I just wish Obsidian makes a PoE 3 after Avowed.

As a funny fact: both Aloth and Eder are voiced by Matt Mercer, the GM of Critical Role.

The first time I dropped into PoE, I felt overwhelmed by lore and world building... and I walked away for a bit probably after the beginning of Act 2. I'm a lifelong tabletop and CRPG player, and at 47... it's been a few decades. When I came back to PoE, it was completely the opposite - I had remembered enough of the first go around to really embrace the lore. And I think the game holds up to repeated playing because of that beautifully crafted environment. This is one of the best reviews I've seen of the game - it's honest, critical, yet still points to it's unique place. It is easily one of my 5 favorite CRPGs. Also, Durance grows on you - because he's abrasive and complicated, his story wraps up with panache. Thanks. I'm subscribed now.

This game introduced me to Obsidians's game design and writing. Excelent game, one of the best experiences I had in a game.

Passed on Pillars 1 and 2 despite being a massive Obsidian fan for no other reason than they came out at the wrong time in my life. I've come to understand in my years of living that Josh Sawyer can do no wrong. edit: But Obsidian definitely needs to figure out an inventory system that doesn't suck ass.

I never thought real time with pause would appeal to me... until Pillars came and changed everything. The Visuals, the writing, the world ... This is my Baldurs Gate 1. The story, oh my god I was hooked! WAIT, WHAT? YOU DIDN"T LIKE DURANCE?! oh my goodness

I also found the exposition dumps to be a bit tedious and confusing early on. Everyone talked about all of these locations, historical events, wars, factions and gods as if your character already knew about them. It took a while for what was going on to really fall into place. Still enjoyed it overall though. Playing through the sequel now.

My first CRPG. Now playing PoE II and I think they’re my favourite games ever.

This was my my first isometric crpg (i specified isometric because i'm not sure some of the games i have played can be considered a crpg). But not because i'm young and wasn't around when most of the classics came out, but because i was mostly a console player back then. But i fell in love with this game and its sequel, and it introduced me to a genre i never even knew existed until like a year and a half ago. Now i'm playing the original baldurs gate, i have played divinity original sin 1 and 2, planescape torment, pathfinder kingmaker, neverwinter nights 2 and i just want to keep playing more and more. This game has a special place in my heart.

Purchased this because of your review. Same with Shadow Gambit, Underrail, and probably a few more before the Steam Winter Sale is over. Thank you for exposing us to so many gems from the past and present.

Subscribed! Awesome stuff! Pillars was actually my first ever CRPG (I played through Kotor 1 & 2 as a kid but I dont really count those), I picked it up on a whim, it took forever to click for me but once it did I was OBSESSED! After beating the first game I immediately backed PoE 2 on kickstarter. Since then I've played almost every relevant Crpg (even the older D&D BG games which hold up pretty well if you can get past some of the jank). Great to see someone covering these games so in depth! I know it's going to be a lot different but I cant wait for Avowed. I also hope we at least get to explore some of the Dyrwood in Avowed because I love that setting so much.

I got if for free on Epic Games, now I'm addicted to it. What a great experience. Sometimes the options on the dialogues spoil things that our character can't possibly now at that moment, which ends up breaking the immersion. For example, first time at Dyrford Village I went to the Inn and when I talked to the bartender I got the option to ask about the problem with the pigs, which I didn't know anything about. I wish this didn't happen. I had the same experience in other obsidian games but this time felt more noticeable. You start to see the pattern in the dialogues and it's kind of frustrating sometimes. Besides these small details, this game is really addictive once you understand the different classes. Being able to change the difficulty at any given moment is also really useful.

I remember not liking Grieving Mother all that much, but Hiravius was the shit. I absolutely loved him and wished he'd shown up sooner.

