If IWD 1 was an "Infinity Engine party-based Diablo, but boring", IWD 2 actually attempts to create a sense of grand adventure in lieu to its contemporaries, and occasionally even shows the wit and creativity that outdoes them. But it overstays the welcome and gets progressively more broken and obnoxious as it goes. It's the only game on Infinity Engine to adapt the 3rd edition D&D rules and the team at Black Isle used them so nicely you can almost feel them being sad they couldn't have all these new systems 3 years prior when working on Planescape: Torment. I'd argue, that the usage of skills/skill checks and classes is superior to Neverwinter Nights, which also used 3rd edition and released a couple months prior. Perhaps this change, or maybe the experience of the team, lead to the creation of many genuinely fun scenes and moments in this game. Each Chapter feels very different, some quests are incredibly fun to go through and are less linear than anything in IWD 1 and even though the game is still focused on combat, loot and dungeon crawling (this time even potion bottles are constantly available, just like Diablo), it feels less dumb and mind numbingly boring. Heck, even the plot is somewhat nice and main villains, as lacking as they were (and sounding like Evil Aristocrats), have an interesting backstory to them. But it all falls apart. It starts with a couple of terribly obscure (mostly due to engine limitations) puzzles, then tries to do lots of things that the engine can't handle (scripted scenes that look like they failed even if they work and fail while seemingly working), then doubles down on terrible combat and unnecessary backtracking, then just doesn't end hours past the point it should've. Also, the game tends to break at "unsupported resolutions" even without any mods. Unlike IWD1, it's not forgettable, you can see the influence on future Obsidian titles (and PoE), but the game is too flawed to be enjoyed properly and too long for its own good.
If this was a review of the first 2 chapters of the game, I would’ve been hopeful. “So much potential”, I’d write, “such an interesting premise!” But the full game is an utter mess that gets more tedious and boring to play the further it goes. First two chapters establish the premise of a strange horror mystery dream thriller sci-fi tale with not particularly good writing, but one that fits the mood and stop motion looks. But starting with chapter 3 things start falling apart. Game enforces more tedious walking back and forth, asks for obscure puzzle solutions and doesn’t present a particularly interesting story. Which gets a bit better in chapter 4, but then takes a nose dive and culminates with the ending chapter being just a pointless pseudo-“smart” self-discovery sequences, scene borrowed from Kubrick and an ending quote from Radiohead. It’s not a particularly fun adventure game, with really tedious “puzzles” starting in the last chapters. It’s not a good story, because the storyline falls apart somewhere after midpoint and it’s not particularly well written. And it’s very definitely not worth time it requires to suffer through it all.
Imagine if The Hobbit followed The Lord of the Rings, or better yet, Silmarillion as an official sequel, a new tale in the world you fell in love with. How hard it would be for you to push past the fact that the tale is so much simpler and so much more primitive now, to finally accept that it’s a really fine book? The setup explained in the opening hour of the game is about half of its entire main storyline. A lot of the writing in Deadfire is incredibly weak by Obsidian standards. Most of the stories in the game aren’t just predictable and run of the mill for an RPG, but more importantly they’re told in a very boring way. There are occasional crashes and constant loading screens, that together with a surprisingly barren world that's slow to explore make things fare less exciting than they want to be. Though, a lot of things were learned from the first game and several other titles made by or with the help of Obsidian in recent years, and the game does try a few new ideas as well. And the adventuring with these systems is pretty nice and is what’s holding the game together. The beginning hours of the game aren’t a good example of that, but several hours in you’re free to sail, fight, find ancient temples and do quests. The factions at play build an interesting conflict and you almost constantly have an option to just say “screw this” and kill everyone you see. I guess this type of free roaming gameplay was the main focus of the game, because it does give you a lot of freedom in how you can approach problems. To me, this game was a disappointment. But if you're fine with playing a rather simplistic and fun pirate themed adventure, you can give this one a go. If wish to play a good well written story-driven RPG instead – well, give Tyranny a go. Or just replay Pillars of Eternity again. Or any of the classic titles.
Just like the first DLC, this one is more of the "hey, here's another rather lengthy (by PoE II standards) questline". This time, it has a bit more to do with the main story and a few more interesting world building things can be learned, but it's still a rather unremarkable addition to the game. If you want to have more story content in Deadfire and don't care about the quality of it, you can give it a go.
If what you love about real time with pause RPGs is combat, this is the DLC for you, as it's basically just one giant arena with a couple of item hunt bounties that you can complete to have more arena fights. There's some story thrown in to make it less tedious, but if you're interested in story or world building, avoid this DLC.
