Author Archives: Asmiroth

Monster Hunter Wilds – Git Gud

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I “played” Monster Hunter in the dark mobile ages, but never really got into it. Too many rough edges. Monster Hunter World though, I spent time in that sucker. Both on the PS and then again on PC. That was eye opening. I’ve played Rise and now Wilds.

World first though. I died (carted) a lot. Anjanath was a near wall for me, and that semi T-Rex was like the 4th monster in the game! Nergigante took me a week to kill due to the dive bomb mechanic and just really bad skill on my end. I stuck with it, got better, and found a solid groove. I played with multiple weapons, notably dual blade, charge blade, and heavy bowgun. It was a journey.

Rise was different. I carted, sure, but it took a long time to reach that point. Most of the issues were with the game design itself and having to collect bugs to boost my stats enough for a fight. The wirebug mechanic took me a right while to figure out, and the bosses felt like it was 1 hit kills. I swapped to long sword to see what the fuss was about and no lie, it took me a couple weeks to figure out that dance, in particular the defensive portions.

And truly, MH is a dance. Every monster has their own theme song and you need to learn the steps. Do so, and things are relatively easy. Try to waltz when it’s 2-stepper, and the cart awaits. That said, there’s a limit to how many steps you actually need to learn. I wouldn’t say I mastered the long sword, but I was damn good at it by the time I was done with Sunbreak.

The transition to Wilds was simple by comparison. I kept the longsword and the mechanics feel similar in pace. I understood the need for cooking good food. Collecting before a battle isn’t needed. Upgrading armor (using spheres) makes a much bigger difference than weapons when trying to learn a fight. Radial wheel access to heals + the seikret mount means I can very quickly leave a bad place and heal up. It also means that mounting an enemy is so much easier!

Now, the question really boils down to “Is Wilds easier or am I better?”

Obviously it’s a bit of both, but I’d put a significant amount of weight on the latter. I get the game, I get the mechanics, I get the timing. I still carted on the ice/fire dragon with a crazy AE attack, but I haven’t failed a single quest yet. The moment to moment portions still feel great, the hit delays work, the defensive agility gets the blood pumping, and it never feels old when you get a crazy massive combo on a 3 story dragon who crumples to the ground!

Wilds is a good game. It isn’t as earth shattering as World, and doesn’t take major steps like Rise did, but it polishes almost every aspect down to a clean and fun sheen. It is by far the most accessible Monster Hunter has ever been, and there’s plenty of difficult challenges for those searching for it. Put in non-stop carts at the start though… and you’re not going to have good retention numbers. And from the achievement % I see on Steam, it would appear that a lot of players have progressed in the game so far.

For those who find it too easy, maybe you’re just that much better than the last time you played.

Hyperbole and Analogies

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I generally avoid posting about real world things, it’s depressing enough. Current events though, holy cow. This post will be full of hyperbole and analogies, stretches of reality that are meant to emphasize a point.

Old saying first: It takes years to build trust, and seconds to destroy it.

If I was in an abusive relationship, where my partner of many years decided to start beating me, and then threatening to beat me more, then say ‘don’t worry, we’ll make this work’, and then beat me again, it would be a sane response to GTFO. It would also be a sane response for me to defend myself against future abuse and absolutely not trust the other person.

Let’s say that I am in a small town, and my options to exit said relationship are very small. Even if I do leave, I need to share the house with this person as there’s nowhere else to go! Neighbors want to help, but they are afraid that they will be targeted next (and rightfully so, as they have been threatened as well). What that then means is that I would be meeting these other people in secret, or at least out of my partner’s earshot, to make escape plans. I’d be open about some things, just to avoid suspicion, but there’d be a lot of hush hush talks.

These new and stronger relationships would be subtlety antagonistic towards my partner. No one would want to be singled out for their wild and unpredictable behavior. We’d all actively work to undermine the partner, lull them into a sense of comfort, and they would do all the work to declaw themselves. And when they realize it, they’d complain and blame others for it.

No relationship is without compromise. No relationship can be dictated. They all succeed based on finding a balance between the individual needs and the group needs. When one party decides their needs are more important than another’s, well, the results are destructive. And, truthfully, there are some relationships that simply cannot work, no matter how hard people try.

