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Poll: Obsidian's worst rpg

What's Obsidian's worst game?


  • Total voters
    293

Rostere

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Seeing as we are all doing "[insert game here] is the only correct answer", I'd like to double down on NWN2 OC being the only correct answer. Not only is it terrible, it's also terribly long. They improved like 3 things from the original but somehow made everything else worse or equally awful (while somehow focusing almost exclusively on the campaign instead of the toolset).

So, what exactly are you saying is better in DS3 compared to NWN2?

Story? Combat?

Really, when you think about it NWN2 is better in almost every way, apart from general bugginess and engine efficiency of course. And those have been largely fixed with patches.

BTW, NWN2 OC >> NWN1 OC. That's a really shitty campaign right there. NWN1 was the game that put me off Bioware - the last Bioware game I ever bought.
 

Seaking4

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Seeing as we are all doing "[insert game here] is the only correct answer", I'd like to double down on NWN2 OC being the only correct answer. Not only is it terrible, it's also terribly long. They improved like 3 things from the original but somehow made everything else worse or equally awful (while somehow focusing almost exclusively on the campaign instead of the toolset).

So, what exactly are you saying is better in DS3 compared to NWN2?

Story? Combat?

Really, when you think about it NWN2 is better in almost every way, apart from general bugginess and engine efficiency of course. And those have been largely fixed with patches.

BTW, NWN2 OC >> NWN1 OC. That's a really shitty campaign right there. NWN1 was the game that put me off Bioware - the last Bioware game I ever bought.

I didn't play DS3 but it should win by the sheer virtue of not being a 60 hour long game with almost 0 good content in it.

NWN2 still runs like shit by the way.

Both OCs are terrible but at least Bioware could argue that they were focused on the toolset.
 

ArchAngel

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I voted Fallout: New Vegas. I didn't play AP, DS3 or SoT so I didn't want to vote for those. I didn't play Tyranny long enough to give it a fair rating (I kind of put on pause after few hours and planned to continue later but have not so far).
So it was a toss up between FNV and NWN 2 OC. But I did end up finishing NWN2 OC (twice) and the game was more tactical and in better engine (did I mention how much I hate Fallout 3 engine.. I hate it more than NWN2 engine). If NWN2 was not D&D I would probably choose that one.
 

Sothpaw

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People voting for Pillars :hero:.

Played everything on the list except for AP and Tyranny (will play soon). I have only played the demo for DS3 and that alone was enough to make me vote for it. South Park is also a major piece of shit.
 

Rostere

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I didn't play DS3 but it should win by the sheer virtue of not being a 60 hour long game with almost 0 good content in it.

LOL

Come back when you have finished it. You will agree with me. It's one of the most bland RPGs I have ever played. Imagine Diablo, but with worse looting system, more lame and generic atmosphere, worse story... DS3 is only very barely recognizable as an Obsidian game. It could perhaps best be compared with games such as Fallout: PoS.

Don't get me wrong, there are more infuriating games (Lionheart comes to mind), but NWN2 is better by far. NWN2 story is far better than DS3 story - which should tell you something. NWN2 combat is at least a decent D&D RTwP implementation, DS3 is just clicky-clicky.
 

ERYFKRAD

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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Maybe so, but Diablo had atmosphere and item variety and limited class flexibility.
 

Roguey

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Maybe so, but Diablo had atmosphere and item variety and limited class flexibility.

If we're talking solely about the first one, there was very little you could do to build your character.
 

ERYFKRAD

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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Maybe so, but Diablo had atmosphere and item variety and limited class flexibility.

If we're talking solely about the first one, there was very little you could do to build your character.
Assign stats. Learn spells from a variety of books that you may or may not find. Choose gear that can have varying benefits for your character, and actually impact playstyle. Make use of shrines that may or may not offer advantages to your character. And so on.
As compared to Dungeon Siege 3, where you change between two weapon types, and a bunch of magic skills.
 

Roguey

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Assign stats.

There's pretty much just one right way to build a warrior, rogue, and wizard. Might as well not even have stats.

Learn spells from a variety of books that you may or may not find.

Only applicable to one point five classes. :M

Choose gear that can have varying benefits for your character, and actually impact playstyle.

This is also true for DS3 (on hardcore).

Make use of shrines that may or may not offer advantages to your character.

Roguelike crap.

(you get bonuses for doing things and agreeing with your companion in DS3)

As compared to Dungeon Siege 3, where you change between two weapon types, and a bunch of magic skills.

There's an impressive amount of customization with regard to the skills, plus talents. You can build the 4 characters in a variety of viable ways, which is more than can be said for barebones Diablo 1.
 

ERYFKRAD

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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Can Lucas use bows, or the blue whatsherface use greatswords or the rogue use axes?
 

Roguey

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Can Lucas use bows, or the blue whatsherface use greatswords or the rogue use axes?

That would run contrary to the character concepts. Lucas has one ranged attack, Anjali has ranged and melee, and the gun witch only wants to use guns, with pistols being better for close-quarters combat.

