![]() Looking at the Steam descriptions, one of them sounds like a throwaway arena combat DLC? Wut? what are the PoE2 expansions like? Because it sounds like not many people played them at all. is not a bad thing but also not what I expected seeing what they did in White March. Sounds to me like Defiance Bay expanded into the entire main campaign. A fun swashbuckling adventure with factions and Obsidian's patented reputation driven narrative design. But nope, I'm told that PoE2 is more like New Vegas with pirates. So then I wonder if when I finally beat PoE in the next week or two, and move on to PoE2, whether this is more of what I can expect, because it feels like it might be a change in direction they decided on while planning the sequel. But it builds and builds, goes completely off the rails, and embraces the far off lore in the game more than anything in the original campaign. At first it seems like another throwaway "magic Dwarvern forge" side content expansion which isn't consequential to anything. I appreciate the history and world building in PoE a ton, but yeah, maybe it could have been more interesting.Īnd that's where White March comes in. I liked it well enough (although clearly not loving it enough to finish it when it first came out, stopping just before the end because I thought Twin Elms was dragging on but it was actually the end of the game but I thought there would be more and kinda got distracted). It got a lot of flake for being a bit too dry and grounded, only teasing at bigger things. PoE1 was meant to be a classic BG style traditional fantasy campaign. It's kinda fascinating how it feels so different in intent, even in the same game world. Instead of arguing about whether PoE2 is a better game than PoE1, I'm more interested in talking about the different focus in tone for the narrative in each of the PoE projects. I love the sea shanties though.įinally, let me counter with a small list of things that I believe PoE2 does amazingly well, and even better than its predecessor: setting, itemization, quest and gameplay variety, systemic character growth, inventory and battle UI, skill design, and obviously graphics and overall presentation. Music - Admittedly, when a game isn't Nier or Ar Tonelico then I don't pay too much attention to music.It worked out pretty well for me, but I can see that it might not (probably cannot) do so for everyone. no level scaling, only upscaling, full scaling) and difficulty levels. PoE2 seeks to address this with various difficulty options (i.e. What's certainly true is that an open structure in an RPG means that it will have some impact on difficulty. I'd argue that a preference between those two is ultimately subjective. PoE2 is a much more open game than PoE1, which had a somewhat strict act structure that also greatly limits where you can go. Difficulty and Pacing - I put these together because I think they relate.And to me, all of that is narrative - and more important than the main storyline just by virtue of how much time you spend interacting with it. And you can notice almost everywhere how the state of the entire setting is formed by and in turn forms these factions. The all have believable backstories, motivations, goals, methods, and even various characteristic types of interpretations of these within their own ranks. (Not that PoE1 was bad in the broader scheme of games). But beyond that? The factions are so much more interesting, fleshed out, and relatable in PoE2 compared to PoE1. Narrative - I already agreed on the main story.The pirate fortresses, the shantytowns, the mercantilistic trading posts, the research outposts, the engwithan ruins, they all make sense and are fun to explore. Honestly though, even outside of Neketaka the areas seem cool. ![]() It's my favourite city in any CRPG in ages, and since cities are probably my favourite locations in these games I just can't fault the game for its area design. Area Design - I just don't agree with this, primarily due to the amazing quality of Neketaka.Talking about DLC, PoE2 also has its set of free patched-in superbosses, which are a rather special category of encounter (and honestly just too difficult for me to bother with). Interestingly, in both games the best encounters from a tactical perspective might be in their DLC. So if you look at the totality of all battles and do some average over them then I may agree.įor the main game though (and main sidequest lines/dungeons), I cant say that I do. This was also the case in 1, but it had fewer in total. Encounter design - PoE2 has a lot of bounties which are often just groups o enemies on a pretty nondescript battlefield.Click to shrink.Let me respond to these individually.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |