What Videogames Have You Been Playing XXI: Going for the Platinum!

[João III]

I've played both.
I was not a fan of Pillars of Eternity. I found combat horribly balanced (I got the game 6 months after launch and they were still doing stuff like "+50% duration" to rebalance combat), the stats allocation and combat system somewhat unintuitive and poorly explained, the writing overly dramatic, and the plot pretty boring. The storyline NPCs I found to be pretty rubbish, both mechanically and in their stories. None of them were particularly interesting, spending many long dialogue trees talking at you, and I liked none of them - no chance to set up the 'bro squad' like I did in Dragon Age. They are also mechanically a bit crap. Of all your party members, you are given a grand total of ONE tank. Two or three can be second line tank/dps, and every other party member is third line. So unless you build your main character as a tank, you are stuck with a front line of 1 for a good quarter to third of the game. You can recruit customizable henchmen, but those lack the story that make it worth playing an RPG.

Divinity: Original Sin was a lot of fun, but the sequel, Divinity: OS 2 is an improvement in every single way and has no reliance on the previous game for knowing what is going on. Great writing, fun battles, and good characters. Only problem is the character build system can trip you up; I found it helpful to look at some build guides over on fextralife.

I love Dragon Age: Origins so that's a helpful comparison. So between Divinity: OS and Divinity: OS 2, you'd recommend 2 first?

Though if you are looking for RPGs, I cannot recommend Avernum: Escape from the Pit highly enough. Indie rpg (literally made by one guy and some commissioned work). The world-spanning empire throws all criminals, heretics, rebels, malcontents, and the unlucky into the vast underground cave system of Avernum from which there is no escape. Or is there?

Yeah, after mostly doing action RPGs this year I'm looking to get into more D&D-style d20 RPGs. Avernum sounds like a good cheap & cheerful option so I'll definitely have to look into it more!

Do you prefer turn based or real time with pause combat? Cos that's the big difference. Personally, I prefer the latter, so I had more fun with PoE, even if the first one is a bit rough around the edges mechanically (the second is a big step forward, iterating on what they did the first time round, resulting in probably the best combat I've ever played in an RPG).

Hmm I don't have too much of a combat preference. Spent the past few months playing through the entire Dark Souls trilogy so I'm mostly looking for combat that's less stressful, which shouldn't be hard either way. So then would you recommend PoE II before PoE?

(Tyranny was better lol)

How's Tyranny compare?

Getting back into my Mass Effect Legendary Edition playthrough, still in ME1. Going around all the side missions before I go on with the plot of Feros and Noveria. I basically want to stomp through the main plot as quickly as I can to get into ME2, and the sidequests are pretty effective at levelling me up so far.

I'm the exact opposite! I play as much of ME1 as possible for max bonuses in ME2, so at least 2 playthroughs before transferring. The problem then is that by the time I get to ME2, I need a break. I also miss the film grain effect post-ME1

 

[PhroX]

Hmm I don't have too much of a combat preference. Spent the past few months playing through the entire Dark Souls trilogy so I'm mostly looking for combat that's less stressful, which shouldn't be hard either way. So then would you recommend PoE II before PoE?

PoE2 has much better combat gameplay and character building than 1, so if that's what you're after, yeah, play 2, and forget about 1. If you're mainly there for story/characters, then it's probably better to start with the first game.

Personally I'm somewhere in the middle, so I enjoyed both, but having played the second game, I could never go back to the first due to the combat improvements - most significantly, PoE1 stuck too close to it's PnP inspirations and went with D&D-esque Vancian casting, which sucks big time. 2 moved to a per encounter system for spells, so you can actually do what your class is all about when playing a classic caster.

 

[João III]

PoE2 has much better combat gameplay and character building than 1, so if that's what you're after, yeah, play 2, and forget about 1. If you're mainly there for story/characters, then it's probably better to start with the first game.

Personally I'm somewhere in the middle, so I enjoyed both, but having played the second game, I could never go back to the first due to the combat improvements - most significantly, PoE1 stuck too close to it's PnP inspirations and went with D&D-esque Vancian casting, which sucks big time. 2 moved to a per encounter system for spells, so you can actually do what your class is all about when playing a classic caster.

Good to know, I love a good caster playthrough. I plan to eventually play all the PoE and D: OS games but it's good to know where to start

 

[Senethro]

The combat and character building of Tyranny was extremely average, but the setting was interesting (Bronze age Magocracy) and the plot actually responsive to what you did.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Good to know, I love a good caster playthrough. I plan to eventually play all the PoE and D: OS games but it's good to know where to start

Yes, PoE had great storytelling, but PoE2 had better mechanics, a pretty decent story, and you got to be a pirate!

