One of the things that hasn't been brought up by anyone (to my knowledge) which I consider to be a huge point in Owlcat's favor, including on the issue of their games starting out buggy, is the massive complexity of the Pathfinder system. Although I funded the game, I am only now playing it for the first tme (because I like to wait until a game is not being changed too much anymore by patches before I play it). And I am finding the game to be incredibly, unbelievably awesome! The sheer amount of game mechanics options available to the player boggles the mind. Some 32 classes, each with 4-5 subclasses; dozens and dozens of options for abilities, feats, spells, etc.; the range of weapons; fifteen fully fleshed-out party companions; animal companions that can be leveled!; and all of those complex gameplay rules of Pathfinder. Imagine the coding workload of creating a solid game within that environment. Compared with what Owlcat has gone through to create their game within the massive complexity of the Pathfinder system, what Larian has to do to create a good game within the D&D 5e system is practically child's play by comparison.
I agree with that. Spend a lot of time thinking what character to pick alone... I think it wasn't until a week after I had purchased the game that I settled for something. (A Tiefling Mutagen warrior specialized on the scyte (x4 crit damage). By the end of chapter 1, with buffs he already had strength of 20 (+9 bonus).
At the same time, and this is Pathfinder/D&D3e -- there's a lot of stuff that is marginal variation at best. The subclasses can be just a slightly different flavored variation on the main dish -- ditto hybrid classes. And your choices, no matter how plentiful, often boil down to nothing more dramatic than getting a 5% advantage on a hit roll. As said, that's D&D 3rd edition/Pathfinder though.
I'm a bit torn on this. The amount of options is amazing. At the same, time, I can be a "less, but more distinct" is more guy. Different type of game, but in System Shock 2 -- one of the but 3 classes you pick has a huge influence on how the game plays out if you further specialize on it (which is a must on higher difficulties).
The Marine is your typical grunt and good with weapons. Specializing means the game plays more like a typical shooter. As a Navy Soiler you're good at hacking, repairing and modyfying. You're getting best by enemies by hacking into security systems and modyfying them so that they deal with your enemies (gun turrets, cameras, etc.) And then there's the OSA Agent, specialized in Psionic Abilities (arguably the caster of System Shock 2's world). It's the most complex, as specializing means you eventually gain means to control up to 35 Psionic Disciplines (spells) in total.
There are offensive, defensive and status related disciplines. Some of them may simply buff your stats, others may charm enemies, you can even make yourself undetectable for security systems and enemies for a while. Each of those specializations results in a completely different gameplay experience (even though the story remains the same).
Still, lots of options in Wrath for sure. And that time being spend in character creation is a huge part of the fun.
Originally Posted by Sozz
The most recent AAA game I can think of that had a decent puzzle in it was Dishonored 2, and it was a shortcut. It also wasn't really incorporated into the gameplay. Maybe if I can give it some thought I'll think of another.
Well, you could argue that an entire level is, unlike the other parts of the game, a puzzle. "A crack in the slab", a piece of level design art -- even though it's not as replayable and open as the other levels as a result. Other studios would have made an entire game out of this level's idea, but that's Arkane at their best. And time traveling hadn't been as fun since Day Of The Tentacle.
Yes. This is true as well. It was a bit TOO many options. I also took quite some time trying to figure out what I wanted to be - too long. And yes, some differences are just so minute they are hardly worth it - to many people.
But, when I wanted to create my nature cleric and found the options easily available, I was happy. When I had this dragon-blooded sorceress idea and found the options I was looking for actually available, that was amazing.
For mehonestly, character creation is part of the fun. A good character creator that makes me want to sit and go through options for a while is a genuine plus for me in a game. Since I play on low difficulties, it's not even about the actual stats for me really. It's about what sort of person I can create from the various bits and pieces of the character creator. It's as much part of the game and part of my enjoyment as anything else.