Unfortunately when nations are in relationships, the ‘cannot work’ part gets super complicated and has very wide ranging and long-term impacts. And now here we are, with the globe seeing a world leader proudly proclaim ownership of the issue. And in the very interesting words of the younger generation, we’re entering FAFO land.

Avowed – Complete

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All the way to the credits, I enjoyed the ride. There’s just so much here that simply works that it’s extremely easy to dismiss some polish pieces. May be some spoilers in here, will try to avoid.

I played a Wizard build. I tried a more stealth-based role but the combat mechanics don’t really support it. Caster, Bow or Tank are the only real options. Works for me! The character progression options as a wizard are limited for a decent while, as it has a rather unique requirement of using grimoires for spells. Grimoires are spellbooks with pre-assigned skills, so you’re generally looking for a specific type.

The challenge with a wizard, and the game in general, is that 90% of combat is against 6 or more enemies, including ranged attackers & healers. As a caster, you need to use AE attacks which have some rather weird dynamics. Fireball is super useful at the start, if only in pure damage, but the range is small and recast time long. By about level 10 you get accustomed to status effects (fire DoT, thunder stun, ice freeze) and quickly realize there’s only one true path – ice. You can clear entire camps in 2 spells if you specialize in ice attacks (skills + armor), which can feel trivial at levels 20+. I truly don’t mind feeling like a god by that point, cause it sure as heck was rough roads to get there.

Story-wise, the game moves from luscious lands to barren volcanos, with similarly ever depressing quests along the path. The pace and structure are really good though, as nearly every quest has some sort of long-term consequence, either in NPCs moving towns, or help later on. An interesting one in the 3rd zone has you visit a tower with a good 50 traps along the path, to meet 2 NPCs who are doing everything in their power to protect their land from invading forces (which you represent). It’s an interesting bit to talk them down.

Which gets me to the truly fascinating bit here, in that a large chunk of the backstory is defined by your interactions. At key points, you interact with ancient lore and select the behaviour of earlier NPCs. These choices impact the larger story, all the way until the final credits. It feels like choose-your-own-adventure here, and it works really well!

The penultimate choice is the more difficult of them all, and depending on choices / discoveries you made along the way, is either very obvious or very hard to make. I had done everything by that point, discovered a ton of lore, all sidequests, been generally ‘good’ with a couple exceptions and had a really tough time squaring the choice in front of me. It felt like a large gamble. The final choice is super obvious, you either side with a genocidal undead lich, or not. (You should try actually siding with them, I think you’d be surprised how it turns out – or not.)

Having completed the story, I am absolutely impressed with what was presented. While it does have a couple rough spots, the high points shine and make you quickly forget. All the NPCs are well constructed, with interesting and non-obvious drivers. Many of them have hubris, or are outright liars, where you need to discover more contextual clues to navigate. The companions are interesting, with varied backstories and quests. Progress is mostly self-driven through exploration, with only a dozen main quests. The choices you make are generally consequential, and it’s cool to see them come together in the final act.

Avowed does so much right, and with clear and consistent direction from Obsidian, that is honestly puts other modern RPGs with quadruple the budgets to shame. The Pillars of Eternity storyline continues, and I am looking forward to the next chapter!

Avowed – Breadcrumbs

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I’m actually going to pick on WoW for a minute because that is such a major change in the gaming industry that few people remember a time before. When WoW launched it had an innovative (at the time) method for leveling – and that was through quests. Prior to that, and exemplified in Everquest, progress was 100% tied to combat. D&D only really gave experience for monsters (unless you had a smart DM), so it was baked in that progress was based on body count. WoW changed that, and the rest of the gaming landscape changed as a result. If you have levels in a game today, the progress of those levels is very tightly tied to questing… and the ! marks that track it.

What that meant was that quests moved from being exploration driven to achievement driven – the goals were more important that the journey. That is not a small pivot. And we’ve been living with that mindset in gaming for nearly 20 years.

