After reading the gushing reviews on Metacritic, I thought beyond a doubt that I should invest in this game.
Having done so, I feel obligated to inform the 'less-enthused' gamers out there that PoE might not be worth your time at all... if you are anything like me...
-No interest in standard high fantasy story. For any story to hold my attention, it needs to be gritty, visceral, adult, entertaining -- Witcher's writing is a perfect example. PoE immediately makes the main character *born different* with some amazing curse/power that lets him tap into a mystical 4th dimension spirit world and blah blah blah... can't I just be a regular ole' mercenary and make my own story through a gritty, medieval setting as I progress through the game? On the surface, there is freedom and customization. At the core, this game its TRULY LINEAR.
I simply could not get interested in the lore, which meant lots of clicking-through text, rapidly sucking all meaning out of the experience.
-Religiously mimics Baldur's Gate. Even severely outdated gaming mechanics & concepts are forced into the design. Feels like riding a horse carriage down a freeway. Retro for the sake of being retro.
-Maybe I'm too old for games. I always spoke out against triple-A titles and console-ized rubbish. I was one of the supporters of old-school, 'challenging' games.
Now I must confess that graphics and technology are actually important for making a game more immersive. I could not get immersed in Pillars of Eternity because the entire delivery is so clunky and redundant.
I miss playing Mass Effect. Are high-budget games with actual GOOD writing too much to ask for these days??