What I DO think is ingenious with Pathfinder is that if you are overwhelmed by options, just select pregenerated fighter, rogue, wizard, etc and let the game decide how to level you up. But for those who LOVE diversity in character creation, who dream up some crazy unique character, you can still make them.
Oh I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned yet, but Rogue Trader alpha actually begins in about 3 days.
I am undecided if I will actually be participating this time around since I’m still going through Tactics Ogre Reborn. But I’m very curious about Warhammer and even more so an Owlcat game that’s designed to be turn based only. The latter would definitely result in a drastically different design philosophy from the Pathfinder games.
I agree with kanisatha. The sheer volume of options is impressive. I can't think of another D&Dish game that offers SUCH a variety of character creation options. It's awesome.
As far as druids go, I love my druid character. She's not the strongest, but she's still quite good and an absolutely necessary member of the team. Her dino companion is one of the strongest members of my party, dealing 7 attacks per turn with sometimes staggering results. Meanwhile, she's shooting her bow at a distance and casting Holy Fire, Storm spells, summoning manticores, elementals... And healing...
I LOVE Pathfinder character options A LOT. I was even able to create a Cleric of Nature that is like a druid but also a cleric. Very diverse teams you can create.
Yes exactly. I easily spent a good half a day (this is just me and not indicative of what it should be for everyone) creating my character. And I LOVED every second of it. Because yes, creating MY character is the foundation to a fun and enjoyable and satisfying RPG playing experience. And then on top of that you also get the utter joy of developing your companion characters in whatever direction you want to take them! And you get to do all of this with six characters instead of the extremely limiting four characters. Such pure JOY!
And no, I completely reject the notion that Owlcat has just cut and pasted TT rules. They absolutely have adapted Pathfinder to the video game medium. And by contrast, it is Larian that is not being anywhere near adaptive enough in creating a fun video game experience in their zealous pursuit of creating a 5e TT simulator focused on the co-op experience at the expense of the SP experience.
For mehonestly, character creation is part of the fun. A good character creator that makes me want to sit and go through options for a while is a genuine plus for me in a game. Since I play on low difficulties, it's not even about the actual stats for me really. It's about what sort of person I can create from the various bits and pieces of the character creator. It's as much part of the game and part of my enjoyment as anything else.
Exactly this as well. WotR makes it eminently possible for me to create completely suboptimal characters (my PC and also my companions), to not min-max or engage in any painstakingly *perfect* builds, and then to also play the game in a completely suboptimal way, never trying to be perfect or even fantastic in my use of abilities or spells or such (and no gimmicks) in combat encounters, to just play the game in a totally fun way, and still end up winning the encounters and moving my game forward, all because of those amazing options for gameplay and difficulty.
Larian's big claim to fame is that they want to create a game where the player can play it the way the player wants to play it. But it is Owlcat that has actually delivered such a game to me, in the form of WotR, whereas Larian's own game is currently soooooooo far away from being such a game.
I agree with kanisatha. The sheer volume of options is impressive. I can't think of another D&Dish game that offers SUCH a variety of character creation options. It's awesome.
As far as druids go, I love my druid character. She's not the strongest, but she's still quite good and an absolutely necessary member of the team. Her dino companion is one of the strongest members of my party, dealing 7 attacks per turn with sometimes staggering results. Meanwhile, she's shooting her bow at a distance and casting Holy Fire, Storm spells, summoning manticores, elementals... And healing...
I LOVE Pathfinder character options A LOT. I was even able to create a Cleric of Nature that is like a druid but also a cleric. Very diverse teams you can create.
Yes exactly. I easily spent a good half a day (this is just me and not indicative of what it should be for everyone) creating my character. And I LOVED every second of it. Because yes, creating MY character is the foundation to a fun and enjoyable and satisfying RPG playing experience. And then on top of that you also get the utter joy of developing your companion characters in whatever direction you want to take them! And you get to do all of this with six characters instead of the extremely limiting four characters. Such pure JOY!
