I've yet to finish the first POE, but backed this game on FIG. The release date is today, and reviews are so far good, many outlets saying this is an improvement over the first game in the series.

So anyone who have tried the game yet? How is it different from the first game so far? Would love to hear some impressions. Thank you.

Seems really good so far if you're a cRPG fan. Being fully voice acted this time around really goes a long way toward selling the immersion and story better.

Much like the first game, it's definitely going for a bit of a slow burn in these opening hours, but it seems really solid thus far. I wish it bothered to tell me what my choices were when I imported my save from the first game (I remember the big ones, but it's been 3 years and I couldn't tell you a lot of the smaller ones) Already have noticed a couple of meaningful quality of life/mechanical changes in addition to the whole thing looking a lot prettier than PoE 1. I'm absolutely into them just throwing in AD&D style multiclassing and even letting you pick and choose for your companions. It adds a little pressure, especially since I'm not quite sure what I want my party composition to be, but I get the impression that whatever I pick I'm not going to shoot myself in the foot too hard on the middle difficulty.

The other thing of note is that I always love it when games like this throw in full voice acting. It really adds a lot, though I'll admit I wasn't expecting to hear Laura Bailey doing the full-on "Aw shucks y'all" treatment when I saw Xoti's concept art way back during the Fig campaign. I guess that Critical Role crossover pack makes a lot more sense when all of those VAs are already in the game, huh?

Perhaps this game is off the GB radar (maybe it doesn't fit their current staff profile (possibly Rorie excepted)) but still it seems odd that it isn't listed as one of the current major releases on the main page? Plenty of review coverage elsewhere that seems consistently very positive on it though so this is a definite buy for me.

@extintor: Perhaps it will be the subject of a large conspiracy theory like other games released this year?

i cant think of a game that would repel the current gb crew more. Vinny's rpg days are behind him and Rorie is Obsidian alumni so I could see him not wanting to push too hard for coverage. As to the game itself, the new multiclass stuff looks intriguing, the graphics are a vast upgrade, and the general quality-of-life interface stuff has been improved. Combat is more deliberate and less cluttered, the encounters i've had so far have been a decent challenge on veteran, and the companions seem much more lively than the last game which has me excited to dig in more. this game is looking like a solid rpg, can't wait for the weekend to sink my teeth into it.

Not to hijack the thread, but I know this is a direct sequel to the first game and the first doesn't seem to be coming to Switch. So would I be fine without playing the first or should I just forget about snagging it for Switch at all?

@nicksmi56: the game opens with the retelling of the first game, so sure?

I'm still at the beginning of the game but have spent several hours just trying to get my character right since there are so many options. The thing that really sucks is that there is a non-skippable walking sequence along with a bunch of dialog at the very beginning before you can even create a character. You have to do this every single time you start a new game, regardless of whether you have already seen it or not. That seems like a pretty serious oversight for a game like this, hopefully it will be patched at some point because a lot of people are going to be spending a lot of time slogging through that initial section over and over.

@nicksmi56: There is surprisingly thorough recap of the first game but also a way to choose a variety of outcomes of the previous game. So you get to pick your starting state. There is even one called "Everyone dead" which sounds fun haha.

Maybe it's a minor nitpick in the long-run, but there are few things I hate more in games then that shit. I'm the type who re-creates a character a dozen times before moving on, and PoE 1 I remember being very smooth and quick to get into the creation, so that's especially weird, and disappointing.

That's one of the things I've always appreciated about Bethesda RPGs - always giving you the option after their intro to remake anything about your character. It's especially something I'd hope to see in a much deeper RPG like PoE.

I haven`t played it, but Pat from the Super Best Friends that mentioned that hidden in the option section of the game it allows you to choose what decisions you made in the first game and basically create a fake save file from the first game that you can then import into Deadfire.

It's not really that hidden, it's right in the options screen. But if you don't do it, when you go through character creation there are some preset options for how you handled the events of the first game. It's handled pretty well I think.

