Posted on: April 1, 2024

LJ_Rime

Games: 68 Reviews: 2

RPGs At Their Best Have Weight

Many years ago, I played Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords for the first time with the RCM mod. I had only originally played it once on the OG Xbox when I was young but its quality kind of escaped me. But playing it with the RCM mod was a new experience and when I finished the game, I felt like the weight of the world lifted off my shoulders in the best way. I bring this up because that sense of relief is the kind of feeling I chase when I begin a playthrough of any new RPG. Pillars of Eternity was the first game I ever bought on GOG. It's been almost a decade and I've played through it many times. The most recent being late last year. It gave me the same feeling it gave me after I finished my very first playthrough. The same feeling KOTORII gave me. Like I had been on a very long journey and could now finally rest. I can't stress this enough when I say that's a rare feeling. I've played many RPGs and only a select few have given me what felt like a satisfying conclusion. Pillars of Eternity is the kind of game that most people won't finish. It's far too grounded for a fantasy RPG that its bound to bore a lot of people in its early game. They're doing themselves a disservice by not experiencing everything after. One of my biggest pet peeves of CRPGs in the last decade is the obnoxious self aware quirky humor. It feels like every recent CRPG has it. It's not unique. It's not funny. It's boring. The same feeling a lot of people will get from Pillars because it doesn't have that so called "personality." But it's that lack of obnoxious personality that has only let it age so gracefully over time. It's not trying to be self aware or funny. It's trying take you on a journey and it lets you feel that weight. If you give the time the game asks of you, that weight will be lifted in the end and you'll never forget how you felt when it happened. The best RPGs are like that.

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Posted on: May 8, 2024

EwigWandernd

Games: 739 Reviews: 264

My favourite CRPG of the 2010s

My most favourite CRPG of the 2010s; I adore the writing, the worldbuilding, the narrative themes and so on. While it definitely has it's flaws I can overlook them all for the amazing upsides

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Posted on: April 17, 2019

Silverwing93

Verified owner

Games: 107 Reviews: 1

Hard but worth it

I am a very huge fan of rpgs but for the life of me I could never get into the old Baldur Gate style games. This game did the impossible and I am having the time of my life. The mechanics are so much better than the old school DnD rules Imo. The music and graphics are nice and the lore, my god the lore is so well written. Can't wait to finish it and start the second one!

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Posted on: September 1, 2020

K0rp0

Verified owner

Games: 214 Reviews: 10

Mediocre but definitely playable

This game has many quality of life improvements over similar games in the same vein, but its main story is not engaging, often also not convincing, contrived and full of fridge logic. Besides advertising for choice the game actually railroads you through the major plot points - having been knocked out twice in two of the presumably three acts while following the main quest, I don't feel bursting with choice. To make the point: My choices and quest experience in the game so far seemed to matter during a courtroom scene which seemed vital to the plot, only to be rendered completely and utterly moot by a plot twist. As far as writing or choice is concerned, that is just infuriating. The graphics vary from decent to unimpressive. The combat is quirky and relies sometimes on controlling chokepoints. Sadly, it's hard to tell when your companions will block each other just as well. This thing would have been better served by a solid turn-based system, for example then you could pick where your "slow spells" hit after casting them instead of making an educated guess about where every enemy might be going. And the game is mostly combat and its dungeon maps taken together are probably way bigger than its whole overworld taken together. All in all comparatively bug-free and definitely improved since my first attempt in 2015. The devs try to build a world and succeed to a degree, but it does not really matter so much for most of the game to really pay off. Quest design is often poorly done, instead of being able to follow clues you are more likely to check every building in a certain map until you run into the next milestone, etc. Performance is decent for a Unity game but loading times are still a hassle, especially since entering any little hovel is done by changing screen and loading all over again. Bought it on sale, decent but not great. Relies too much on the protagonist gimmick instead of investigation and good narrative. A "just do everything" game.

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Posted on: January 16, 2021

aukje.wildenborg

Verified owner

Games: 42 Reviews: 21

Hard to recommend

Pillars of Eternity is a good game, but I think you need to have a certain approach to the game to be able to appreciate it. First, you will do yourself a huge favor if you don't try to keep up with all the exposition the game throws at you. There's quite some enjoyable quests and writing in this game, but there's also a LOT of abracadabra about spirits and souls and ethereal realms. Believe me when I say that I have tried to like this game multiple times, and I only succeeded once I stopped feeling forced to make sense of all of it. In other words: enjoy the fun stuff, which WILL come, and try to sort of juggle the esoteric stuff as well as you can. Obviously some people will have a higher threshold for this than others, but I just don't think this game is well tailored to most people's expectations, even those who generally love RPGs. Second, gameplay. This game has really fun combat, but it's very uneven. The key is that you MUST have a cypher. Cyphers are the only class that can easily debuff enemies for dozens of minus deflection and this is what can melt mobs. However, the first cypher the game has to offer is the Grieving Mother and she only becomes available a few levels down the road. So I'd recommend making a Cypher as soon as you get to an inn. I'd also advise maximizing Perception on any class besides tanks and chanters, as Accuracy is probably the best stat in the game. It's not only needed to deal normal hits, but also to overcome ALL saving throws. So do I recommend this game? Well, I can't say. I could totally see any person very quickly getting fed up with this game's storytelling. But at the same time, I can't deny its qualities either. I do love the graphics. And I do love the atmosphere. There's many things I like about POE, I just can't say I love the writing or the companions, and that's a problem for any RPG.

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