 

[Ajidica]

I love Dragon Age: Origins so that's a helpful comparison. So between Divinity: OS and Divinity: OS 2, you'd recommend 2 first?

Yeah, DOS2 is better in every way to DOS1. DOS2 party members are closer to the 'squad of fun people' found in Bioware games. I found the party members in PoE to be either bland or absolute wierdos. Eder was depressing but bland, Pallagina and the dwarf hunter were bland. Everyone else was a weirdo who should have been immediately committed to a mental hospital.
I'm also generally not a fan of Obsdian games, so make of that what you will.

 

[João III]

I'm also generally not a fan of Obsdian games, so make of that what you will.

Now that you mention it, I feel like a lot of their games feel incomplete or unfinished. Like they were lacking time, money, or both

 

[Akka]

Now that you mention it, I feel like a lot of their games feel incomplete or unfinished. Like they were lacking time, money, or both

They have improved a lot about it. Tyranny feels definitely like this (first Act is absolutely great, but it goes downhill from here, somewhat failing to cash on its premises to become a much more generic game), even though it's an interesting game that is worth checking. Outer Worlds has a bit of it in the last part, which clearly feels rushed, but the rest is good.
PoE 1 & 2 don't give this vibe at all though. They feels complete.

As for the past discussion, my opinion :

PoE 1 is pretty close to BG1 in theme - lots of exploration, scratch the "old-school PnP feel" but slightly bland sometimes. Still well worth the time, and the cast is rather good.
PoE 2 is "PoE1 refined". Save for the mechanical change on armour which I despise and the dumbing down of Eder (which was by far my favourite character in PoE1), it's better on every aspect and one of the best RPG of the year.
DOS1 is good, but it has a somewhat weird goofy humour mixed with an incredibly dark setting, which can be a bit jarring/immersion-breaking and the companions are pretty lacking, but it has a pretty original design where you can roleplay both main characters at the same time (even when they are arguing).
DOS2 is to DOS1 kinda what PoE2 is to PoE1 : the same, but refined, much better on the whole save for the armour mechanical changes which are stupid (though this point is much more acute in DOS2, where the armour system severely damage the fun of the whole combat and is a major flaw of the entire game). Writing is noticeably improved from 1, with the goofiness being toned down (the setting stays just as dark, so it can be pretty depressing actually).
Also, both DOS1 and DOS2 have a completely idiotic stat inflation which is both immersion-breaking and completely devalue your gear every one or two levels. I don't even imagine playing DOS2 without a mod that fix this problem.

And if we're talking "old-school modern RPG", there is also the Pathfinder games. They are the "epic D&D campaign" style, probably the closest to a spiritual sequel BG2 could have.
Pathfinder : Kingmaker is great. Writing is adequate, the rules are basically ADD3.75. They are quite imbalanced though, so the gap between "I don't know what I'm doing" and "I know everything about and know how to apply them" is really huge.
I just finished Pathfinder : Wrath of the Righteous : it's really similar to the first one in quality, both in strength and weaknesses.
Both can be played completely independently (there a few references to the first in the second, but it's on the "easter egg" side, really insignificant), both have stories that are straightforward but as it goes on, are actually more intricate than they appear.
In the end, it's more about if you prefer a "building your kingdom" or "war against demons" theme. I prefer the former, but that's just personal.

Notice that both DOS are turn-based only, PoE1 and Tyranny are RTwP only, and PoE2 and Pathfinder allow you to chose.
Also, both Pathfinder game are "epic" in scale, which means you shouldn't expect to finish them under 80-100 hours. Tyranny is shorter (maybe 40 hours ?), all other are about 50-70 hours.

I'd rank Kingmaker and PoE2 as the best, with DOS2 pretty close.
PoE1 after that. Then DOS1 and Tyranny.
All of them are good games that you should play if you like western RPG.

I'd also add a surprising outsider : Spellforce 3. If you player the first two you might wonder at this inclusion, but this one has been made by a different team, and it's absolutely not in the same league anymore. It's actually surprisingly excellent writing and focus more on the "team-based RPG" like the others on the list (though the RTS aspect still exists, but is the weaker part). The fighting is fun, and while it's much simpler and easier than the other games, you said you wanted something less stressful so it might fit.

