And I'm starting to dig the ship part more now. Turns out I had a lot more food in my main inventory.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Are the companions better then in PoE1? Because that group of escaped mental patients were some of the least likable people I've ever encountered in a video game.
.

I've now recruited all of them and there isn't anyone even remotely approaching the level of crazy/creepy of Durance or Grieving Mother if that's what you're asking.
The only returning characters are Eder, Aloth and Pallegina.
Eder is still Eder, Aloth has matured quite a bit and isn't as timid as he used to be, and Pallegina has become somewhat bitter.
I think their character depends on your choices and their endings in the first game. You can import a save, pick one of a couple a default world states or create a custom one where you pick and choose how you handled quests and influenced your companions.
The new companions range from very cool to likeable enough.
My favorite so far is Serafen. A boisterous, bisexual or pansexual (yes there are romances now) swaggering pirate (and Orlan of all races). That sounds like an overused archetype, but the dialogue/writing is nuanced/good enough that it works. Unfortunately he's also the most likely to defect/be killed because I've inadvertently stacked up a lot of negative reputation with his faction, the Principes pirate alliance
There are four major factions in the game and for each one there's one companion who is a member or ally.
Also: I liked Durance. Not as a person but as a character. He was the most tolerable crazy, unsympathetic and vile RPG companion in any game I played who was still somewhat relatable.

 

[Disgustipated]

Well Aloth is kind of crazy if you think he has multiple personalities, I know it's not multiple personalities but another soul residing within him I think? Something like that. So far though, that other personality has only came out once in conversation. Not sure if I'll see more of that in the future.

As for Durance, well his voice was cool I guess. Can't say I either liked him or disliked him. And Grieving Mother I don't care for her quest where you are trying to delve into her memories or something like that. It's kind of annoying and confusing. As were most of her conversation paths.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Well Aloth is kind of crazy if you think he has multiple personalities, I know it's not multiple personalities but another soul residing within him I think?

It's not another soul, it is another personality from one of his previous lives.

Are we all assuming that everybody who reads this thread has placed/finished the first game ? Or are spoiler warnings in order ?

 

[Disgustipated]

Didn't consider spoilers. Though if people haven't played the first game by now, they aren't too likely to. Unless this game spurs them to do it. And I didn't divulge how it ends (mostly because I can't remember and there may be multiple options).

Oh it's so hard not stealing everything not nailed down in this game. Though I couldn't get the kraken's eye on that first island. There's so many roving people I can't ever get in stealth, even with sparkle crackers.

 

[Disgustipated]

Here's a screenshot of a rainbow effect from a waterfall. I thought it was a nice touch. I ended up going to the main city, but I'll eventually get to that pirate captain. It's a pretty big city and I like it so far.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Oh, I'm really loving this game !
The first Pillars of Eternity was really good but too linear and reliant on generic CRPG nostalgia. This one is far more Obsidian. It's obviously a game created by the people behind New Vegas.

No details for spoiler reasons.

What annoys me is the "romance" stuff. It seems a bit too obvious with some characters and others seem to immediately hit on you once you have recruited all companions. Looks really gamey.

 

[Disgustipated]

I haven't got far enough for any romance options. Though sometimes I forget to talk to my companions. I'm still in the main city exploring the gullet.

I sure do have a lot of pets at this point. I have enough animals for my own farm. Still running with Gosha, but I picked up Deus, Onyx, Abraham, Xopn'aua, and Beakhead.

edit: Ouch the Giant Cave Grub battle was tough. These battles can be frustrating because I don't know what's effective and couldn't figure out why his health wasn't going down at first. I did look this one up no a reddit thread and some people said it was best at level 8 but doable at level 6. I am only level 6. Had to do some hit and run until I got some adds down, but then at the end more adds came out, luckily he was almost dead by then. I tried lowering the difficulty, but I don't think that actually works as the difficulty when you first enter the level is the one you are stuck with I think.

 

[tesb]

ok i am maybe 2/3 through (lvl 16) and i can barely stand this game any more. pillars is a big regression from the first game especially with poe1's expansions:

-almost all quests are tied to the major city which acts as a quest hub: got here do this, come back. it gets annoying quickly. in poe1 you at least progress through various cities
-the ship boarding combat is also very repetitive, i don't even know how many ships i boarded any more
-all areas you explore are really small; in contrast, poe1 expansions had really large areas which felt very dungeon crawly
-combat is way too easy, should have played on path of the damned with upscaling difficulty
-combat is way too fast. all those buffs and support classes are useless when you fighters simply move up and mow down the enemies. priests in particular are useless (i have xoti as a priest) as many buffs are area based and enemies and allies run fast like crazy, getting any cohesion in a battle is very rare. also most of those area buffs have tiny area especially the later tiers.
-the map exploration with the ship is nice, but there is barely anything to explore, you usually have one dungeon per island and that dungeon is usually 1-2 tiny levels with an easy fight
-damage casters are mostly useless as well because most spells deal friendly damage and good luck getting the spells to hit in the first place when everyone is running like crazy
-there are way too much movement abilities, all my fighters (my main, eder and pellagina) use guarding stance with engagement passives, yet it is rare that you can establish any sort of combat formation if most enemies can teleport/jump to your back lines

all in all:
-questing is repetitive and boring almost like an mmo
-exploration and dungeon delving is a shallow joke compared to the first game especially it's expansions
-combat has serious balancing issues
-the overall content (size and numbers of areas) feel like a big step backwards


edit:
i really wanted to play through a second time on potd with a custom party which are properly min- maxed but it think i will wait until later in the year when the combat dlc comes out and some patches hit. i would not recommend this game, even if you liked the first one (which is far superior).

