Pillars of Eternity

[volsung]

Works for me. Bloth was actually going to give me one of his spare keys for Pillars (for GOG), but now he is gone from the forum... I'll probably just buy it, if he won't reappear.

Yeah it is working now. Could have been the network connection I was using.

You know it will be on sale in a few months, right? If you can wait a bit, do it. On the other hand, this might be one of the few games that are actually worth full price.

Has anyone seen the cookbook? It has actual recipes. I wonder if it has any gameplay connections, that'd be fun.

Edit: The Collector's Book is pretty awesome. The manual has enough detail to properly understand ability scores, damage, spells, level advancement, and so on. The collector's book has general lore and stories from the world, the gods, history and culture. Overall I am very impressed, and I haven't even touched the actual game yet!

 

[Aaden]

Yeah it is working now. Could have been the network connection I was using.

You know it will be on sale in a few months, right? If you can wait a bit, do it. On the other hand, this might be one of the few games that are actually worth full price.

Has anyone seen the cookbook? It has actual recipes. I wonder if it has any gameplay connections, that'd be fun.

Edit: The Collector's Book is pretty awesome. The manual has enough detail to properly understand ability scores, damage, spells, level advancement, and so on. The collector's book has general lore and stories from the world, the gods, history and culture. Overall I am very impressed, and I haven't even touched the actual game yet!

Hah, so I'm not alone in not getting to play the game! Currently digging through the Almanac and enjoying it greatly! :thumbup:

Is the Collector's Book worth a peek as well, or better left for later after I experienced some of the world and lore first-hand, what do you think?

 

[octavian123]

Guys, I haven't really followed this game but its high review scores catch my interest. Could you please describe this game to me in a few words? Will I like it if I like DA and TW?

 

[Aaden]

Guys, I haven't really followed this game but its high review scores catch my interest. Could you please describe this game to me in a few words? Will I like it if I like DA and TW?

A mix of Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape Torment with elements of modern game design added for good measure. Gameplaywise, from the games you named, Dragon Age: Origins will be closest to Pillars of Eternity, i.e. party-based roleplaying with focus on tactical combat, choice of party members who complement each other, lots of dialogue, a world reacting to your choices. It probably has a greater focus on roleplaying though and more depth in many regards. Definitely less action-oriented than later DA installments.
As I didn't play yet and did not follow previous announcements on content too closely in order to be able to fully experience it myself, I cannot say if it explores similar themes as DA or TW, storywise, but I expect it to be rather mature (but probably not as "dark" or "gritty" as DA or TW) and with very strong narrative.

 

[volsung]

Hah, so I'm not alone in not getting to play the game! Currently digging through the Almanac and enjoying it greatly! :thumbup:

Is the Collector's Book worth a peek as well, or better left for later after I experienced some of the world and lore first-hand, what do you think?

Well it's still regular work hours in my timezone But yes, reading the material before the game is great.

The Collector's Book is an introduction to the world. I haven't actually read it, just looked a few pages, but I would say it might be a good idea to read parallel to the game. It explains events, culture, traditions, deities and so on of their world. It would be the equivalent of learning D&D lore before jumping into Baldur's Gate I suppose.

Guys, I haven't really followed this game but its high review scores catch my interest. Could you please describe this game to me in a few words? Will I like it if I like DA and TW?

The closest thing would be the classic Infinity Engine games (considered some of the best the cRPG genre has to offer). Like Aaden said, the focus appears to be on exploration and (very) tactical combat, but with some real, concrete role-playing opportunities. It seems not every issue must involve combat. The setting itself is relatively interesting.

One thing Obsidian has put a lot of effort into is redesigning traditional cRPG mechanics. What should the role of a fighter be? Punching and kicking? Boring... So they've actually added a lot of depth to each class, trying to balance things out and provide unique elements to most different character conformations. I would say the RP mechanics, at least those relating to damage, rolls, level advancement, hits, and so on, is much more refined than anything we saw in the IE games. In other words, this is miles ahead of Dragon Age: Origins. The Witcher is a very different game, but if you must find similarities I guess, probably, the fleshed out world and how the narrative aspects relate to actual gameplay.

