The combat in PoE is a lot more tactical, very much like Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale. It’s a bigger part of the experience, along with exploring dungeons and solving puzzles (DnD style, not Zelda style). Dragon Age has a lot of massive open areas to explore in a largely 3rd person view, where as PoE is played entirely from an isometric view. The areas are smaller, but there is still a lot of exploration going on there (again, think Baldur’s Gate if you’ve played that, or Fallout 1 and 2).
They are different RPG’s - there aren’t “cut-scenes” in PoE - stories are told from the same perspective with voiced NPC’s talking to your characters (which are pre-made NPC’s with their own personalities like Dragon Age, but CAN be hand-made characters of your own creation, if you choose, or a mix).
Any specific questions I can probably answer but basically - Dragon Age is a BioWare like RPG where as PoE is a more old-school, classic RPG with more stats driving how combat’s play out.
Thanks. I played all those classic RPGs - gold box, both Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, etc. At the time I loved them and I’m glad the combat in PoE is in that style than Dragon Age’s. I’m hoping I still like that type of game (Baldur’s Gate). Lately I’ve found some of the party-based RPGs too tedious - Blackguards, Divinity OS, etc. Maybe it’s that the combat was too gimmicky (I hope) and I’ll like PoE more.
I should point out the backer beta (which is all I have access to) is just a thin section of the game sliced out with no-name NPC’s you can use to play through some content that will be different in the full retail product (which will feature fully fleshed out NPC’s ala Baldur’s Gate, a Stronghold to build and establish, and a bunch of content including the central story, side quests, crafting, and the usual). As such, nothing like the stuff mentioned in the kickstarter is necessarily in the backer beta due to the scope of the beta (which is just to test game mechanics, combat, general “feel” and polish, stuff like that). However, some things, like additional races and classes, is of course present.
As far as I know, they have had to strip nothing promised out of the full game as it was promised.
The final game will be released on March 26th, 2015! At that time you will be able to purchase it “for reals” on Steam, GOG, and other online retailers.
This is fantastic news - I hope it’s amazing. I’ve enjoyed the time I spent putzing around in the backer beta (combat still feels to fast though, with as many party members as you get in the beta, and it’s REALLY challenging even on easy, but again, I think that’s intentional for the beta). Super jazzed for this!
Good date. I think I’ll wrap up Elite and a few more games in my backlog and then head straight to this. Maybe by then some of the new games I own will have better performance and stability.
Good date!? That’s the same day (give or take) that GTAV PC and Bloodborne drop! Ah well. I actually am tempted to play Bloodborne or GTAV for a few weeks FIRST just so my first experience with PoE (which I already bought when it was a Kickstarter) can be as smooth as possible. One HOPES it’s going to be great out of the box, but let’s be honest here - it’s Obsidian, it’s a meaty, huge RPG, and the only part of the game the backers got to “test” were largely mechanics - the section of the beta won’t even be in the full game in the same implementation.
I’m guessing some sort of small patch in the first 2 weeks, with a major patch in April. Hopefully, like Wasteland 2 and Divinity OS, said patch will be very welcome but not required (I enjoyed both those games at launch, bugs and all).
Pre-order for this is on sale for $33.74 via GMG’s VIP promos. I am sorely tempted as I love the old Black Isle studios Infinity engine games. Obsidian sure seems to have nailed the look and feel of those with Pillars of Eternity.
Ditto. Need to find some way to clear my schedule to actually be able to play this in a reasonable amount of time. Maybe I’ll just cancel all ongoing tabletop rpg campaigns and quit my job. . .
