Now THAT is how you do a shooter game!
it really does
This is a classic RPG experience with modern QoL improvements. Great combat. One of the best mechanical system I've seen in an cRPG. building a system ground-up and not using some table-top rulesets definitely paid off. As soon as you try to play a table-top based ruleset after playing PoE2 you will notice all the tedious mechanics that bring nothing to the table in a computer game adaptation. Visually, absolutely stunning! Music? Memorable and just as good as in the first title. Writing? Even the characters that appear cheap at first will open up in interesting ways as you progress. And yes, rejoice, the dredful 'lore dumps' are gone. Side quests are a great show of Deadfire's factions' powerplays. Naval combat, the only questionable mechanic, is completely redeemed by the virtue of being able to go straight to ordinary combat at any moment of a naval engagement. The only possible objective critique left after all the patches is that the main quest feels short, the 'side' content is the real treat here. But can you show me someone who plays Baldur's Gate, Arcanum or classic Fallout games only for the main quest? It goes without saying that anyone who is into this kind of games will complete every quest they can reach, so the adra colossus quest line being short is not a deal breaker at all. You are still looking at a solid >40 hour playthrough and that's just the core game without DLCs.
