Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

Great pace for an RPG. You don't spend too much time wandering around and backtracking on maps. Addition of 2x speed is trully a gift from developers and why this game stands out among others. It has good class choice and vesatility. It is easy to pick up and quite hard to master.

Ignoring the critics who most probably do even own the game (you can see your game activity) I can safely say that PoE II is a clear improvement from its predecessor. The writing is not bloated, the world is more fleshed-out, characters are memorable, graphics are much better -I often just stared at the sheer beauty of the waves, shores and idle animations. Musics are not are at par with PoE I serviceable and pretty good. Sound design also did not improve much. One tiny criticism, which could be totally on me, is that I find the combat encounters rare and when they occur they happen so fast, just a cascade of flashes and skills and poof the enemy is gone. Hence the combat does not feel tactical but strategic, if you have the right skills you win. My party is around level 6-7 and I am 5.5 hours in so this might change, but the positive points I provided will not. The game goes above and beyond the imitation of old isometric crpgs, and excels in every aspect except world setting, sorry but Forgotten Realms has an incredible lore behind it, but PoE II despite the obvious disadvantage still kept me interested in its world. In sum, this is a solid game by it own, and you may enjoy it even if you have no memories of Infinity Engine games that you want re-live from two decades ago.

Being a fan of the old school games like Baldurs gate and Icewind Dale, and a huge fan of the first Pillars of Eternity, I can honestly say this game was well worth the wait. Its a true gem in every way. If you liked the first Pillars then this will be an easy buy for you. You wont be disappointed. As far as people talking about bugs and not performing well on big gaming machines sporting gtx 1070 and 1080 cards, I say thats complete bogus. Im playing on a damn laptop, a Hp spectre x360 and it plays like a champ at 1920x1080 at medium to high settings. Havnt seen one bug, (so far) and the graphics are a huge upgrade from the first game. The amazing shadow and lighting are the first upgrade you'll notice. The explosions and particle effects are just beautiful. You can tell they poured every ounce of passion into the creation of this game. Bravo! The story is captivating, the new things added since part one like the ship and sailing around a big map are amazing. They added many new features that add a whole new level of fun. Cant say enough good things about this game. I absolutely love it. I say buy it without thinking twice.

Anyone who likes exploring and going on quests will like this game. You have a party of adventurers with which you travel around in this beautiful fantasy world, fighting monsters and meeting NPCs. In general, I really liked it. There is so much to explore and so many quests to go on that I'd have to play it again to see many of the things I missed in my first run. There are a few things that can be improved on, I think: The level progression feels too fast. Your characters get very powerful really quickly, making most combat encounters unchallenging. The main storyline is kind of a letdown when compared to the original PoE. The decisions at the end are especially anticlimatic. There aren't that many interesting spells to choose from. I expected there to be a ton of new options but there weren't many. The descriptions of spells and abilities are lacking, to say the least. Some descriptions of 9th level spells often make them sound no better then 1st level spells. And others completely omit vital information. Sidekicks are a major letdown. They seem like interesting NPCs, only to find that they have no dialogue or story. The ship to ship combat was underwhelming. On the bright side, I really LOVED the way the game begins.

If you play first PoE again and again then PoE 2 is your choice, just buy it. It's almost the same, but bigger. After amazing first part I've bought PoE2 but stop playing it after a dozen hours. There are some reasons: 1) Same characters. It's really sad to play the same characters after their story was finished in first PoE. 2) Same story. The story in first PoE was really awesome with lots of incredible moments. The second part continues the same story. And it’s not as stunning as the story of the first part. 3) Bigger size of game. Usually bigger means better, but it's also less concentrated. You should do the same things again and again to move through weaker story with the same characters.