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.
For the TL;DR people: If you like explosions and action, if you're new to shooters or aren't good at aiming or rush in headlong, aren't a big horror fan, and think story is a quaint distraction, you'll like this game and should play it. You should also play on moderate. For everyone else: This game is labeled as horror. Whoever did the labeling is sadly mistaken. As a lover of the horror genre, I was woefully let down when I played and discovered it to be more akin to Call of Duty, with cheap straight-to-DVD-horror-ish cutscenes and the occasional bloody corpse (standard fare in shooters, anyway). If you are a dedicated fan of horror in any medium and were excited for the horror element, be prepared to be disappointed. I say this game is akin to Call of Duty, though really there's less to do, less variety in environment/action/weapons, and believe it or not far less story. There really isn't anything to this game besides intermittent intervals of the same old small groups to shoot at. One thing I'll say for this game, though: the AI is fantastic, only suffering when I hide behind doors or leave their respective "area". But even with the great AI, I found this game to be too easy (I am a shooter veteran, though). If you rush in you'll die quickly, but if you use stealth and tactics this game should be cake. If you're a veteran, extreme is the only difficulty worth anything to play on.