 

[João III]

I'd rank Kingmaker and PoE2 as the best, with DOS2 pretty close.
PoE1 after that. Then DOS1 and Tyranny.
All of them are good games that you should play if you like western RPG.

Definitely going to play them all! Just trying to figure out where to start. I may just roll a d20 to decide between PoE II and D: OS 2

I'd also add a surprising outsider : Spellforce 3. If you player the first two you might wonder at this inclusion, but this one has been made by a different team, and it's absolutely not in the same league anymore. It's actually surprisingly excellent writing and focus more on the "team-based RPG" like the others on the list (though the RTS aspect still exists, but is the weaker part). The fighting is fun, and while it's much simpler and easier than the other games, you said you wanted something less stressful so it might fit.

Will definitely add this one to the to-do list

 

[Akka]

Definitely going to play them all! Just trying to figure out where to start. I may just roll a d20 to decide between PoE II and D: OS 2

I'd say it would be a loss to play PoE2 before PoE1. The former directly follow the latter and includes a lot of what happens in the first (it happens a few months after the first, with the same main character, several of the previous companions and is directly drawn from the same events). It also spoils the whole story and reveals from the previous game.
I would strongly advise to play PoE1 before PoE2 if you intend to play both.

 

[Fippy]

Yup DOS2 has too easy combat (even on tactician).
Remove physical armor - keep enemies knocked down - does not matter how many HPs or abilities they have.

 

[Ajidica]

Yup DOS2 has too easy combat (even on tactician).
Remove physical armor - keep enemies knocked down - does not matter how many HPs or abilities they have.

I actually quite liked DOS2 combat, finding it a sufficient challenge on normal. The physical/magical armor means I have to adjust my strategy per opponent instead of just relying on a 'generically strong' loadout. It also means that the enemies later in the game don't just turn into HP sponges or are full of high resistances/immunities. I found it a good balance of keeping enemies alive long enough to threaten you while also ensuring the control abilities remain effective against late-game. (There was one RPG I played where you could unlock a bunch of enemy manipulation abilities like stun, charm, confusion, sleep; but those abilities ended up being a massive trap because shortly after you unlocked them, all the enemies you would want to use them against had either really high resistance or were flat out immune to those abilities.)

 

[Gorbles]

Another Hades run smashed, 30 minutes for the postgame options of choice ain't bad (record is 23 minutes). Most importantly, I didn't lose any lives until the last boss, and even then only lost one (out of three). I play Hades once a month or two at the moment, I've beaten most of the game (and that part, and that other part), but it really is superb in that I can revisit so easily, and it's only a short chunk of time each time.

(though I had to convince myself to not immediately do another run, which is the problem )

 

[Birdjaguar]

All this talk of PoE2 is disconcerting.

 

[Takhisis]

Yeah, we should talk about other games.

 

[FredLC]

Yeah, we should talk about other games.

Sorry to disappoint, because I'll join the CRPG fest.

So... I never played the original Baldur's gate series - they came in a time I was not playing at all - so my introduction to that style of games was the Dragon Age series, which I love - finished all the series several times in nightmare difficulty, with a platinum on inquisition.

When I heard of PoE, I was instantly interested. But I gotta say, I struggled a little with it; too much reading on a monitor, in a foreign language (hate translations, I always go for the original when I can), and with a really heavy lore - and plot - dump early on, it was hard to get immersed in the story. I also suffered with difficulty, because I thought the rules needed better explanations, and the role of the new classes was hard to grasp - I mean, I was used to warrior, rogue and mage. WTF is a cypher? Or a druid? It took me whole year to start a new game and get invested enough in the story to get to learn what I needed to play.

When I did, I found the game quite enjoyable, and beautiful in the art style (even if the 3d graphics were primitive). Good lore, if too dense in the first go. Reasonable difficulty, and a bit to get used to mechanics-wise. For example, engagement locks took me a while to get used to (I think it is a quite clever way to block kiting exploits, actually, but still), and the limited use of talents is not a good idea IMHO, because while it was meant to enforce experimentation, in actuality made me come up with safe routines and to save my uses for heavy fights - so I got more rigid, not less, because of it.

PoE is very clever but a little flawed. Still worth though, for the lore.

Than I played Tyranny, that was out when I finished PoE. I'll get back to that one later.

