(NWN 2 hasn’t aged well at all, but I’m still enjoying it! I might do something on it in a few weeks, because from what I remember it’s a sodding huge game.)

Does the AI in PoE actually play tactically? One of the reasons I fell in love with the BG’s and IWD’s was the combat system (particularly IWD2′s 3e adaptation), but the enemies were notoriously unresponsive, being utterly unwilling to dispel Stoneskin and Mirror Image, or taking advantage of different classes having weaknesses to certain saves, or even simply things like not sticking to the first target they spot.

Also, I discovered you actually *can* do the old IE games trick of sneaking a Rogue into a room full of mobs with one Wizard in the middle, and take out the Wizard. But the mechanics are way different.

High points in stealth means that you can not only get closer, but it slows down the discovery timer — that yellow circle that fills up when you get near enemies. Combine a slowed timer with stuff that speeds you up, like potions of speed, boots of speed, some food items. Now you can quickly move into the room and take out the Wizard before the yellow timer expires and anyone sees you.

Getting out afterwards, and back behind your front line tank is trickier (a Wizard spamming slicken to knock everyone down helps). But it does work. It’s just very different from what I’m used to. And a bit more tense, because that timer is running. You’re not automagically invisible until combat starts, like the old games. This is also a great way to loot everything in a room with a guard standing in the middle, and they’ll never see you.

Although I guess I’d have expected the feedback to push them towards a re-design and way to get round those. The animation/aiming thing was definitely insanely frustrating.

PoE seemed like it became too easy on Hard in act 2 but act 3 (and Endless Paths on 10th level) gave me new unexpected challenges. But anyway, was there ever RPG you immediately want to play again after completion? Something like Skyrim probably.

I’ve raised the difficulty from Normal to Hard and indeed you meet more monsters and different varieties. Bosses are always surrounded by thematic friends and their number greatly increases on Hard. Path of the Damned has traditional multiplication of stats for every enemy but it’s supposed to be extra challenge.

Re: bugs. If those are all the things that you encountered in the first week of the game’s release (and almost all of which got subsequently fixed in just 2 weeks), I’d say that the game is quite bug-free.

I’m over 20 hours into it and have so far encountered maybe one or two minor UI bugs (things getting stuck) and that’s about it. I’d say it’s not fair to invoke the ‘Obsidian Bugs’ trope here especially when you compare it to the similar level of issues in Divinity and quite a few more issues in Wasteland 2. (Although, again, both companies were active in putting out patches and hunting the issues down pretty quickly)