It really makes a lot of sense to me that POE2 underperformed to such an extent that Obsidian had to abandon their much valued independence and allowed themself to be bought out. To me that game just wasn’t fun.
I see. We don’t see eye to eye on almost every point you brought up, so I am very sad I am unlikely to ever get PoE3. To me the idea of Infinity Games have been always appealing, but combat was never tactically satisfying. poEs pretty much attempt to address most issues I have with BG1&2. PoE2 specifically, with its many subclasses give me strong BG2 vibes, but… good 😊 (taking purely systems, love BG2 overall).
One thing I would agree with you, is that making spells per-encounter homogenised encounters, at least in the base game, which even on PotD is far to easy without. I don’t think it is the case once things get tougher - DLCs provide much more challenging experience and show how well the system holds up when the difficulty is cranked up. That said, enemies do become far to HP sponges, and I preferred per-rest system of PoE1 (which in my book is still the best implementation of rest in a cRPG)
The games are definitely not without faults, but I definitely prefer their systems over any of the D&D and D&D-like titles. Would love to see more.
