Finally got past this puzzle, which is where I had given up last year, so far I am enjoying this again on STORY mode.
One thing that really peeved me about this game was after 60 hours it took me to finish, it never told me what a freaking Biawac was.
You learn what those are in the tutorial - they are the storms that your character seem uneffected by, but most others are turned to ash during. It’s a natural thing that occurs near old ruins or the like, or they were forming when the “machines” were turned on, though I’m not sure if it’s clarified for sure or only hinted at their.
But isn’t it also established that it was a Biawac that made your character a Watcher?
I am currently playing the game, just finished the 5th lvl of the Endless Paths of Nua.
That was the machine that did that, not the Biawac (the Biawac was a side effect of the machine being turned on, and the fact that your character in a past life shared a history with the main bad guy in that scene is a twist of fate).
I thought first playing the game a big scary wind storm that kills people was pretty cool and something I would have to deal with eventually. Nope, never mentioned again.
Sam having played through Pillar’s 1 twice… I feel your pain. There is something about the story and how it doesn’t quite connect – sure Scott is right (above) about the details. He should be he knows this game well. But I, for one, never did connect with the overall story line.
Pillars 2 story is a bit better. I guess. Something about these two games is missing a cog in the storyline but for the life of me I don’t quite know what it is. Aside from that though: These games are really great to play mostly. Except maybe Pillars 1 kinda fumbly crazy combat.
IMO the missing piece is characters you connect with.
I don’t even know why it is that they don’t work on the same level as the BG 2 cast. I like quite a few of them - Aloth and Éder and their stories are good meaty RPG stuff, and Durance is pretty great if not super likeable or relatable. Maybe it’s the main character being such a pure cipher, where the Watcher thing never landed for me like the Bhaalspawn hook. Maybe because the Watcher concept is a thing that happens to you, where being a Bhaalchild is part of your self and struggling with that aspect is the same struggle we all go through every day against selfishness, wrath, etc.
I still love Pillars, but it’s not the seminal achievement BG2 is despite all the pieces being more or less there.
This is a tough one, because in some ways you are absolutely correct but it’s not quite as cut and dry as that.
I’ve been playing BG2 for over 45 hours now and it’s just amazing, but it’s not really a better RPG either. A lot of this runs to taste of course, but BG2 being saddled with the 2nd edition rules isn’t helping it at all (though it’s triggering a lot of nostologia for me, that only works for people like me that was introduced to D&D via 2nd edition). I rather like the mechanics of POE1 better, especially as they became refined in POE2. And while BG2 is a really good looking game, the animations (what is up with that fire ball animation? I’ve never liked that - and you can’t tell where to place your spells, either!) aren’t great. Some spell animations are fantastic though, so it’s a bit of a mixed bag.
And as for the companions, I want to touch on this because I disagree - I really like almost all the POE 1 and 2 companions and appreciate how much banter they have with both the character and each other, and every one of them has a detailed quest, many of those I found engaging.
BG2’s cast is great, but outside of lines they say here and there (and at the craziest times - the number of times we just wrapped up a huge fight and then control was taken away so Anomen could awkwardly have another heart to heart with me is a significant number). I mean, several characters like Minsc and Valygar don’t even have quests (Valygar sort of does with the Planar Sphere but his presence is not required and he only had a few extra lines for being in the party with it, and later some focus stealing musings about the nature of evil).
Aside from quests and how often characters talk and have personality, I think both games are (for me) on an even level in that I really like both of them. I see the sentiment about connecting with the characters more in BG2 around and I generally agreed until I played BG2 these last few weeks after having played POE2 several times and now I think it’s a bit nostalgia fueled. Both games do some aspects of companions (and other gameplay facets) better than other facets, and some are a little thinner than in other areas - overall I’d probably give them both the same score, which is like a 9.3 or something. Nearly perfect games, with minor flaws they don’t share. I’d say in terms of sheer content BG2 EE has POE2 beat though. This game is massive.
Yeah, I think that’s what makes BG2 such a crowning achievement. It’s massive, the content is basically all good, and there’s incredible levels of attention to detail. Just all sorts of little things that you don’t see in modern RPGs, good as the Pillars games are, because nobody has the budget or time to do that kind of tiny bespoke shit anymore.
I posted my thoughts on the game above, but I didn’t really touch on the mechanics part. I know there was a big discussion about what was more complicated - Pathfinder or POE rulesets? - in one thread or another.
And honestly, as someone who copes pretty well with complicated RPG rules, I have no clue what was going on in most of POE. Pathfinder is wide; there are an almost ton of specific rules to remember. But those rules are not complicated. Pillars, on the other hand, is fiendishly complicated.
Is attack speed better than this damage? What armour should I put my cleric in? My mage? Is this weapon better than that weapon? What stats should I build my character with? I have no idea to almost all of those questions. I can’t remember what the rough stats breakdown was for my monk in PoE, and despite dozens of hours, I can’t tell you what a good set of stats should look like, either.
Well, this thread just gave Steam a $5 BG2 EE sale. Played it twice, last time in 2001. Gonna find out how it looks on this 34" monitor I use.
It holds up very well and you just spent the best five bucks you ever will all year!
@John_Reynolds I can’t speak to playing it on a 34" display, though I think it will still hold up fine there - you could always play in a window if you needed to. Here is a shot I will preserve at the native screen size I’m playing at (1440p) and on a 27" display full screen and it looks perfect.
It’s also weird and counterintuitive in a lot of ways. The whole “might means both magical and physical power” thing, for example, where all the wizards can also benchpress 300 pounds.
I can sort of ignore that. It’s evaluation of things relative to others I really struggle with.
They actually changed that, then almost no one ended up liking it so they changed it back.
I never had a problem with PoE’s stats as displayed on the character sheet; my problem is that most buffs/debuffs interact with the primary attributes instead of derived stats, so I constantly have to translate. “Oh, my character got an effect with -4 Intellect. What does that mean again?”
Also most effects not stacking is kind of confusing.
I am progressing well on Story mode difficulty.
Just made it to Caed Nua, also just noticed I have a run option for my characters!
My party is up to 5 people now, and 1 dog.
Loving the level of detail in the locations I am visiting.
Also anyone know whats up with the graphical glitch I am getting in the lower right corner?
I want to thank @tomchick for streaming this on Friday, got my really in the mood to give it a try again and now I am hooked.
Here was his stream incase you missed it: