I have mixed feelings about Pillars of Eternity. There was a lot to love, but the setting never gripped me the way even D:OS does.
You see, I am the opposite. I found little to like in D:OS world and characters. It's incoherent, shallow and flat. PoE world had a lot of thought put into it, characters properly reflect the world they live in, and whole thing is believable and interesting. It wasn't always as easy to get into nor engaging as it could and should be, but I felt the more I invested in PoE the more I got out. Moment to moment storytelly can falter at times (especially PoE1) overall journey is well worth it. D:OS, on the other hand, is disposable, forgettable nonesense.
The game also had what I consider to be some design flaws. Replaying all of the Infinity Engine games has helped me isolate why. Compared to those classics, I spend a lot more time in POE tapping the pause button in difficult fights. Que up a few moves, play, immediately pause again, select abilities, play, immediately pause, and so on ad nauseam.
I don’t do this in IE games, because most of my party members don’t have as many skills to juggle. I’m mostly just selecting skills for spell casters and to a lesser extent, priests. Everyone else is largely autoattacking. In POE almost everybody has a selection of skills, so that requires more time spent tapping pause.
I am the opposite, again. Replaying Baldur's Gate before PoE2 and recently Pathfinder only examplifies to me, how well designed PoE1&2 are. Even things I am not entirely in love with (like attribute system) I find to be simply better then what BG had to offer. I didn't enjoy how uninteractive BG are - for that reason spellcasters were my favourite class in BG. I am also a balance guy. I don't enjoy finding "cheesy" mechanics.
IMO you can take every individual part of BG1&2 and Pillars did it better - from class design, companions, roleplaying. However, BG2 really nicely comes together - story, mechanics, atmosphere, while PoE is at odds at times. Well, if they make PoE3 I will be there.
