Recent reviews by DocCovington

Though I can appreciate the artistic endeavor that went into this game, I cannot, in good conscience, recommend it to others (maybe when it is on sale and you have to kill 4 hours of your time).

This game opens up half a dozen questions, but answers only a single one of them, which left me completely disappointed. At the end, it states "Edward and Alice will be back", and maybe all the other questions will get answered then? But seeing as this was six years ago, I wouldn't hold my breath for it.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

So, Edward is:
- a scientist?
- an artist with the pencil?
- a novelist?
- a traumatized, troubled man with a mulitple-personality disorder

Okay. But, what happened to the residents of Graavik? Was Ruth murdered or not? Why are there contradictory facts about Simon's mother (her grave shows she died when she gave birth to him, but somewhere else she was still alive when he died at the age of 14)? Was everything literally NOT real? The Norse artifacts? The hanged man? The "curse"? Oof.

P.S. I rarely have been as annoyed by in-game dialogue as I was when Edward and Alice were having conversations. Dear God! Made me want to strangle them both on several occasions. ;)

P.P.S. On the technical side of things, there were several graphics issues with flickering lights and textures and the washy quality of all foliage (even on the highest settings).

THE ENGINE

Walking in this game is a pain in the behind. I got stuck twice within the first 10 minutes, and it took me several attempts to break free again, since you cannot jump in this game. The invisible walls in seemingly flat terrain are very immersion breaking, too. Even normal walking feels awkward and clunky.

When you create a game where walking and exploring are the main activity, and especially on an engine that drives my graphics card's fans to signifantly speed up on highest settings, you should deliver better than this.

Character animation is pretty rudimentary, and the characters' faces look almost emotionless. Textures and objects look crude and repetitive. It feels like you were playing something from 2004.

GAMEPLAY

The game has a dense atmosphere, but for most part, it's a walking simulator with very little to explore and a pace that is way to slow for this little content. The story is okay, but there are a lot of things that could have been expanded and elaborated on. I was pretty disappointed overall and bored a lot of the time. I am uncertain I will ever finish this game.

BOTTOM LINE

I can't in good conscience recommend this game at full price. It's just not that good.


Edit:

So I have played on and finished the game...

There are whole levels that consist of nothing else but you playing hide and seek with some mythological monsters (great fun with those horrid, uncustomizable controls) and reading a couple of texts that will tell you who those monsters are, trying to weave them into the history of the island.

Nothing in this game really makes much sense, from smaller things, such as swimming through ice-cold water early on in the game and then proceeding as if you weren't freezing to death, to important matters, and the final question: "What the F is that ending?!" (In the light of the mother's psychological issues, I was expecting more.)

This game is technically and content-wise a huge disappointment. It became a bit more exciting towards the end, only to (literally) blow you off the cliff with an ending that left all the truly interesting questions open and logic behind one of those many invisible walls.

Don't even bother.

This game turned out A LOT more innovative and complex mechanic-wise than I first expected when I started playing it. A solid puzzle game with increasing difficulty and nice easter eggs.

The story is quite intriguing as well. You think you know what is going on, but your assumptions are frequently replaced with doubt. Are you real or a simulation? Do those other people exist? What is their angle? Is this a case of nature vs machine, and who is really manipulating whom? - Play to find out!

Extremely limited options for a CRPG release of 2017.

Even though the DE (Definitive Edition) offers camera rotation and better zoom, the lack of vertical camera alignment and the camera distance being determined by the floor height of the spot on which the camera currently stands make for a very bumpy camera movement and exploration of your environment a pain in the behind. Controls in general leave a lot to be desired.

Pretty bad and unintuitive. You spend more time fumbling around with these than actually playing the game.

Quite clumsy and one of the worst implementations of a turn-based game I have ever seen.

+++ Only buy when on sale and if you are the patient type +++

This game feels very unpolished regarding the aforementioned aspects, regardless of its quality in story and dialogue, which is sad come to think that Neverwinter Nights was released 18 years ago, Dragon Age: Origins 11 years ago, and both games excell in pretty much all departments. I blame the publishers who these days don't give devs the time needed to create a perfect game.

Anyway, being able to interact with your environment in many ways is a big plus in D:OS2 and makes up a bit for the game's obvious technical flaws.

I absolutely fell in love with this game when it first came out and still recommend it to date.

Too bad the multiplayer never became very popular and servers closed early - it was fun, especially the realistic feel of archery.

I wish they'd make a remastered version of this first-person action fantasy gem! Solid engine, a good story, great gameplay.

Worth downloading for the additional voices alone.

Who doesn't like additional character features? :)

A little bit confusing as to the order in which to approach the several sections of the content, but otherwise a DLC well worth downloading and playing. (Tip: The "Eye" does not trigger the end game, you even must interact with it when it appears.)

A must-have expansion. I love winter themed content, and this one is particularly exceptional.

I don't want to spoil any details, you must try this on your own if you enjoy well written lore, a tense atmosphere and a nice challenge. Two thumbs up!

As bad as the game's predecessor was in many regards (outdated engine, bad UI, inferior KI, and a pathetic character editor for a 2015 release), the devs seem to have done everything right this time, and even outdid themselves.

All the aforementioned aspects have been reworked and brought up to an acceptable level for modern standards, with many QoL extras in addition. E.g., you can customize the AI behavior in detail, and you can even chose between RTwP and turn-based combat! The character animations are also incredibly detailed. Its smooth gaming experience and vast hours of adventuring fun (which, at a normal past, should last for months) makes it a recommendable purchase.

However, at some point PoE2 is starting to feel generic and repetitive in parts, which is why I couldn't bring myself to play through the game a second time. That and the highly disappointing, anti-climactic ending. The worst repetition of all was presented by the many conversations with the gods, which were similar in content each time and at some point made me cry out, "Please NO, not again!"

Which brings me to the second point of criticism: the walls of text that PoE1 also had. They still pose an annoying issue in PoE2, especially when they interrupt your adventure with text-only "action sequences." I would have preferred video cutscenes, but I guess that was beyond the engine's capabilities.

A definite plus is the naval combat feature, which is a fun aspect of the game, as are the DLCs which are a wonderful addition to the game and quite diverse in nature.

All in all, PoE II: Deadfire is a gem amidst games of the genre and indubitablly worth your attention.