Pillars of Eternity: Hero Edition

This story is professionally written. As someone who is an avid reader and a movie buff, I have long learned not to have high expectations of a game's story, or really just expectations other than that they sort of tried. But this game's writing (their social and political commentary especially) is on par with that of some of my favorite novels or movies, or as a reference for the layman nerd, Game of Thrones. My mind was thoroughly blown. Everything else is great, if you liked Baldur's Gate or the lot of similar D&D games this game's mechanics are very similar, but I think smoother and definitely more accessible to the average gamer. But when I say very similar, I really mean almost identical, so if you liked Baldur's Gate then good, and if you hated it stay away. If hearing "You must gather your party before venturing forth" before changing almost every area in BG made you want to rip out your hair, rest assured, it happens far less in Pillars of Eternity, but yeah, almost identical.

Best RPG in many years. In the traditions of Baldur's Gate, Torment and Fallout 2 and Wasteland. Easily the most enjoyable and rewarding experience I have had this year. Its a real triumph and shows that old school gaming can make a comeback. I admit to loving lots of games and having played many many more, but this one is really a special masterpiece like Oblivion and Skyrim, like Neverwinter NIghts and KOTOR, its like the old classics from Black Isle and Interplay and the even older Ultima games before them. This should be GOG's poster child game since it's a Good Old Game gone New. This game is not Dragon Age 2 or 3, it is not Diablo nor Mass Effects. It is very different from Oblivion, Skyrim, and Fallout 3. The game is a 2.5 D isometric viewpoint focused on party management and rpg planning. The gameplay is as good as Baldur's Gate II in many ways which is an amazing triumph in my opinion. This game is not for everyone but I encourage everyone to try it and Baldur's Gate II since you never know if you will like a classic, especially true with GOG's 30 day money back guarantee. Play as a sneaky thief or a mighty wizard, even try the cipher character or an evil cleric. The game won't disappoint. My only wish now is for more of the same quality or at least an expansion / sequel!

