I think I would have enjoyed the game much more if I had waited on the additional DLC before diving in. As it was, everything felt piecemeal--no real sense of unity between the main game and the DLC. It felt very rough and amateurish--almost a mod-like feel. But I think the most boring thing for me was the soundtrack--it kept putting me to sleep...;) 137 hours in and haven't finished--I'm certain at least 20% of that time was spent in a daze or catnapping...! Ha-ha...The musical score was just very ho-hum. No energy, no weirdness, no fantasy underpinnings. I liked it well enough at the time, and with the recent patch I fired it up again--but the *musical score* keeps putting me off by putting me to sleep. Additionally, the very long scene/savegame load times didn't help the pacing of the game at all--I moved it to my SSD and it was still slow, I thought.

I agree. I really wanted to like this game. Having played the older D&D games like IWD, IWD2, BG, BG@, NWN, I heard that Pillars carried on the torch.

I was sorely disappointed.

- Loading screens every time I enter a building, for a 2D graphics game. Really?!
- The lore is a mess. Forgotten Realms is so much nicer.
- There's too much to read. And it's BORING! If I want a good read, I'll read a novel.
- Towns are empty. You don't feel as if you are walking in a city that's alive.
- The Kickstarter backer characters are EVERYWHERE and break any immersion.
- The combat AI is stupid. E.g. spellcasters stand in the doorway, where they block your melee chars' path. The melee chars then move like they are running, while they're staying in place.
- The music is bland.
- Spells are boring and seem to have very little effect.
- You get no XP for killing monsters.
- Itemization is boring. There is no progression in items or stats.
- The stats.... get this: might is not the most important stat for fighter types. Lol. You need INT, resolve, and other stupid stats.
- Items and characters look boring. Nothing stands out. Everything looks drab.
- There's no "big bad guy." Sounds cliche and most games are straightforward, right? So you'd think a "great story game" like Pillars is an improvement? Think again. It's some mumbo-jumbo about hollowborn children, and you're following some vague story, with no bad guy or something to keep your interest. It just seems pointless after a few days.
- You can't rest without camping supplies, of which you can only carry 2-4 depending on the difficulty level.
- You don't really want to use your "use on rest" abilities in combat, because you can hardly rest. This makes combat boring and bland.

I tried, I really did. I don't know why this is rated so highly. Probably because people are desperate for anything that resembles the old BG2 style games? I'd rather do another BG2 or IWD runthrough any day. Sorry Pillars, you just don't have it for me.

Agree with everything 100%. I love old school RPGs like BG1&2, IWD 1&2, Torment, Fallout 1&2 etc. And there was a lot of hype going on about PoE that I decide to give it a try... I really tried hard to like it but couldn't. In the end, I gave up after finishing around 70% of the game. And even that felt like I was forcing myself. This is my first RPG that I did not finish...

I could add a few things more to your list but think it contains the main issues I had with the game.

All in all, I would give the game 3/5.

story and lore problems I'm willing to overlook ... it is new "universe", without the advantage of building on well established background like Forgotten Realms / AD&D. That is also why it feels boring at times ... it tries to (and has to) describe and explain way too many things way too fast for the world and story to make sense.

but combat mechanics are really wonky (poorly thought out) and the combat AI is horrible attrocity, something so incredibly bad that I really wonder how anyone from dev team could possibly ever think that the game is ready for release (and while the patches have improved it a bit, IT STILL STINKS!). This is really ridiculously bad design decision for game that is so heavily combat focused.

problem with combat is that it relies a bit too much on exact knowledge of game mechanics and light variant of save scumming. Where other games try to aim for players immersion, PoE sort of screams "you are playing computer game" in your face and then rubs your nose in it just in case it wasn't immersion breaking enough. Especially in the beginning of the game way too often you are put into situation where the only way to progress is engage in combat, get slaughtered, load game and then use strategy and knowledge based on the first failed attempt (that you couldn't have the first time) to directly counter enemies through equipment/skills/spells and basically cheese your way through the fight. Fighting trash mobs is fine, but almost all difficult fights are way too much in the cheese territory ... you either do everything right, or you get slaughtered, no wiggle room between those two options. And sure, quite a few games do this, but for some reason it is way more noticeable and way more annoying in PoE.