I wanted to love this game a lot more than I did. The story, the world building and the characters were all top notch. The combat system was sufficiently nostalgic and intuitive once you learned its quarks. The companions were mostly all memorable. And Caed Nua, your ability to expand it, your role you take there as a Lord and the quest concerning it's lower depths was all MIND BLOWING. But DAMN the load times and crashes on consoles (I'm a PS4 player) nearly destroyed all of the title's good faith. It was, quite literally, the strength of the story alone that forced me through it. I'm a hardcore RPG'er. When I fall in love with an expansive title, I implant myself and my OCD nature totally in its world and the more of a life I can live there the better. Given that I LOVE to organize my home bases, it was...a struggle when it came to going to my personal quarters to organize and store my items and my companions items. To go from the world, to the castle, to the living quarters, to the second floor of the living quarters and back again was to endure a gauntlet of 8 or more loading screens which were all oppressively long. And the more you did in the game, the more unstable its architecture became and the more it would crash; often DURING said screens. It got to the point where it would take me upwards of 30 minutes to make a round and I was forced to abandon that aspect of my preferred method of gameplay. It was a distressing. And what made it worse was that even after all of the patching by the devs, this was never fixed for console players. The overall story and gameplay of PoE was good enough to me as a package that I purchased PoE2: Deadfire at release and it's currently on my backlog. I only hope that when I get around to playing it (likely after I finish Torment: Tides of Numenera and Divinity: Original Sin II), that it doesn't suffer from the same fatal flaw.

I love this game for its adult story and adult lore. Some of the quests are really dark, some of the dialogue is crude, some characters are unapologetically offensive. The writers had a story to tell and got to tell it their own way without pandering to mass market. It's why also some of its party members are the most memorable to me in any video game - especially how often they wind each other up. You've got a masochist monk, serial killer golem, upper class mate with a foul mouthed alternative female personality, a priest who is straight up an asshole (he's awesome) and a horny druid. It's unmatched in any game I've played since. Books which are grimdark are BOOMING, there is an audience for dark gritty storytelling laced with humour. Obsidian need to keep leaning on this type of storytelling - they're prob among the best storytellers in video games.

Really got me back into CRPGs in a big way. And I find nothing compares to it (that's definitely my bias talking.) Cipher is my favorite class in any rpg ever.

CRPGs have been my favorite genre since the early 90s, and they still are today. I can't get enough of them, and I am so thankful developers are still making them and innovating. More recent like the POE series, Tyranny, Underrail, Divinity Original Sin series, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Wasteland 2 and 3, Atom RPG, Encased, I feel spoiled these days. There was a long time when there weren't a lot of games like this being made. I really hope Obsidian will end up making a POE 3. At the same time, I am looking forward to Avowed, as I love the POE world and lore. It is a good time to be a CRPG fan, that much is certain.

It's great to see how much this channel has grown over the years, this channel has become my favorite by far in terms of video games! Btw, the last time I played PoE I ran into an issue where the fog around the screen completely disappeared. I havent' found any solution to this problem yet, I would be very grateful if someone could help me 😊

This is a really comprehensive and straight-shooting review! Much appreciated. I'm going to give this game another shot since last time I played on "normal" and found it insanely hard. I kept dying to a bear near the beginning and kind of never came back lol. I'll try a new run on easy!

Just finished pathfinder kingmaker and I'm so shocked such great games like Dragon Age: Origin exists. I'm excited to try this one and part 2! I just wish they were fully voiced like DA:O

Thank you for reviewing the game. This is one of my all time favorite crpg's. So I was curious what you had to say about it. I will comment on one thing. The story in any game for me is more of an afterthought. For me the creation of a character and all that they go through during the coarse of a game is the real story. It came down to just me and the last boss with a hit from either of us would kill the other. Finishing the game in that manner was the most satisfying and memorable experience I have had in a game in a long time. And that became my story with everything in between:)

Didn't know avowed was set here, thank goodness, i think an established world will help it along

I love the fact that even when I mess up and go to a spot I can't get through (level reasons) I can restart this game and still find a new way to handle shit. This game and these types of games are phenomenal for their customization, choices (and their impacts), the story and the tactical combat. There is very little I can say negatively about this game and "Obsidian" as a whole. The complaints I do have are more nit-picky than anything such as slow downs with a lot of combat action on screen or a slight frame rate dip here and again (Switch player) and even on the PS4 version, there was slight dips. This game is in my top 10 for a wide array of reasons.