 

[Disgustipated]

I think the game is pretty good. I'm level 11, so not that far the way through yet. The game does need more work and polish though. Another 6 months would have really did the trick. The pacing is still kind of weird. Some of it is a design decision like having the main city be mostly about quests and almost no combat. Unfortunately I find myself getting bored with all the city quests sometimes and the game almost puts me to sleep in places. There is combat under the Gullet, and it looks pretty cool under there. After a while in the city, I'm ready to get back onto the open sea again. Exploring the islands and sea is probably the best part of this game.

I can't comment on the expansions for POE 1 too much as I only played the first expansion. I never finished the second one. Those could be annoying because there were HUGE spikes in difficulty, and I had trouble getting past certain battles. A huge negative in POE1 in general. I think one battle in particular really put me off the 2nd expansion. Ridiculous spike in difficulty.

Combat in POE 2 doesn't have those spikes, but on the downside it gets to be too easy as you go up in levels. And so many fights don't require spell casting at all. I hope in time they can get the balance right on this.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Honestly, combat in both games is a bit crap and if they're doing the always somewhat bad real-time with pause RPG combat I prefer a bit too easy over the diffoculty spikes.
For the next game they should slow it down more, increase everybody's hit points and reduce party size to four.
Or even better, throw it on the scrap heap of bad old game design and just go full turn based.

 

[tesb]

difficulty spikes are not the same as a challenging game where you have to use/consider all your options.
case in point: i never used a scroll or a potion and rarely used drugs (just to boost dex to detect traps)
i can craft over 100 items (scrolls, potions poisons etc.) and it simply does not matter. whole game systems could be cut because the game is balanced around insane front handed damage and combat that is over in a few seconds.

the day before yesterday i killed an old enemy from the first game expansion

Spoiler :

the lich chanellhaut

which was a very powerful enemy which felt great to overcome. in this game it is a joke of an enemy.

 

[Disgustipated]

speaking of, do drugs cause addiction in this game? I have yet to use them, but some of the drugs do look enticing.

 

[tesb]

you will have a crash after the drug effect expires (penalties to stats), but you can simply retake the drug (or sleep) and be on your way, no real side effects as long as you can keep your drug supply up .... just like in real life kids

 

[Disgustipated]

My pet dog getting up on stage during the play. The play was a nice touch, not real long though.

 

[Disgustipated]

Those moments when you wish you didn't have trap detection on auto-pause. The traps were insane in this dungeon. I also picked up an item called pukestabber. It's a dagger that makes you drunk apparently, I never used it though. I haven't even used daggers in this game, I doubt they can perform as well as full sized one handed weapons.

My pet dog can walk on these traps without setting them off, just not me

 

[PhroX]

Daggers are good as offhand weapons when dual wielding - the modal gives +10 deflection for -25% damage, but the damage penalty only applied to daggers, and not whatever your holding in the other hand. This also means that dual wielding daggers is a bad idea, as you still only get +10 deflection even with two of them, but the damage penalty applies to both weapons. In terms of small weapons in general, IIRC from calculations people did in the beta, they work out well for autoattack damage, but do worse the more full attacks you use.

Also, Pukestabber gets kind of interesting when you find the amulet that makes you immune to hangovers....

 

[Disgustipated]

I did reset the gamma settings back to normal. While it's convenient finding your way across dungeons using the map feature if you can see better, there is better atmosphere with lighting where it's supposed to be. And carrying a torch gives it more of a D&D type feel. I have Aloth carrying a torch with a scepter in his other hand. Xoti normally has a lantern, but I have her using a crossbow. I didn't like the initial setup of her running up to enemies with a sickle and lantern.

I've been focusing all on sidequests now I'm all the way up to level 20. I'm not sure how much of the game is left at this point. I explored all of the map that I could (there's something preventing you from exploring one part of the map- no spoilers). Time to go to Magram's Maw or whatever it's called and continue the main quest.

The dungeons lighting looks pretty to me. A couple more screenshots.

 

[Disgustipated]

They certainly don't make the decision of which faction to support very easy. Morally there is no easy choice. I was going to support the Valians, but can no longer support them due to some unsavory activity they were involved in. Royal Deadfire Company seems the best, but some of their tactics are morally questionable as well. Including what they are asking me to do now (I won't spoil it). Such decisions. I love it. I think I'm still going with the Royal Deadfire Company, though supporting the local Huana might be the best choice morally.

 

[Disgustipated]

Finished the game yesterday and today was just hunting some last achievements. Though there are 4 achievements that seem impossible to get (unless I load a really old save), the soulbound weapon (I have no idea what I did with them all, I think I sold them all and can't find any and never used one), Principi quest line (I did do the final quests, but I think doing things out of order or killing everyone in a certain location locked me out of one of the quests for this), negative loyalty with a companion, and one quest in an island in the Southeast where you meet a bunch of undead. I did things out of order in a way (clockwise instead of counterclockwise) and annihilated everything when one of them had a quest. All the achievements but 4 is pretty good. I'd save those last 4 for another run through the game.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the game. I'd give the game an A- or 90%. A new update is coming soon overhauling Veteran and POTD difficulties which are too easy at the moment. I was happy enough on Classic difficulty, but it got easy at the end, I may opt to use level scaling in the future. Main quest line is probably the weakest part of the game, but the faction quests are pretty good, and some of the islands towns and locations you come across are pretty cool.