Ok, so i am 12h in, done a bunch of side quests, started the second map (the gloomy one) and while this is a good game i am kind of both pleasantly surprised and disappointed (unfortunately its in the aspects that matter the most to me)
I love CRPGs and also like Pillars of Eternity setting quite a bit, so ive been trying to approach this like a typical CRPG, but the role playing options feel kind of very limited (still better than most games who label themselves as RPGs, but thats another topic). The dialogue doesnt offer exactly a lot of freedom, outside of Garrus and the Eothas godlike i havent found any characters that felt worth remembering, surprisingly ive liked many of the story beats so far. Choices feel really good and some consequences are already having some effect, yet the world is so static this game just feels closer to newer Call of Duties or action adventure games like Assassins Creed than to what ive expected from Obsidian.
Quite a big regression as far as role playing is concerned compared to their previous works, but the gameplay (combat/exploration) and the visuals are a big improvement and carrying this hard for me. I am having fun, but had they added just a few more systems for more interactions with the world then this would have been dramatically better.
I am going to change my approach and try to play this like an adventure game from now on instead of attempting to play it like a Bethesda game, hopefully the rest will be far more enjoyable if i play that way because the game feels huge and the world map feels intimidating. Lastly the upgrade tier gating system sucks really bad, i am dismantling most of the gear i find and buying all the materials from vendors and still underleveled which is very punishing, the balancing feels messed up/untested.