Avowed now. Does it have formal quests? Yes. Do quests equate to the majority of player progress? No, combat and exploration add a lot. Pillars of Eternity 2 was a step in this direction, but much larger here. Avowed also goes deeper into what I call breadcrumb quests. These are items and things in-game that you need to piece together as next steps and context without formal guidance. There’s no in-game tracking, just reliant on you. Most of them are simple, like “hey, I put your stuff in the bag behind the shed” and sure enough, stuff behind the shed. Others are much, much more complicated.

Light spoilers here.

Emerald Stair is the 2nd zone, and the main hub is a key part of the story. There is a rather substantial breadcrumb quest in this zone that has multiple paths that can be taken before the tail end. If you only follow the quest markers you will see a specific and honestly horrific event take place. If you follow the breadcrumbs you will have a completely different outcome.

Truthfully I had those crumbs and steps up, but proximity to a quest marker had me take a different path. Following that main path completely changed the zone layout, failed some quests, and closed off areas. By reloading I was able to take the different path. While the results of that alternate path are more, I guess lawful good in essence, I loaded back on the main path as it appeared to have more story implications long-term. Let’s see how that pans out.

Spoilers end

It’s hard to properly explain what this type of world building construct actually means. Skyrim has smaller pieces, but my memory has them as distinct and not connected. I honestly cannot find a comparable event in recent gaming, though I’m certain they exist. Of course breadcrumbs exist – what I mean is breadcrumbs that exist outside a vacuum. Playing a game that rewards exploration with more exploration and world building… I thought that only existed in table top sessions.

At the end of the day it’s still a game, and someone will write a guide about an optimal path including these more hidden pieces. That’s for later. Right now, there are impactful decisions here that are not obvious, that do not have a glowing sign saying ‘EXP RIGHT HERE’, and that reward the nook and cranny type of player. I am really, really pleased with what’s here. A truly fresh breath in the RPG space.

Avowed – Part Deux

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Right, to the point. Avowed scratches an incredible itch that I didn’t realize I truly had. Video games, at their core, often show up as pretty skinner boxes – you repeat a set of activities hoping for a dopamine hit. The challenge with that construct is that the set of activities need some balance on challenge/reward in order to feel fulfilling. Ubisoft, for example, has lost sight of this where as games like Ghost of Tsushima have used the setting itself as the incentive.

I ‘completed’ the first zone over the weekend and am surprised at my joy in the process. While I certainly threw a lot of fireballs, it never truly felt the same. Each environment was different, so that the tactical portions changed. Sometimes there were a lot of big bad bears (melee who love to charge), other times well placed archers (which I can thankfully defend from), and at times summoners who have a seemingly infinite supply of minions + spells (which I cannot defend from). I had to prioritize each fight.

And the reason for each was different. Sometimes it was a random group just standing around. Others I had to collect a bounty. Others protected a cave I wanted to enter. Heck, a few times I just wanted to pick a fight because the dialogue gave me the choice. I don’t have to collect 5 bear pelts, or bring flowers across town, or some ridiculous box moving puzzle. Heck yeah!

Exploration

This is a thing that hasn’t really been discussed in open world games since Skyrim – 14 years ago. There’s an thing about world building where stuff has to have a purpose, even if that purpose is minor. I can trip over a dungeon that has a set of lore within, or read a note about some hidden mushrooms, or find a lost key in the sewers that opens a door to a shop. They aren’t actual tracked quests, I’m not directed to any of it. They are completely organic activities that serve contained but interconnected purposes. It feels like there’s breadcrumbs everywhere as a result and zero minimap cluster bombs. It’s exploration for the sake of exploration, not achievement. No Man’s Sky scratches that itch, but this world is hand crafted. Some human decided it was a good idea to put a book under a table for me to read, and then go on my own little adventure. Fascinating.

Combat

A decent amount of time is spent here, and a substantial amount of flexibility is present. You don’t get stronger with levels, you simply have more tools. You get stronger with better gear, and there’s so much gear to choose from. Now, you don’t have the enchantment system of Skyrim, so choices are certainly more limited, but it also prevents a sort of min/max situation of ‘perfect enchants’.

Where the game struggles, at least in my opinion, is the defensive portion. You will take a rightful beating at the start, which is likely to impact your playstyle. It’s certainly possible to go in with a 2 handed weapon, but you’re going to be tanking dirt quickly until you figure out the battle dance, especially with the sheer amount of enemy attackers. If the companion NPCs did a better job tanking, this would open more options. As it stands, you’re much better off to start with ranged attacks and finish with melee. Blocking + Parry are life, and a thousand times more reliable than dodging. Avowed is not an action game.

