Why I don't like PoE2? Can you you help me?

[vkaraujo]

So guys, title. And yes, it is a question.

You see, I LOVE PoE1 and Tyranny. In my mind there is no way I won't like this, still, I begun PoE2 twice and just lost interest in a couple days. I restarted PoE1 a few weeks ago, and had a blast AGAIN, was completely hooked.

I think the main issue is that the world seems so open from the get go, and I just feel lost. It is less a good sensation of going around searching for wonders and more some anxiety, like I am just always losing on something and going the wrong way

I will try Deadfire again, but wanted to know if there is any guide or tips.

Maybe try tactics? That sounds slow. i will try to be more focused and don't care about everything that appears right away

[sturmishes]

Hi!

I know the feeling, i got almost the same feeling at first, and sometimes i always gets it, not as if, i am not used to games with sidequests all over with many MMO's i'Ve played.

I'm no expert, but i can say some tips i did, might not help you, but can't hurt.

- Focus on the main quest, until you can't progress because of difficulty level, you can then get back to side quests until you reach the level to progress further.

- You can quest in areas, trying to end all quest in one area before moving to the others, for exemple, once you get to Neketaka, tryign to explore all this siland first, until you can't progress, and trying to clear each individual zones of it. Once you decide to quest an other area, you get to that new place and do the same, trying to focus one place at a time, if you try to clear side quest one at a time in difference areas/islands, you'll just keep getting new quests and it'll feel overwhealmed.

What i personaly did to help a bit to help me focus area, is simply change my Quest Journal filtering by Grouping Location on the upper left drop down options, it also helps a lot to remember what happens where, when i tried to aim an island/area that ha smost quest to, it can give a quick glance at it.

The only quest i tend to clear and do lots of travelling, is went i « unlock » bounty quest i tried to clean them as i get them for quick XP as much as i am in level range for them. To make sure i don't miss any NPC important to the game, the ones useful or we can inteeract with, as i walk in new area, i constatly press ALT to highlight stuff i can loot and NPC i can talk to with their names being shows while pressing ALT, avoiding to talk to useless NPCs.

When i decide to get to new areas, i try to select ilands closest to my locations if i do have many choices. Once i get there, i explore that area, talk to people highlighted with ALT, loot what i can loot, once that area is explored, i then start looking t the quests i've unlocked and start clearing those which are in that rear, places like Neketaka, i tried to explore each disttrict at a time, clearing after quest on Neketaka island, once done, i then seleted which area Neketaka Quests sent me to.

As per guide, there is two site i use when questionning myself:

https://guides.gamepressure.com/pillars_of_eternity_2/guide.asp?ID=44490
https://pillarsofeternity2.wiki.fextralife.com/Pillars+of+Eternity+2+Wiki

I hope you get to like this game, i jsut love it. I can understand how you feel, imagine how i felt, sicne i never played PoE1 and was totaly new to this world and i came from DoS2 which is really in line progress, i felt overwhealmed at first in PoE2, once i filtered my Quest by locations and told myself to relax and try not to go over the entire map at the same time, it felt better, trying not to do everything at the same time. Not many quest can be affected by time dates, so once i read aboutt his, i then felt relax about travelling back and forth.

[blue_eyed_boy]

I don't know if this will help in your case but one thing I found helpful in dealing with the sense of drift that comes from having so many options is to narrow things right down to the character I want to play. In other words, right from the start, decide who your character is - what's your background and what's your motivation? Are you driven by the need to see the world set to rights? Or are you more interested in making a name for yourself as a fearless warrior or a passionate devotee of one of the gods? Do you care about any of the factions - are you perhaps a true blue Vaillian, or a dissident who hates the trading companies? Are you a Deadfire Aumaua, loyal to Queen Onekaza, or are you from Rauatai and side with the Royal Deadfire Company? Maybe you just want to rob and plunder and live the life of a pirate? Or maybe you're someone whose experiences in PoE1 made you the person you are? If you can come up with a backstory for yourself that you feel invested in it will make your decisions much easier - you don't have to do everything the game offers, you just do what feels right for your character. Factions, companions, quests - you choose your friends and actions in the light of your character's motivations and values. Role play.

The game tells you you want to get back at Eothas for destroying your life and stealing parts of your soul. Fair enough, but that's hard to take seriously. I mean, he's an 80 foot tall living god - what are you really going to do when you catch up to him? Punch him on the toe? Berath has you in a headlock, so you can decide how you feel about that and react appropriately when the gods bicker around you. As for where to go and what to do - you'll figure it out if you stay focused on your character's goals and feelings and don't worry so much about what the game seems to want you to do. Relax and enjoy yourself. Or rather, relax and be yourself.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Yeah, it's an open world, and once you leave Port Maje with your first ship, you don't need to sail to Neketaka immediately. Yet if you don't, you will either need to cope with sea battles or avoid getting ambushed by ships/pirates (which requires sailing cautiously). Fort Deadlight is tempting, but Neketaka is a major quest hub.

In your first attempt at playing the game, I would suggest spending the most time on exploring Neketaka's city districts while paying attention to the difficulty rating of side-quests that lead to other islands. Collect quests, don't always focus on the very next quest you accept. No need to rush through the main quest either. Most of the beauty of the Deadfire is in the interactions with potential allies and role-playing choices, such as whether to become a slaver pirate or whether to turn against slavers.

[juanval]

I enjoyed PoE2 more than PoE1 because of the freedom of movement.

You can explore isles, visit the great city of Neketaka, perform main plot quests, minor quests, faction quests...
I played only one campaign with the 3DLC and I spent more than 200 hours.

[Jeff]

POE2 was hands down superior to POE1 for me. Perhaps it just wasn't for you and that is ok. I liked the open world and the ability to go where I wanted. This game is awesome.

[Gorwe]

I hate Open World and I'd much rather have a neatly arranged experience like Nioh or the like. I, just like you, find the OW to just be white noise and actually harmful to my experience. I rather liked PoE 1, even if the combat etc really might've been better. I have this exact same "wtf is the point of this?" reaction to Kingmaker, yet another very fun, but too open game.

[vkaraujo]

So, an update

This time I was able to enjoy it much more and advanced way more than before. I think I still like PoE1 and Tyranny better, but now I am having a lot of fun with it at least.

I don't want to make this into a review, so I will just point out what helped me:
- Be more focused (thanks @sturmishes)
- Organize quests by location (thanks @sturmishes again)
- Decide who your character is/ Play as if this was a table top RPG (thanks @blue_eyed_boy)

I think the main problem is that before I was trying to play it like an usual game/MMORPG, getting all quests from all acessible areas before starting doing them. The issue with that with an OW is that you end up with 70 quests, wihtout really caring or knowing their stories and NPCs. I could still go the place indicated and do the thing, but there was no feeling of attachment/immersion and it was impossible to really appreciate what was happening.

Anyway, just wanted to close the subject and thank you all for the help

[blue_eyed_boy]

Thanks for getting back to us. Glad we could help.

[Brian]

Focus on one quest at a time. It may seem more efficient to gather up a ton of quests and then complete them all at once as you travel around, but if you get a single quest, and follow it through to conclusion, it will give you a better sense of the story. When you're doing the next stage of 5 concurrent quests at once, you start to lose track of what you're even doing anymore.