Along with might, I think Intelligence increasing your AoE is important to note. I'm playing as a barbarian and his most important stat is Int, so he gets a larger cleave area on every attack. Not very thematic for a barbarian but makes the RP interesting.

I got completely blown away by this game back then and it's still one of my favourite rpgs ever!

Completely agree with your review the game is hard to pick up and go if you've never played a CRPG. My first run of the game I'm running a Cipher but I've been using alot of build specs to get the max out of my Characters. But once u get past that initial first step the game is amazing such a rich and detailed world. Can't wait to play the sequel.

Some interesting observations there. Just to add my own take. I too was a veteran of the 90's CRPG era and was also caught off guard by the game system the first time i played. The same was for my brother, who also played the game at the roughly same time. However, i was lucky to get a solid grasp of the ruleset (especially the area of control features) by the mid act 1. This made me greatly enjoy this new system, and it is to this date my favorite CRPG ruleset. The reason for this are numerous and i don't want to clog the comment here, but just in short, it appears to provide more space for experimentation and flexibility then all the other CRPG's i've played and most of all, it doesn't force you shoehorn you into playing archetypes that the devs might want you to play. As for most of the other issues, i kinda agree with you. The game can be hard to get into, especially for new to the genre players.

I’m playing Poe again for the 4th time on my switch. This game keeps me coming back. I really love it.

Nice review, Mortim. In Act 3 the main city opens up again after a little bit.

Just started playing this game, so thanks for this review!

PoE 1 is what got me into CRPGs for good. One of my favorite games of all time, the writing in this one is top notch. Currently playing the second game and I'm loving it as well

My only advice to other new crpg players is dont stress builds, if you do what feels "right" then its probably good enough to beat the game (on normal.) And have most your ppl play ranged weapons as edur will block doorways so him and somebody with a spear as offtank behind him is all the melee you need

PSA: You can get grieving mother in act 1. But if you follow the main quest you won't meet her until later.

The very important thing to mention about attributes, which is unique for this game and I wish it would be done much more often is that every attribute is usefull for literally every class. You can do warrior with max int and it will have perfect sense, you can make mage with max dexterity and low int and it will also have perfect sense. I hate when you have like 6-7 attributes in a game and whole idea behind them is max THIS and you good.

Excellent review Mortismal! I just got a sealed complete edition copy for $10 shipped! I got to play a bit with gamepass trial on xsx. Never was into these types of games but this one pulled me in lol. Glad I don't have to wait for a poe 2.

I actually thought divinity original sin 2 was much harder to adapt to in terms of classes and rpg mechanics. That game literally does not tell you that mixing a party between magic and physical damage is not good. It also does not tell you about lots of intricacies between different perks and abilities you can get.

Weirdly enough Durance is one of my alltime favorite crpg companions. Perhaps not likable but a really interesting character. Played my first playthrough on expert path of the damned and the early game and dragon bosses were really challenging but I enjoyed it greatly except for the fact that expert mode hides spell aoe area which so many stats and buffs affect. That made many spells almost unusable. Obviously had to use build guides as reference since it was an unfamiliar system but I really enjoyed playing on path of the damned.

Great Review! Great Channel. Currently in my first playtrough. Just a question i have seem to got the Druid and Grieving Mother quite quickly, just after the keep. I just helder east. Havent found the paladin companion yet. Did i miss her or did something wrong?