OK, thanks for the clarification. By hidden I guess he just meant in the option screen and not at that start of the game, but honestly that seems like a smart decision. I lost my save file from the original game, so I really appreciate the ability to simulate a save file from that game. Without that ability I would maybe not pick this game up since I was pretty mixed on the first game. With that though I will definitely get this at some point.

Thanks, guys! I guess I'm off to watch a walkthrough of the first game so I can get some context for these choices! Or maybe I can snag the first game off the summer Steam sales and play through it before diving into the second!

EDIT: Yeeeahhh, let's stick with the walkthrough. No point in buying the first game if I can't actually bring anything over. Plus I'm more excited for the second game than the first.

I played most of PoE 1 but never finished it fully.

I struggled to get into Divinity Original Sin 2 (I know it is fantastic, I just don't think I was in the mood for a cRPG when it came out, I'll go back to it).

I just put 2 hours into PoE 2. So far I'm really enjoying it. I don't usually play games for more than an hour at a stretch anymore (unless that game is XCOM or Civ), so that's a pretty good endorsement.

I'm super super early in yet.

So far I'm not a huge fan of the engine move they did. The first game had that painting look to its backgrounds that was deliberately reminiscent of the RPGs of old that seems to be missing now. Yes technically it looks better. But I liked the feel of the look of the first game more. Also as a person who grew up for a large part of their life on an island on an equator, the whole sand and beaches setting is somewhat less appealing to me as a fantasy setting overall so that could be a factor.

Man they went through the skills and abilities with a fine tooth comb removing and changing anything that was even remotely unbalancing or broken from the first game, or even potentially too powerful. At first blush the skills systems seems way more balanced. At the same time I can't help but feel a little bit like a pouty kid that didn't get a third slice of cake. This is super subject to change tho, who knows what will be discovered with skills down the road. But it's also very reasonable considering they also have multiclassing to deal with now. It is super neat that you can just see the whole class skill tree from the start now, and the new sub classes are interesting for sure, and you can definitely have some fun with multiclass combos.

It's a bit too early to tell what I feel about the combat changes yet. A lot of changed to how things work and are calculated from the first game. At the moment it's all gut feeling of "it's not what I'm used to from the first game, therefore it's not as good". Which is super unfair. I need more time to dig into the mechanical guts to actually tell if it's all for the better. How damage resistance works now, how class resources work, power level (eew), buff stacking, overall stat balance, no real weapon focuses, new non combat skills, 5 party memebers , etc etc. It's also funny to me on a pure human psychology level now that I think about it, when PoE 1 came out learning new stuff and new systems is one of the greatest joys i get out of videogames like this, but now that it's a second game in the series changing mechanics I already know and basically nerfing all the broken and overpowered or just plain what worked best that I new from before, suddenly I'm pouty. Heh.

Now I just gotta finish GoW asap before i can truly take the deep plunge on PoE 2 and get lost to the world for a few weeks.

PS: while i get the obvious game balance necessities and your main character has an excuse, seeing a person you know from the first game loose all their pimped out shit and abilities with no narrative justification is highly annoying.

Does the PC version of POE 2 have controller support? There are console ports coming so I'm hoping it's there, or they'll patch it in later. I prefer my RPG's with a controller, in case you're asking.

@justin258: I don't think there is a controller option for the PC version. Maybe a Steam controller might work, but it is unfortunate that the game has no integration like Original Sin 2.

It is pretty cool that a lot of duders are enjoying the game so far! cRPG is kinda rare nowadays. The tutorial so far has been kinda easy, which is understandable, hope things pick up in pace and difficulty tho.

I do hope that Giantbomb crews give it a spin in front of camera. Rorie should give this a try, especially as he also did some coverage for Tyranny and other Obsidian games.

Upon seeing this was coming out, my only thought was "I should really play the original that I Kickstarted and never put any meaningful time into." So I have been, and I'm enjoying it! The early impressions from this thread have me excited to play more, finish it, and move onto this one.

@applegong: If anyone's gonna carry that torch it's gonna be Rorie and Vinny. It's still a shame Divinity OS 2 was so overlooked last year during GotY discussions (I know, I know it's the site's top 10, not the general populace top 10).