Before starting, I'm a veteran of this kind of rpg, Baldur's Gate Saga, Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment (my favorite of all time), I've played it all, so you know I won't be some 'noob' who bumbles around with the controls and is incapable of handling a manual. Pillars of Eternity is an important game in this generation that was forcefed games made by publishers that had no contact with their public, it was successfully financed by the public, and from that standpoint Obsidian was more than successful. This game was made with love, and with lots of holes... Starting with the good aspects, every companion so far has interesting stories to tell and different personalities that can be deep. The way the characters are generated are meant to avoid Minmaxing, every single stat can help any kind of character in some way, enabling different builds for different classes. Speaking of which, equipment works differently. Every weapon has pros and cons, and any class can use anything. A wizard can use heavy plating, a warrior can use a long-range wand, heavy armor makes actions slower, and certain enemies are immune to certain kinds of damage, so you can't rely on a single sword all the time. The music made by Justin Bell is... practically a carbon copy the old rpgs like Baldur's gate's Michael Hoenig (Which is a good thing). There is a diverse set of quests for you to take care of, some have pretty emotional stories to tell, and there is always something hidden for you to see. Other good thing is the time manipulation, you can not only make time run faster, but slower, good to micro-manage a fight. SPOILERS, you get a keep, and the ability to manage some sort of building or fortress is always welcome on my book, provided you be able to -really- manage it (I'm looking at you, Baldur's gate 2, the precursor for 'hero gets a keep', but that frustrated me awfully due limiting said keep to just gain gold from time to time.) and in an interesting twist, you have not one, but two kinds of fame, local fame, and personal fame. Some actions can brand you as a specific kind of person, be charitable, and people will find you benevolent, be harsh, and you might get points as a Stoic person. And with bad/good reputation systems per region, like Fallout 2, you can really make yourself a hero of a thousand fames. I can't tell much about the plot, but it has its ups and downs. The game not only acknowledge helpers, but celebrate them, and here and there you will see names of backers in the shape of special npcs with unique stories and messages on cemeteries. Now, for the bad part. Every single trait explained before has huge, huge, huge flaws. Every single point explained can be insanely frustrating, sometimes nearly gamebreaking at times. The backers? You will see thousands of those characters just lying around waiting to be clicked and expecting you to read their stories time after time after time. After the first city, I started to ignore them altogether. They are EVERYWHERE and sometimes they can be downright immersion-shattering. None of them interact with you, in any way, they are just there to be basked upon and so their 'awesome stories' can be read. Combat is a mess. The Allied A.I is so idiotic that it's nearly impossible to have a single fight without micromanagement. If they set on a target, they won't disengage from it without a direct command. Meaning, they can be mowed down by 'opportunity attacks' made by the enemies and worse, step on traps, run inside the area of a fireball (friendly or foe), and much worse. You can't tweak the A.I to me more specific than "kill everything in sight" "Only move if the enemy attacks you", and as another reviewer noted, the enemy AI knows how to work VERY WELL as a team. You can't buff your team before fights, you can't lay more than ONE TRAP and ONE SPELL TRAP, which severely limits strategy. The cleric spells are nearly useless, since many of the status effects that low level enemies can cause on you (Paralysis, Dizzy, Charmed) can be only countered with high-level spells. Which you won't have. Skills are another mess, they are rarely used, useful, and only the main character can use his skills in interactions, meaning, if you are a wizard and spent all your points in lore, no matter if you have two super-warriors with 10 in athletics, you will have to waste a rope or cheat. The devs wanted to avoid minmaxing? Awesome! Then why in the name of Bhaal they chose to put So many interactions with such a high stat requirements? I had to use 18 intelligence to haggle prices with a courtesan, but had to use -Resolve- to talk about an ancient relic with a scholar!? Oh, and you can't stack boosts given by items. Nice, no problem, except that the boosts given are just +1 or +2, items with +3 are awfully rare. Oh and either you get a cape, or a necklace... WHY!? The quests... where to begin? I'm not against straightforward good vs. evil plots. Baldur's Gate 1 main criticisms was that evil characters were screwed because of the dualist nature of the game. I agree with the criticism, but I don't mind that, the game itself was honest in acknowledging it's nature. but many (thankfully not a lot) of quests in Pillars will offer a false sense of morality. A Moral Conundrum is when you can't choose based on the fact that each choice has equally convincing and important arguments. Pillars just pretends to give 'hard' moral choices by offering either something 'good', or something 'evil' that will give you an item, boost, or more money. Again, it would be all fine and dandy... except that Reputation hardly matters except in key points. It doesn't help you buying/selling stuff much, no random groups will try to hunt you down. And the game pretends to always offer you a 'third choice' if you have stats/skills, which it doesn't in points that would really matter. And many, MANY are severely flawed or bugged. There was a quest in which I had to save a group of soldiers from a banshee that enthralled them. I killed the banshee without a single soldier dying, only to discover that the devs never gave you an option of saving said soldiers. You have to kill them. Also, without a warning, you might be suddenly drafted into a faction without the option of getting out, if you merely accept a quest. And many, many personal quests with your companions won't change a SINGLE thing in their story. You could treat certain members awfully, insult them, but... nothing changes, you just gain xp. The game allows you to make items, potions and scrolls, yaaayy! To make something really useful, you will need rare ingredients that rarely appear. The enchantments that you can place on a piece of armor or weapon are severely limited and expensive due said ingredients being rare, so you're better off buying weapons with a shopper, or finding special gear in dungeons. For the last part, the Keep. Having a keep in itself is awesome, a place to call home, a base to build... except that the mechanics are utterly broken. See, to avoid making the players just sit on their asses waiting time to pass to collect money, the devs made time pass in the keep in two senses, turns, and days. Days are used to build stuff like walls and houses, and turns only pass when you finish quests. It has two special stats, security and prestige. They SUPPOSEDLY should bring you more money and guests (prestige), and protect said money and guests (security). I maxed them both, and my money kept getting stolen by bandits. So, it's a good game, but be warned!

Im a bit baffled by all of the 3 star reviews which basically share my sentiments exactly, but just coming off of Planescape Torment, the truth of the matter is. If the story isnt good, this type of game isnt good. In short, the story isnt immersive and at times, boring. The combat, like others have said, suffers from path finding, you cant buff or use spells even outside of combat, you cant rest anywhere you want AGAIN making spell casting difficult, and there's no way to competently hold agro or even switch the attention of mobs with your front line guys... so again making it difficult for casters. So instead of giving it 2 extra stars for being shiny and nostalgic... Ill recommend Divinity: Original Sin in its place, a game that was different enough from the old school RPGs but actually was interesting and unique, instead of trying to bottle the magic, but failing.

This is surely the very first game since Icewind Dale 2 that kept me for days in front of my PC. If you've ever enjoyed old isometric cRPGs, you will find yourself at home here. You get a very detailed world, good old combat system with interactive pause and great character development. If you're up to a sentimental journey to year 2000, then this game is definitely for you. However, I understand voices of disappointment from those who accuse the game of being obsolete in terms of game mechanics. Indeed, it might not be that engaging for those who look for more modern experience. Except for some small bugs and glitches, there is one main drawback. I experienced significant performance drop around mid-game. The game got sluggish, quick saves were not that quick anymore, FPS fluctuated between 40 - 55 with occasional drops to 30 during battles. I own a reasonably powerful Asus Zenbook (i7, 16GB RAM, SSD disk, GeForce 1050) and I never expected that a 2.5D game will perform that badly. On a side-note, I played Witcher 3 with consistent 45 FPS on th very same machine... Performance problems in PoE are not some isolated cases from what I can see on Google. Pros: - delivers a Baldur's Gate / Icewind Dale-like experience - complex character development (lots of classes, races, backgrounds, skills) - balanced weapons and equipment - non-linear plot with many side-quests Cons: - poor performance mid- and late-game