 

[Garrison72]

I'm curious about the exploration. Is it hub structure like a Bioware game, open world or chapters like Witcher? I'm hoping it's not a linear experience and there's opportunity to roam.

 

[volsung]

I'm curious about the exploration. Is it hub structure like a Bioware game, open world or chapters like Witcher? I'm hoping it's not a linear experience and there's opportunity to roam.

I haven't played it yet but let's assume the obvious reference, Baldur's Gate II. In BGII, there are narrative chapters but that doesn't mean much with respect to location and quests. Some quests are only available after reaching certain story choke points, but generally you interact with the world while a story (divided in chapters) unfolds. The only exception in BGII is perhaps when you have to leave the mainland and go into some inaccessible parts of the world, but then you return to the first large area and may continue any unfinished business.

The game does feature a Stronghold, which could mean several things. In NWN2, everyone gets the same stronghold. In BGII, you get different strongholds depending on your class and these vary from a series of quests to a regular fortress to running a thieves guild.

I suppose it will have sort of a hub-like structure, but I'm hoping we'll go on long distance journeys where we can't just go back to sleep at night. By the looks of it, I don't think there are chapters marking the beginning and end of regions like in The Witcher.

But what do I know? Let me actually play it first. I can't get any work done until I play.

 

[Ancient76]

Here.

 

[volsung]

OK played for a couple of minutes. The narration is good so far and the intro pretty similar to IE games. In fact the entire control scheme is almost the same, including key bindings, dialogue boxes, fonts even.

Character creation is elaborate enough but there are not nearly as many backgrounds and deities as I'd like. Hope they'll add more in the future. The attributes are a bit confusing too: why is might a highly recommended attribute for a cleric? Anyway.

I started the game twice, once with a female, Moon Godlike with Aumaua ancestry cleric, with the seafaring or something like that background. At one point the intro companion asks me about myself and I have dialogue lines about the sea, pillaging and blood thirst. Next I start with a male, mountain dwarf fighter with mercenary background, and every single line plays out exactly the same except at that one point I have completely different dialogue options, including being a blade for hire and my reasons for traveling.

That's pretty good for the intro I suppose.

Also (@Gilrond), I ran the game on Linux and it works perfectly. It's just a 6.6 GB tarball, plus two tiny tarballs with the DLC. It comes with a start up shell script that simply works.

So the sensation of IE is definitely there. Will have to play more to comment on the quality of gameplay and writing, but that will happen in a few hours.

 

[Garrison72]

I can tell Volsung's excited about a game when he gives his impressions after a couple minutes, lol.

 

[volsung]

I can tell Volsung's excited about a game when he gives his impressions after a couple minutes, lol.

Heh yeah. Seriously I've been thinking about PoE all day. The IE games marked my teenage years and I haven't played anything like them (new) since Icewind Dale 2.

Edit: Played a little more. One and a half hours or so. Seems like I'm past the prologue, playing on "hard" with a rogue. Just to give you all an idea:

- There are "scripted events" that play out like a book game or games like "King of Dragon Pass". You pretty much are told a story with illustrations and your options are based on your character's skills. Pretty cool.

- Dialogue options are determined by basic and derived attributes, such as might, perception, lore, etc.

- There is one part with two roads, leading ultimately to the same location. One involves tearing down a wall and fighting a bunch of creatures. The other involves figuring out how to turn off some environmental traps.

Mechanically, this is exactly like the Infinity Engine games. The resemblance is uncanny (not really, that was the point). It's just different where it counts, like no item trading during combat.

One thing that bothered me though: I picked up a bow and you can just use it and shoot arrows out of nowhere! Thought I'd need arrows, but no. I suppose you do get special arrows but this decision feels very game-y.

 

[M4xw0lf]

The possibility to switch to double or half speed is absolutely great. That way, you can sneak about without falling asleep or dying of old age.

 

[schinderhannes.999]

Yeah, the unlimited ammunition out of nothing is a little irritating to say the least. No doubt this will get modded rather sooner than later. Same with being able to access your stash from basically everywhere. As far as I'm concerned this should to be limited to inns and similar places like in a certain other game.

