Finished up Deadfire today so here are some random thoughts. It was a solidly enjoyable adventure, if not quite up to the standards of the first. Deadfire definitely suffered more from a very thin thread of a main story to draw the player along. I still felt that the mystery of the original game made the entire world of interest, as the player never knew where the next bit of info would come from. Deadfire had too much open water with nothing much to do and, like others, I abandoned the ship-to-ship combat eventually as it was too slow when I really wanted story and exploring. Instead I went straight to boarding parties or just avoided other ships (since I was super-fast in First Arrow, the name my Sharpshooter gave her ship).
I had one broken quest that could not be completed and was also, unfortunately, an achievement, but I’ll grab it when it’s fixed in my next play. Patch 1.1 added a bunch of exit-game crashes and a couple in-game crashes that weren’t there previously. One of my companions, who left the ship, resulted in a missive being left repeatedly, every time I exited an area on a random island to the world map (she really wanted to make a point, I guess). Otherwise, it was stable enough to rarely interfere with my play, and my tendency to save frequently pays off, as always.
I found there to be some inconsistencies within plotlines that will need to be corrected. Hey, that particular Valian leader was already ousted so perhaps you shouldn’t be trying to frame him for a crime he didn’t commit, nor be happy the frame was successful when it wasn’t even him on trial. Some of the reactions to things I accomplished didn’t fit, and it caused some confusion when I couldn’t figure out if I did or said something wrong. I expect these sorts of things will be polished up over the course of the rest of the year.
I didn’t feel my Sharpshooter (Ranger) and my companion (an Antelope named Grace) were at home in the Deadfire, even though my background put my home in the Deadfire. Perhaps if I was able to be land-based it would have been fine, but sailing around and acting as a captain for ship didn’t fit. This was a continuation of my last game of PoE1, though, so I didn’t change too much. Future games will be custom built, not from an import, so I’ll be sure to choose a class that feels more appropriate.
Enjoyed the gameplay, but I agree the combat went a bit more to the easy side than in PoE1. I didn’t find that to be much of an issue, as combat wasn’t my focus, and I didn’t make an effort to make it tougher. However, it did result in me using a particular set of skills and spells more than others over the course of the 20 levels. I preferred the enchanting system of Deadfire over PoE1’s, but I wish all crafting and enchanting would do away with the money requirement; it doesn’t make sense. Just make components rare and/or expensive themselves and let that be your money pit. I totally never understood the level & experience system of the sailors of my crew, or how they advanced. Sometimes they got experience, other times they gained a level, and I assume that’s all good but I ended up ignoring it because I had no idea what it meant in terms of power or usefulness. And I never changed my crew (aside from one below-decks guy who got swept away in a storm) so I collected a bunch of sailors who were probably pretty bored sitting on a dock somewhere.
Speaking of the cost of things, it was ridiculously expensive to buy anything. No problem, you get lots of expensive items to trade, right? Yes, but since I never knew when I’d need to use those items/money for something more important, I ended up buying very few special items, no extra ships, and limited upgrades. It would have been better off with quantity (more of some items, soulbound and special for particular weapons and armour) than just making things so expensive.
In the end, the game was gorgeously designed, I loved the new lighting system and spell effects, and it was a worthy successor even if it didn’t reach it’s full potential. It felt smaller, despite the big square water-filled island-hopping world, with less variety, so I’m hoping that a PoE3 will bring us back to a vast land to explore. Looking forward to those DLC.
