Pillars of Eternity: Hero Edition

I loved the old GoldBox series... own all the Icewind Dale and Baulders games too. This is stunning to look as but is damn boring. Like watching paint dry on old D&D miniatures. I am completely shocked that all this stellar work flls SOOOOO flat. Do yourself a favor and get the Baulders and Icewind series but NOT the horrendous updated versions.

This is a very slick game in the tradition of Baldur's Gate. I played through once quickly, then immediately made a new character to try some of the different conversation and quest options. Although it would be nice to have a few more selections of pre-made NPCs to adventure with, you can create your own party from scratch if desired so that you can try out all of the character classes. The world-building and dialogue is top-notch and I enjoyed the game a lot.

I played over 200 hours on that game. Still, I quit before the end. Everytime I discovered a new area, the loading time went longer. First chapter, I was still under 15 sec. Quite acceptable. After delving into the add-ons, I was over 80 seconds each time I changed area. So not only loading times were painful, but also opening any closed door. I you think you forgot something in the precedent room, that's 160 sec round trip ! And I have a Samsung EVO 500 GB. Plus, in those add-ons, battles were constant and the storyline quite weaker. And the battles, I didn't like them too much. It's like a big noisy blur covered with nice special effects that are masking the fighters. Too bad for such a nice RPG. Without the add-ons and something to read during the loading times, maybe you could like it, but I wish I had known that prior buying it, because I would have put my money eslewhere.

A very well done modern version of Baulder's Gate. I love the way events are handled, it feels like a DM is watching over me. I also love that my decisions have consequences; it seems like a concept lost on a lot of games today. It really makes you think about what you want to do as opposed to trying to max out all your stats and gear. Often you have to choose who between who lives or dies and who to help or who to kill. I'm only a couple hours into it now, but I can already tell this is a game I am going to be soaking quite a bit of time into.

Statement "old-school" is over used in our times, many games/products are advertised as "old-school" to mislead people in buying them. Beautiful graphics with thematic music and compelling story! I can only recommend it, especially to people who loved Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Torment etc.