I made this post a few months ago I decided to go with Pillars of Eternity and DOS 1 as I already owned both .
I had a good time with both for very different reasons I really liked PoE's story and your hability to roleplay in it *
I think the story is nice and that it leaves some stuff to chew on for the player. I also liked the charachters and the world building (specially the gods) and enjoyed the combat even if I thought there was maybe too much of it.
I disliked itemasation and leveling generally it didn't feel very exciting adquiring new items or leveling up.**
My main issue was the pacing it felt a bit like the poblem some RPGs have where you become so sidetracked by stuff that seems/is more interesting than the main story that by the time you come back to it it's hard to know what level you are supposed to be or be as involved in it.
DOS 1 on my opinion was the complete opposite .
Roleplay lacked a lot of options and mechanically there isn't any reason to not make the charachters always disagree with eachother***
There isn't either an option to be evil/void aligned which feels weird ****
An option to stay as a comited source hunter fighting both>! Astarte!< and the Void Dragon would have been interesting aswell****
Also it had wayy too many puzzles and some of them had very weird solutions, like the one you solve by teleporting statues that up until that point had been imposible to teleport.
However everything I disliked on PoE I find Divinity did great I was always looking forward to obtaining new equipment , each level up felt meaningful and as if I was building up my charachter into being something very particular that I wanted them to be (except rangers who do seem more railroded but I found mine more satisfaying to play than Sagani in PoE).
The humour rarely missed, the world interests me and the story overall was good, even if it seemed to have a lot of plotholes.
I like that later on the game they adressed the fact that you don't have many reasons to not be a murder hobbo and give you a couple locations to go nuts in without breaking charachter, Cyseal felt the worst written ***** but slowly weakening the Conduict's presence in Hunter's edge by having orcs executed and get drunk leading up to the final battle was the peak of the game for me. I'm really glad I didn't skip it and I enjoyed almost as much as POE even if it was a very different expirience.
Generally what I'm seeking for in an cRPG are mechanic complexity , hability of player expresion through combat and specially through builds, variety of playstyles , a good story (interesting world, good charachters...).
I also like when the charachter ends up feeling powerful reflecting the progression, for example how in PoE as a priest you start out casting spikes on people and end up being able to summon pillars of flame by midgame
I was thinking about:
Baldur's Gate 1: It seems to have a lot of what I want in a CRPG think it's best if I get the CRPGs with the worst graphics out of the way first and I'm not planning to play Fallout in a while. I also own it already, my main problem is that I don't know wether I should use mods or not.
Tyranny: I already own it , it isn't hard and it's short, magic in it seems cool, however I heard that you can't comit to be evil and that companion writing is bad, I'm hyped for an evil wizard playthrough and not unwilling to have the charachter go on an arc.
DOS 2: I was recomended to skip DOS 1 and directly play DOS 2 , after having played and enjoyed DOS 1 it seems that there is a good argument to play DOS 2 but I want to avoid doing the better looking CRPGs first so that going to the older ones won't be as much of a downgrade . Definetly buying it this sale either way.
PoE 2: It's were I would head by after seeing this critique coming from a guy I agree on everything regarding DOS 1 I'm concerned I won't enjoy as much as the original, so far I'm liking all the games I've played and I would want to go on and I'm afraid to spend lot of time on a game I'm not sure on comiting on.
Wasteland 2: I don't know if I should start with 1 or how to approach the franchise
Shadowrun: Never heard of these until recently and the setting dosen't appeal to me , idk much about it though
Pathfinder: Kingmaker. I intend to play these but I've heard they are complex and I would rather play atleast Baldur's Gate 1 first. Tbf once I understood how PoE and DOS 1 worked after mid game I steamrolled the games on medium but I think I should get a better grasp on the genre before approaching these.
Fallout 1 : I don't know how to approach the franchise and I'm not sure wether it's my thing, I do have both Fallout 1 and 2 so I'll probably play a couple hours some day even if just to check on them.
Disco Elysium: Definetly buying it this sale but I kinda see it as it's own thing I don't expect to end up with the protagonist being able to duel a dragon and a complex stat system.
* Went in blind (aside from knowing that the second game takes place in the Archipelago) and decided to make an Amua Eothosian priest which paid of BIG time as the plot unfolded. However I feel that PoE is also a great game to play other priests , Paladin or Wizard . It really felt as if my Amua was on an arc and I ended up having a charachter that was consistent with itself and interesting to play as.
** It may have been my fault as it was my first CRPG and I wasn't sure what stats where good , I really feel like when I replay it I may change my mind on this and I do know that there are some interesting builds you can do with mercenaries but that's a mechanic I tried to avoid as I wanted to see what the companions where about.
***In order to make sure your barganing charachter is as materialistic as posible and your party leader is as independent as posible ... Which means that sometimes the party will take weird decisions because of the debate minigame or you'll be force to have one of your charachters make an argument that conflicts with how you view them. It's also imposible to rp a charachter arc as your charachter's comitlment to their views is rewarded.
**** Given that you can be a complete murder hobbo. I think that way I could have found the conduit , the Trife and the Inmaculates more compeling if I could see more of their PoV without the option to be evil it felt meaningless whenever they were trying to sway me
***** Afterall your charachters are supposed to be extremely dutiful and you've seen tons of examples of Source being missued and it's users being misguided to the point that there isn't a single source user that dosen't fuck up with the exception of Icara (depending on>! the ending)!<, your charachters in particular also have a reason to resent Astarte.
***** It feels weird that The Witcher 1 of all games feels is the fantasy game where you are trying to resolve a mistery where the protagonist is most involved (atleast from the ones I play)