And all these problems with combat are then made even worse by the braindead group AI. Enemies aren't exactly smart, but their AI does the job. AI of your group is ... let's just say that the AI abbreviation in this case means artificial imbecility (and even that is way too generous desription). Ranged units blocking way and melee fighters clustering behind them doing nothing, melee fighters clumping together bumping into each other instead of fighting, all sorts of pathfinding problems, etc, etc ... and while you sooner or later get the hang of the combat mechanics the AI problems never go away. What's the point of real-time combat when you have to pause the game every half second to babysit your characters and correct AI mistakes? Unless you are roflstomping group of trash mobs you can't let the combat run for more than a second without pausing because you'll either lose or take way too much unnecessary damage (and with the limitations of healing and resting you can't afford that on higher difficulties)

in the end, the downfall of PoE is that it inevitably gets compared with games like Baldur's Gate 2 or Dragon Age Origins, games with more interesting story & lore, less gimicky/cheesy combat and way better AI. PoE isn't bad game, but frankly it is game you play because you already played the better ones 100x and want to try something different this time ... before you return to playing BG2 again.

I'm in Act 2 now. I really enjoyed the prologue but nothing worth mentioning happend since then. I went to some town, did some quests and now I'm in a party with some weird guys I picked up along the road and hardly care about. I don't mind the combat mechanics, the interface or the graphics (i like the graphics a lot actually), but I miss an engaging story and likable characters.

Despite wanting to like the game because i'd played Fallout, BG, IWD etc I also found it boring. Not entirely sure why but for whatever reason I found myself skipping through most of the text. The main quest is vague or at least has no sense of urgency. The combat feels like it was designed by spreadsheet. I get a new weapon/item and I get to look at a load of % to work out if its slightly better than what I'm using. Classes feel like they've been worked out to all be completely balanced. While you don't want to completely unbalance the game it just feels too calculated.

The other problem I had was the lack of atmosphere. Pages of text does not make up for an empty city, Defiance Bay just felt empty. Compared to Baldur's Gate (1 or 2) what was supposed to be a major milestone in the story just seemed empty. By the time I got the twin elms i was skim reading all the text and just looking to move on to the next location.

The have made some improvements with the patches such as with the strong hold. Still no real reason to bother but at least more than there was.

I did find the White March DLC much more enjoyable than the main plot. Maybe it was low expectations but I really found the plot more engaging and the locations a bit more worthwhile.

I tried many times to play this game but fell asleep or dropped dead though shear boredom. I felt screwed after buying this, and wish I had bought it on steam., I would have refunded after two minutes never-mind two hours.

Who would give this load of tripe a good review? It's void of any sort of enjoyment, a dud, and I'm sure the dev's are manic depressants to make a game like this and call it fun.

I see they are mass producing more of this sort of thing, I don't think I would buy anything else from these people.

I am playing a game at the moment that is made by one guy. The game is called Avernum, and it's a thousand times more fun than POE with the wind behind it going down hill.

I've rather enjoyed the 121 hours I've put into PoE thus far. Not finished it yet either. I do think White March was a more enjoyable component of it though.

check out UnderRail

as well as other Spiderweb games

I tried very hard to play this. I cannot tell how many times I installed it and uninstalled it shortly after. I finally gave up a few months ago. I will never ever try again.

This game has no soul. It's like reading a very boring and overly long book that has nothing to tell and gets lost in uninteresting details.

This and Divinity: Original Sin are the two games/series that I probably will never get into. And I really loved Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale (replayed them a few years ago).

edit: Yeah, "soul" pun not intended.

I kept trying and trying to like it, but I just couldn't find a class I actually liked playing....

....Until I tried out the paladin.

I really liked the fact that they give you other options for paladins besides the 'knight in shining armor', and all the support abilities actually made them feel distinct from a fighter. Once I got past the keep, I really started enjoying it.

In short, while it's no BG/BG2, I enjoyed it, and I don't really get all of the hate for it.

Mages and Warriors using the same "Might" stat for both melee and magical is plain stupid. I cannot get behind a game that makes choices like this. It was obviously done to make you want to pick every stat, for every character, suffering annoyance when you cannot have it all. I get it. But it's still utterly stupid - especially when AD&D has a proven system that works fine. Nope, Obsidian decides to re-invent the wheel and do a shit poor job of it.

I really wanted to like the game too.

From the reviews it sounds like the sequel is more of the same. No sense of urgency and a very meandering plot.

I've played a couple of hours and it certainly seems that way.

If they were going to fix it I figure they'd start it off with a bang, but it appears so bizarre they are apparently unaware of the failings of the first game and haven't even tried to fix them.

Avellone can be a bit of a clown, but I can fully understand why he left if they are pumping out dross like this as narrative.

It will bite them on the arse in the end, their franchises will weaken. I can't see another Pillars game being made if the reviews are accurate. Good rpg games need strong stories - not rocket science surely.

Yeah, all these 9/10 reviews left and right are really going to hurt them bad. :D :D :D