Next Steps

Into the new zone I go, tracking a pile of breadcrumbs along the way. And combating voices in my head every night. This is a truly enjoyable experience.

Conflict Management

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Not often I talk about my work. It’s a significant part of my identity mind you, and I gather if you read this blog you’d have a good idea of type of work I do. One area I’ve been continuously working upon is conflict management. Honestly, way more work than I ever thought I’d need.

An old adage I learned was to never argue with an idiot. They will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience. Truth there.

I find, and have been provided feedback, that I am pragmatic. I tend to navigate the middle of the spectrum when it comes to interpersonal relationships and values, which allows me to work with pretty much any type of other personality. For those aware of the Myers-Briggs personality tests, I am a natural square (for whatever that may be of worth) and adapt to a given role based on needs. For example, if I’m in fire fighting mode, there’s very little space for emotional consideration. If it’s a team building activity, then the get-stuff-done mindset isn’t helpful.

I still encounter conflicts though. Work and personal. I’ve narrowed it down to conflicting principles and primarily due to trust issues. If a person is unable to be empathetic to other’s needs, and I mean willfully so, then I need to take specific steps to have a working relationship with them. If a person struggles to make the hard decisions because they are too sympathetic, a similar issue occurs. And above all else, if they say they are going to do something and don’t, then I need to re-assess the relationship.

Given the larger world context, a lot of people are under a lot of stress and anxiety. I get it. That causes defense mechanisms to activate earlier, and for less patience. That is tinder for conflicts and a lot of people will go to greater lengths to avoid it. It doesn’t do a great job of building relationships and in my experience, the majority of people will experience fear instead. They are simply looking for a safety blanket that is promising stability and golden fields. That’s the entire modus of a populist after all, preying on fear.

I am finding myself at an interesting intersection. I have spent years adding to my toolbelt of interpersonal skills, learning and tweaking. Ups and downs along the way, but I’m where I am because the tools work and the people I work share trust. Lately though, I’ve found myself in positions where I am unable to find common ground and in spaces of added conflict. The last couple months in particular have been chock full of trust breaches, and from the same set of individuals.

One particular relationship (not work related) has degraded to the point where it is not worth investing further. I can’t salvage it, and yet need to maintain it for at least another 2 months. They are not a bad person, at all, it’s just that our principles are very opposed meaning that we generate conflict continuously. It sucks because it’s smack dab in the middle of a passion of mine and draining the pleasure I get out of it. It’s a poor example, but putting a vegan cook in a burger joint is not going to work out.

Another relation is at work, where there’s a perceived complete lack of awareness of the people factor. The roles we occupy impact a lot of other people, and we are not in firefighting mode, so empathy for the actions is important – as is holding your word on steps you will take. I will have to maintain a working relationship with this individual for the foreseeable future, which is not exactly something I look forward to. I’ve exhausted my toolbelt, raised this with our joint superiors and I’m taking additional measures as well. It’s fascinating to see where my mental space lands after any interaction, and I’ve opted to simply stop engaging when my blood pressure spikes. Avoidance is not an effective strategy, and I am quite aware that if pressed, I am going to say something I should not. You can pull on an elastic for a long time, but eventually it will snap. In the positive space, I am at least aware of this issue, something that I would not have years ago.

And I have yet one more that relates to work that is not a colleague. For some time I have been trying to help this person’s development and have encountered a slew of events that breach ethical behaviour. Their lack of accountability is frankly astounding, where they end up blaming other people for all misgivings. Given the need for truth, digging with these other people has been eye opening. I’ve entered a less frustrating space now, where feedback and expectations are managed more formally, which will have longer term impacts I need to sort out.

Good news, is that within my house’s 4 walls there are no real comparable conflicts! Sure, there are stupid ones about taking out the garbage, but nothing mind blowing. A big piece I think is related to a shared set of values and principles, one that we’ve lived by for years, regardless of how hard it may have been to uphold. And damn, some times that absolutely was hard. The results will only be really seen in 10 years, but so far, so good. And I can certainly use a safe space to recharge from the rest.