In my Diablo experience it's really not a good idea to use bows with a warrior or melee weapons with a rogue, and there's going to be a point where you hit the stat requirements wall because of the hard maximum cap.
 

Rostere

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LOTS of butthurt homosexuals in this thread who can't stand hearing that Pillars of Eternity was a massive disappointment! Very sad to see such denial.

I bet you didn't even finish the game. Fraudulent and homosexual. PoE2 butthurt detected.

:hmmm:

Do you remember Diablo's writing? Edgy fantasy drivel for teenagers.

I would describe it as "bland tripe". Not very "edgy", but I likely have high standards in that regard.

DS3 story was just lame, something which was not exactly helped by the extremely generic and bland DS setting. Diablo at least had the Gothic/horror touch going for it (which might appear more unique today I guess).

Parts of the character development might have been better in DS3, but that didn't matter in the end since interesting gameplay is a prerequisite for interesting character development. As it stands, DS3 itemization felt almost entirely pointless and the character system degenerates into just different ways of clicking on things. Strategy didn't change much apart from ranged/CC distinction, which is of course also a consequence of having only one player-controlled character. DS3 might have some merit as a multiplayer game, but I don't judge it by that quality.

Diablo story had very little text, which also makes telling a simplistic story more effective. DS3 does not have a lot of dialogue, but still too much compared to what is necessary for the story. Not all RPGs have very interesting stories (BG1 comes to mind), but in those cases the gold is found in details. DS3 had things like the Heart of Nagog, the goblin with the funny name and a few more details of interest, not enough to add up to a significant amount of memorable content.

Best thing with DS3 is probably the costumes of some of the NPCs, that's at least my best memory from playing the game.
 

Rostere

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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 RPG Wokedex Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
Blood, gore, and demons are edgy.

I would more say that is the visual style rather than the writing. Anyway, I also regularly listen to metal which does a lot more "blood, gore, and demons" than Diablo, so I don't react so strongly towards those themes. Plus, in the nineties that type of music, Doom, Warhammer 40K and "edgy" PnP RPGs like Kult were very much in focus over here, so I would say Diablo was rather going with the flow at the time.

Anyway, I think you sometimes have to look towards extremes (where "edginess" is one example) as a creator to manufacture interest in audiences. Interest and investment has to come from somewhere, and in particular if you do not have a real-world setting and historical significance you will have to build it from scratch. The more you invent, the more your inventions need to catch the interest of the audience through strong symbolism or they will feel zero emotional investment and interest. Basically, you have to move towards a sort of commedia dell'arte, where characters are strong enough that they elicit immediate recognition and emotional response from the audience, when you cannot have them doing so through a real-world connection.

In the absence of having any strong characters at all (Diablo), the story itself can be a sparsely told parable and the setting a surreal matching background. The error in DS3 is by going too far in the opposite direction - too much of the text is focused on what feels like chores, there is too much specifics about stuff you are not interested or emotionally invested in (because this has not been built up) and the parable aspect of the story is not emphasized enough (you spend your time doing chores for the Royalist side when ultimately this has little impact on the Radiant Youth/Archon storyline, which I guess is the main aspect of the story in the end).
 

Chris Avelltwo

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I'm not surprised to see DS3 is voted the worst of Obsidian's games, but that is not to say that it is a bad game. Even when at their worst, Obsidian still makes better RPGs than most. The main reason DS3 gets so much hate is because it strays from the Diabloness of the first games in the series, and that pisses the fans off... but it is a pretty decent game in its own right. Certainly could have used more time in development and a bigger budget, but that applies to pretty much every Obsidian game, eh?
 

Roguey

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I'm not surprised to see DS3 is voted the worst of Obsidian's games, but that is not to say that it is a bad game. Even when at their worst, Obsidian still makes better RPGs than most. The main reason DS3 gets so much hate is because it strays from the Diabloness of the first games in the series, and that pisses the fans off... but it is a pretty decent game in its own right. Certainly could have used more time in development and a bigger budget, but that applies to pretty much every Obsidian game, eh?

I suspect Obsidian fans don't particularly care how it doesn't have faithful screensaver combat and hate it because it's the Obsidian title with the least amount of focus on narrative.

Alpha Protocol was certainly a worse-playing action game but it had that Avellone ~narrative~.
 

Chris Avelltwo

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I suspect Obsidian fans don't particularly care how it doesn't have faithful screensaver combat and hate it because it's the Obsidian title with the least amount of focus on narrative.

Alpha Protocol was certainly a worse-playing action game but it had that Avellone ~narrative~.

Yeah, no Avellone. But it did have George Ziets, though. Narrative certainly did take a backseat to gameplay in this game, but the narrative it did have was still pretty good, and there was some rudimentary branching paths and companion relations. As I said, it needed more time and budget than it got, but you can make out the distinct Obsidian style if you look closely. I particularly liked the DLC backstory of St. Hiram at the monastery, and his martyrdom there. That seems like exactly the sort of thing that would belong in Sawyer's historical RPG, if that ever gets made. A lot of the DS3 ideas are half-baked, but they're good ideas nonetheless.
 

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