Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

At first I thought I would just play a little while and play more come the weekend! I was having such a good time I stayed up most of the night and just could not stop. This game really turned out great and is everything I was looking for. I like the flow of action. it allows me time to make decisions yet moves enough to give it a nice flow. A very enjoyable experience!

This game had a lot of love and effort put into it, which shows. It's also been a big Kickstarter success, which also shows - for better or worse. The story picks up from the previous one and takes you to an archipelago, which brings up an array of loveable characters, ship combat, magic&guns combat (either TB or RTwP), choices affecting colonialism and gods, and sea shanties. Loved everything about this game - from narrative and mechanical perspective to characters and shanties. Easily one of my favourites.

The first PoE was fine, if a bit too rooted in past glories. That was ok though since that was the pitch. I also felt the story tried a bit too hard. The sequel here is the proper evolution of Infinity Engine-games as far as I'm concerned. More advanced engine, better UI and just overall smoother mechanics bringing everything up to speed. Less stereotypical world, going with a Caribbean fantasy, which doesn't actually mean pirates so much as native tribes and invading explorers and the like. Top notch atmosphere. I actually like a lot of the character writing more, since it seems less prone to prose and more natural, even though it does go overboard (huh, ok, I'll leave this pun in) into stupid here and there. It is true that the main story is tiny and in the background, but personally I prefer it. Makes for far better replayability since you can make the adventure quite different each time when there are less obligatory bits. I finished the game with a lot unfinished and instantly felt that I will play this with another crew. Lots of interesting quests in there, and it's not like many of them aren't connected to the main event even if they're not directly part of it. For replayability's sake, I just miss more companions. at least twice as many. The long sections of lore-heavy exposition were my least favourite part of the first PoE. Often it's more exciting to not know exactly everything about everything. The sequel thankfully cuts back a lot on that. I do, however, love the more numerous PnP-esque page flipping when it comes to world interactions. Nice change of pace, and the sparse sound effects really make actions in these sections stand out and feel exciting. Fits the whole exploration into the unknown so well, and that is what this game is really about. Great, great sequel that is not just more of the same.

Compared to the original PoE, the storyline in this game is quite minimal and the characters are much more shallow. Due to this it is difficult to get immersed in this game and difficult to care where the plot is headed next or what the companions' personal quests are about. Not to mention that many companions are simply annoying to have around due to their poorly written dialog and one-dimensional personalities. The new ship-based exploration and combat is also extremely boring after the first few encounters as nothing really changes from battle to battle. Possibly the only improvement in PoE2 is the expanded benefits associated with pets. The game also seems to be taking itself way too seriously for a single player RPG. In PoE2 the game designers removed the ability to respec the main character's primary stats, reduced the party size from six to five, and added a fixed number of uses to various magic items which make them worthless in short order. Overall, the game generally made me annoyed when I played it rather than providing entertainment.

This game is a worthy successor to PoE and Baldur's Gate What this game does perfect is the world building and the storytelling. Ekera! It's too bad that Microsoft bought Obsidian. They'll ruin this great studio like they ruined everything else. Shame on you Microsoft, shame on you!