Taking some steps back from all of this, it’s somewhat evident that I neither search for nor avoid conflict. Conflict is life, and hardship is growth for sure, but as long as we’re respectful then progress can be achieved. Yelling into the anonymity of the internet serves no real purpose. Group think of getting mad only makes you feel part of a group, it doesn’t actually solve anything. And not everyone has the skills or desire to navigate those rough waters. That realization is still a very tough conclusion to swallow.

What interesting times we live in…

Avowed – Very Early Thoughts

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Simply, it is above my expectations.

The most obvious comparisons are Skyrim and Starfield, but the real comparison is Outer Worlds. Avowed is a level based, instanced, free flow RPG, layered on a strange set of serious lore and quirky events. Sort of like how Fallout has a serious undertone, but you’re going to find a bunch of weirdos along the way. It’s a great Obsidian product.

Character development is simple, but skills and stats can influence each other. You’re never stove piped into a single path, which adds a tremendous about of flexibility. You slowly discover these elements through the tutorial and initial level, allowing you to adapt over time. Notably, dialogue is not hidden behind super complicated skill checks (a part that annoys me in many party-based RPGs). The live action means that the onus is on you as a player to be effective, rather than the skills themselves being right/wrong.

The world itself deserves mention, in particular in regards to the design. Every space has something, and few of them have any indicators other than simply exploring. This is a massive contrast to Skyrim and Starfield, where much of the world is empty. The serendipity of discovery is everywhere. It feels like there are no wasted spaces, which is a miracle in and of itself.

Which gets me to the story elements and core drivers. I get lost easily in RPGs, following all sorts of breadcrumbs. Fallout 1’s ticking clock on getting a water chip, let me tell you how many times I failed that! I found a dungeon, after having read a note, with no in-game marker directing me. The dungeon itself was instanced, and the main story was that a delving team had gotten lost. Within, I found another godlike (born touched by a god) that sacrificed the entire team to power up a homemade robot with the spirit of a god. One, finding the actual area/quest was super organic. Second, the writing of an insane person trying to rationally explain their path was very funny. And third, the integration into the larger storyline didn’t become evident until much later.

I’m not saying the game is perfect. The moment to moment flow feels a little off, and the combat mechanics could use some QoL passes for sure (enemy AI is actually pretty good). It is however a good game, one with an interesting setting, and scratches a heck of an itch for an RPG after years of disappointment from other studios. I hope, truly hope, that Obsidian can be rewarded for what it’s been able to do here. A fraction of the budget and still hitting the right notes.

Now time to dig back in. I am enjoying shooting lightning bolts!

Pillars of Eternity 2 – Complete

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I guess I was in the right mindspace for this run.

PoE2 is an interesting game for a whole lot of reasons. Most importantly, it is clear that it was designed and developed by people who are passionate along with a clear vision. The game is consistent from start to finish, with some really impressive writing and decision making along the path. An RPG without a main villain is hard to keep on track, but this game does a wonderful job at it. Oh, there are bad people in the game, but no mustache-twirlers. And while there are a few opportunities to make what would be considered a lawful-good choice, most of them are in the neutral space.

Mechanically there’s enough detail and complexity here to add nuance to the quests. It’s not possible to truly fail a quest (aside from a game over death), just a bunch of different paths to accomplish them. Your teammates can boost your skills to help pass some checks, and aside from 1 specific case, these are mostly flavor options that may or may not avoid combat. As with most RPGs, it’s nearly always favorable to talk / skill check your way through an event instead of brute force. That said, the combat is rather snappy, at least up until the last couple levels.

I like the classes and diversity the game offers. I like the subclasses. Up until level 13 (of 20 max) there’s clear distinction between them. Multi-classing is, as with all D&D game, the core issue. There are a lot of benefits to multi-classing, and in nearly all cases it’s a better choice. There are exceptions – notably the ranged attackers. The skills you get as a pure class for melee are not very good in the later portions, usually passive upgrades to existing things. Wizards, Chanters, and Druids though… they get god-level powers.

