I am a big fan of Baldur's Gate 2 and sponsored the first Pillars of Eternity. I was let down by the game system of the first opus so I wanted to wait before trying the second. I think PoE2 definitely improved on pretty much all account in comparison with the first one. The game mechanics are much more polished, the skills more interesting, and finally the wizard is not useless! On top of that, the open-world map is fun and managing your ship and battling at sea is a nice mini-game, on top of being a good way to lead you to special encounters in the archipelago. A thing I agree with most people however, is that the game is too easy from mid to end-game. Obsidian managed to design more challenging fights in the extensions, but that's too bad that we needed to wait for it instead of having this kind of content in the game proper. I really hope we will see mods doing the equivalent of SCS in BG for PoE2. PoE1 could be compared to BG1, with some bizarre gameplay and design choices, while PoE2 is closer to BG2, where writing and scenarii are well-balanced by strategy and intermitent fights. I would love however being able to play the scenario of the first one in an enhanced edition, reimplemented in PoE2 engine. I would buy it again, and I will definitely play it a few times. My only standing issues is that a few quests are still bugged, which in my case for example blocked me from allying with a faction I wanted to pursue. That's too bad, and I'd like this kind of game-breaking bug to be a priority.
