* Extremely short (30 hour maximum). * Extremely buggy, with quests becoming unresolvable if done in the "wrong" order. * Extremely unpolished, with spelling errors everywhere, quest texts being wrong or updating seemingly randomly or unintuitively, not being able to talk to certain people about things you'd be able to discuss with them, dialogues being nonsensical if you're doing things in the "wrong" order (even if the order makes perfect sense to your character). There's hints of a really, really great game in there, somewhere, but between having adopted many of the worst issues of Pillars of Eternity and it's expansion(s), such as messy combat, engagement rules, seemingly randomly teleporting opponents to deal with common "exploits" (i.e. basic tactics), etc., and actually doing some things *worse*, such as actually having a worse UI (something considered impossible by many) and even fewer CNPC:s (some which are straight-up snowflakes); it's just not there yet. It does some things really, really well. The Conquest mechanic is truly well-crafted and gives some genuine replayability, the skill system is flat-out superior to PoE (and many other games), the classless system coupled with the magic/spell system is actually really well-made once you shake off the belief that this game is just Pillars of Eternity with a different coat of paint, and the game world is overall actually really interesting and beautifully crafted, with an iron/bronze-age society undergoing conquest by a ruthless warlord laying the foundation for something that could be something like Fantasy Rome, but without the greco-roman schtick. But it desperately, desperately needs about 10 patches and 2-4 major, major expansions. And I genuinely wish that it would've used more art assets from PoE just to diversify; I doubt anyone would've held it against them. It could've used another year in development. It's sad to see something so beautiful so marred.
* Extremely short (30 hour maximum). * Extremely buggy, with quests becoming unresolvable if done in the "wrong" order. * Extremely unpolished, with spelling errors everywhere, quest texts being wrong or updating seemingly randomly or unintuitively, not being able to talk to certain people about things you'd be able to discuss with them, dialogues being nonsensical if you're doing things in the "wrong" order (even if the order makes perfect sense to your character). There's hints of a really, really great game in there, somewhere, but between having adopted many of the worst issues of Pillars of Eternity and it's expansion(s), such as messy combat, engagement rules, seemingly randomly teleporting opponents to deal with common "exploits" (i.e. basic tactics), etc., and actually doing some things *worse*, such as actually having a worse UI (something considered impossible by many) and even fewer CNPC:s (some which are straight-up snowflakes); it's just not there yet. It does some things really, really well. The Conquest mechanic is truly well-crafted and gives some genuine replayability, the skill system is flat-out superior to PoE (and many other games), the classless system coupled with the magic/spell system is actually really well-made once you shake off the belief that this game is just Pillars of Eternity with a different coat of paint, and the game world is overall actually really interesting and beautifully crafted, with an iron/bronze-age society undergoing conquest by a ruthless warlord laying the foundation for something that could be something like Fantasy Rome, but without the greco-roman schtick. But it desperately, desperately needs about 10 patches and 2-4 major, major expansions. And I genuinely wish that it would've used more art assets from PoE just to diversify; I doubt anyone would've held it against them. It could've used another year in development. It's sad to see something so beautiful so marred.
* Extremely short (30 hour maximum). * Extremely buggy, with quests becoming unresolvable if done in the "wrong" order. * Extremely unpolished, with spelling errors everywhere, quest texts being wrong or updating seemingly randomly or unintuitively, not being able to talk to certain people about things you'd be able to discuss with them, dialogues being nonsensical if you're doing things in the "wrong" order (even if the order makes perfect sense to your character). There's hints of a really, really great game in there, somewhere, but between having adopted many of the worst issues of Pillars of Eternity and it's expansion(s), such as messy combat, engagement rules, seemingly randomly teleporting opponents to deal with common "exploits" (i.e. basic tactics), etc., and actually doing some things *worse*, such as actually having a worse UI (something considered impossible by many) and even fewer CNPC:s (some which are straight-up snowflakes); it's just not there yet. It does some things really, really well. The Conquest mechanic is truly well-crafted and gives some genuine replayability, the skill system is flat-out superior to PoE (and many other games), the classless system coupled with the magic/spell system is actually really well-made once you shake off the belief that this game is just Pillars of Eternity with a different coat of paint, and the game world is overall actually really interesting and beautifully crafted, with an iron/bronze-age society undergoing conquest by a ruthless warlord laying the foundation for something that could be something like Fantasy Rome, but without the greco-roman schtick. But it desperately, desperately needs about 10 patches and 2-4 major, major expansions. And I genuinely wish that it would've used more art assets from PoE just to diversify; I doubt anyone would've held it against them. It could've used another year in development. It's sad to see something so beautiful so marred.
