I've now played through this game 8x, and there are still a few more main PC + companion games I would enjoy playing. But I'm going to take a break and try some other games for a while, as I've been playing this almost non-stop since October. Lots of patches have made this a great game (no game is perfect of course), and the 3 DLC are a lot of fun as well. The only thing I stayed away from were the optional megabosses; the ratio of frustration to satisfaction at actually beating 1 (I played on Veteran) was not favorable. There is a ton of content in this game, and like similar games, you can spend most of the game ignoring the main quest. I liked the incredible replayability w/ different main PCs, subclasses, multiclasses, etc. in building a team that synergizes well w/ your main PC. The voice acting is some of the best I've seen (heard); some great returning characters from PoE 1 (including the hilarious Eder); some great new companions. I liked that no many how many times I've played it, each time brought something new to experience (often spoken dialogue from companions). I haven't tried the new turn-based mode, still in Beta I guess, if people are wondering. I pray there is a 3rd game in the future to make a trilogy of it.
I'd have given this 4.5 stars but you can't give 1/2 stars so...rounded up to 5. I've now played it 2x, including the DLC on my 2nd play through. My review title pretty much says it all, though I enjoyed the characters and their interactions very much. The story was decent enough, and I particularly liked the voice acting (biggest shout outs to Zurbaran and Urias). I liked how the main "villain" had some depth and the world was gritty and coarse. Some small criticisms don't really detract from the overall score (e.g., static art portraits didn't always match up well w/ the animated NPCs, like Marwan in the Mengbilla Arena; the Ciliego quests in Mengbilla could get screwed up in order depending on how much of the main quest you did or didn't do; etc.). I'd love a similar game from this developer (maybe a prequel rather than a sequel).
