Pillars of Eternity: Hero Edition

I'm a big fan of Obsidian, backed this when it was just getting off the ground, kept up with development and generally was itching to get into a new, immersive story. In that respect, at least, the game did not disappoint. It really IS an RPG's RPG and if you're a fan of the genre, you will feel right at home here... HOWEVER. Shoddy coding and widespread bugs have long been an Obsidian staple. In the past, I thought this to be a side effect of demanding production schedules and bossy publishers. But as this is a game they made in their own time, I am beginning to think they just aren't very good at programming. When it crashed out of the box, I was willing to put up with it, but my patience has its limits. After investing about 15 hours into the story (which was really more like 20, because of having to replay entire sections after crashes); my game eventually crashed in such an inventive way that attempting to load any game resulted in an instant CTD. I almost wish this game was worse than it actually is. In my opinion (and hence the single star), there is nothing worse than a story you WANT to get involved in, which won't let you.

I feel that the team clearly tried so hard that 3/5 feels unfair, but I must remain truthful. From a technical point of view it becomes obvious that these people have done cRPGs before. They have implemented so many usually very small but very useful and clever features in PoE. The first 2 h I would all exited again and again and again when I found a new little thing that seemed so obvious now that it was there. So from technical point of view PoE is grand master level product to all Infinity Engine fans out there. Unfortunately it's the roleplaying, quests, NPCs, conversations, storytelling, pacing, etc. that is not really that great. Don't get me wrong. PoE is definitely not a bad RPG (when the emphasis is on roleplaying) it just isn't especially good either. It lingers in the boooring 'nice' area. It took me 107 h to complete the game (without starting the game over or anything like that), and I didn't even complete all the quests, so it definitely is a long game if you are interested in its lore, characters and communities. On the other hand I really felt that much of the gaming time was spent on things that weren't interesting or engaging. There is quite much of grinding and not the good kind. I played the game n hard and only a few boss battles and a few clearly 'this quest was made for those who think this is a combat simulator' side-quest battles made me really try but most of the combat was too easy which made it boring. And since there is so much of the grinding I literally stopped every now-and-then to think 'why am I doing this. I don't actually have to look under every nook and cranny to move on with the story. Especially when there seems to live a community of random hostile creatures in every single one of them. In short: interesting, nice, tribute to Infinity Engine cRPGs but unfortunately not great.

The Good: * Mechanics - The improvements to the combat are simple and effective - limiting resting means that you can't spam it after every single fight (slightly undermined by the fact that there seems to be at least one camping kit to find in every area, but whatever) and by preventing the player from gaining an unfair advantage by buffing with spells and potions pre-combat. Also, they made Bards actually useful by letting them hit stuff while they're singing. * Graphics - They might not be the most important thing in a game but this is certainly a beautiful looking one, both the environments and the character models. * Loot - It seems petty to say that I didn't like Shadowrun:Returns because I couldn't loot the corpses - because it is - but it's at least partially true. I like loot, even if it does makes you stupidly rich relatively early on. * Real-Time with Pause is so much more enjoyable (and quick) than turn-based combat. (Take note, InXile) * Granular settings for difficulty and immersion. * Rangers with guns. The Bad: * Your Companions - This isn't a criticism of their abilities or anything, but I didn't find any of the eight characters who can join you remotely interesting or likeable . There's no one as eccentric and memorable as Minsc or Tiax, or as likeable as Imoen. There isn't even an Anomen - someone I'll remember for a long time simply because of how insufferably unpleasant they are. I had no compunction about starting the game again and Icewind Dale-ing with six custom characters. * The Plot - Without revealing a lot of spoilers I'll just say that it left me slightly disappointed - it seemed lacking in personal motivation for the protagonist and keeps key characters hidden until too late in the game. Better than Icewind Dale & NWN, yes, but not BG or Planescape. * The Level Cap - I hit Level 12 with three or four hours left to play, leaving me with little motivation to complete the sidequests in the last town area.

Pillars of Eternity is my favorite game of the last three years hands down. It is a game with a lot of depth in character building, in tactical decision making, and of course the world and role playing elements. It really breathes fresh life into the genre and is rich with "content," i.e. there is a lot to play through and that is awesome. There is a learning curve up front with the combat so don't be afraid to play on an easier difficulty level at first. Once you master the game systems then you can pump it up to Path of the Damned and really see how good your builds are. Buy this game, it takes everything that was great about old school game design and melds it with everything that is good about modern design from a usability standpoint.

This is the third time I start this game, in a few years. Story. Graphics. RPG aspects. All are nice and come well together. What I really find annoying is the frequency and grinding of combat. Let me explain. 1. Combat is everywhere. Every nook and cranny has enemies waiting. You have no clues what the encounter will be. Easy. Tough. Impossible. So you can't really tell in advance. 2. Loot is miserable. Really. You keep killing monsters and get nothing. Just a waste of time. 3. Monster do not provide XP for the kill. So, you think, you can avoid the fights? Not really. Every room or path as monsters. Unless you have huge skills in stealth, costing all your poins, you can't past. them. And even, many monster guards the little look you can find. And even: walking around with the stealth option active, is a chore. 4. You need to micromanage combat. Enemies move so quick that ranged combat seems optional. Spell casting is slow, so you need to lead AoE spells. You manage, but is boring as hell. 5. Combats just last too long. 6. Uneven difficulty. Ranging from abysmally easy. To outright murderous. The rest of the game, is great and nice. Story is ok. Graphics nice. Narrative ok. Text events, nice. Choices and dialog options, nicely done. But there is just too much combat to be interesting long term. We'll see if I will manage to progress this time.