Which is a core issue with all D&D games honestly. Melee characters start strong and get weaker as enemy armor/avoidance increases. The last mainline quest and all the DLC has enemies that have crazy defensive abilities, which you either chip away or debuff. Beasts of Winter (DLC) has a final boss that took me nearly 8 tries to beat, eventually lowering the difficulty because my wizard was multi-class and no one had the skill to debuff the 90% damage reduction the boss had.

There are other mechanical challenges. Enchanting is a great idea, but resources are so rare/expensive and you know you’re going to get something better than you avoid it. Consumables are great, but poorly implemented in turn-based mode. Stealing has only niche value, and stealth just doesn’t work. This is nit-picking honestly, and it’s been an issue in every RPG I’ve played.

Eoran Gods

The setting of Pillars of Eternity is the true joy. An older race of soul magicians determined there were no actual gods, so they went about transforming themselves into gods instead. And not like a god-race, I mean the entire race sacrificed themselves to make 11 gods. And then they killed everyone who knew about it, and directed the world on it’s eventual path. PoE1 is about you learning the truth. PoE2 is about you chasing one of those gods who is hellbent on breaking the cycle that keeps the gods in power. Basic RPG stuff.

Religion is a tough subject and nearly every RPG hits on this specific topic with varying results. Here, it’s the crux of it all, the foundation on which every other part exists. You quite literally converse with a god in massive statue form at multiple points, traverse to the otherside to have a coffee, or kill their avatar. The stakes are much higher here than before, and everyone in the game knows it. Quite honestly, most of the quests had me moving forward just to discover the next bit of story, which is not a very common thing.

Wael has to be my favorite of the gods. The weirdest one at least. Imagine if D&D Beholders had their own god – they’d look just like Wael.

Obsidian Entertainment

I still have a few golden dev studios, and Obsidian is right in that pack. The short list of games:

  • Knights of the Old Republic 2. Play with the lost content mod, best Star Wars game I’ve ever played.
  • Neverwinter Nights 2. I don’t think this game gets enough credit. D&D mods exist because of this game and the prequel.
  • Fallout New Vegas: The best 3D version of Fallout. Notorious for Bethesda not paying them because of the 1pt missed on Metacritic.
  • South Park: Stick of Truth. This game is great, way better than the sequel.
  • Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2: I honestly don’t think Baldur’s Gate 3 would exist without these 2 games.
  • Tyranny: A great game with an even better concept – you’re the judge for an evil warlord. Still amazed that pitch got a game!
  • The Outer Worlds: Avowed exists because of all the lessons learned in this game. This is what Mass Effect 4 could have been.
  • Grounded: A survival RPG. Think Valheim but you being shrunk down in a backyard.
  • Pentiment: A murder mystery in the style of 1600s art work. What other dev studio could actually do this, and do it this well?

What’s really fascinating is how story drives all of these. They aren’t experimental in the mechanics department, in fact I’d argue they are all AA-level attempts at best – with plenty of bugs. But the ideas are the gold mine. There are people at Obsidian who are paid to write down these ideas, stretch them out to see how far it can go, then translate that for us gamers to experience. And these ideas are coherent too!

I am clearly over-excited for Avowed. I know there are parts of that game that will not meet my expectations, in particular the mechanical parts. I don’t really care, they are simply a means to an end. I want to explore more of Eora. I want to see how people have adapted after Eothas’ world-shattering events. And I’d like a good news game development story, we’ve been short of those.

So far, early reviews are where I expected. Let’s give it a go!

Save Scumming

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The art of saving and reloading.

Save Scumming is a rather simple concept. You save the game, perform an activity that has a random outcome, and reload the save if the outcome is not favorable to try again. Not all games support this, and quite a few struggle with the concept of ‘favorable’. Others do a great job here.

XCOM2 is probably the best example. The RNG itself is set before you perform the action, so save scumming doesn’t actually change the results of an action, you need to take a different action altogether. Second, the failed results rarely lead to ultra negative outcomes, often simply an added difficulty modifier. I mean, that’s why Iron Man mode exists (1 save, can’t reload). Favorable outcomes in this case become ‘optimal’ outcomes.

Many RPGs can find difficulty here, either in that failures cause massive failure (e.g. failing a roll = the whole map turns aggressive) or that the favorable outcome is so powerful that it changes the rest of the game.

