games
Friday, February 14, 2025
I want to get to summoning
Microsoft marketed this game wrong
it's not Skyrim which is what they claimed, nor is is Dark Messiah which is what Obsidian wanted to make, nor is it a 1st/3rd person Obsidian CRPG that they said they were making
it's a Bioware RPG
It's a lot like Inquisition in fact, though the explore sections of the map are more layered, even if it's nothing absurdly impressive/complex
lore wise, I didn't realize this was literally post-deadfire, and they soft retconned the end of that game
I like it more now that I realized it's not trying to be Skyrim
also
you are 1000% meant to play a wizard of some sort
well
probably a swordmage
I like that they didn't sterilize all the dialogue, you can tell people to fuck off and play your role a bit
but the MC being unvoiced is a big L, and like you said earlier the skill-gated options are not special at all which is strange
I think some characters are better written than others, and some you can tell were dropped in to be walking loredumps for the world for retards who can't follow the story
I don't think it even approaches the level of Tyranny or PoE in terms of writing
but it hasn't been bad by any means
other than I think the angle they took for godlikes is dumb
and they could do with shoehorning "settlers" into every characters exposition for the Isles
if the backgrounds were actual characters, I'd be into it, but it's the vaguest "oh I was a scholar, oh I fought in the army" etc.
the character they give you, as the King's envoy and pet godkin, is a lame backstory for a faceless (literal) character
but yeah, at least give him a voice
and name
everyone else is voiced already, it's not like they were doing an unvoiced game
I dislike the godkin part specifically
and sadly, the agent of the sovreign story was done better by Obsidian in Tyranny not that long ago
where you're literally the king's top lawyer autist
there's a little of that, with characters mouthing off to you, and then straightening up, but it's nonsubstantial
and I think they probably walked away from some sort of faction system when Microsoft had them streamline the game
because PoE was ALL about faction slider bars
I wish I picked Auger
not that the backgrounds matter
but I'm curious if that one at least got more dialogue that's very hardline pro-king
fuck, that's the auger, that's all it is
lame
I picked the scholar one, and it's nothing
yeah, that's auger, you're the kings pet mystic
it's also go the bioware/Fallout problem of the dialogue trees are less descriptive than I'd like
not the worst I've seen
but there are a few I've had where the tone is ambiguous
I like that they wrote a lot of dialogue for certain characters, but yeah the idle chatter is nothing
even moreso after the port, where they at least frontload some people with things to say
you get it from the named characters, and I found it fairly substantial, but yeah nothing from all the NPCs
no I mean like, what they think of events and stuff
you do get some of that, though a lot of it they always tie into their background