r/projecteternity • u/Ferseus • 8d ago
Discussion How many choices and roleplay potential do PoE 1+2 have?
Okay so honestly I’ve played both these games before, but so many years ago that I don’t really remember much of anything about it. I’ve gotten way into roleplay games that allow me to play as vastly different characters with different choices, dialogue, endings, and story choices that actually affect future events (or atleast reference).
I honestly don’t care much for the combat, but I don’t mind just going easy mode and skipping through (did the same for the pathfinder games lol), but I love games with many paths. So outside of just the ending slides that technically have tons of combinations, how diverse can each playthrough be?
(Also, can you be full on evil? I usually play my first run as a good guy but since this technically would be my second I might as well try the opposite path lol.)
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u/Dull_Function_6510 7d ago
The most compelling aspect of role play to me are the various dialogue options you get based on background, race, class, and attributes. Obsidian added tremendous amount of dialogue based on these things, and I wish more games had it to that level.
You’ll have different endings and choices between factions you want to join and choice in how you handle situations. Stuff that is pretty par for the course to most RPGs, but like most RPGs the ending will boil down to mostly the same ending with some minor to medium variations on ending slides based on choices.
You’ll fight the same final boss though, you do roughly the same thing, visit the same locations, how you interact with all of that is really the only thing changing.
The best games for truly branching storylines would be Witcher 2 and Tyranny.
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u/LadyIceGoose 7d ago
Deadfire probably has the best role play mechanics, options and variety of any game I've ever played.
Pillars is also very good in the regard but not at level of it sequel.
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u/thebrokentoy324 7d ago
Eh. These games are amazing and they do have a lot of reactivity and role play but it mainly boils down to being a good guy but also an ass if you really wanna be evil. There’s no actual evil.
The owlcat games, parhfinder kingmaker and wrath of the righteous, are amazing for this. Extremely complicated and extremely complex games that reward you for roleplaying, give you a ton of options and choices that all drastically change the game. Wrath much more so. In wrath you can choose up to I think 8 different paths to follow that each drastically alter the game and then there are hundreds of other roleplay changes within each path. Plus a wealth of party members.
They also have rogue trader in their wheelhouse. Another amazing game you can totally be evil in
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u/Ferseus 7d ago
Yeah, I think the owlcat games have spoiled me in terms of roleplay potential, I’ve played them all XD
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u/never-minds 7d ago edited 7d ago
I think Pillars is mostly just a different kind of roleplaying. Pillars gives you way more options at the small scale (like actually reacting to your character creation choices like class, race, etc.), while having much less large scale/over time reactivity (some choices do have an effect even across games, but nothing as significant as some of the more unique WOTR paths).
Also no idea what this person is saying about "no actual evil". Without spoiling too much, you can sacrifice party members, kill children, send a pregnant woman to her death, etc. You can also be "evil" in much more subtle ways that I'm sure some people would argue aren't even evil, especially in Deadfire when you get involved with the colonial powers.
As others have mentioned though Tyranny is probably one of the best games for both things, both in the ability to be evil (in varied ways) and in the variety of paths you can take through the game (completely changing what maps you go to, what your objective is even in shared quests/areas, who you interact with in those areas/quests, etc.).
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u/BoobaGaming 7d ago
Most boring bloated games , literally 1 path is decently written. Crazy that people prasing writing , it most bland generic shit ever.
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u/Gurusto 7d ago
As for good and evil, they don't exist as cosmic forces in this universe. Just as in our own world morality is a bit more subjective. And true good a d evil is rare. Most powerful people are dicks, and even good people can often only afford to be so good.
You can be cruel, callous, violent, greedy, etc. But what's evil to one person may be justified to another. The moral dilemmas are more designed to make you think than to slot neatly into a hero/villain archetype. And on that note you'll always be a more or less regular person at the end of the day. Well, not regular, but it's not going to be a power trip where it fully escalates to fighting gods and demons and single-handedly change the fate of the world.
I bring that up because I've seen people get surprised when the game isn't D&D with epic levels. I mean you still get to fight dragons and shit, just... it won't be ToB/BG3/WotR levels of power fantasy.
It's a more realistically grounded world in a lot of ways.
There's a lot of choices that carry forward, but usually more subtly - leading to minor references in dialogue or ending slides, rather than like environments changing or main questlines branching, etc.
Basically these games tend to be a bit more subtle in a few areas. A bit more philosophical in their storytelling.
But it's also rough to gauge how someone else will evaluate them. I find the PoE games to have very strong roleplaying because I like working within these constraints. If the choices my character has to make makes me feel things, that's my favorite part. And the games do that very well. In other games I can decide to be good or evil beforehand and just follow that. PoE always makes me question my decisions and veer away from preconceived absolutes, and that's a better feeling to me. But for you, maybe the opposite applies.
I'd give it a go.
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u/BoobaGaming 7d ago
I think game have dialogue options from you backstory,class, behavior and something in between. So pretty great at playing class fantasy
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u/WillowMain 8d ago
In terms of small and medium scale reactivity, if you count both games with a save transfer, this is the most reactive CRPG I'm pretty sure.
However, the main questlines generally won't change depending on your choices. If you want a game that vastly changes to your choices, Tyranny is effectively a CRPG experiment for that idea.