Apart from that I can only second @volsung 's first impressions and assessment and strongly recommend picking PoE up, if you've been craving for a technically modern yet in terms of the overall gameplay eerily accurate love letter to the isometric Infinity Engine cRPGs of old. It's the detergent to rinse out the bad aftertaste DA:I's so called 'PC port' may have left in your mouth. Repent, get PoE and cleanse yourself.

Only got around putting in like 5 hours yesterday but managed to get a death godlike monk to the first settlement, picked up the first (well-written so far) NPC and did a couple of side quests or tasks, as they're called.
Too early and too spoilery to say anything regarding the main storyline, but there already have been some fairly surprising and interesting developments and I'm intrigued, to say the least, to continue and see where it goes.

One last thing I'll point out is the difficulty.
Obsidian definitely aren't joking around when they dare, no, double-dare you to take the 'Path of the Damned'. This, in combination with 'Expert Mode' WILL tear you a new one.
You have been warned.

 

[Aaden]

Same with being able to access your stash from basically everywhere. As far as I'm concerned this should to be limited to inns and similar places like in a certain other game.

There's an option for that, I think, in the gameplay options where you can toggle a lot of comfort/helper functionality.

 

[jerf.674]

I played PoE for about 8 hours yesterday, and so far I'm satisfied, though somehow I expected this game to be better (don't know exactly in what way, maybe I just overhyped it), but we'll see what happens further.

One thing I'm really disappointed in is the performance. I expected to be able to play Pillars quite fine on my laptop with Intel 4400 graphics (I don't have access to my desktop PC now), after all, I played e.g. Mass Effect 3 on it just fine. But Pillars somehow manages to massively lag, which is very strange since it has 2D backgrounds. And there are no graphics options to adjust! This really maddens me. The only thing which you can adjust (apart from the resolution and vsync) is the antialiasing (which is enabled by default), and you can do this only through console, and it isn't saved, so you have to do it every time you enter a location (!).

 

[Lanfear]

I played just two hours but the first impressions are very positive, it seems very accurate in every detail and i'm curious to continuing to play tonight!

 

[schinderhannes.999]

Same with being able to access your stash from basically everywhere. As far as I'm concerned this should to be limited to inns and similar places like in a certain other game.

There's an option for that, I think, in the gameplay options where you can toggle a lot of comfort/helper functionality.

Yes, there is an option to limit access somewhat, but even with that enabled you still can drop stuff directly into your stash while looting a corpse, for instance. Not to mention that herbs, berries or shrooms get stashed by default, which I'm not too fond of as well.

And I'm already playing with 'Expert Mode' enabled which you'd think would turn off all those convenience features.
But as mentioned earlier, this alongside a few other things probably will get the mod treatment sooner or later.

---------- Updated at 03:05 PM ----------

The official release trailer, in case you haven't seen it already:

Also featuring some samples of the outstanding OST by Justin Bell. So good.

 

[CostinRaz]

I tried to play it but although I'm perfectly fine with most in the game I absolute hate the controls, not the gameplay but the control setup is just absolute garbage.

I get that fans of older Black Isle games wouldn't have problems with it since they are used to these kind of controls but for crying out loud Obsidian.

 

[octavian123]

I think I'm gonna get it once I finish the DA:I DLC.

 

[Aaden]

Yes, there is an option to limit access somewhat, but even with that enabled you still can drop stuff directly into your stash while looting a corpse, for instance. Not to mention that herbs, berries or shrooms get stashed by default, which I'm not too fond of as well.

That probably is for game balance reasons. Not being able to stash loot with one setting would severely cripple your ability to gather crafting materials (and gold income).
Of course, making it inaccessible altogether is an option, but to be honest, Infinity Engine games tended to have too much inventory management, imo. All those backpacks and pouches and quivers sort of comprised a stash and infinite ammo, anyway, they were just a pain to manage. When considering 20 weapons in a backpack, that hardly seems more realistic than a remote stash things are magically sent to. I'm quite okay with this solution - maybe they should have left out regular loot altogether and limited it to crafting materials (or can loot be salvaged into materials? Then that's not an option either). And limited access even makes it more tactical than IE's additional packs, when considering what to take with you and what to leave stashed.