Argh! Grrr! Seriously?!? Yes!!! And I finished within a week, first try, on Veteran. As somebody who eventually buys just about every CRPG that's made, this one was a surprise. Well, first try was aborted at level 13, call it a taste test. I knew by then enough about the game to go back and give it a more strategic go. And, there's plenty of help in the forums when you're stuck. I enjoyed many of the puzzles, which were probably a bit easier than those in many classic CRPG's, but then, too many of those were just impossible, especially without the internet... I don't see much replay value, since once you've won, now you know how to do it. Try again on hardcore with a different party composition maybe? But at $7.99 on sale a couple weeks ago, this was a great buy. If you've been gaming since Ultima III like me, just give this one a once through, you won't regret it. If you want a challenge, go bleed or wounds, stun makes the endgame a bit trivial.
I wanted to love it, I really enjoy the tabletop, but after 20+ hours of play, I have to say Pillars of Eternity was a much smoother experience. I'm not sure if it's because Pathfinder's mechanics don't translate well to simultaneous action, and yes I'm playing on challenging, or if it's just a low-level phenomenon when a Brawler crits for 30 damage and I'm still 2nd level, but the amount of reloading is ridiculous. And yes I know as a player that color spray can be overpowered, but when Valerie and Miri are both knocked down by a stupid illusionist and my cleric of Erastil and the bard are left alone to be pummeled... Oh wait, before every step on the world map, save, and reload if you get a random encounter, problem solved, right? No, this is not how I want to play a game. Tone down the random encounters, devs. And then there's the big reloads, like when I went back to day 4 from day 15 when I noticed in my journal that I'm spent to much time resting after random encounters and the trail of the bandits had gone cold. Maybe give me time counters in the journal so I know when I'm about to miss an opportunity? I'm honestly thinking of cashing in on that 30 day money-back guarantee, I can't see myself finishing this game, but I'll give it a few more days before deciding...