Thanks for making this, you are the man

Thank you for this review! It was really good. Poe was phenomenal mid game in particular. That interlocking of political intrigue as well as a fantasy based crisis was the heart of this game. It petered out a bit near the end, but a lot of diligence went into the execution here. I hope there are more games like this in the future and the depth and breadth of a serious storyline and world is something future games take away from Poe. Great game and a classic that earns its status imo. Maybe a few small issues on occasion, but that's just nit picking at this point/subjective aspects.

One of the best games that I played obsidian never disappointed me, great review keep up the good work

Great review -might actually pick this up now. Out of curiosity, are you no longer doing 100% or is this an outlier?

Great review, got the game for free on Epic and played it now.

I personally think that Pillars of Eternity is the true spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate series. I actually like it more than BG and BG2. It is probably my favorite isometric D&Dish CRPG of all time.

Anyone know how these types of games play on consoles? Baldurs gate 1 and 2, the pathfinder games and the POE games seem tough with a controller. Any feedback would be appreciated!

How long to beat with side quests at a decent pace?

This is my first top down experience and I loved every minute of poe1 I’m on Poe 2 now hoping every aspect in this game is in avowed

I have to say I think the game has major issues no one ever talks about. You addressed the lack of explanation for their (Wich can and will cause you to make a useless character) but you didnt even mention the severe illusion of choice wich is prevalent through out the entire game. The role playing APPEARS robust but the writers bend over backwards to make sure no matter what you choose it does not affect the outcome of the story in any way at all. There were so many systems that seemed totally ill considered. The castle management was a massive chore that never properly incentivized you. The loading screens were pianfully slow (at least near launch when I played) Wich would be forgivable, except the game designed itself to maximize the number of loading screens you need to go through. If you want to go to your castle, buy some upgrades for it, and rest in your bed for some buffs, you need to wait through 8 loading screens. 8 loading screens. 8. That took about a minute a piece on launch. They could have easily done it in half that number or even less just by moving where they put your bed. Personally the story and world building bounced off me like and left me totally disengaged from the world. That might just be personal preference but while I cant say Im not at all particularly invested in the Forgotten Realms, yet Baulders Gate did manage to hook me with its story in a way PoE totally failed to do. I dont just bring this up to say I was personally disappointed, this game received tons of praise but its flaws were mostly ignored. And when the sequel released the sales were less then the first game. The fans who really enjoyed PoE 1 mostly enjoyed PoE2 even more but a huge number of customers bought PoE1 and left the series for 2. Im one of them. None of the advertised changes in 2 made me think they addressed my issues with the first game so I didnt buy it, and judging by the sales Im not alone.

Great game, what I loved about it was the nihilistic outlook. You think gods are you regular affair (what I thought when first playing it), but then the twist comes and the dialogue at the end where the guy explains why things are the way they are with them looking for evidence but couldn't find it, so they did what they did. Beautifuly done.

if poe had poe2's multiclassing i would enjoy it a hell of alot more

Funny how I get both Haravius and Grieving Mother as soon as Act 2 starts ( I went exploring a lot ) lmao. I haven't even been to the Defiance Bay yet.

Just finished this game a few hours ago (my first CRPG). Gotta say I never expected to enjoy it as much as I did. I thought the reading would get tedious and sometimes it did lol but I actually didn't mind it. I'm wishing it was longer lol. Gonna take a break to play other games but will definitely be checking out Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale in the future (gotem on my Steam wishlist).

Great review !

I always loved this type of game and bought this game as soon as it came out but never got into it like I used to with the older CRPGs I played

Thanks for Larian and Owlcat for reviving this genre

Great review, gained a subscriber

Do you think if the companies made instruction manuals that could be downloaded and printed it would help? Like a strip of paper in the game box or note in beginning of game with website to go to and download. I am coming from the console side of things. A manual that would explain the mechanics of game not so much control scheme.

POE is a bit of a bell curve. Starts rough, White March parts one and two are really good, then it tails off. (That said with certain choices you can have a boat covered in bird poop in Deadfire).

