@kama1212: Every modern CRPG is a successor to Baldurs Gate. Baldurs Gate is just the reference for old-school CRPGs. People use that term in order to make clear that it's not a modern ARPG like e.g. Witcher or Mass Effect. That's about it.
And in terms of overall design DOS2 is closest to D&D, even closer than BG that used the D&D rules itself.
I don't understand why people always have to get angry about stuff like that. PoE was a good game, DOS2 is a good game. Both are CRPGs and therefore in the same genre than BG2. Tyranny is a good CRPG as well. Everybody can be happy and play good games. ;)
@kama1212: I didn't talk about Tyranny. The writing in Tyranny was mostly pretty good imo, but it has the same over-serious style. It simply lacks humor. You might find that great, I personally think that grimdark isn't all that fun. It's a pretty limited setting. DOS2 is way more "playful" if you know what I mean. But of course, that's just a personal taste of mine.
And for what it's worth, Tyranny wasn't primarily criticized for its writing but for its streamlined and comparably shallow combat and its pretty limited content.
@ANDS_: Every big RPG has bugs at release. Nothing special about that. In DOS2 there are comparably few bugs though and most of the remaining one are just minor issues. The games has very few major bugs and only a small fraction of the playerbase experience them. So is it perfect? No, of course not. Perfect software doesn't exist, at least not in the consumer market.
@lyckant: I don't see why the majority of people playing a CRPG should be "veteran CRPG gamers". It's not like that alone would make any game any better.
And naturallly there will be a lot of steam reviews from different kind of people if a game attracks different kind of people. That's not a bad thing in itself either.
And yeah, I fully agree with you that DOS2 is less niche than PoE. But that doesn't mean that DOS2 had the worse writing. You might have that opinion and I respect that but I certainly don't agree with you that "veteran CRPG gamers" had to share your opinion. I'm such a veteran myself and I don't agree and I know a lot of people just like me who wouldn't agree with you either.
Imo the simple reason for DOS2 being more popular is that it offers a more modern graphic engine, way better coop, much better combat/gameplay and - yes - less dialogue lines (while being fully voiced). But again, that doesn't automatically mean that the writing is worse. That might just be a matter of personal opinion.
@lyckant: I've played every single CRPG since the early 1990s, BG included. ;)
And about the shark stuff: PoE is way more fantasy "by the books". It's in the tradition of over-serious CRPG which take themselves sometimes way too seriously (often because their writers take themselves way too seriously imho), limiting both their possibility for even the slightest piece of humor and their possibility to really come up with weird, but creative stuff that goes beyond traditional Tolkien fantasy.
Talking with sharks is not pre-mature or kiddy or whatever. It could be, but it could also just be a way to really explore fantasy beyond traditional limitations. DOS doesn't know many limitations and it doesn't stick to conventions which is imo a good thing. But what I said about "sharp and focused" was not about the setting but about the writing itself, its style. There are many instances in PoE (and also BG) in which there are far too many words for what somebody actually wants to say. In writing less is usually better, not more. If you want to write a lot, it should be really worth it.
But hey, that's just my opinion. I like the weird, fun, convention-free dialogues in DOS2. I also liked much of the writing in PoE but tbh it became more and more tedious since there was so much to read that was just bloated and not worth the effort. If I want to read good books, I read good books, if you know what you mean. Time is precious, now more than ever.
@ANDS_: 70 hours in the game and I haven't encountered a single technical issue. Some journal bugs and very few AI freezes but that's about it. For an RPG of that size and complexity the game is incredibly stable and well optimized at release.
@lyckant: You obviously either haven't played DOS2 or you just want to come around as that edgy hardcore dude. But in reality, the writing in DOS2 is top notch and very well executed. There is nothing "simple" in it. Focused isn't simple.
And FYI, the core fanbase of DOS consists of hardcore CRPG people who indeed usually play D&D and turn-based games.
Just let it go. You can still prefer PoE and Tyranny. Nothing wrong with that. But that arrogant "I'm more hardcore than you" attitude ist kind of annoying tbh. And it doesn't make your personal opinion any more valid, quite the opposite.
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