Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

I've played every CRPG (at least I think I have) since the genre came into existence...yes I'm that old. Pillars 1 was enjoyable, but it always felt somewhat lacking. The combat felt clunky, the story a bit dijointed, I always felt I was one step removed from the game. I got White March and simply couldn't complete it as it just felt the same. Pillars 2, however, felt like a breath of fresh sea air. Everything was just significantly better and I couldn't stop playing. Everything from the story to the combat had that much more depth and once I got my ship I felt they had added another exploration element without making the game bloated to play. The enchanting system is better, soulbound items were interesting too. There were heaps of things to do and I explored every inch of the ocean and the map. However, a couple of minor complaints dropped it from 5 stars for me: 1. Ship combat was too cumbersome to enjoy. It had the right idea but from the UI to the time it took, it just didn't feel fun. I ended up upgrading my ship and ramming instead which was far more fun. 2. The party NPCs came a bit slow and I didn't have enough of an incentive to switch them out so I played with the characters as I met them and so has my wife. Good for replayability though! 3. The southern American accents were thoroughly immersion breaking. I decided to just ignore them, but how "that dog won't hunt" got past Q&A I have no idea as American colloquialisms have no place in a fantasy RPG. The accent for Xoti was initially so jarring and unpleasant that I nearly modded the voice overs out. Not that the acting was bad, but a southern accent is just not appropriate for a fantasy setting. Scottish accents for Dwarves have been established for decades of TV, film and gaming so no one bats an eyelid, but a clearly modern dialect + colloquialisms is a really weird design decision. Ever other accent, even Eder, worked as they felt appropriate or weren't immersion breaking.

At about 58 hours in, it came to me that I had no idea what was going on with my current quest (water people got mad about me letting their pet go) or why I just got my last quest. It's a beautiful game. Sound and music are great. I encountered no bugs. I guessed that I saw everything that there was to see, and there was potentially another 100 hours to go. I just wasn't vested. Perhaps a more focused story might have helped.

Mechanically, the game is pretty decent in terms of the ruleset. Technically it's alright too - a bit old-fashioned technology-wise compared to CRPGs that have fully 3D engines, and the backgrounds to the maps look pretty good for the most part. I found the writing to be excrutiatingly overdone, as if the writers somehow felt compelled to write everything in some kind of flowery, simile-ridden language. The game takes itself very seriously with very serious lore. Then there's having to camp all the time to recover spells and abilities. This seems to be a growing trend in modern CRPGs, but personally I find it tiresome. It turns gameplay away from tactics and more towards resource management. My other gripe is the prissy, easily-offended bell-ends who are the player character's companions. As the player character, you have to figure out which conversation lines trigger them and which ones stroke their egos, as well as keeping them well away from other companions with whom their personality conflicts. If you don't pay attention to this, they might take a huff and leave the party for good. One of the biggest problems with this system is that the reactions of companions to particular conversation lines rarely make much sense.

There are only a few games I can say have given me a ride like this game has... Doom, Mass effect 3, Betrayal at krondor... this game is in that list from now on. absolutely fun to play - every new quest is a mini journey, and the overarching epic storyline is great. I love how the writters give you the choice to put up a big fat middle finger to the gods of the realm.

Deadfire is an amazing second installment of Pillars Of Eternity. The many new or retooled systems are well implimented, such as ship resource management, island exploration, sea exploration, relationships, and multiclassing. While there is plenty of combat, Obsidian did a great job of having a lot of innovative/nonviolent ways to handle many of the situations you encounter. It feels like there is a lot more voice acting in Deadfire than in the first game, and the soundtrack is really beautiful and well done. My biggest complaint is that there isn't more of it! I've sunk well over 100 hours into the game and haven't yet finished it, but I feel like 1) there are serveral areas/factions where there is room for elaboration/expansion of quests & story, and 2) I don't want the fun to end! My second-biggest complaint is that some of the questlines are a bit buggy, especially if you get farther ahead with one faction's quests than the others. I'm confident that is something that will be addressed soon in a patch, though, and there are enough quests to keep me otherwise occupied. Some people's complaints don't seem to take into account the fact that Obsidian is a smaller developer without the backing of the EA hegemony. Is the game perfect? No. But I have played the crap out of it anyway and enjoyed every bit of it. I, for one, am happy to know that my money is going to a smaller developer. Its pretty clear that Obsidian poured their hearts into this game and I am happy to help support their efforts! If you enjoy isometric RPGs with a strong roleplaying element, you will likely enjoy this game. I'd suggest playing Pillars of Eternity first if you haven't, though, since this game is based in the same world with several of the same companions -- gives a lot more context to your interactions with many of the npcs, recent history, some of the systems, and some of your companions. Plus, the first Pillars of Eternity is a great game in its own right!