PoE 1 or skip to PoE 2?

[Time Traveler]

Like the title says, should I bother with PoE1 or can I jump right into PoE2? I'm thinking of getting the game out of nostalgia for games like BG, FO, etc. so advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Fendelphi]

You dont really need PoE1 to understand most of what is going on here. They do make a few references, and it is sort of a continuation, but it is also it's own contained story.

[Cutlass Jack]

You do technically play the same character in both games, just like Baldur's Gate. So think of it as nearly the same as if you directly went to BG2 without playing the first game.

Personally I think its best to have played through the first game at least once. Just to be familiar with your hero's history.

But you don't need a separate playthrough for every character you want to run in PoE2. The second game has tools to let you essentially create a fake save of your choices from the first game. If you've played through the game once you'll easilly be able to make informed choices on that.

That said, if you skip directly to 2 you can pick from some preset backstories. You'll be lost on much of the background stuff but it won't stop you from understanding the current story.

[AvaDdoN]

It's definitely not true.

POE 2 acts like a direct continuation of the events occurred in POE 1.
Unlike, for example, a series of Divinity Original Sin games, where the events of the second part take place after the hundreds of years since the days of DOS 1. The connection between the two parts of Divinity is very foggy. You may find just several references which are not obligatory for understanding the story of DOS 2. The storyline of DOS 2 is independent and separate from DOS 1.

In POE 2 you're pushed in the face with obligatory demand to choose your role you acted in the previous part to make the world exist this way. But if you don't know what is POE 1 about, then all these questions, names and places will make no sense for you. You have no freedom to investigate a new story. Not at all. Even the prologue starts on a ship where you have been fallen in an endless sleep at the end of the POE 1 (as I understand that).

As for me, I wouldn't recommend you POE 2, if you don't know what was happened in POE 1. Of course, this is true only in the case if you have an urge to immerse the lore and embrace the story of the game.

[psychotron666]

Originally posted by AvaDdoN:

It's definitely not true.

POE 2 acts like a direct continuation of the events occurred in POE 1.
Unlike, for example, a series of Divinity Original Sin games, where the events of the second part take place after the hundreds of years since the days of DOS 1. The connection between the two parts of Divinity is very foggy. You may find just several references which are not obligatory for understanding the story of DOS 2. The storyline of DOS 2 is independent and separate from DOS 1.

In POE 2 you're pushed in the face with obligatory demand to choose your role you acted in the previous part to make the world exist this way. But if you don't know what is POE 1 about, then all these questions, names and places will make no sense for you. You have no freedom to investigate a new story. Not at all. Even the prologue starts on a ship where you have been fallen in an endless sleep at the end of the POE 1 (as I understand that).

As for me, I wouldn't recommend you POE 2, if you don't know what was happened in POE 1. Of course, this is true only in the case if you have an urge to immerse the lore and embrace the story of the game.

It takes place 5 years after poe 1. You just fell into the endless sleep when the game starts, as eothas takes over the giant statue underneath your keep and kills you and everyone in the keep.

It's like playing baldurs gate 2 first before 1 (which I did personally, and glad I did because I probably wouldn't have stuck through baldurs gate if I started with the first, while I thought the second was one of the best games I ever played).

If for example the op didn't like real time with pause combat and that put them off, they might never get to the second game to enjoy the new turn based combat.

But yes, it's best to have played poe 1 first, but the second game does keep you up to speed on events and is easier to pick up lore because of all the tool tips about any lore related thing when it's brought up in conversation.

[dulany67]

Personally, i think PoE1 is the better game.

[Fendelphi]

I never completed the first one and have so far understood this game perfectly.
The only thing that really requires some prior knowledge is the Gods themselves and their relation to you, but the game does a good job of explaining that to you. Most of the factions you meet are specific to this game, not the first one, and so most of the NPCs you talk to has nothing to do with the previous game.

Most of the references to the previous game comes from the few companions that were in the first game with you, and as I said, the Gods connection with you.
And you can even set your backstory yourself in the options menu before starting the game, picking choices that could have happened in the first game. Which gives you a rough understanding of what happened to you prior. But in the end, you can play this game perfectly fine without knowing.


As for the previous game(and why I didnt complete it): Too many sequences where you did very little beside running around and talking.
I do like dialogue in games like these, but when you are stuck on a railroad of 15-20 minutes of running back and forth between NPCs for exposition dialogue, several times throughout the game, it breaks the pacing.

PoE2 has a lot more freedom in terms of what you want to do and when you want to do it. You can listen to someone who wants you to go do some stuff, but then you decide "nah, I will just go and do some bounties first". You dont have to listen to more than 5 minutes of dialogue at a time, if you dont want to.

[Kref]

PoE1 is better then PoE2. Intresting plot against... well it also may be called a plot.