This was really helpful, thanks. 🙂

What class/build do you recommend for the 1st play?

I could never get into this game despite being a huge fan of bg2, planescape torment, icewind dale, etc. Can't put my finger on why exactly but it just didnt do it for me. It's on my list to give another shot to one day though.

I feel like there are so many crpgs I don't know where to start. Pillars, Pathfinder, D:OS, not sure which one to play next

I wish the PoE company would remake the original 2 Baldur's Gate games. I love how they captured the original joy of when I played BG. Would have been so great to play BG with the looks and music of PoE.

Sad.They did remove per-rest spells feature in Deadfire. I really love Baldur’s Gate spell mechanic and POE was closed to my liking.

He mentioned you get grieving mother late in the game, but I'm just now in act 2 and I got her. I feel like I missing a huge chunk of the game now lol

im still playing this wonderfull game.

I managed to snag this game a while back for free on Epic Games. I dropped the game shortly after because i was struggling on the hard difficulty. This review definitely convinced me to give it another shot on a lower difficulty!

"May u wander in wisdom" i really like that

I picked up this game after playing DOS 2. DOS 2 was my first cRPG game, and I totally fell in love! So when Steam recommended this one, I thought “why not?” I…didn’t like it. I felt like the story took forever to get going, and I just never felt engaged with it. The companions seemed bland (granted, I never collected all of them) except for Durance, who was just plain annoying. I tried playing on Normal, quickly realized I was in over my head and switched to Easy, but I don’t think I ever got the hang of the gameplay. I didn’t like the real time with pause gameplay, especially after getting so used to turn-based with DOS 2. I’d never played D&D or anything with similar rule sets, so it was quite the learning curve figuring out how to build my character-I don’t think I ever got it right before I gave up. Every time I heard someone talk about how much they loved this game, I’d re-download it and give it another try, but ultimately, it never clicked for me and I just gave up. I’m enjoying BG3, and I’ll probably try Solasta, Crown of the Magister, so I’m still interested in exploring the genre.

What do.you lime better pillars or pathfinder ?

are you serious about the companians ?! The worst to me is your favorite and the one I love the most is the one who annoyed you..And the DLC companians too, like, seriously..People are so different. Both Zahua and the murderer robot were way more fun than the barbarian shark chick..ahahahahahah man I love these games so much for that kind of variety. Also Pillars 1 was my first CRPG and since then I love the genre. Still one of my favorite games of all time, and I count pillars 1 and 2 as a whole. Love your lore series too.

I got Grieving mother and Hiravias before I went to the city for Pallagina...

I found this to be not one for the casuals...Even on normal I found the combat punitive - with big shifts even in the same dungeon that catch you out. A wealth of stats that are poorly explained as well. I saw people recommending certain builds and strategies (especially for the more alt classes like Cipher) but I found the best technique was to simply summon as many creatures as possible while my main characters dealt damage... I found my normal cavalier approach of rushing headlong had to turn into a creep almost into range strategy, buff and then cross my fingers, Many abilities in combat also rely on a levelling up - so stronger abilities unlock while in combat (the Chanter being a good example) but I found the AI was keen to spam lower level abilities However for all its faults it really felt like a lot of thought had gone into the world and its lore

Every couple of years I try to play this game, and after 3-4 hours Steam overwrites my save. Next time, I'll disable Cloud Saves from the start (if I remember)

also playing solasta crown of magistrate. very good crpg.

no my type games might give it try when its 4.99 would i skip pillars 1 since pillars 2 have turn based i like wasteland/FE type combat

I got the druid companion in act 1

💕

I really loved both games, the lore and world they made is really interesting and unique I think. PoE 2's multiclassing really brings a lot to the class system too, so much fun. I'm not a huge fan of real time with pause but I made an exception for this game! Definitely hoping they do a PoE 3 at some point

I love this game and the sequel. It's especially the world that I find amazingly well crafted and interesting. I hope to the gods that Pillars 3 will one day become reality, but until then, I'm really happy that Avowed at least takes place in the same world. Eora might be my favorite fantasy world, as realized in a game.

ngl i got defensive when you said "old game".. i dont want 2015 to be old yet lmao.

