...which seems to have its priorities a little muddled. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is a very solid title, but its flaws are holding it back from being something truly great. Probably my biggest gripe with it is the relation of the main plot to everything else that goes on in the Deadifre. It's short and, compared to PoE I, rather weak. From the get-go, you're told how urgent it is to stop Eothas. After leaving Port Maje, however, the game opened up completely - the whole Deadfire was waiting to be explored at my leisure. So I found myself doing pretty much anything else, rather than following the main plot - because that was so much more interesting and compelling. This discrepancy between the sense of urgency the main plot is evoking and the open and explorartory nature of the gameplay was incredibly jarring. This is further compounded by the fact that pretty much everything else was so well-done: The city of Neketaka was a joy to explore, the vastly different cultures and factions around the Deadfire, as well as their corresponding quests, were varied, rich and well-written. At times, it felt like the developers were so busy fleshing out the lore that they forgot to write a good main plot to go along with it. The same goes for the companions: In PoE I, while not having many interactions, they felt nuanced and real. In PoE II, I felt some of that nuance was stripped away in favour of playing it for laughs (Edér and Aloth being the biggest victims). Speaking of companions: The reputation system associated with them was bugged in my run. Nothing game-breaking, but still... meh. The changes that were made to the rest of the gameplay were a bit of a mixed bag for me, too: Multi-classing was cool, but not really for me. The skill trees that replaced the skills and feats lists annoyed me, so did the Resource and Empower system. It felt much like an Action RPG in places, though whether that is a good or a bad thing is for the individual player to decide.