I agree with this completely. I think it wasn't actually ONE week, but TWO weeks that I took to settle for my main character. And I liked that tremendously. I was merely pointing out that there's a huge load of overlaps in between options to the degree that one option is but a slight variation of the other; and that quite a few of those options aren't any more impactful than gaining a whopping 5% advantage on an attack roll or saving throw. As said though, that's Pathfinder. You can't blame them for doing this.
Plus: It's refreshing to play games with options. In particular in the big budget space (Skyrim et all), outside of appearence and a few cosmetics, you barely have any. And that's what they call "RPG" these days.... Still, the more options, the more ressources you need to make them stand out. I doubt that Vampire Bloodlines could have made most its vampire clans to chose from as unique had they needed to implement 50, rather than a fistful. The disfigured Nosferatu (forcing you to move through L.A. via the sewers and feeding on rats) and Malkavian (being literally insane, having completely rewritten dialogue, including one with a stop sign) naturally being the standouts. WOTR is like a box of candies: full of more or less differently flavoured sweets. They're all sweets. And thus perhaps just a different kind of fun. (For me too, as said).
RE: Difficulty options. Due to Pathfinder being so "imbalanced", you could argue they are an absolute necessity. It's possible to create characters who quite literally can't hit shit. And vice versa making characters that borderline break the system and are what Neo was to the Matrix. Both Kingmaker+WOTR are super combat heavy games too. This is, in particular for min/maxing, all part of the fun. However, it means they have to take all of that into account. There's a warning for reason as soon as you pick any of the higher levels of difficulties: "Pathfinder n00bs beware." In particular since defensive stats in Owlcat games tend to be bloated in general, in particular armor classes. Whereas your standard early game lvl1 goblin in say, Neverwinter Nights, would have an Armor Class of 10, making him regular to hit for even the worst character builds -- in Kingmaker he could have 20 -- on default difficulties (the higher ones bump that some more).
Unless you characters are tweaked to hit: No dice. Whereas all you need to hit that goblin in NWN/BG is a bit of a luck with the Dice 20, for even ~50% of the blows to hit that same Goblin in Kingmaker, you'd need an attack bonus of ~10. All the while it's technically possible to have characters that at that point are actually in the minus range. There were a lot of complaints about perceived unfairness when Kingmaker hit for reason. Previous D&Dish games, actually BG3 as well, weren't as severe on that (and when I first started BG1 in 1999, my only experience with D&D also was Eye Of The Beholder rather than any indepth ruleset knowledge). Speaking of which, it's oft forgotten that KOTOR was based on D20/D&D systems too. But D&D games had been an attempt to bring a D&D game to the masses (BG3 being no exception), whereas the Pathfinder games are Kickstarters primarily targeted at Pathfinder fans first -- and the rest via tweaks and options second.
Currently playing the "Lost Valley" DLC in Solasta, which starts quite promising (outside of the repeat pushing of trees and stones in the jungle, no matter why they force that so often, it's just busywork). But once I'm done, I think I'm back to WOTR.
What I DO think is ingenious with Pathfinder is that if you are overwhelmed by options, just select pregenerated fighter, rogue, wizard, etc and let the game decide how to level you up. But for those who LOVE diversity in character creation, who dream up some crazy unique character, you can still make them.
BG3 achieves the very same in a way by introducing the Origin Characters and Tavs. I would argue that the Origin ones will be much better then the pregenereted Pathfinders---due to having their own story, looks and an independent idea behind them, waiting for only to be interpreted by the player themself. And not only that---it should be remembered that the Early Access has created a special situation in which the characters already live in the players' imagination, in spite of coming to existence as if "prior to the proper birthday" that the Launch will be.
Originally Posted by kanisatha
Larian's big claim to fame is that they want to create a game where the player can play it the way the player wants to play it. But it is Owlcat that has actually delivered such a game to me, in the form of WotR, whereas Larian's own game is currently soooooooo far away from being such a game.
