Posted on: December 23, 2018

slamdunk

Games: 417 Reviews: 51

a total slog of a game, but...

I have mixed feelings about Pillars of Eternity. It was a Kickstarter darling that was supposed to be a revival of Baldur's Gate. In that regard, I don't think it succeeded. Baldur's Gate has two focuses: Challenging tactical combat and epic character driven story. The tactics in PoE1 boil down to that old chestnut of "Geek the mage." The characters in PoE1 are of wildly varying writing quality, with no real unified voice between them. A lot of them even have entirely different styles of dialog trees, depending on the writer. The story in PoE1 has a few twists and turns and bumps in the road, but is by large not that interesting. So anyways, I wanted to knock this one out, and to be able to say I beat it. The first, idk, maybe 20 to 30 hours totally didn't grab me, but I pressed on. It's boring, it's wordy, combat is lame. However, I found once I got deep into the game, and especially the DLC expansions, I had really come to grow fond of what I was playing. In the end, I felt the game had genuine payoff. For all of its issues, I don't regret playing it in the least. I'm giving it a provisional 4/5 because in my case I gave the game more than ample fair chances, and I felt it was a rewarding experience, ultimately. It was a net gain vs. the frustrations I had with it. This game isn't for everybody, and if you bounce off of it, I can't blame you (so buyer beware), but if you're persistent enough, and go in with an open mind, I think there really is something to it at its core here.

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Posted on: April 13, 2023

Soleares

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 21

Great - Imperfect (No Spoilers)

A legitimately interesting story and world posing valid moral questions, deep and complex mechanical play-system to back it up with the freedom to engage with or avoid as you see fit, player-agency over the story, with plenty of artistic merit. Overall a very pleasant experience that holds up over several play-throughs, but it is not beyond criticism. The story itself goes deep but remains comprehensible, but my main gripe with it is that, its final conclusion is built on various aspects of the world that the player is only confronted with on occasion. Enough to be aware of it, but not as much as I would like given the weight it has. These great 'reveals' would be more impactful if what subject they covered was woven more closely into the player's day-to-day activities, quests and confrontations in the world. Not used as an explanation, requiring the player to do homework. It is certainly worth re-playing I did not enjoy the White March at all. It is fairly obviously tagged on and does not have the same polish, which shows in various factors, be it balance, outline or story depth. This can perhaps be expected for an expansion, but there are examples in gaming (NWN: SoU) which were the exact opposite. The voice acting (interspersed in typical 'here-and-there' old-game fashion) is well done, but given that the cast is limited, similar voice actors become rather obvious. Why Obsidian decided to give you various followers in short succession all voiced by the same actor I will never understand. Mercer is great, but I don't need to hear him have a conversation with himself through various characters whose voices keep me from acknowledging them as being different people. That all said. This is a great game, it certainly has its flaws, but its positives vastly outweigh the negatives and I find myself enjoying every run regardless.

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Posted on: November 20, 2024

a.corentin

Games: 72 Reviews: 3

A quirky try at rejuvenating a genre

Pillars of eternity is a new take on classical crpg, baldur's gate 2 being the obvious reference. It is a very carefully crafted piece, to the point that you can smell a bit too much the sweat. The love of the authors for writings and lore is extremely strong, quite unfortunately gameplay wise it is more often a loss than a gain. Overly long descriptions, circonvoluted dialogues, and most characteristically, dozens of books about the lore of this world are scattered everywhere. "Fine", you think, "I may as well slash my way through the game and avoid theses hundred of pages". Well not really, as the game is fundamentally conceived to reward the careful reader : it does not reward you mechanically, however it gives you a fundamental advantage : You do get to understand what the heck is going on. Indeed merely following the main quest line makes you the blind toy of superior forces and you will reach the end with a feel of failure and frustration. To some extent, I actually like this. Rather than putting you in charge, everything in this game is shades of grey. Should I help the resistance against a bloothirsty lord ? Should I kill and loot the crazy scientists/torturers ? The answer is rarely what you thought it would be. A subtle story then ? Well yes and no, because this type of narration is erected here as a system : whatever completely demented people you meet, guilty of innumerable murders, they always have a very reasonable argument to their behaviour. At some point this became a joke with my girlfriend "oh wait, I am eager to know why the monstruous beast dwelling under my keep and making people crazy has a point" (spoiler alert : it does). Overall, PoE remains a very enjoyable game. The combat system is deep and rewarding, the story is rich and clever, you have a fair amount of choices with lasting impact on the world. It does feel sometime like the schoolwork of very applied and gifted kids, but nobody's perfect.

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Posted on: September 4, 2020

davorj

Games: 132 Reviews: 4

Solid homage to the isometric RPG

The game pretty much feels as if made with love. If you read everything like I do and play on max difficulty where most of the fights feel epic, then the game really sucks you in. It is not perfect, but I would place it somewhere in the range of 4-4.5/5. For me, the main drawback is the length which is artificially prolonged by the endless battles which, when played on highest difficulty become quite a drag. I am scared to think at how much time and energy I have spent on this game, and I haven't even completed it yet. And then there is the DLC, and PoE II… I have just lost interest. I feel there is a trend in the last decade for RPG's to be full of content, emphasizing quantity over quality. In PoE I see this in sporadic voice casting, missing portraits, flawed quest progression and NPC interactions. Let me explain the last two points. --- POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOLLOW --- Quest progression is overall good, but occasionally, some did feel a rushed. For example, giving the armor back to Penhelm (based on a single dubious conversation option) locks you into opposing the Dozens and forcing you to complete the quests of the Knights to progress the game. Same with Doemenels and Raymond. The lock feels cheap and breaks immersion, and even more if you play the game in Iron-Man mode. This quest should have been more fleshed out, like at least giving the possibility to go to Clyver and explain what happened and discredit Penhelm. NPC interactions are mostly good, but some also feel rushed. Hiravias first says that he will kill me if I ever enter an Engwithan ruin, but later has no problems entering Cliaban Rilag with me. Same with Lle a Rhemen when I encounter the sealed door open: he has no opinion on it, so I wonder why I am taking him with me? He has even no opinion on the side quest of Wael although being a Wael follower. Again clearly quantity over quality. But overall, I can't give this game less than 4/5. Games like these need to be supported more.

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Posted on: July 14, 2018

xanderkhan

Games: 32 Reviews: 3

Waste of money and time

I was an Infinity Engine nut. I played, and replayed every Infinity Engine game, and also later non-IE gems like Hordes of the Underdark and Mask of the Betrayer. So, naturally I was hyped for this game. Worse spent money ever! The mechanics is bad, the gameplay is tedious and boring, and story is utter nonsense.

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