Not really sure what you're seeing here. They updated to Unity 5x, refactored a bunch of code, and added some lighting effects. Other than that, their process for creating backgrounds is unchanged from PoE1.

There are very few things that annoyed me about Pillars of Eternity and so far they seemed to have addressed all of them so I'm pretty happy.

@tennmuerti: It definitely seems like they're building upon a lot of the mechanical tweaks and changes they made with the expansions to POE 1 (which I meant to play, but never got around to.) I seem to remember these changes being received positively at the time, for whatever that's worth, though I played a couple hours of the first game in anticipation of this one and couldn't directly tell you what they changed besides making Survival actually useful.

I've gone down the hole of seeing what builds people are theorycrafting, however, and it definitely seems like there's still some potentially cheesy nonsense or crazy synergy you can pull off with the right multiclass and subclass combinations (to the point where I'm wondering if pure-classed characters get the short end of the stick despite faster progression and access to tier 8 and 9 powers.) I'm 7 hours in and have basically picked as many diplomatic/non-combat solutions as possible, so I don't have a pristine grasp on if some of my older tactics still work or not, but it still feels pretty good.

This is anecdotal, but given how many people on the internet seem obsessed with the idea of a pirate-themed RPG campaign (there are literally multiple Pathfinder Adventure Paths devoted to either being pirates or fighting pirates) I think you might be in the minority on that one. I'm as fine with traipsing around the "Not Sword Coast" as I am with sailing a ship around the Deadfire, although some of the obvious imperialism parallels have me fascinated to see what they're going to do with this setting.

@arbitrarywater: Ironically my PoE1 main character had the background of being from Deadfire and a Raider. So as cliche as it is to have basically a pirate origin in a pirate themed rpg I decided to stick with it since making a whole new character didn't really make sense for me from an immersion standpoint.

I'd definitely be interested in what people come up with in terms of multi class builds.

Personally im sticking with rogue for my character (again my PoE class) but had a really hard time deciding whether to multiclass her or not. Since exactly at second to last tier rogues get their best skill upgrades that I can already see offering a huge power boost. And if deciding to multiclass then what into, Barbarians synergise with crits, Fighters offer a decent flat dmg bonus, good passives and that juicy armor recovery reduction, while Cipher is also a dmg boost plus flavor on the side, then there also chanter/monk/paladin as other secondary class possibilities. Still can't decide what to do a proper start with :( Which honestly is a real good problem for a game like this to have.

I think we'll hear from Rorie on this one. I hope we do.

And those are?

I can't wait for this to come to ps4. Pillars 1 was awesome

So far I'm impressed. The ship management additions seem entertaining, I really like the new characters and it is a lot of fun to dive back into that world. It's just so well fleshed out. Can't wait to continue playing. Oh, and it really is notably sexier with the graphical upgrades and full voice acting. Good stuff!

The big one is ditching spell slots and per rest abilities in favor of recharging encounter abilities instead. There's a lot of characters and classes that never get to do anything cool in PoE because they constantly have to wait for the fights that 'matter'.

Had some more time to play the game now. Still dicking around in the main city, been in it for a few days now, it's beefy.

I definitely came around on the new and re-balanced class/skill system. It's an improvement over the last one for sure. As well as a move to a more per encounter reliant spell system. There are still per rest abilities and items, but they are much rarer. The fact that your companions also provide half their skill stats to skill checks is great it doesn't feel like they're wasted now. Along with the fact that there are jsut more now and they are much more frequently used in situations is also great, it feels like a properly fleshed out thing now. The reputation wheel representation is just a great quality of life feature.

Oh and I loooooove the new robust AI behavior customizer. If you take the time you can actually make your party autonomous for a lot of the fights, not do dumb things you don't want, and do do minor constant ability/spell use you would have otherwise have to do yourself every time. I've neglected this feature for a while just because there was so much other cool shit to focus my attention on, but as soon as I got my hands greasy I didn't regret it. It's similar to what Dragon Age Origin had but , way expended and way more robust. If you were ever annoyed as to why your auto AI is doing things you don't want nor do you want to do everything manually yourself, well the tools are there. It's a lot to take in all at once, but you can start by copying the pre existing AI behavior sets and going from there, to customize them for yourself, adding or removing a line here or there over time. Developers who have worked on this feature and it's UI, A+ job thse guys.

