Horrible RPG with no redeeming qualities. Devs spent a tremedous amount of time on lore and forgot to implement good systems to back it. Ship combat is horrific to the point that if you didn't need it to get around you are better off avoiding it. Pillars 2 is like a DM with a good story but no skills in leading a game. It is almost completely random and so badly balanced as to be laughable. Quests indicate what level they are at but that information is almost always wrong. Many early quests say you should have no issues and then they send you against multiple groups of enemies with 3 skulls above their head meaning you're going to die. Late in the game when you've reached the max level you're still running into encounters where you are completely outnumbered and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it except reload and try again. Enemies are almost always over powered and you have to micro manage your party to the point that it is unacceptable. Wizards, ranged characters and melee all run right up to everyone and die. Mages throw spells that hurt your own party. This game is so badly balanced and dependent upon random rolls that it is just plain broken. I thought we were past this kind of design? Guess Obsidian didn't get the memo. The DLCs are even worse. Not only are you already at max level but all the DLCs have you going against enemies that are way overpowered. No amount of planning or micro management helps here. It is pure luck. If an enemy is above your level you seem to do almost laughable amount of damage. It's like they are applying a penalty to your attacks. This is just a broken combat system wrapped in RPG stats.
If you can get over the really, really bad bugs in this game then it is actually fun. The story is interesting and the character development is fun. But the bugs are overwhelming, even with the latest unofficial patches this game is loaded with some game destroying bugs. In my playthrough I found 3 master trainer quests that I couldn't complete because of bugs. I also found that I could only play for about 20 mins at a time before I had to restart the game because it kept getting slower and slower until even attacking during combat took 10 seconds. Magical effects made it even worse. The game also suffers from some questionable game design. Traveling anywhere takes way too long. Your equipment takes damage over time (which isn't that bad) but early on you meet monsters that dmg both your weapons and armor when you hit them or they hit you. This results in having to either take off armor and punch enemies or carrying an extra set of each through the entire game. I also found some of the mechanics to be poorly documented. For example I never used anything other than magic weapons (swords, axes) and yet by the end of the game I somehow was 50% tech oriented. I never even used a gun... If you can get around the bugs this is a pretty interesting RPG.