Both studios let their player achieve their own way of playing. They just achieve that as they should, that is: quite differently!
Whilst Owlcat suits it through a complicated class and subclass system, which on the one hand many could find too overwhelming, and others on the other being actually attracted to such cRPGs, Larian plants a solid interpretation of another, adding to it fresh air of novelty that is the Character Creator, and the animations, in place of the portraits era. I highly value this step as it reminds me of my own experience with the dear Witcher series. Being a Pole I grew up reading Sapkowski's books, yet it was the Witcher III that let me see Geralt and Yennefer, and Ciri independently from myself, as if bringing them to life, all older as I were, letting me greet my old friends even more warmly.
I'm actually bracing for the same in relation to WoTR and BG3---my character, Silverstrand, will mysteriously be transferred through many Planes from Golarion to Faerun some time before the abduction (or some other event important to the Larian plot). A whole character that is actively being created on my first Pathfinder playthrough has already got its own file on my phone where I fill in the backstory, or the plot already, based on well-developed ideas of WoTR accompanied by my other necessary "fillings-in". All of that is going to play in my head on the first post-Launch BG3 gameplay. That said, I'd fancy pointing out how both games in fact are capable of expanding a mutual player's experience.
Therefore, it's quite fundamental to one again underline that they both hit different spots quite, well, differently---and that's absolutely wonderful! Moreover, the job said to have already been delivered leaves a lot place for reinterpretation still. On the one hand is Owlcat with their complexity of the system, but a relative minimum of the visuals; on the other Larian with their jump in the visuals of the genre that at the same time applies another RPG system.
Ah, one more thing. We shouldn't underestimate the differences between the complexities of the source systems. It's rather easy to miss in such a discussion that it's not only the developers or the takes on the appliance that comes in question, but the very root itself as well.
Iaenns Silverstrand, to be known more bardly as The Bartian Observer.
Now that Solasta has support for multiplayer. Yesterday me and my brother played Solasta from distance FULL HD settings maximum graphics. Everything worked fine (but this is beginning Solasta worst bugs come later but it has been like 2 years since I last time played Solasta) it is pretty fast level up in the beginning (and later become to feels slow and currently we are level 3. It has been fun so far. We have not bought any addons or such stuff. We play through main campaign. Well and we are not still at the annoying riddle area which I sincerely disliked very much. It works fine I control 2 characters and my brother controls 2 characters Solasta party size is 4. Everything worked fine.
The only small issue was that when starting a new campaign Solasta main campaign game it took loading time, but once done it worked perfectly. We play at Scavenger mode where monsters have 25% more HP and +1 to hit and +1 to saving and smarter more deadly AI and that is harder then Authentic. Authentic is the closest to real Dungeons Dragons 5 mode. We did disable some annoying food requirement things and set that you can carry more then normal DnD rules. We prefer to have challenge from combat and not hassle with weight to carry issues. System performance? Perfect no slow downs same speed as single player maximum FULL HD graphics and stable rock solid not a single crash so far.
Tip: Even if you disable food requirement. In order to leave the town in beginning you must finish quest that requires you buy food rations. Of course we did that.
Challenge at Scavenger(that is harder then Authentic real Dnd5)? We have never died not a single character and the early encounters while some challenge after level 2 it is absolutely not to hard yet, but this is not Solasta most hard encounters. We have rolled characters and not buy point system stats. Most annoying to me that Solasta does not have full DnD license. There does not exist example Oath of Vengeance for Paladins. Well and Solasta is very limited in amount of races. Our party group? This is not some optimal tip and I think anything that you think is fun to play you can play. We have in our party Cleric, Paladin, Rogue and Wizard two of them controlled by my brother and two by me. No we have not bought Inner Strength DLC with more classes and Dragonborn race, but perhaps we do that later.