The answer lies in complexity and flexibility. In that the positive and negative outcomes have a marginal impact on the overall progress. BG3 and PoE2 tend to hit this one well. Impactful outcomes are less about a random role than a clear decision. Flavorful outcomes (more lore, cosmetics, alternative paths) are unlocked through the RNG machine. Example: I need to pass a speech chest to get access to some gloves. If I fail that check, I then need to steal them through a different set of skill checks. The final destination is still the same, but the paths to get there are different. Heck, Fallout 1 nailed this nearly 30 years ago – you could talk the final boss into taking themselves out!

I’m still noticing behaviours in my PoE2 playthrough though. I naturally press F5 when I enter a new zone, as you get little context as to what awaits the next step. Nekataka (the capital city) has a location that is miles above your level, and they will kill you on sight. Turning an entire zone hostile = I will die and need to reload, so less scumming than simply accepting defeat and moving on. The game also generally hides skill checks, only truly presenting them if you can pass. This is different than BG3, where you roll a die and can clearly see that you failed. I can still clearly recall needing a very low number to pass, and rolling a critical failure – right at the start! The good news is that the outcomes of those rolls are very rarely full failures.

The absolute best example I can think of is Disco Elysium. The entire game is rolls to determine outcomes, and nearly all of them are glorious in one way or another.

When a game uses RNG to determine fixed outcomes that are objectively bad/horrible, and paint you into corners you absolutely do not want to visit, save scumming is needed. If your roll relates to a marriage proposal that goes poorly, and you end up in a bar drinking your misery away and meet an entire crew of ragtag space misfits, isn’t that a positive thing?

It’s an interesting mindset that is only possible in today’s gaming age of non absolutes. And in the broader sense, I think it’s a good thing for people to accept that failure of one small act does not mean that the world is going to end. Experimentation gets you so much more enjoyable experience, so that the next time you give something a try, your skill + experience has raised enough to pass that check. Oh yeah, I went there.

Pillars of Eternity 2 – pre Avowed

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Avowed comes out in a week. The setting is shared with the Pillars of Eternity games, and I played the heck out of the first one. I enjoyed every aspect of that game, warts and all. There were small issues to solve and a very large and complicated lore setting that was gradually revealed. And honestly, the twist at the end really put the rest of the game into perspective.

Not really spoiling here, but the concept of fantasy games having active gods isn’t new. What was interesting was that these gods were not actually gods, but members of a precursor race that elevated themselves to godhood due to the lack of gods. There’s a good primer on this that was launched a few days ago.

PoE2 takes next steps from there, allowing you to import your decisions from the first game. And there are a lot of them, with meaningful impacts to the game. The story has a simple driver, a god takes physical form (a giant statue), steals part of your soul, and you need to chase them to reclaim it. Where there’s difference is in the factional warfare that you’re living with, which adds a more political / ethical structure to the game, with a ton of grey area between.

Mechanically, real-time combat with pause was a big change, where speed had a massive impact on outcomes of combat – turn-based was added later, which made some skills useless as a result. Classes were tweaked, with optional subclasses that had pros/cons attached – a min/maxer’s dream. Your home base is a ship that travels between islands, with crew, morale, food/water, equipment, and pirate battles as interesting content. The story, companions, skill checks, quests and so on are extensions from what was in the first game, and those work well.

I never completed PoE2 when it launched, but it’s been in my list of things for a long time. So I’m giving it a go now, and in the mindset to absorb more of the lore rather than the mechanical pieces. I’m honestly enjoying it more than prior attempts, the characters are more interesting and closer in terms of integration that was seen in Baldur’s Gate 2. From a practical perspective, it means there’s often a reason to backtrack to a previous area as more is available to discover, instead of simply moving from town hub to town hub.

It is, by nearly all measures, a great game. I honestly feel bad I didn’t give it a stronger go in the past.

I doubt very much I’ll be done my playthrough in time for Avowed, at least not in the way that I tend to play these games. I do however plan to buy Avowed on release, as that financial decision will have long-term impacts for Obsidian, a company that has an amazing track record in scratching my interminable itch. If they can maintain brain trust and not have layoffs, I think everyone wins.