If you play first PoE again and again then PoE 2 is your choice, just buy it. It's almost the same, but bigger.
After amazing first part I've bought PoE2 but stop playing it after a dozen hours. There are some reasons:
1) Same characters. It's really sad to play the same characters after their story was finished in first PoE.
2) Same story. The story in first PoE was really awesome with lots of incredible moments. The second part continues the same story. And it’s not as stunning as the story of the first part.
3) Bigger size of game. Usually bigger means better, but it's also less concentrated. You should do the same things again and again to move through weaker story with the same characters.
As a cRPG fan, this is the game I have been waiting for for years. Had a lot of fun, let me summarize in points (spoilers ahead):
+ immersion: the stories, quests, politics, graphics, twists, it feels amazing. Not BG2 comparable by a long shot, but still great. The quests keep you glued to your screen saying "I will just go there and finish this thing..." when suddenly it is 2am, good :)
+ variety: extensive character and skill combinations, strategies, approaches, you can choose your play-style and explore interesting details
+ technology: the engine is fast, the graphics are amazing, spell effects and char movements look great, maps with moving Eothas in the background are fun, it really feels good, well written and tested. Nice job!
- difficulty: the game is extraordinarily easy, especially the combat. I flew through all the fights and quests on Veteran with single save and scaling-up enabled, almost to a point of frustration. There had been ONE encounter that was challenging, and that was the entrance fight on Ukaizo. Otherwise it is mostly just meh., whether its Liches, Kraken or Dragons, all too easy
- length: It took me just a few days to finish, with all the side quests and all the other stuff (map explored, treasures found..) done. Felt incomplete at times even. Ukaizo could have been extra hours and hours of exploration, combat, ancient artifacts and whatnot, instead it was just 2 fights and 2 dull maps. The same with Magran's Teeth - possibly a huge area with lots of locations, quests and challenges. Nope. Since we are comparing this to Baldur's Gate games, imagine finishing BG2 before entering Underdark. Hoping for a long expansion!
- ships: Not a fan. Ship merchants had nothing good to sell, majority of islands had nothing interesting on them, the ship combat and crew management had zero impact on the rest of the game. Would remove these for added hours of regular game
Too many words, I know :). Would buy again though, lot of fun & replayability!
It’s hard to put in words what needs to be experienced firsthand, but suffice to say it pushes the design philosophy of Baldur’s Gate 2 and old Infinity engine games to its full potential by retaining everything that made those games beloved classics and exploring new areas where improvements could be made. One of the first things you will notice upon playing PoE 2 is just how many ways there are for solving quests. This is something that has been severely lacking in the old Infinity engine games and even in PoE 1, but now finally here is a game that gives you the freedom of finding different solutions like you could do in Fallout 1 and 2 with all the great things that made people love Infinity engine games so much.
Some naysayers say the game is slow and boring, but in reality it just demands that you stop and think for a moment and engage with the world in a more meaningful way. When someone downvotes the game by commenting how the game was boring, I can only assume they didn’t enjoy the slower pace of PoE2.
With the latest patch, now there is a turned based mode for those who don’t like real time with pause – and it works great! Combat in both modes is generally brilliant and deeply satisfying from a tactical point of view.
I could go on about characters reacting to your choices, various factions competing and reacting to whatever you do, new romance options, new non-combat skills you can learn (adding to the uniqueness of your characters), brilliant soundtrack and vast improvements to graphics, but I think you get the picture.
In short, this is a brilliant game with a great story, interesting characters, deep lore, countless customization options, amazing combat, complex quests, choices and consequences and everything you could possibly want from a roleplaying game. Ignore the naysayers – they are clueless! If you enjoyed old Black Isle games, you will not find a better new game anywhere else, so buy it! You will not regret it!
So, i´ve played this game a while ago and everyone who knows baldur gate 2 and similar games will find himself quite at home after some learing and fail and trying.
The world is interesting, getting your own ship and invade other ships or sink them is good too. But the i swear this game has the most boring story somehow. Chasing the main antagonist all over the world is soo time consuming and your helpers aren´t making that job easier. Because they have the most radical attitute to deal with. What that means? Well, imagine having and racist an communist and a religious fanatic in your party and now try to complete quests without making anyone one of them upset or mad at you. I will drive you crazy. Although there are luckly many others which are easier to handle and you even can make beside your main characters, other lesser ones to help him. But they of course have no quest lines whatsoever.
Another thing that isn´t good are the quests. Which are really a lot and sadly there are only very few ones who are actually great. Like the one, in which you get the chance to free a dragon, which helps you later in a boss fight, while you make the tribe angry because they enslaved and abused him to have further control over their magic. Is so rattling good.^^ But the main problem is the ending. Well i don´t want to spoil you that one. But after that, i didn´t considered to start a new game+ because i saw no reason in this. Even tho i would have got powerful advantages.
In short i would describe this game as a good one. But not for every gamer, more like for the developer themselfs. If you have the same or a similar mindset like them, you will like it too. Also i would like to menton, that it worked without any problems and smooth. Not errors or crashes.
Btw, don´t romance that religious girl (yeah i don´t know her name anymore). She is a cheating one!