Solasta's dragonborn are freaking hideous, unfortunately, even more so than the other races are. The actual dragons from the base campaign already had weird outstreched teeth, but these just look like stereotypical cavemen with reptilian features. The fact that it's the same five voices none of which really suit them don't help, either. I am befuddled that they couldn't just get a lower, scratchier female voice for the option three and instead did what they did.
The Lost Valley does somewhat run out of steam by the end (five copy-pasted outposts were... uninspired, honestly. And I've managed to lock myself out of every "normal" ending by siding with no-one/having questlines just die on me because some quest triggered a sudden reputation drop with another faction, so what I've got was a rather out-of-nowhere resolution), but it is paced much better than the main one. The toolset does now have support for dialogue making and the like, so the better experiences may just come from the community (wanted to take a crack at it myself and re-live the NWN module-making days in some form). They still don't have custom character- and item-making, though, which is kind of a letdown. Even Sword Coast: Legends allowed to create your own NPCs for your modules.
You know who did dragonborn well? Neverwinter Online. I created several in that game. So good. My blue dragonborn cleric with the new fallen angels wings "mount" looks really awesome.
I hope BG3 does dragonborn very well. I have high hopes for it. The look of the dragonborn in Solasta is one of the main reasons I haven't gotten the DLC yet. They just don't excite.
You know who did dragonborn well? Neverwinter Online. I created several in that game. So good. My blue dragonborn cleric with the new fallen angels wings "mount" looks really awesome.
I hope BG3 does dragonborn very well. I have high hopes for it. The look of the dragonborn in Solasta is one of the main reasons I haven't gotten the DLC yet. They just don't excite.
Yeah and no matter how I try I can not make a really beautiful women Dwarf in Solasta. Impossible. For one night sex perhaps. However long term wife no thanks. Fat and short and there is only one face that even looks ok for woman dwarf. For diversity I created one male and one female character that I control in Solasta. Humans and Elves women can look a bit better and halfelf, but dwarf women no not what I call beautiful in Solasta.
Well and I certainly do not agree with one video ranking races that said Dwarf is not good. Seriously poison resistance, dark vision, +2 CON +1 Wisdom and truly elite rolled stats, have 19 CON now. but will have 20 CON when I get to level 4. Hill Dwarf Cleric gets +1 HP/level in addition to from CON. Wrong to think it is only more HP.
High CON makes it hard to kill specially if I take feat Hard to Kill example and pump CON to 20. She will stand beside my Paladin in the upcoming Dragon fight not from distance. My Halfelf Paladin has Charisma 20 and his aura will boost my female Hill Dwarf saving throws when she is within 10 feet of Paladin once he gets to level 6. Wisdom? I have score 18... you see I prefer to have 20 CON and she has 18 STR Hill Dwarf Battle Cleric not afraid of melee!
My brothers characters Wizard and Rogue are excellent at ranged dps. Of course Cleric can cast some ranged spells as well.
That being said I will play Solasta today with my brother.
You know who did dragonborn well? Neverwinter Online. I created several in that game. So good. My blue dragonborn cleric with the new fallen angels wings "mount" looks really awesome.
I hope BG3 does dragonborn very well. I have high hopes for it. The look of the dragonborn in Solasta is one of the main reasons I haven't gotten the DLC yet. They just don't excite.
Indeed. Although the cartoonish/animesque artstyle (now there's actually the style fitting the descriptiors thrown at BG3's look) did somewhat clash with the setting in my eyes (it may have been a good fit for 4e that the game came out during the time of, though), you did actually have quite a bit of customization options, including your body build and being able to do blind/damaged eyes. The dragonborn being hidden behind a paywall/lootboxes was not exactly appealing, though, but I did like how my frostbitten tiefling wizard with sawn-off horns turn out. And the amount of astral coins that I spent on buying dyes at the auction is somewhat embarrasing to admit.
