Sometimes, you see old games and get a flood of style, mood, and feelings, but when you go and play them, you find a bunch of barriers to your immersion from clunky UIs, accessibility constraints, outdated UX, among other things, which is normal and a product of their time. This game is all of the things you crave from these experiences without the cons. Skald oozes with theme. This game has personality. Skald has a dark tone that feels natural and immersive. The story is intriguing and features deep lore and meaningful choices with great writing. Character customization is varied and fun. The pixel art is beautiful and impactful. The surface has all the old school cRPG mood, but features deep modern sensibilities that take the experience to a different level. It's worth noting that upon seeing this game, my wife immediately said it's basically what she thinks of when picturing something I like. So huge thanks for making this game.
I never played the original game but heard great things about it throughout the years nonetheless. I got this remastered edition and was pretty excited to give it a try, so I played through the whole thing one Friday night. The game itself is a solid adventure game with great mechanics, puzzles, art, voice acting, and sound. I can see why it would have been highly praised back in the day and the remastered features in it do look like a great addition to the game. The only downside to it is that I expected more from the story. It is not a bad story, but I expected something deeper after all the hype generated. It was a bummer, since story and narrative is the aspect I usually look forward to the most. It started as something really promising, but the ending did not fulfill my expectations. Nevertheless, it is a great adventure game that I am sure fans of the genre will enjoy.
This game provides the ultimate roleplaying experience in videogames. The game gives you freedom to solve things and get through battles in a wide array of ways. Mechanics-wise, this is as good as an RPG gets. Combat can be challenging and punishing but rarely feels unfair; it just takes a bit of preparation and proper strategizing. I have to say I gave up on the original D:OS due to the story getting a bit goofy for my taste and not that well written. D:OS2 learned from its predecessor's misgivings and delivers a great and darker story with incredible writing, not to mention top tier voice acting. Did I mention the game's dialogs are fully voiced? This is not normal por a cRPG, but Larian somehow managed it. I really liked how the game's main quests tie up to personal/companion quests. This game has some top notch design. I cannot recommend enough that you roleplay your way through this and not resort to a reload fest when you screw up (unless you're stuck), and instead try to fix your mistakes and accept the outcomes of your actions. Character creation allows you to either create a character from zero or choose and personalize one of the available pre-scripted characters. I recommend doing the latter, as it adds cool personal quests. In any case, whichever characters you do not play as are available as companions. As to bugs, I only ran into one which ruined my fun while it lasted, but hopefully it's been already patched. Once I got through that bit, I was back to getting immersed in this experience.
This game is beautifully written. You can feel the love that was put into its development. Dialogue choices feel natural and are not totally evil or totally good. It explores gray areas, which a lot of games fail to do appropriately. Don't get me wrong, you can do evil and good things, but you can do it in ways that do not feel forced or unnatural. Pillars of Eternity is not afraid of going to dark places either. The lore is awesome and plays an important role in the experience. The characters are interesting and easily to feel attached to or at least intrigued by them. Pillars of Eternity is a big triumph for RPGs everywhere.
After reading other reviews, I was led to believe that this was a cRPG masterpiece. Don't get me wrong, it is a great game, but it is not by any means perfect. The combat system is excellent and is probably its strongest element. It is also a beautiful game and has great visuals, interface, and mechanics. Nevertheless, story and narrative gets too goofy. While the lore seemed interesting and with potential at first, lightheartedness overtakes it and becomes annoying after a certain point. I expected characters to be much more interesting. I see this game and it has a lot of potential in its RPG elements that could have been better executed.
