Only played a bit of PoE 1 so far, but I agree, the writing (which makes or breaks games like these) is not even close to the old Black Isle stuff.Writing. I can't remember a single thing about Pillars 2. No one can forget Grieving Mother and Durance. Wonder what the commonality is?
Is it just me or do quite a few sequels to crowfunded games do poorly? I'd guess it's because they don't have the same hype from the community due to not being crowdfunded, and that's a problem because they're usually in comparatively niche genres.
I got two hypothesis on low sales; A) people were bummed with White March Part 1 and 2[...]
I meant people were maybe waiting for a complete package for PoE2, not a episodic game like PoE.As far as this part goes I doubt it's the case. It seems to be widely agreed upon that the White March content is the best in the entire game and that it solved some issues people generally had with PoE like weak itemization.
Honestly to me the game just doesn't look visually interesting or impressive, both from a Graphical perspective and from a UI design one. The art style is nice enough, though not particularly memorable due to the more muted design.
I guess it's a matter of taste, but I actually think Deadfire is one of the best looking RPGs on the market:
Thanks. I don't think the fans need to convince me/Obsidian/MS of anything. Your support is always heard and appreciated. I think that we need to believe that if we try to make a game in this style again, the existing fans will enjoy it, new players will enjoy it, and ex-fans who were disappointed by Pillars 1 and/or 2 will come back to it. On top of all that, we need to be excited about making it.
Even devs who really enjoy working in the Pillars universe were burned out after the end of Deadfire, especially if they went on to work on the DLCs. To put in all of that work and have the game limp over the finish line, sales-wise, doesn't get people jazzed up about rolling on to a sequel.
Ultimately I think this is a matter if internal will and belief rather than something that requires external validation.
If there ever is a Pillars 3, I hope they ditch the purely isometric perspective and mimic Dragon Age: Origins (or even KOTOR) instead.
I'm not sure if InXile will have a side team to continue to make CRPGs since all signs point to them gearing up to make Brian Fargo's dream AAA RPG.It sounds like to me that step one would be that somebody comes up with a plan that makes PoE:3 successful. I think Avowed could help with that, along with the marketing reach of Microsoft.
Wasteland 3 is this month and might give us a clue into how well a CRPG could do under a gamepass like model. I don't know if the scale and scope match exactly though, Wasteland 2 was much shorter than Pillars 1 or 2 if I remember correctly. We also don't know if Wasteland 3 is going to be inXiles last isometric CRPG, given that they started working on it before the sale to Microsoft.
+1If there ever is a Pillars 3, I hope they ditch the purely isometric perspective and mimic Dragon Age: Origins (or even KOTOR) instead.
There's a beautiful RTwP game in Deadfire, but I prefer my combat pantomimed at eye level.
If there ever is a Pillars 3, I hope they ditch the purely isometric perspective and mimic Dragon Age: Origins (or even KOTOR) instead.
There's a beautiful RTwP game in Deadfire, but I prefer my combat pantomimed at eye level.
We also don't know if Wasteland 3 is going to be inXiles last isometric CRPG, given that they started working on it before the sale to Microsoft.
13% of people who played Pillars 1 finished it.
Hell, less then half of the folks who bought it got out of the first chapter (which is not long or hard). This should have been a pretty big red flag that while interest in a new infinity engine style game was there (as lots of folks bought the game), your implementation was turning a lot of people off.
Also having so much of the marketing around 2 being focused on "It's a direct sequel to 1, it takes place hours later! You can import your character and all your decisions carry over!" when 13% of people who played the first finished it was probably a really god damned stupid idea.
I'm not sure if InXile will have a side team to continue to make CRPGs since all signs point to them gearing up to make Brian Fargo's dream AAA RPG.
If Wasteland 3 is a big success I could see them continue to be a multi team studio, just depends if internally they want to keep making CRPGs now that they have AAA funding.
I hope they do too. I'm a big fan of these recent CRPGs.I hope that they do, since I think it seems we are approaching a nadir for isometric RPG houses again. There was a period of time when we had quite a few studios putting out 'bigger budget' titles in the space but Larian and Owlcat seem to be the last ones standing for now.
I prefer the look we got as it evokes a look we rarely get anymore.If there ever is a Pillars 3, I hope they ditch the purely isometric perspective and mimic Dragon Age: Origins (or even KOTOR) instead.
There's a beautiful RTwP game in Deadfire, but I prefer my combat pantomimed at eye level.
I honestly like when the meat is not the main game so i can pick and choose what and when i do things.I dropped PoE1 after 15 hours/act 1. I wanted to come back to it eventually but... idk. It felt like I was going nowhere, slowly. I saw earlier in the thread that the main quest in PoE2 is 7ish hours, and that sounds appealing, honestly.
I hope that they do, since I think it seems we are approaching a nadir for isometric RPG houses again. There was a period of time when we had quite a few studios putting out 'bigger budget' titles in the space but Larian and Owlcat seem to be the last ones standing for now.
have you played tyranny? you can breeze through that entire game in 10-15 hours easyI dropped PoE1 after 15 hours/act 1. I wanted to come back to it eventually but... idk. It felt like I was going nowhere, slowly. I saw earlier in the thread that the main quest in PoE2 is 7ish hours, and that sounds appealing, honestly.