Originally Posted by Terminator2020
Well and I certainly do not agree with one video ranking races that said Dwarf is not good. Seriously poison resistance, dark vision, +2 CON +1 Wisdom and truly elite rolled stats, have 19 CON now. but will have 20 CON when I get to level 4. Hill Dwarf Cleric gets +1 HP/level in addition to from CON. Wrong to think it is only more HP.
The DLC actually makes the Snow Dwarves useful to pick for a rogue, since they come with +1 DEX and heavy crossbow proficiency, which there are now magical (and quite good) versions of available. And even the extra HP alone equates to 2 ability points in CON, which allows to really bump up health on some of the squishier classes (a hill dwarf cleric or druid is pretty much the way to go, in my opinion). That said, compared to half-elves, everyone is bad. While the dialogue skills are implemented like utter arse in Solasta, the +2 CHA and +1 to whatever two abilities you want, plus the darkvision, plus (in BG3) the elven parent racial bonuses basically turn them into the aasimar from 3.5e but without the experience penalty. Again, I liked the older implementation of them better where they'd get the (less powerful) elven traits but will lose the bonus feat, making it a choice to think about.
If Kingmaker/WotR were Owlcat's take on BG, this looks like Owlcat's take on Wasteland 2-3/the Shadowrun RPGs in the WH40k setting. It *seems* quite neat so far, actually. The grid- and turn-based combat and a custom ruleset seem like a good fit instead of having them try to adapt Pathfinder again. I really liked Mechanicus but found it a bit on the easier side, and this - if not botched again - looks quite promising.
As far as similarities to their previous titles - it is the same framework and engine features, after all. It's a complaint that falls into the same category as "BG3 is just a D:OS reskin", which it isn't, and this doesn't appear to be just Kingmaker/WoTR repurposed either. Time will tell, I suppose, the main concern is, as usual, its release state.
If Kingmaker/WotR were Owlcat's take on BG, this looks like Owlcat's take on Wasteland 2-3/the Shadowrun RPGs in the WH40k setting. It *seems* quite neat so far, actually. The grid- and turn-based combat and a custom ruleset seem like a good fit instead of having them try to adapt Pathfinder again. I really liked Mechanicus but found it a bit on the easier side, and this - if not botched again - looks quite promising.
As far as similarities to their previous titles - it is the same framework and engine features, after all. It's a complaint that falls into the same category as "BG3 is just a D:OS reskin", which it isn't, and this doesn't appear to be just Kingmaker/WoTR repurposed either. Time will tell, I suppose, the main concern is, as usual, its release state.
I genuinely did not like either of the Pathfinder games. The characters in them, the tone of the story, the combat and all of that stuff. Despite being a BG/BG2 and Pillars of Eternity fan I have always thought RTWP was a terrible system for RPGs. It was something I put up with rather than enjoyed. This seems further driven home by the fact that the developers of a lot of these original D&D titles wanted to use a turn-based system and the only reason they went with RTWP was engine limitations (at least that is my understanding of the history of it). It's probably the main reason that I think Fallout/Fallout 2 are superior games and far more fun than BG/BG2.
That being said I loved Wasteland 3. I actually do not think it got the attention it deserved among 'CRPG" fans as I think it is every bit as good as or at least close to as good as D:OS2. When I watched the stuff above I also got those vibes and now I'm genuinely interested in this one - with the hopes that Owlcat can tell a story that appeals to me more while having a new universe/IP to tinker with.
I will also say I agree that the biggest concern is the release state. Cyberpunk 2077 is the title most known for buggy launches right now (though that still blows me away as Fallout 76 was on a whole different level)... but I have had 100x worse experiences with the Owlcat games. They were in absurdly bad places when they launched and the studio does not really seem to care about it. I think they are a bit Bethesda'ish in their approach of just throwing out a game with an absurd amount of content in it that other developers cannot hope to match, then pat themselves on the back about it while ignoring all of the problems with it.