Than I tried DoS1, enhanced edition. Barely got passed the first town before putting it down. Didn't like the art style, didn't care for the turn-based combat, and never got far enough for it's best qualities to shine. But what killed DoS1 for me was that the plot was kind of nonsensical, characters felt generic, and the voice acting was atrocious and too cartoony. It was very irritating actually. Never touched it again, never tried DoS2 and I have no plans of getting Baldur's Gate 3. Larian have an uphill battle to convince me to get their products again...

(Had a bad impression of "the Banner Saga" as well, though not as strong. Perhaps turn-based just isn't for me...)

I got PoE 2 as soon as it came out. Did one playthrough that I liked a lot for the reasons mentioned - improved mechanics and graphics. More voice acting also alleviated the reading issue. I didn't like it enough to warranty a second playthough of a game that big, and honestly, the pírate setting wears a little thin after a while - still, very good and I recommend it.

Never tried the pathfinder series, but I got the first game and will probably begin a run as my next game.

So, Tyranny. I left it for last because I am right now in a second playthrough to see the disfavored route (first one I did the chorus route). Playing as an agent of the tyrant brought a very interesting unique variation of what would otherwise be a generic fantasy setting. The game already brought most of the mechanics improvements that were praised in PoE2, and it has the most versatile magic system I have ever seen. Now that I have a few playthroughs on the genre under my belt, playing normal is feeling like a cakewalk, and I'm seriously considering upping the difficulty. Very interesting unique NPCs, especially the main Archons.

I'd heartly recommend this game, except... it's very buggy. I mean, curiously enough, I got no bugs in my first playthrough, years ago, but currently... hot damn, this thing is broken. Lost hours of progress because of vanishing savegames at least 3 times (I think its cloud service is the culprit); one of the spires teleports failed to activate and got me stuck - I literally had to ignore one of the game spires to continue. In the quest on the Bastard's Wound, a key item didn't appear and blocked my progress. I fixed this and the spire thing using console commands (thus disabling achievements, but, minor loss), but this is not ideal (btw, the key showed up in a different place from the one it should, but in a place that required that key before in order to access. Nuts.). Also, at least once a character with a scripted scene didn't trigger, so I got stuck fighting an unkillable NPC.

With all that, I still do encourage you people try Tyranny. It's an original take on the genre, already have most of the PoE2 improvements, and the game has REAL consequences for your decisions - you can play as an honest to god supervillain if you want to. So, very worth it with the buggy caveat!

Regards .

 

[Takhisis]

Hey! RPGs are good. It's just that the only one Birdjaguar seems to be able to recognise is this… Process of Elimination? Pillars of Eternity? Whatever it's called.

you can play as an honest to god supervillain if you want to.

With my username here, I shouldn't be able to resist such temptation…

 

[Birdjaguar]

Hey! RPGs are good. It's just that the only one Birdjaguar seems to be able to recognise is this… Process of Elimination? Pillars of Eternity? Whatever it's called.

By process of elimination the only PoE we should be allowed to talk about is of course Path of Exile: ARPG extraordinaire. And by the way the next league will be revealed later this week. see pathofexile.com for all the news.

 

[warpus]

I realize nobody else is playing KSP right now, but here's my fleet arriving at Duna.

Spoiler :

Six vessels, alllmost arriving in symmetrical style, one after the other. Five of them will hopefully dock together in orbit around Duna and one of them is headed to an orbit around its moon, Ike.

As you can see on my alarm clock, I am about to start juggling ships arriving at Duna & at Dres, and have mid-course correction burns for other ships thrown into the mix. There were about 30 ships launched to various planets total, so it is a busy solar system in my save atm.

This is what the ship headed to Ike looks like

Spoiler :

It's got a science lab, comms module, habitation module, Ike lander, medium sized fuel tank, and it is being pushed by a Fireburner. 1 Pilot, 1 Scientist, and 1 Engineer are on board and will live in orbit around Ike for many years, doing research and maybe some other stuff. They hope to receive occasional fuel runs from the station in orbit around Duna, which if all goes well should have a lander that is able to land on the surface, mine some ore, and return to the station with extra fuel.

 

[Gorbles]

Getting most of the way through LEGO The Force Awakens now; just done Assault on Starkiller Base. Probably going to mess around with some / a lot / a depressing, all-encompassing amount of the Free Play stuff before moving onto The Skywalker Saga. I'd forgotten how fun these games can be, when you're not fighting with the more archaic entries.

I love the original LEGO Star Wars game, played it so much when I was young, but even the less janky prequel trilogy compilation is still as janky as heck. They only started getting competent with the controls I'd say . . . around LEGO Marvel Super Heroes? Somewhere around then.