I get the logic of the move from 6 to 5 party members. Considering how much more active even non caster classes are compared to older school D&D rule set based games. Even with 5 party members there is a lot of things to keep track of and manage in combat. That said I still feel a little bummed now that I have all the core companions and now have to make decisions on who to take or cut based on their personality vs their class usefulness and synergy. That one extra missing spot would have solved a lot of my problems :)

The fact that buffs from gear now stack is a great small change, meaning no more having to joggle all your gear in a party around when someone gets a cool new item and you are min maxing. You have a better thing to wear? It works, period. If you want to stat stack something specific go ahead. The reverse change is also great for in combat buffs, its a great thing that buffs of the same type or that affect the same thing don't stack, meaning there is no more need to cast 10+ buffs spells in combat every fight and you are also more flexible in class choices for the party as there is overlap (which is also why 5 instead of 6 party members limit works)

There are just a lot of super smart overall changes from the first game to this one. From small ones to big ones, from the very obvious to the subtle. These are clearly systems designers and developers who learn from their previous work and take away a ton of lessons I would not have even thought to consider. I'm like officially impressed.

And while I get why every streamer is pissing their pants with joy now that all character dialogue is voice acted and singing the games praises, because they no longer have to readout out loud a novels worth of dialogue to chat. Honestly this was never a huge deal for me in the previous games just playing it, reading stuff for myself in crpgs was par for the course. I was actually a little apprehensive about the full voice acting decision for this game as this kind of consumerist decision usually leads to simpler less interesting dialogue and dialogue choices overall; but so far even if this is true I'm happy to report that it is not noticeably so and in parts where it is , it is more or less well masked. Skyrim "dialogue" this isn't. I do wish you could still scroll back to read what was previously said in a conversation and that the dialogue box was just a tad bigger, like in the first game, not sure why they changed that.

PS:

Just because you have an option in conversations and events to use your skills sometimes does not mean they guarantee batter outcomes or resolutions in all situations, most of the time they do, but also sometimes they can skip interesting quest steps or just entirely remove alternate path solutions and outcomes that could have been "better". It's good that it's this way from a gameplay and narrative perspective obviously. But it was also a bit painful for my OCD rpg completionist ass as I found out yesterday to my chagrin; that me being a smarty pants, sly, smooth operator with one NPC quickly and easily solved a quest for me, but to the detriment of being to actually be able to help more people out of a bad situation on the back end. (and i wasn't willing to roll back that far back on a save)

PSS: also do wish there was at least one or two of a more evilly inclined party member ala Viconia or Devil of Caroc

@tennmuerti: Just so you know, you can still read earlier dialogue by clicking on the little diamond shape at the top of the dialogue box, though it is a bit finicky to hit sometimes. I agree that it felt like a weird omission until I figured that out.

Oh wow. Thanks so much for this!

@dingofighter: Oh man, I didn't realize this. What a great hint!

Finished this up a few days ago and while ultimately not made specifically for me in quite the way the first game was it was still a really fun experience. I wish the structure was a bit more heavily delineated through acts because the pacing for my playthrough was allll over the place but I recognize that's largely the way I play these games anyway.

Still plugging away (haven't had a ton of time this past week) and love pretty much everything about it except for combat difficulty. It's way too easy. The game director has said balance passes are in the works to make it a bit more challenging, so I think I'll finish my current play through and give it a few months before going again on Path of the Damned.

Yeah, I've definitely been cruising through combat without a ton of problems on Classic (the middle difficulty) even going as far as winning a couple of fights I feel like I probably shouldn't have been able to against enemies with red skulls above their health bars. I don't mind it too much, but I am getting vaguely close to bumping it up to Veteran if only to force me to get a little more involved.