Well and I certainly do not agree with one video ranking races that said Dwarf is not good. Seriously poison resistance, dark vision, +2 CON +1 Wisdom and truly elite rolled stats, have 19 CON now. but will have 20 CON when I get to level 4. Hill Dwarf Cleric gets +1 HP/level in addition to from CON. Wrong to think it is only more HP.
That said, compared to half-elves, everyone is bad. While the dialogue skills are implemented like utter arse in Solasta, the +2 CHA and +1 to whatever two abilities you want, plus the darkvision, plus (in BG3) the elven parent racial bonuses basically turn them into the aasimar from 3.5e but without the experience penalty. Again, I liked the older implementation of them better where they'd get the (less powerful) elven traits but will lose the bonus feat, making it a choice to think about.
I do not think that all races are bad vs Half Elves in Solasta. My Paladin is Half Elf because Paladin need good CHA and I did put +1 to STR and CON. My Battle Cleric is Hill Dwarf. My brother characters Wizard is High Elf and Rogue is Sylvan Elf. However this not super tips and I think you should play with what you like.
I genuinely did not like either of the Pathfinder games. The characters in them, the tone of the story, the combat and all of that stuff. Despite being a BG/BG2 and Pillars of Eternity fan I have always thought RTWP was a terrible system for RPGs. It was something I put up with rather than enjoyed. This seems further driven home by the fact that the developers of a lot of these original D&D titles wanted to use a turn-based system and the only reason they went with RTWP was engine limitations (at least that is my understanding of the history of it). It's probably the main reason that I think Fallout/Fallout 2 are superior games and far more fun than BG/BG2.
That being said I loved Wasteland 3. I actually do not think it got the attention it deserved among 'CRPG" fans as I think it is every bit as good as or at least close to as good as D:OS2. When I watched the stuff above I also got those vibes and now I'm genuinely interested in this one - with the hopes that Owlcat can tell a story that appeals to me more while having a new universe/IP to tinker with.
I will also say I agree that the biggest concern is the release state. Cyberpunk 2077 is the title most known for buggy launches right now (though that still blows me away as Fallout 76 was on a whole different level)... but I have had 100x worse experiences with the Owlcat games. They were in absurdly bad places when they launched and the studio does not really seem to care about it. I think they are a bit Bethesda'ish in their approach of just throwing out a game with an absurd amount of content in it that other developers cannot hope to match, then pat themselves on the back about it while ignoring all of the problems with it.
Mostly the same, really. I did like the combat in Kingmaker when it was actually throwing interesting situations at the player (the troll chapter was good, for one, and the Season of Bloom too), but at the beginning it's too overturned for a low-level party and in the final third it turns into the Traius Academy from KotOR 2. The writing and the story were, indeed, not exactly encouraging.
BG ended up being a RTWP game because it was conceived as an RTS and then repurposed into an RPG, and the adaptation was meant to work as a revolutionary merging of the real-time and turn-based systems. I can't really choose between whether I like the earlier Fallouts or the Infinity Engine games more, though, as they are great for different reasons and they all have flaws of their own (Fallout combat is... well... let's call it "rough". One of the reasons that I am not particularly fascinated by the A.T.O.M. RPG dilogy is because it pretty much copied its inspiration, warts included, and made combat downright masochistic in the process).
My main concern for Rogue Trader would then (apart from the writing, but they might just pull through with a new setting? As long as they can maintain the atmosphere, it should turn out to be at least serviceable - I mean, the Horus Heresy book series is already a somewhat low standard in some places, in my opinion. More of an Abnett/Mitchell fan, myself) be its technical state at release, yep. I am kinda concerned that they haven't really finished fixing WoTR yet (but did churn out three DLCs in the span of a year...) and moved on to a new game.
so far. We have not bought any addons or such stuff. We play through main campaign. Well and we are not still at the annoying riddle area which I sincerely disliked very much. It works fine I control 2 characters and my brother controls 2 characters Solasta party size is 4. Everything worked fine. 