I played this on PS4 but never finished it, now that I switched to PC instead I'll probably play the game again on PC

I'm so sad to hear you didn't like Durance. To me, he's one of the best characters in the game. He's a mean, dirty old man, who might just know a few things. Even if you actively dislike him; you have to admit it takes good writing to provoke such a reaction.

I found grieving mother in part one

I'd love a remake of this with POE2's UI, graphics, 5-party combat, etc.

One small thing that got me is how they tried to make might a universal stat yet there is not a single caster might check in the whole game.

I never knew why Obsidian kept insisting on those player-owned castles - first NWN2, then Storm of Zehir, next this one, not doing it right each time. Good thing they dropped it in PoE2

Reminds me of Baldurs Gate. Installing now.

PoE is loading screen simulator.

I do not like PoE. However, I do not regret buying it, because at the same time I was buying it, Divinity Original Sin (the first one, and at the time, I have not heard of it before) was being heavily advertised and discounted before I proceeded to the Checkout. So, I decided to purchase DOS1 as well. DOS1 turned out to be a fantastic game, and PoE turned out to be a disappointment. But, that is just my opinion.

How do you not like Durance? Hes the most interesting character. The classic curmudgeon and dirty old man. Eder was a strong second. Sagani was my least favorite. Very disposable. Just started playing this a month ago. Got it on Gamepass. I'm really liking it but a few things seem very antiquated and frustrating. The static map, long load times, weird mix of voice acting and read text in the same conversation (some major characters get no voice work at all), enemy engagements that all devolve into a dog pile (which makes AoE attacks useless). The terrible interface. It's very hard to tell what's selected/highlighted (quests, characters, dialogue). Completed quests dont go away into a separate completed log, you have to sift thru it constantly. Traits are not straight forward. They replaced terms everyone is familiar with obscure words that could mean anything. Which is odd considering the detail in writing. I had to look everything up so I was leveling my character correctly. And you cant farm XP from enemies. Your only real source of XP is quests. Despite all that, I'm still loving it. The writing is amazing. You can tell they hired real writers. The backer nods in the game was fun too. 8/10 Had the gameplay been like Divinity of Sin with turn based with action points and full dialogue , it'd be a 9/10 easy.

You just have to go to that village and talk to her

I liked Pillars better than kingmaker, but Wrath a bit better than Deadfire.. personal opinion ..

I love using console cheat codes to increase replaying fun

Pillars of Eternity: Volledige Editie 75% afgeprijsd € 12,49 € 49,99

I agree with you on the big reveal, but honestly it was just poorly done. They pretty much put it as a piece of information, as much of the story that takes the world to that moment remains somewhat ignored even in the second game, so we tend not to feel connected to it, in a narrative point of view.

Love crpgs but despise this game. I defy anyone to read all the exposition in the first act. Its no Divinity thats for sure

Idk why. I tried PoE 3 times and it always lost me. The combat system always annoyed me and I prefer turn based, which the luckily gave to PoE 2. Maybe I just set it on easy and have a good time, just to see the game.

I tried to like this one, but the exposition dumps at the beginning and lack of helpful info about the game's unique systems turned me off. I was, like many, hoping for a spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate and his game just turned me off with it's presentation and writing.

I agree with you about Durance, he is annoying indeed. I don't think that the problem with their "unique system" is the lack of tutorials, the system is simply bad in design. Moreover, I think this game is bad overall. It is a mix of extremely boring writing (story, dialogs, and lore) and bad design decisions. But I respect it because, as you said, it was the first cRPG in the cRPG renaissance. I even beat this game because at the time there were no better options in terms of cRPG.