That said, I wonder if part of that is just a perception thing, since I'm not playing with any level scaling and might just be steamrolling through lower-level areas later than I'm meant to. The first game's structure meant it was a lot more constrained with its level ranges, whereas the wide-open nature of Deadfire means you can stumble into weaker encounters almost as easily as you can run into stronger ones.

I remember being very frustrated by the original game having a ton of enemies that just ignored your line and went on to one shot your mages and healers so I'm kinda into this relaxed difficulty personally.

I haven't tried it, but based on bug reports it seems level scaling isn't working correctly. I'd suggest not bothering with that until it's been patched.

I don't really mind the difficulty being lower in my first run since I really just want to enjoy the story, but if my history with PoE1 is any guide I'll play through it several more times and I'll want an actual challenge eventually. Half the fun of the Pillars system is coming up with cool character builds and class combos. That becomes a whole lot less fun if combat is too easy for it to matter.

@arbitrarywater: I say definitely bump it up to Veteran. I've been having a decent time with it.

My original plan was to play it on Path of the Damned difficulty. But on trying it I decided not to do it. The problem with that difficulty is how it's implemented. If it was just more monsters using better/more moves/tactics I would 100% play on the PotD difficulty. But it very very directly and deliberately bumps up the difficulty in a very trite way. Basically all your to-hit rolls get a -15 penalty and that's just plain bad/lazy difficulty design imo. Hey we just made your combat rolls suck way more overall, you just roll the dice worse now every time. It's basically as if your entire party had 15 points of perception less across the board. Great no thanks. (they also get +15 more to hit against you as well). Which just completely shoots classes and builds that rely on crits in the knees since 15% is a huge margin for them.

Like yes it's doable and you can compensate for it. But imo it's just not a fun way to go about it.

I just wish there was a way to get all the extra challenge of Path of the Damned just without that silly 15 point buff to enemies accuracy and defense. If someone know an edit or a mod that would do it, I'd be all for it.

@tennmuerti: Use the console to give each party member +15 Perception? Or just wait, Josh Sawyer said they were looking at Veteran Path of the Damned difficulty for a later patch. They're too easy.

Also as far as level scaling being broken goes, yes it's broken but a fix is scheduled for the current patch which should be out this week.

Just finished the game this afternoon, clocked in around 45 hours. I think the playthrough was pretty complete, I think I did most of the side quests and quite a bit of piracy. Overall I loved it, it's one of the best RPG's I have ever played and the voice acting and writing were both top notch. If you liked the Infinity Engine/Gold Box games or the first Pillars of Eternity, buy this. I will probably play it again all the way through with a completely different party.

The piracy ended up messing with me a bit toward the end because I did bounties not considering what it might do to my dispositions and it ended up shifting them under the hood and caused a lot of really weird dialogue oddities to occur given how the rest of my character was set up.

The one thing I wished I could do is use different Party characters in conversations to use their skills to pass some of the checks that come up in dialogue options. I'm enjoying the game quite a bit so far, I'm only 10 hours in. I'm finding the combat easier than usual for these games (playing on normal), but I don't mind that, as sometimes having it really challenging can frustrate me (I don't know how the hell I finished Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2 back in the day). PoE2 is engaging me more than PoE1 and D:OS2 did (I dropped off D:OS2 quickly - that being said, I wasn't in the right frame of mind when D:OS2 came out, so I need to give it another shot)

@captain_insano: Party members contribute a large part of their skill scores to your overall skill number in conversations. That way it's still you talking while they are still able to contribute to your overall skill levels significantly. Having a high level intimidate party member in the party will enable higher intimidation checks to be passed for example.

It looks ok but im gonna hold of until they fix the bugs, was waiting for this weeks patch but the game still seems way to rushed.

The bugs thing is so weird to me because I don't know that I saw a single noticeable issue on my entire playthrough. It also felt very polished for Obsidian.

@efesell: Well the things thats completly broken right now is importing saves and reputation with factions and persons. If you didnt particularly care about that then its fine.

For me its quite a big deal since im continuing my PoE1 playthrough.