Hi!

Kind of getting interested in POE for the seemingly old school style and deep lore/storytelling. But seeing as I have no prior knowledge of the series I have to ask, is it part of some larger Universe where I would have to have played/read/whatever the earlier installments or is it just a standalone? Seeing a lot of crossover between Baldurs Gate fans and this so started to wonder a bit!

Thanks!

It is not part of any larger universe or "setting" like, for example, Forgotten Realms or Pathfinder. The game was built from scratch and crowd funded. There is a modicum of "lore" in the form of timeline, world setting and most of the information is gleaned from the game, including in-game books and the like. There is no "deep lore/storytelling"; it's a very bland story. You see the crossover because the game was inspired by the Infinity Engine games and developed by Obsidian.

Ah ok! Thank you for the information. From what i understood it was pretty fleshed out in the way of lore and setting but I guess I was wrong there.

It is and it isn't - there's no required reading before playing (though there are some e-books that give backstory to some of the companions if you like). But there are many 'books' and 'scrolls' in-game that you can read and build up a picture of the larger world as you go.

I'm a big fan of the world they built from scratch, and the lore that comes w/ it. The voice acting is quite good overall, and really helps the immersion. But like w/ everything, tastes will vary, as you've seen from earlier posts. You certainly don't have to start w/ PoE 1, but I would recommend it if you enjoy world-building and lore. There are gameplay changes from the 1st to the 2nd game, but not radically so.

No, you weren't. The person insisting this is not the case is in the wrong here, IMNSHO. I did not find this story AT ALL bland. Play and decide for yourself. There is no accounting for tastes, sometimes. I have a friend whose opinion is the opposite, he found it tedious and actually probably too much like Baldur's Gate. He's more into first person shooters anyway so that may be part of the issue.

I can't speak to PoE 2 (I have some problems with the voice acting there as shown in demos on youtube) because I've not played it, but I did find PoE enjoyable and often a better and more fun ride than the original Baldur's Gate was.

Well, at least that part was true.