Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is among my favourite games in recent memory. I should preface that I played the round-combat based version of the game, not real-time with pause. Just my personal preference and one of the reasons I never got warm with the first game. Anyways, POE2 does many things right. There are many choices along the story that will affect how people and factions react to you. That being said, it is very much an Obsidian RPG, so if you have played Fallout New Vegas or Tyranny you know the drill with how factions work. Music is beautiful and I am glad I purchased the official soundtrack as well. Graphics are very decent overall, with some really cool looking locations. Dialogue is fully voiced, but you do recognize some of the voice again and again for different NPCs :) But there are also a few things that need to mentioned in a negative way. First of all, there are still a good number of bugs. Some abilities do not work all the time, characters can get stuck on friendly team members, loosing all their movement points running into them instead of following the indicated route around them. Friendly NPCs cannot walk through each other, so combat is tight spaces is very annoying. Secondly, ship combat is developed through a text based minigame. This is really cool in theory, but the problem is that you very quickly find a pattern that works for and and after that you will never ever deviate from that tactic, because it works every single time. Enemies have the same attack and movement patterns each time, which makes it predictable. These encounter can be skipped by initiating a boarding manouver, if you don't like it. Thirdly, the difficulty curve felt off. At the beginning battles were challenging and tactical and I had to use all of my teammembers and abilities in conjunction with each other. At the end however, I could one-hit anything. So overall, a fantastic fantasy game with deep roots in the genre of dungeon and dragons inspired games.

Take off a star if you don't have a fondness for the ocean / pirate themed games, and take off a star if you don't already love this particular infinity-engine-inspired genre. Add a star if you've played and enjoyed Obsidian's similar games like POE1, Tyranny, etc. This world is atmospheric and memorable (more so than POE1 in my opinion) and the multiple morally grey factions with no purely heroic / evil options, the music and the watercolor style 'text choice adventures' that often accompany skill checks were big standouts for me. But this is a gem that's rough around the edges, with glitches, an unholy mess of an inventory screen, long loading times, and scripting SNAFUs all around. Fans of the genre can look past these, but newcomers probably won't enjoy this quite as much.

I'll keep it short. The good stuff: Combat is excellent, I like the new systems they put in place and it is complemented by upgrade sounds. The visuals are a lot better than in the first title, again very noticable in combat. This also means the game can drop frames at critical moments in combat, which is very annoying when you like to pause a lot like me. Multiclasses are a good addition, especially when it comes to recruiting new companions, as it makes them easier to fit into your group. The bad stuff: Its sad to see how Obsidians writing took a nose-dive over their last games. It was very aparent in Tyranny, but PoE 2 shows even more signs of it. Most conversations with companions are really bad writing and the voice acting doesnt help (can I please replace Xotis accent?!). The ship battles and traveling gets annoying after a very short time, some missed opportunities there. This might sound like a 4/5 review for most people, but because I value story and writing over everything else in a CRPG, this is only a 3/5 for me, continuing Obsidians downward trend of late. Hopefully they can improve in the future again.

I will try to keep it simple, and short. The main story: --- very short, nothing really exciting or interesting going on, quite underwhelming + variety of factions, all struggling for control and influence. Can feel like a chore after a while The world map: + It is big? --the world map features large number of repetitive interest points, several dungeons (some more interesting then others), small maps with bounty targets usually, and several scripted interactions. Again, quite underwhelming, and gives off as lazy design choice, since those repeat over and over. The visuals: +++ as usual, the visuals are beautiful. Notable improvement over the first game as well. The combat and classes: +++ large variety of classes to choose from, each offering unique gameplay. An accomplishment really considering how many classes and class combinations there are. --- combat is.. boring. At least during the first half, or until you reach certain levels. Usually 10~13 depending on the class choices and your build. Keep in mind that i am talking from the path of the damned difficulty POV. Since the nerf, the first half of the game is an absolute chore to go through. Enemies are literal damage sponges, and since you have very little in terms of skills and abilities, fights take forever, even with buffs. I just don't know what happened. PoE1 had no problems with balance, as i recall. Overall? Very disappointing. PoE1 is a superior game in almost every aspect.

(This review will primarily be about the story and setting, as it's what I feel most qualified to talk about). I'm willing to suffer through a lot if a game offers a lot of fun storytelling and worldbuilding, and both this game and the first one offers it in spades. Throughout, you get the sense that your character isn't just a generic placeholder, but the story of an actual individual person. So, if you liked the writing in the first one, the second has things up to par as well. This game's story isn't as dire and, dare I say, depressing as the first one's is. I liked both, don't get me wrong, but the tone is distinctly different. (Though at this point, I'm tempted to just let the factions all go hang because of their endless bickering.) Also, no backer NPCs or gravestones, a much prettier landscape, and awesome music help this game feel more immersive than the first. One downside: The accents. You might get annoyed with the fake-Southern and fake-Italian accents pretty quickly, as I did. At least the game does you the courtesy of translating some of the Vailian for you. TL;DR: You get to hunt pirates and unleash witty retorts every step of the way. What more do you want?